Representative Bill Hardwick joins debate over HB 2016 which if passed, will fund the cost of the Missouri National Guard and Highway Patrol that Governor Parson dispatched to help secure the southern border.
Representative Bill Hardwick joins debate over HB 2016 which if passed, will fund the cost of the Missouri National Guard and Highway Patrol that Governor Parson dispatched to help secure the southern border.
Tuesday the Missouri House of Representatives debated HB 2016 which if passed, will fund the cost of the Missouri National Guard and Highway Patrol that Governor Parson dispatched to help secure the southern border.
During the floor debate, Representative Bill Hardwick (R-Dixon) said, “Mr. Speaker, if we don't have a border, we don't have a country, a political boundary that a nation state could define its jurisdiction. That's part of what makes us a sovereign nation. And that's a basic duty of our federal government, to defend our borders to defend our country to fibrillation. And I think a lot of my colleagues think, I would say, that our federal government has failed to do that.”
According to several reports, fentanyl is killing over 100,000 Americans each year for the last few years, most of that coming across the southern border. The open border is also responsible for an increase in crime from individuals here illegally.
Hardwick went on to say, “And what's the consequence of that crisis? A humanitarian crisis at the border with fentanyl and drugs pouring across the border, overdoses in states throughout our country, human trafficking, people being kidnapped, taken back across the border, violence across our borders. There's a national security crisis that anybody from around the country, terrorist agencies can infiltrate the country and that's a danger to everybody in America. And so states are taking matters into their own hands.”
According to the Heritage Foundation, the Mexican Cartel is making up to $14 million a day bringing humans to the southern border to enter America. The Homeland Security Committee in the US House of Representatives reported in October of 2023 that since 2021, there have been 7.5 million encounters nationwide and 6.2 million encounters at the Southwest border, in addition to 1.7 million known gotaways. They also reported that In FY2023, 169 individuals whose names appear on the terrorist watch list were stopped trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry.
Representative Hardwick concluded “So now the question for the body here, is do we fund that effort? Do we appropriate money to pay the paid allowances for Missouri National Guardsmen at the border? And I think the obvious answer is yes. That's our obligation to defend our citizens to support this effort to make sure that our nation is secure, and to make sure that the guardsmen and soldiers and highway patrolman that we send to the border are paid and resourced appropriately. So, I'd ask everybody to vote yes on this bill and support it.”
HB 2016 still needs a roll call vote in the House before proceeding to the Missouri Senate for debate. All legislation must be passed by May 17, which will be the last day of Session.
