{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://clayhiggins.house.gov/2021/06/24/higgins-gop-colleagues-call-action-border-crisis-affirm-states-rights-protect/", "Higgins, GOP Colleagues Call for Action on Border Crisis, Affirm States\u2019 Rights to Protect Citizens", "2021-06-24", "2021", "2021-06", "Republican", "House", "LA", "Clay Higgins", "H001077", "clayhiggins.house.gov", "clayhiggins", "https://clayhiggins.house.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) joined Representative Jodey Arrington (R-TX) and other Republican colleagues in a press conference to address the Biden border crisis and affirm states\u2019 rights to protect their citizens from the cartel-facilitated border invasion.\n\nA transcript of Congressman Higgins\u2019 remarks and a video of his speech are available below.\n\nThe full press conference is available here.\n\nCongressman Higgins\u2019 Remarks:\n\n\u201cAmericans have fences and walls around our property, not because we don\u2019t want neighbors to visit, folks to knock on the door, but because we want them to come through the gate.\n\n\u201cAll of us here support LEGAL immigration. But America faces over 1 million ILLEGAL crossings this year. We are trending for 2 million crossings. We cannot allow that to happen. This rips at the very fabric of what America is.\n\n\u201cWe must maintain our sovereignty. If the federal government\u2026 which is responsible for maintaining that sovereignty by protecting and securing our border\u2026 fails to perform, then the mission falls on the sovereign states.\n\n\u201cI call upon governors across America, representing every sovereign state, to contact your border states brothers and sisters. Speak to those governors and offer to share your assets, your national guards, your law enforcement skills.\n\n\u201cWe must, as a nation, stand up and secure our southern border. We will not let our Nation be torn apart. Thank you all for being here.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:57:00Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://clayhiggins.house.gov/2021/06/24/higgins-gop-colleagues-call-action-border-crisis-affirm-states-rights-protect/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9405780583620071, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}