Schmitt Blasts Democrats for Defunding DHS Before Jetting to Munich on Taxpayer Dime

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-MO) took to the Senate floor to torch Democrats for flying off to Europe on the taxpayer dime after refusing to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and trying to gut ICE. In his speech, Senator Schmitt slammed Democrats for undermining American foreign policy before global elites at the Munich Security Conference, honored the memories of American daughters murdered by illegal immigrants, and called for the passage of the Protect America Act, his four-plan to end sanctuary cities, protect law enforcement, criminalize illegal entry and re-entry, and defund rogue non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Watch the full speech HERE

Read key excerpts of Senator Schmitt's speech below, as delivered:

"Thank you, Mr. President, I want to set the stage for where we're at this moment. What just happened? Republicans voted to move forward on a bipartisan appropriations bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which includes, among other things, ICE funding, TSA funding, FEMA funding, and the Democrats voted no."

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"Right about now, there's a bus leaving the Capitol grounds headed for the airport. Democrats who just voted to defund the paycheck of the TSA agent making $40,000 a year are on that bus to hop on a plane funded by your tax dollars to go to Munich and bad mouth American foreign policy. They'll be sipping wine with the global elites telling them, 'Don't listen to President Trump, that's not who we are.' I got news for you. The American people have weighed in, and they did in November of 2024. This new direction for foreign policy is the ascending view. Outside of the foreign policy debate, just how offensive is it that they voted to defund DHS and are going to fly transatlantic on the taxpayer dime to trash talk America. The hypocrisy is insane."

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"I hope you appreciate what this is, this moment, because this isn't some isolated incident. This is a 10-year struggle for common sense Americans who pushed back against a radical open borders policy that's been pushed by the Democrats. […] In his term, Joe Biden led in 15 million people! 1 million is a lot of people. 5 million is a lot of people. 15 million people came into this country illegally! We don't know who most of them are. We don't even know where they're at. What we do know is that literally tens of thousands of them are murderers. Hundreds of thousands of them are violent criminals. The left has tried to destroy this country through this open borders policy because we're all 'citizens of the world.' Borders are just arbitrary lines on a map. That's where the modern Democrat Party is at. They don't actually believe that America as a sovereign country should be able to tell people who can come and who has to leave."

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"So that's what this whole thing is about. It isn't about Minnesota or some recent event. This is about the Democrats failing to accept the verdict from the American people that they sent President Trump back into the Oval Office to fix mass migration, to take on mass migration with mass deportations, and regardless of the antics that happened here today on their no vote and flying with the globalists in Europe, it will not change that agenda."

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"This is an effort by the Democrats to kneecap immigration enforcement, to kneecap ICE. They lost the issue on the front end of the election. Now they want to make it so hard for ICE to do their jobs that deportations come to a halt. That's the truth. And anybody in this town who tells you otherwise is just spinning. They don't want people deported because they're importing a voter base that they think will give them power. They're not even hiding behind this anymore. They've lost the argument with American citizens, and they think if they flood this country with illegal immigrants. And by the way, who shouldn't have to prove they're an American citizen to vote. That's their position. You shouldn't have to show photo ID, which is broadly supported even among Democrat voters."

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"I want to mention a few names that no Democrat will ever utter: Laken Riley, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray, Kayla Hamilton. These are American daughters, American sisters, who were murdered by illegal aliens. And by the way, Laken Riley's murderer was a previously convicted violent criminal. So, if that's your test of who should be deported, it didn't help Laken Riley's family. My priority, and the reason why I've been on this floor so many times about this issue - my priority is Americans. Our immigration laws are put in place for one reason: To benefit America and Americans."

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"The rhetoric that has come from the left and my Democrat colleagues we talk about why was Minnesota a flashpoint? It's the sanctuary city status. The nine sanctuary jurisdictions in this country, in them, ICE agents are 590 times more likely to be assaulted. Since January of last year, there's been a 1,347 percent increase in assaults against ICE officers, a 3,200 percent increase in vehicular attacks. And don't tell me Tim Walz doesn't have something to do with that. And don't tell me the Mayor [Jacob] Frey doesn't have something to do with that. The rhetoric - even senators on this floor called [ICE] Trump's secret police, the 'Gestapo' and 'Nazis.' Knock it off even you. I hope you know better, but some people are actually listening to you. You've created conditions where confrontations are more likely."

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"To my Republican colleagues, let's put all of those issues in front of the American people. I am not afraid of this debate at all. Bring it on. What's sad is that the Democrats continue to play games here. They negotiate a deal and then they hold it up. We saw this with the longest government shutdown in American history just a couple months ago, and now here we are again, with DHS funding."

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"I've submitted the Protect America Act for debate. It would do four things. One, it would end sanctuary city status for good. Two, it would increase penalties for illegal entry and illegal re-entry [into the U.S.] A lot of these crimes are being committed by people who've been deported, they come back. That has happened. And by the way, if you come here illegally, I think you ought to have jail time. […] Three, if you assault an ICE officer, we're increasing those penalties too. Protest all you want. For God's sake, this is America. We have different points of view. But you don't get to interfere in the operations of federal law enforcement, even if you really believe you're wearing the white hat. You don't get to do that. And fourth, this NGO network that's been created that is fomenting this vitriol and the operations that are putting ICE officers and citizens at risk, they need to lose their nonprofit status."

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"That's the reality. And the state debate will continue, Mr. President, but as far as I'm concerned, Republicans, we should be playing offense here. Let's strengthen our immigration laws. Let's treat this as seriously of a problem as it is for our country, as it really is that Mr. President, I yield the floor."

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