Gregory Meeks

Mr. MEEKS

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, let me start off by thanking my friend and colleague, the Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr. McCaul, for his friendship and for working collectively together to make sure that the world knows that there is no daylight between us when it comes to us standing with our friend and our ally the State of Israel, and I appreciate you. When we first started this, after this horrendous attack on October 7, we had a conversation. We said, let's make sure that we put out a statement collectively, us giving our opinions as chair and ranking member of this committee. Then immediately thereafter, we went to work on a resolution so that the world would know where the United States' House of Representatives stood. We thought we would get it done earlier, but we knew that the first bill, the first resolution that would come to the floor after the House resumed its business, would be this bill because this bill is so significantly important to state that we have the back of our friend and ally, and we want to make sure that Hamas does not exist. Mr. Speaker, I have had the privilege and the opportunity to visit Israel several times. I have been in some of those tunnels. I have talked to the people, and when I have talked to the people of Israel, all they say is that they want to live in peace. When I talk to the Palestinian people in Gaza or in the West Bank, they say they want peace, but the Hamas terrorist organization when you look at their mandate, they say they want the destruction of Israel. You cannot have peace. You can't even negotiate peace if one side says you should not exist. How can you say that you want a better relationship if you are saying that Israel should not exist? You can't forget the horrific terrorist ISIS-like atrocities that were committed on October 7. You cannot be silent. You can't sit back and make believe that it didn't happen because it did. Mr. Speaker, I say, as we end this debate, thank you to the American people for standing with our friend and ally, the State of Israel. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time is remaining.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Thanedar).

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Lois Frankel).

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from the great State of California (Ms. Pelosi), the Honorable Speaker Emerita.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Sherman), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Schneider), a strong member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the former majority leader of this distinguished body.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Manning), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Costa), another strong member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this extraordinarily important resolution written with my friend and colleague, Chairman McCaul. Mr. Speaker, 18 days ago, the State of Israel suffered the greatest mass murder perpetrated against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, when Hamas terrorists invaded Israel by land, sea, and air. Behaving just like ISIS, Hamas terrorists murdered and beheaded soldiers and civilians alike. Babies were shot and burned in their cribs and reduced to smoldering piles of ash--babies. Children were murdered. Teenagers were murdered. Men and women were murdered. Elderly people, including Holocaust survivors, were murdered. Hamas has also taken 200 of those who survived into Gaza as hostages, including unaccompanied children, Holocaust survivors, and many American citizens. Mr. Speaker, Hamas' attack was truly unprecedented. When you consider the size of Israel's population, proportionately it would be like 30,000 people dying in New York on 9/11. Just let that sink in a little. We must all acknowledge that Hamas is a cutthroat terrorist organization that exists solely to destroy Israel. Hamas' terrorism does not help the Palestinians. In this moment, it is critical for Israel to know that the United States of America stands firmly by its side in this battle against Hamas. Mr. Speaker, what I am about to say next is also very important. There are innocent Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank who seek normal and free lives and want nothing to do with Hamas or other terrorist organizations. We cannot lose sight of this. We must keep them--many of whom are also children--and their safety and well-being in mind. In the immediate term, we must find a way to ensure the safety of those innocents who are in Gaza's war zone, and I support the Biden administration's efforts toward that goal. The United Nations estimates that thousands of Palestinians have been killed since the terrorist attacks on October 7. We don't know for certain how many of those killed were civilians, but here is what we do know: We know that Hamas terrorists used Palestinians as human shields. We know that every single one of them would be alive today if Hamas had not launched its terrorist attack. We must be aware and do all that we can to stop this war from expanding beyond its current scope. The administration and our allies are working around the clock to send messages and warnings to Iran and Hezbollah to stay out. President Biden underscored this message during his recent travel to Israel. Do not test America's will. This Congress will have Israel's back as it degrades and eliminates Hamas' terrorist infrastructure. We know that it won't take a day. It will be difficult. For too long, too many have been willing to contribute to the delegitimization of the State of Israel. It is deeply concerning that even global leaders are already whitewashing one of the worst terrorist attacks in history while Hamas and its allies blanket cyberspace with misinformation about this war. Just yesterday, Turkish President Erdogan said: ``Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a group of mujahideen defending their lands.'' This from the mouth of a NATO ally who has his own concerns about terrorists as an existential threat to his country. President Erdogan's rhetoric is dead wrong. It is rank with hypocrisy, and its timing is extraordinarily dangerous. The resolution before us is a bright spot of bipartisanship today during a very difficult time in American politics. Mr. Speaker, 425 Members of this House of Representatives have cosponsored this resolution. There is no question in my mind that it will pass overwhelmingly, Democrats and Republicans alike. Most importantly, the American people believe in the Jewish state and believe in its survival. In the days, weeks, and months ahead, I know the United States will continue to stand steadfastly with Israel to assure its defense and its long-term security. We will also, as President Biden has outlined, remain committed to ensuring that civilians in Gaza have access to safe areas and continue to have access to food, water, medical care, and other assistance without diversions by Hamas. We must also stay keenly focused on working to get United States citizens and their immediate family members to exit Gaza safely. I conclude, Mr. Speaker, by raising an issue that the United States and Israel must address: What does a successful ground operation in Gaza look like, and how do we achieve the goal of leaving Gaza to a responsible Palestinian Government if Israel's effort to remove Hamas is successful? One thing is for certain--the path to peace will require more Arab States to recognize that Israel has the right to exist and that we hold firm and will make sure that we could thereby have a two-State solution. If you say Israel does not have the right to exist, you are saying that you do not want peace. I urge our Arab friends to join the Abraham Accords and acknowledge Israel's right to exist because that is the pathway to peace in the Middle East. To the people of Israel, I hope you learn of the passage of this resolution today and know that the United States Congress and the American people have your back. We mourn beside you and are working to provide the resources your government needs to defend you. We have deployed powerful military resources to the region to demonstrate just that support. We are working all of our diplomatic channels to assure your success, and we are in this together. We will not waver. We will not quit. We will stand with our ally Israel. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. David Scott), the former chairman of the Agriculture Committee, the current ranking member.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), the former chair of the House Appropriations Committee and the current Ranking Member of the House Appropriations Committee.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Maryland.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz).

