Congressional Record, Volume 160 Issue 122 (Thursday, July 31, 2014)

[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 122 (Thursday, July 31, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H7153-H7169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

SECURE THE SOUTHWEST BORDER ACT OF 2014

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution
696, I call up the bill (H.R. 5230) making supplemental appropriations
for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, and for other purposes,
and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:

H.R. 5230

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in

[[Page H7154]]

Congress assembled, That the following sums are appropriated,
out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated,
for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2014, and for other
purposes, namely:

DIVISION A--SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS AND RESCISSIONS

TITLE I

DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

salaries and expenses

For an additional amount for ``Salaries and Expenses'',
$71,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2015,
for necessary expenses to apprehend, transport, and provide
temporary shelter associated with the significant rise in
unaccompanied alien children and alien adults accompanied by
an alien minor at the Southwest Border of the United States,
including related activities to secure the border, disrupt
transnational crime, and the necessary acquisition,
construction, improvement, repair, and management of
facilities: Provided, That not later than 30 days after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland
Security shall submit to the Committees on Appropriations of
the House of Representatives and the Senate an obligation and
quarterly expenditure plan for these funds: Provided further,
That the Secretary shall provide to such Committees quarterly
updates on the expenditure of these funds.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

salaries and expenses

For an additional amount for ``Salaries and Expenses'',
$334,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2015,
for necessary expenses to respond to the significant rise in
unaccompanied alien children and alien adults accompanied by
an alien minor at the Southwest Border of the United States,
including for enforcement of immigration and customs law,
including detention and removal operations, of which
$262,000,000 shall be for Custody Operations and $72,000,000
shall be for Transportation and Removal operations: Provided,
That not later than 30 days after the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland Security shall submit
to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of
Representatives and the Senate an obligation and quarterly
expenditure plan for these funds: Provided further, That the
Secretary shall provide to such Committees quarterly updates
on the expenditure of these funds.

GENERAL PROVISIONS--THIS TITLE

(including rescission)

Sec. 101. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none
of the funds provided by this title shall be available for
obligation or expenditure through a reprogramming or transfer
of funds that proposes to use funds directed for a specific
activity by either of the Committees on Appropriations of the
House of Representatives or the Senate for a different
purpose than for which the appropriations were provided:
Provided, That prior to the obligation of such funds, a
request for approval shall be submitted to such Committees.
Sec. 102. The Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide
to the Congress quarterly reports that include: (1) the
number of apprehensions at the border delineated by
unaccompanied alien children and alien adults accompanied by
an alien minor; (2) the number of claims of a credible fear
of persecution delineated by unaccompanied alien children and
alien adults accompanied by an alien minor, and the number of
determinations of valid claims of a credible fear of
persecution delineated by unaccompanied alien children and
alien adults accompanied by an alien minor; (3) the number of
unaccompanied alien children and alien adults accompanied by
an alien minor granted asylum by an immigration judge,
delineated by year of apprehension; (4) the number of alien
adults accompanied by an alien minor in detention facilities,
alternatives to detention, and other non-detention forms of
supervision; and (5) the number of removals delineated by
unaccompanied alien children and alien adults accompanied by
an alien minor.
Sec. 103. Of the unobligated balance available for
``Department of Homeland Security--Federal Emergency
Management Agency--Disaster Relief Fund'', $405,000,000 is
rescinded: Provided, That no amounts may be rescinded from
amounts that were designated by the Congress as an emergency
requirement pursuant to a concurrent resolution on a budget
or the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of
1985: Provided further, That no amounts may be rescinded from
the amounts that were designated by the Congress as being for
disaster relief pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(D) of the
Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.
Sec. 104. Notwithstanding any other provision of law,
grants awarded under sections 2003 or 2004 of the Homeland
Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 604 and 605) using funds
provided under the heading ``Federal Emergency Management
Agency--State and Local Programs'' in division F of Public
Law 113-76, division D of Public Law 113-6, or division D of
Public Law 112-74 may be used by State and local law
enforcement and public safety agencies within local units of
government along the Southwest Border of the United States
for costs incurred during the award period of performance for
personnel, overtime, travel, costs related to combating
illegal immigration and drug smuggling, and costs related to
providing humanitarian relief to unaccompanied alien children
and alien adults accompanied by an alien minor who have
entered the United States.

