“Passionate protests don’t justify laying hands on law enforcement, and bleeding hearts don’t erase immigration laws critical to our national security.”
Prepared Opening Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
The Thin Blue Line Protecting America from the Cartels
Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Today’s hearing focuses on the very real threat of Mexican drug cartels and the lengths law enforcement goes to defend Americans.
In the last few months, my Democratic colleagues have hurled accusations at law enforcement, the Trump administration and Republicans on this Committee.
They’ve alleged an assault on the Constitution, a national security crisis, corrupt bargaining and a Judiciary Committee, “asleep at the wheel.”
Dare they pause in their breathless accusations, the American public might remember life under Democratic leadership.
It was Democrats who converted law enforcement into the overlords of speech with their Disinformation Governance Board.
A mere three years ago, Democrats colluded with social media companies to quietly remove online criticisms of their policies written by their constituents.
No longer able to delete Republican words, today’s Democrat activists storm detention centers, shove law enforcement and disregard police orders to scream their opinions.
They defame their dissenters with allegations of “authoritarianism.”
Congress didn’t make this nation’s laws subject to the whims of purported righteous indignation.
Bruised egos don’t override the First Amendment.
Passionate protests don’t justify laying hands on law enforcement, and bleeding hearts don’t erase immigration laws critical to our national security.
My Democratic colleagues wring their hands over the use of federal agents in immigration operations. They fret about the diversion of resources from cartel investigations.
Need they be reminded that under Democratic leadership, agents were redirected from enforcement missions to making sandwiches for illegal migrants.
It was Democrats who threw open our southern border by issuing notices to report because they were overwhelmed with illegally entering migrants and couldn’t issue a notice to appear as required by law.
These foolish policies paroled over 6,000 individuals on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center Watch list or with criminal records into the United States, and lost track of over two million known got-a-ways.
Overwhelmed by the immigration crisis they created, Democrats released vulnerable migrant children to unvetted sponsors at unverified addresses.
At the same time, they threatened law-abiding citizens with warrantless home inspections for daring to transact a single lawful gun sale.
They railed against the Second Amendment as they systematically dismantled Project Thor, a key program designed to identify and prosecute cartel networks smuggling guns to Mexico.
They directed over-zealous inspections intended to fly-speck paperwork for errors in lawful gun transactions.
All while they handed over children to sponsors presenting overtly fraudulent documentation.
Then, they systematically ignored over 65,000 worrisome reports about the status of unaccompanied alien children, over 7,000 of which alleged human trafficking.
Predictably, it was under Democratic leadership that FBI Director Wray saw “blinking lights everywhere.”
I’ve heard my Democratic colleagues hold up some of these criminals as shining examples of the American dream.
They’ve mobilized their powerful platforms in defense of an alleged MS-13 gang member accused of staggering acts of violence against women and children, including abuse, murder and the solicitation of child pornography.
The witnesses who sit before us today represent the men and women who defend America from these criminals.
These are the folks who enforce the law at great personal cost.
As of late, they’ve been pelted with rocks, assaulted with homemade explosives and defamed and doxed by the far-left.
And yet, they continue to hold the line against one of the greatest national security threats to America – Mexican drug cartels.
Democrats threw the border open to criminals who would like nothing more than to see these men and women killed, and then lost track of who entered.
Democrat Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas and Director Wray refused to appear for their annual congressional report on threats to the homeland.
So let’s not forget who “fell asleep at the wheel.”
Before I turn it over to Ranking Member Durbin, I’d like to play a two-minute video that shows the sacrifices law enforcement makes to protect us from the cartels.
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