President Donald Trump returned repeatedly to the topic of illegal immigration in his address Tuesday evening to a joint meeting of Congress. He praised his successes at the Southern Border and aimed at Biden’s policies.
The top moments from the evening are listed below:
Trump credited Trump for the sharp decline in border encounters. There were only 8,326 encounters at the southern border in February. This is down from February 2024, when there were 189,913. So far, the administration has removed from the U.S. more than 55,000 undocumented immigrants.
“Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border, and I deployed the U.S. military and border patrol to repel the invasion of our country. And what a job they’ve done. As a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded,” he said.
He said, “They chose not to come because they heard what I had to say. It was much simpler that way.”
Trump announced in his address that the wildlife sanctuary will be named after Jocelyn Nungaray. She was a 12-year-old girl who had been sexually abused and killed by illegal Venezuelan migrants.
“She loved animals and nature. Across Galveston Bay from Houston, where Jocelyn was living, you’ll find the magnificent National Wildlife Refuge. It is a peaceful sanctuary of 34,000 acres for God’s animals on the Gulf of America,” Trump stated.
Then, he showed a copy of the executive order that renamed the refuge after Jocelyn. Her mother, Alexis, who was present at the speech, signed the document.
“Alexis, moments ago, I formally renamed that refuge in loving memory of your beautiful daughter, Jocelyn,” he said.
Trump paid tribute as well to Georgia nursing student Laken Ridley, who died last year after being killed by an illegal Venezuelan immigrant.
Trump said that the murderer “was caught while crossing Biden’s southern open border.”
The heartless policy of the failed administration led to the release into the United States. This was a truly failed administration. Then he was arrested, released, and then killed this young, beautiful angel. Laken’s mother Alison and sister Lauren are with us tonight,” said he.
Trump said during his speech, “We will never forget our beautiful Laken Riley.” Through the legislation that he signed into Law, the Laken Riley Act.
Trump was critical of Democrats, who spent the majority of 2024 advocating that sweeping legislation would solve the crisis on the Southern Border. The president again emphasized the small number of people he oversees.
Since taking office, the Obama administration has implemented a border and immigration crackdown that is unprecedented in American history. We quickly reached the lowest number of illegal border crosses ever recorded. We were told by the media and friends of ours in the Democrat Party that we needed new legislation. He said that we must pass legislation to protect the border.
“It turned out we only needed a new President,” he said.
Trump’s address was a chance to promote his “gold card” idea, which allows foreigners to purchase a pathway to citizenship in the United States for just $5 million.
We will offer the best job creators from around the globe the opportunity to purchase a pathway to U.S. Citizenship. He said it was like a green card but more advanced.
The deportation campaign that his administration initiated was contrasted with this.
“So while we take out the criminals, killers, traffickers and child predators who are allowed to enter our country under the open border policy of these people, the Democrats, the Biden administration, the open-border, insane policies that you’ve allowed to destroy our country, we will now bring in brilliant, hard-working, job creating people. They’re going to pay a lot of money, and we’re going to reduce our debt with that money,” he said.