TITLE II

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE--MILITARY

MILITARY PERSONNEL

National Guard Personnel, Army

For an additional amount for ``National Guard Personnel,
Army'', $12,419,000, to remain available until September 30,
2015, for necessary expenses related to the Southwest Border
of the United States.

National Guard Personnel, Air Force

For an additional amount for ``National Guard Personnel,
Air Force'', $2,258,000, to remain available until September
30, 2015, for necessary expenses related to the Southwest
Border of the United States.

OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

Operation and Maintenance, Army National Guard

For an additional amount for ``Operation and Maintenance,
Army National Guard'', $15,807,000, to remain available until
September 30, 2015, for necessary expenses related to the
Southwest Border of the United States.

Operation and Maintenance, Air National Guard

For an additional amount for ``Operation and Maintenance,
Air National Guard'', $4,516,000, to remain available until
September 30, 2015, for necessary expenses related to the
Southwest Border of the United States.

GENERAL PROVISION--THIS TITLE

(rescission)

Sec. 201. Of the unobligated balances of amounts
appropriated in title II of division C of Public Law 113-76
for ``Operation and Maintenance, Defense-Wide'', $35,000,000
is hereby rescinded to reflect excess cash balances in
Department of Defense Working Capital Funds.

TITLE III

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

General Administration

administrative review and appeals

For an additional amount for ``Administrative Review and
Appeals'' for necessary expenses to respond to the
significant rise in unaccompanied alien children and alien
adults accompanied by an alien minor at the Southwest Border
of the United States, $22,000,000, to remain available until
September 30, 2015, of which $12,900,000 shall be for
additional temporary immigration judges and related expenses,
and $9,100,000 shall be for technology for judges to expedite
the adjudication of immigration cases.

GENERAL PROVISION--THIS TITLE

(rescission)

Sec. 301. Of the unobligated balances available for
``Department of Justice--Legal Activities--Assets Forfeiture
Fund'', $22,000,000 is hereby permanently rescinded.

TITLE IV

GENERAL PROVISIONS--THIS TITLE

Repatriation and Reintegration

Sec. 401. (a) Repatriation and Reintegration.--Of the funds
appropriated in titles III and IV of division K of Public Law
113-76, and in prior Acts making appropriations for the
Department of State, foreign operations, and related
programs, for assistance for the countries in Central
America, up to $40,000,000 shall be made available for such
countries for repatriation and reintegration activities:
Provided, That funds made available pursuant to this section
may be obligated notwithstanding subsections (c) and (e) of
section 7045 of division K of Public Law 113-76.
(b) Report.--Prior to the initial obligation of funds made
available pursuant to this section, but not later than 15
days after the date of enactment of this Act, and every 90
days thereafter until September 30, 2015, the Secretary of
State, in consultation with the Administrator of the United
States Agency for International Development, shall submit to
the appropriate congressional committees a report on the
obligation of funds made available pursuant to this section
by country and the steps taken by the government of each
country to--
(1) improve border security;
(2) enforce laws and policies to stem the flow of illegal
entries into the United States;
(3) enact laws and implement new policies to stem the flow
of illegal entries into the United States, including
increasing penalties for human smuggling;
(4) conduct public outreach campaigns to explain the
dangers of the journey to the Southwest Border of the United
States and to emphasize the lack of immigration benefits
available; and
(5) cooperate with United States Federal agencies to
facilitate and expedite the return, repatriation, and
reintegration of illegal migrants arriving at the Southwest
Border of the United States.
(c) Suspension of Assistance.--The Secretary of State shall
suspend assistance provided pursuant to this section to the
government of a country if such government is not making
significant progress on each item described in paragraphs (1)
through (5) of subsection (b): Provided, That assistance may
only be resumed if the Secretary reports to the appropriate
congressional committees that subsequent to the suspension of
assistance such government is making significant

[[Page H7155]]

progress on each of the items enumerated in such subsection.
(d) Notification Requirement.--Funds made available
pursuant to this section shall be subject to the regular
notification procedures of the Committees on Appropriations
of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

(rescission)

Sec. 402. Of the unexpended balances available to the
President for bilateral economic assistance under the heading
``Economic Support Fund'' from prior Acts making
appropriations for the Department of State, foreign
operations, and related programs, $197,000,000 is rescinded:
Provided, That no amounts may be rescinded from amounts that
were designated by the Congress for Overseas Contingency
Operations/Global War on Terrorism pursuant to section
251(b)(2)(A) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit
Control Act of 1985 or as an emergency requirement pursuant
to a concurrent resolution on the budget or the Balanced
Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985.