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I introduced and marked up this bill with robust bipartisan support. I thank my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, Chairman McCaul and the chair of the subcommittee, Chairwoman Salazar; my colleagues who just spoke, Representative Cherfilus- McCormick and Representative Kamlager-Dove; and others who worked in a bipartisan way to ensure that Congress takes steps to address the crisis created by Haitian gangs. Mr. Speaker, the people of Haiti deserve to know which organizations and individuals support destabilizing criminal activity, including those who take advantage of desperate people who are already extremely vulnerable, trafficking them throughout the region and making financial gains at every stop along the way. Mr. Speaker, we cannot allow these elites, those who are paying the gangs, those who are incentivizing the gangs to create and do horrific things, to just keep walking about with impunity. We have to stand up and state that we are going to point them out and sanction them to give the people of Haiti an opportunity to feel that their government and their country can move forward. We can no longer just talk about having elections without having the gangs wiped out and away from Haiti because they would control the elections. This sends a message to those elites, those who are financing the gangs, those who think that they can continue their criminal activity, that the United States is going to sanction them and that they won't be able to cross the borders and go back and forth. This bill would require the Secretary of State to submit an annual report to Congress regarding the ties between criminal gangs and political and economic elites in Haiti and impose sanctions on political and economic elites involved in such criminal activities. I have a lot of Haitians in my district. They want some action. They want some relief from the activities of these criminal gangs. The message that this bill sends, and what the follow-up with the administration would say, is that the United States House of Representatives, in a very bipartisan fashion and working collectively together, will not allow them to continue their corrupt criminal activities. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1684, the Haiti Criminal Collusion Transparency Act of 2023. Mr. Speaker, it is no secret that Haiti is in a dire situation. A United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report, released this year, highlighted increasingly sophisticated and high-caliber firearms and ammunition being trafficked into Haiti amid an unprecedented and rapidly deteriorating security situation. This level of criminal activity is the craft of experienced and well- connected individuals who have long utilized crises and instability in Haiti to gain economic control and increase their political sphere of influence. There are as many as 200 gangs in Haiti who now control at least 85 percent of Port-au-Prince. Gang violence has resulted in the killing of over 1,200 people in Haiti in the first 5 months of the year alone. In just 11 days, the Baz Gran Grif gang murdered 69 people and injured another 83, forcing authorities to abandon several police stations. Authorities believe the gang is responsible for the killing of 14 Haitian National Police officers in late January as part of its ongoing violence. Political insecurity following Moise's assassination has only furthered the declining security situation. The Haitian National Government's last democratically elected officials' terms expired in January, and new elections are postponed indefinitely. While we continue to push for a Haitian-led solution to these challenges, the United States must do what it can to not allow corrupt officials that have contributed to Haiti's political and criminal crisis to travel freely to the United States. I am committed to holding corrupt officials accountable and prohibiting their travel to the United States, and this legislation would help in those efforts. H.R. 1684 authorizes the Secretary of State to sanction Haiti's economic and political elite who regularly use gangs to leverage and maintain power. The bill also ensures that Congress receives regular reports on Haitian gang activity and related criminality. The Haitian people need to believe that their voices matter and that their government exists to improve their quality of life, not make it more burdensome. We know these conditions are causing the rise in migration out of Haiti as people seek freedom and safety at any cost. Mr. Speaker, I believe we have a duty to make sure that we identify and hold accountable those who relish in the chaos caused by supporting gang activity, using kidnappings and rape to control and silence communities, and using coercion to bring youth in and around Port-au- Prince into the service of criminal activity.

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly).

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Cherfilus-McCormick).

Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Kamlager-Dove).