Politics

GOP Rep. Doug Collins Abandons Opening Statement During Immigration Hearing, Calls Process ‘Dehumanizing’

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Amber Athey Podcast Columnist
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Republican Georgia Rep. Doug Collins threw out his opening statement Thursday during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration, instead calling on Democrats to properly fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to deal with the crisis on the border.

The Judiciary Committee called the hearing to discuss family separation and invited witnesses from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP),  Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG).

Collins, who is the ranking member on the committee, started his opening remarks by listlessly reading from a prepared statement. After about one minute, Collins exasperatedly abandoned his remarks and tore into Democrats for holding numerous hearings without taking actual action to address illegal immigration. (RELATED: Former ICE Director Tom Homan Leaves Ocasio-Cortez Speechless)

“Look, I’m gonna stop,” Collins said. “I’m not going to read this.”

WATCH THE HEARING:

“You know what is dehumanizing?” he asked. “It’s continuing to bring the same witnesses from the same agencies to talk about this over and over and over again. What’s dehumanizing is doing that and then not doing anything about it.”

Collins urged Democrats to “put a bill up,” asserting that even if he disagrees with his colleague’s ideas, he would rather debate them than continue to hold numerous hearings on the subject. Instead, Collins alleged, the committee is interested in having “bash the president time.”

“Don’t accept another hearing, accept some answers. Accept some bills being put forward. Don’t be fooled again,” Collins declared. “I don’t know what’s going to move us this time that didn’t move us last time. This is, unfortunately, becoming a committee of press releases.”

Collins concluded, “I’ll be very slow: pass bills that matter, don’t have hearings that are simply stunts.”