TITLE V

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Administration for Children and Families

refugee and entrant assistance

For an additional amount for ``Refugee and Entrant
Assistance'', $197,000,000, to be merged with and available
for the same time period and for the same purposes as the
funds made available under this heading in division H of
Public Law 113-76 ``for carrying out such sections 414, 501,
462, and 235'': Provided, That of this amount, $47,000,000
shall be for the Social Services and Targeted Assistance
programs.
This division may be cited as the ``Secure the Southwest
Border Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2014''.

DIVISION B--SECURE THE SOUTHWEST BORDER ACT OF 2014

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

(a) Short Title.--This division may be cited as the
``Secure the Southwest Border Act of 2014''.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this
division is as follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

TITLE I--PROTECTING CHILDREN

Sec. 101. Repatriation of unaccompanied alien children.
Sec. 102. Expedited due process and screening of unaccompanied alien
children.
Sec. 103. Due process protections for unaccompanied alien children
present in the United States.
Sec. 104. Emergency immigration judge resources.
Sec. 105. Protecting children from human traffickers, sex offenders,
and other criminals.
Sec. 106. Inclusion of additional grounds for per se ineligibility for
asylum.

TITLE II--USE OF NATIONAL GUARD TO IMPROVE BORDER SECURITY

Sec. 201. National Guard support for border operations.

TITLE III--NATIONAL SECURITY AND FEDERAL LANDS PROTECTION

Sec. 301. Prohibition on actions that impede border security on certain
Federal land.
Sec. 302. Sense of Congress on placement of unauthorized aliens at
military installations.

TITLE I--PROTECTING CHILDREN

SEC. 101. REPATRIATION OF UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHILDREN.

Section 235(a) of the William Wilberforce Trafficking
Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (8 U.S.C.
1232(a)) is amended--
(1) in paragraph (2)--
(A) by amending the paragraph heading to read as follows:
``Rules for unaccompanied alien children'';
(B) in subparagraph (A), in the matter preceding clause
(i), by striking ``who is a national or habitual resident of
a country that is contiguous with the United States''; and
(C) in subparagraph (C)--
(i) by amending the subparagraph heading to read as
follows: ``Agreements with foreign countries''; and
(ii) in the matter preceding clause (i), by striking
``countries contiguous to the United States'' and inserting
``Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and any
other foreign country that the Secretary determines
appropriate''; and
(2) in paragraph (5)(D)--
(A) in the subparagraph heading, by striking ``Placement in
removal proceedings'' and inserting ``Expedited due process
and screening for unaccompanied alien children'';
(B) in the matter preceding clause (i), by striking ``,
except for an unaccompanied alien child from a contiguous
country subject to the exceptions under subsection (a)(2),
shall be--'' and inserting ``who meets the criteria listed in
paragraph (2)(A)--'';
(C) by striking clause (i) and inserting the following:
``(i) shall be placed in a proceeding in accordance with
section 235B of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which
shall commence not later than 7 days after the screening of
an unaccompanied alien child described in paragraph (4);'';
(D) by redesignating clauses (ii) and (iii) as clauses
(iii) and (iv), respectively;
(E) by inserting after clause (i) the following:
``(ii) may not be placed in the immediate custody of a
nongovernmental sponsor or otherwise released from the
custody of the United States Government until the child is
repatriated unless the child is the subject of an order under
section 235B(e)(1) of the Immigration and Nationality Act;'';
(F) in clause (iii), as redesignated, by inserting ``is''
before ``eligible''; and
(G) in clause (iv), as redesignated, by inserting ``shall
be'' before ``provided''.

SEC. 102. EXPEDITED DUE PROCESS AND SCREENING OF
UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHILDREN.

(a) Amendments to Immigration and Nationality Act.--
(1) In general.--Chapter 4 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act is amended by inserting after section 235A
the following:

``SEC. 235B. HUMANE AND EXPEDITED INSPECTION AND SCREENING
FOR UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN CHILDREN.

