Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Dem Rep: Without Illegal Immigrants, ‘Nobody’ Would Be ‘Cleaning Up In The Hospitals’

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Democratic Rep. Hank Johnson of Georgia argued Wednesday in a House committee hearing on immigration legislation that illegal immigrants were essential to the country’s workforce as without them, nobody would perform tasks such as hospital cleaning and construction.

“Those folks coming across are the ones who are helping to put food on our table,” Johnson said while discussing proposed GOP legislation to address border security. “Without them, we are not able to eat.”

Johnson added that if the U.S. turned immigrants away, “we would have nobody taking care of the building, the construction of our homes. We would have nobody cleaning up in the hospitals.”

WATCH:

Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA): “Those folks coming across the border are the ones who are helping to put food on our table. Without them, we are not able to eat… We would have nobody taking care of the construction of our homes, nobody cleaning up in the hospitals.” pic.twitter.com/8kaBs5uTSg

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 10, 2023

House Republicans plan to vote on HR 2, the Secure the Border Act of 2023, Thursday, despite President Joe Biden’s threat to veto the legislation. The legislation includes a provision to require employers to use E-Verify to determine if applicants are eligible to work in the United States.

Over 1.2 million illegal immigrants have been encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border during fiscal year 2023, according to data released by United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP), following 2,378,944 encounters in fiscal year 2022 and 1,734,686 in fiscal year 2021. Another 600,000 migrants evaded CBP in fiscal year 2022, Fox News reported.

The Biden administration said Jan. 31 it would end of the use of Title 42, a public-health measure used by the Trump administration to expel illegal immigrants, on May 11. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas predicted during testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee at an April 18 hearing that there would be a surge of migrants after Title 42 expired.

The Daily Caller News Foundation reported Friday that migrant processing centers in seven sectors on the southern border are over capacity less than a week before the end of Title 42.