``(a) Defined Term.--In this section, the term `asylum
officer' had the meaning given such term in section
235(b)(1)(E) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1225(b)(1)(E)).
``(b) Proceeding.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than 7 days after the
screening of an unaccompanied alien child under section
235(a)(4) of the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims
Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (8 U.S.C. 1232(a)(4)),
an immigration judge shall conduct a proceeding to inspect,
screen, and determine the status of an unaccompanied alien
child who is an applicant for admission to the United States.
``(2) Time limit.--Not later than 72 hours after the
conclusion of a proceeding with respect to an unaccompanied
alien child under this section, the immigration judge who
conducted such proceeding shall issue an order pursuant to
subsection (e).
``(c) Conduct of Proceeding.--
``(1) Authority of immigration judge.--The immigration
judge conducting a proceeding under this section--
``(A) shall administer oaths, receive evidence, and
interrogate, examine, and cross-examine the alien and any
witnesses;
``(B) may issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses
and presentation of evidence; and
``(C) is authorized to sanction by civil money penalty any
action (or inaction) in contempt of the judge's proper
exercise of authority under this Act.
``(2) Form of proceeding.--A proceeding under this section
may take place--
``(A) in person;
``(B) at a location agreed to by the parties, in the
absence of the alien;
``(C) through video conference; or
``(D) through telephone conference.
``(3) Presence of alien.--If it is impracticable by reason
of an alien's mental incompetency for the alien to be present
at the proceeding, the Attorney General shall prescribe
safeguards to protect the rights and privileges of the alien.
``(4) Rights of the alien.--In a proceeding under this
section--
``(A) the alien shall be given the privilege of being
represented, at no expense to the Government, by counsel of
the alien's choosing who is authorized to practice in such
proceedings;
``(B) the alien shall be given a reasonable opportunity--
``(i) to examine the evidence against the alien;
``(ii) to present evidence on the alien's own behalf; and
``(iii) to cross-examine witnesses presented by the
Government;
``(C) the rights set forth in subparagraph (B) shall not
entitle the alien--
``(i) to examine such national security information as the
Government may proffer in opposition to the alien's admission
to the United States; or
``(ii) to an application by the alien for discretionary
relief under this Act; and
``(D) a complete record shall be kept of all testimony and
evidence produced at the proceeding.
``(5) Withdrawal of application for admission.--In the
discretion of the Attorney General, an alien applying for
admission to the United States may, and at any time, be
permitted to withdraw such application and immediately be
returned to the alien's country of nationality or country of
last habitual residence.
``(6) Consequences of failure to appear.--Any alien who
fails to appear at a proceeding required under this section,
shall be ordered removed in absentia if the Government
establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that the alien
was at fault for their absence from the proceedings.
``(d) Decision and Burden of Proof.--
``(1) Decision.--
``(A) In general.--At the conclusion of a proceeding under
this section, the immigration judge shall determine whether
an unaccompanied alien child is likely to be--
``(i) admissible to the United States; or
``(ii) eligible for any form of relief from removal under
this Act.
``(B) Evidence.--The determination of the immigration judge
under subparagraph (A) shall be based only on the evidence
produced at the hearing.
``(2) Burden of proof.--
``(A) In general.--In a proceeding under this section, an
alien who is an applicant for admission has the burden of
establishing, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the
alien--

[[Page H7156]]

``(i) is likely to be entitled to be lawfully admitted to
the United States or eligible for any form of relief from
removal under this Act; or
``(ii) is lawfully present in the United States pursuant to
a prior admission.
``(B) Access to documents.--In meeting the burden of proof
under subparagraph (A)(ii), the alien shall be given access
to--
``(i) the alien's visa or other entry document, if any; and
``(ii) any other records and documents, not considered by
the Attorney General to be confidential, pertaining to the
alien's admission or presence in the United States.
``(e) Orders.--
``(1) Placement in further proceedings.--If an immigration
judge determines that the unaccompanied alien child has met
the burden of proof under subsection (d)(2), the judge shall
order the alien to be placed in further proceedings in
accordance with section 240.
``(2) Orders of removal.--If an immigration judge
determines that the unaccompanied alien child has not met the
burden of proof required under subsection (d)(2), the judge
shall order the alien removed from the United States without
further hearing or review unless the alien claims--
``(A) an intention to apply for asylum under section 208;
or
``(B) a fear of persecution.
``(3) Claims for asylum.--If an unaccompanied alien child
described in paragraph (2) claims an intention to apply for
asylum under section 208 or a fear of persecution, the judge
shall order the alien referred for an interview by an asylum
officer under subsection (f).
``(f) Asylum Interviews.--
``(1) Defined term.--In this subsection, the term `credible
fear of persecution' has the meaning given such term in
section 235(b)(1)(B)(v) of the Immigration and Nationality
Act (8 U.S.C. 1225(b)(1)(B)(v)).
``(2) Conduct by asylum officer.--An asylum officer shall
conduct interviews of aliens referred under subsection
(e)(3).
``(3) Referral of certain aliens.--If the officer
determines at the time of the interview that an alien has a
credible fear of persecution, the alien shall be held in the
custody of the Secretary of Health and Human Services
pursuant to section 235(b) of the William Wilberforce
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (8
U.S.C. 1232(b)) during further consideration of the
application for asylum.
``(4) Removal without further review if no credible fear of
persecution.--
``(A) In general.--Subject to subparagraph (C), if the
asylum officer determines that an alien does not have a
credible fear of persecution the officer shall order the
alien removed from the United States without further hearing
or review.
``(B) Record of determination.--The officer shall prepare a
written record of a determination under subparagraph (A),
which shall include--
``(i) a summary of the material facts as stated by the
applicant;
``(ii) such additional facts (if any) relied upon by the
officer;
``(iii) the officer's analysis of why, in light of such
facts, the alien has not established a credible fear of
persecution; and
``(iv) a copy of the officer's interview notes.
``(C) Review of determination.--
``(i) Rulemaking.--The Attorney General shall establish, by
regulation, a process by which an immigration judge will
conduct a prompt review, upon the alien's request, of a
determination under subparagraph (A) that the alien does not
have a credible fear of persecution.
``(ii) Mandatory components.--The review described in
clause (i)--

``(I) shall include an opportunity for the alien to be
heard and questioned by the immigration judge, either in
person or by telephonic or video connection; and
``(II) shall be conducted--

``(aa) as expeditiously as possible;
``(bb) within the 24-hour period beginning at the time the
asylum officer makes a determination under subparagraph (A),
to the maximum extent practicable; and
``(cc) in no case later than 7 days after such
determination.
``(5) Mandatory protective custody.--Any alien subject to
the procedures under this subsection shall be held in the
custody of the Secretary of Health and Human Services
pursuant to section 235(b) of the William Wilberforce
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (8
U.S.C. 1232(b))--
``(A) pending a final determination of an asylum
application under section 208; or
``(B) after a determination that the alien does not have a
credible fear of persecution, until the alien is removed.
``(g) Limitation on Administrative Review.--
``(1) In general.--Except as provided in subsection
(f)(4)(C) and paragraph (2), a removal order entered in
accordance with subsection (e)(2) or (f)(4)(A) is not subject
to administrative appeal.
``(2) Rulemaking.--The Attorney General shall establish, by
regulation, a process for the prompt review of an order under
subsection (e)(2) against an alien who claims under oath, or
as permitted under penalty of perjury under section 1746 of
title 28, United States Code, after having been warned of the
penal ties for falsely making such claim under such
conditions to have been--
``(A) lawfully admitted for permanent residence;
``(B) admitted as a refugee under section 207; or
``(C) granted asylum under section 208.
``(h) Last In, First Out.--In any proceedings,
determinations, or removals under this section, priority
shall be accorded to the alien who has most recently arrived
in the United States.''.
(2) Clerical amendment.--The table of contents for the
Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.) is
amended by inserting after the item relating to section 235A
the following:

``Sec. 235B. Humane and expedited inspection and screening for
unaccompanied alien children.''.

(b) Judicial Review of Orders of Removal.--Section 242 of
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1252) is
amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ``, or an order of
removal issued to an unaccompanied alien child after
proceedings under section 235B'' after ``section 235(b)(1)'';
and
(B) in paragraph (2)--
(i) by inserting ``or section 235B'' after ``section
235(b)(1)'' each place it appears; and
(ii) in subparagraph (A)--

(I) in the subparagraph heading, by inserting ``or 235b''
after ``section 235(b)(1)''; and
(II) in clause (iii), by striking ``section 235(b)(1)(B),''
and inserting ``section 235(b)(1)(B) or 235B(f);''; and

(2) in subsection (e)--
(A) in the subsection heading, by inserting ``or 235B''
after ``Section 235(b)(1)'';
(B) by inserting ``or section 235B'' after ``section
235(b)(1)'' in each place it appears;
(C) in subparagraph (2)(C), by inserting ``or section
235B(g)'' after ``section 235(b)(1)(C)''; and
(D) in subparagraph (3)(A), by inserting ``or section
235B'' after ``section 235(b)''.

SEC. 103. DUE PROCESS PROTECTIONS FOR UNACCOMPANIED ALIEN
CHILDREN PRESENT IN THE UNITED STATES.

(a) Filing Authorized.--Not later than 60 days after the
date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Homeland
Security, notwithstanding any other provision of law, shall,
at an immigration court designated to conduct proceedings
under section 235B of the Immigration and Nationality Act,
permit an unaccompanied alien child who was issued a Notice
to Appear under section 239 of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1229) during the period beginning
on January 1, 2013, and ending on the date of the enactment
of this Act--
(1) to appear, in-person, before an immigration judge who
has been authorized by the Attorney General to conduct
proceedings under section 235B of the Immigration and
Nationality Act, as added by section 102;
(2) to attest to their desire to apply for admission to the
United States; and
(3) to file a motion--
(A) to replace any Notice to Appear issued between January
1, 2013, and the date of the enactment of this Act under
section 239 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C.
1229); and
(B) to apply for admission to the United States by being
placed in proceedings under section 235B of the Immigration
and Nationality Act.
(b) Motion Granted.--An immigration judge may, at the sole
and unreviewable discretion of the judge, grant a motion
filed under subsection (a)(3) upon a finding that--
(1) the petitioner was an unaccompanied alien child (as
such term is defined in section 462 of the Homeland Security
Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 279)) on the date on which a Notice to
Appear described in subsection (a) was issued to the alien;
(2) the Notice to Appear was issued during the period
beginning on January 1, 2013, and ending on the date of the
enactment of this Act;
(3) the unaccompanied alien child is applying for admission
to the United States; and
(4) the granting of such motion would not be manifestly
unjust.
(c) Effect of Motion.--Notwithstanding any other provision
of law, upon the granting of a motion to replace under
subsection (b), the immigration judge who granted such motion
shall--
(1) while the petitioner remains in-person, immediately
inspect and screen the petitioner for admission to the United
States by conducting a proceeding under section 235B of the
Immigration and Nationality Act, as added by section 102;
(2) immediately notify the petitioner of the petitioner's
ability, under section 235B(c)(5) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act to withdraw the petitioner's application for
admission to the United States and immediately be returned to
the petitioner's country of nationality or country of last
habitual residence; and
(3) replace the petitioner's notice to appear with an order
under section 235B(e) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
(d) Protective Custody.--An unaccompanied alien child who
has been granted a motion under subsection (b) shall be held
in the custody of the Secretary of Health and Human Services
pursuant to section 235 of the William Wilberforce
Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (8
U.S.C. 1232).

SEC. 104. EMERGENCY IMMIGRATION JUDGE RESOURCES.

(a) Designation.--Not later than 14 days after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall
designate up to 40 immigration judges, including through the
hiring of retired immigration judges, administrative law
judges, or magistrate judges, or

[[Page H7157]]

the reassignment of current immigration judges, that are
dedicated to conducting humane and expedited inspection and
screening for unaccompanied alien children under section 235B
of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as added by section
102. Such designations shall remain in effect solely for the
duration of the humanitarian crisis at the southern border
(as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security, in
consultation with the Attorney General).
(b) Requirement.--The Attorney General shall ensure that
sufficient immigration judge resources are dedicated to the
purpose described in subsection (a) to comply with the
requirement under section 235B(b)(1) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act.

SEC. 105. PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM HUMAN TRAFFICKERS, SEX
OFFENDERS, AND OTHER CRIMINALS.

Section 235(c)(3) of the William Wilberforce Trafficking
Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008 (8 U.S.C.
1232(c)(3)) is amended--
(1) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ``, including a
mandatory biometric criminal history check'' before the
period at the end; and
(2) by adding at the end the following--
``(D) Prohibition on placement with sex offenders and human
traffickers.--
``(i) In general.--The Secretary of Health and Human
Services may not place an unaccompanied alien child in the
custody of an individual who has been convicted of--

``(I) a sex offense (as defined in section 111 of the Sex
Offender Registration and Notification Act (42 U.S.C.
16911)); or
``(II) a crime involving a severe form of trafficking in
persons (as defined in section 103 of the Trafficking Victims
Protection Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7102)).

``(ii) Requirements of criminal background check.--A
biometric criminal history check under subparagraph (A) shall
be based on a set of fingerprints or other biometric
identifiers and conducted through--

``(I) the Federal Bureau of Investigation; and
``(II) criminal history repositories of all States that the
individual lists as current or former residences.''.

SEC. 106. INCLUSION OF ADDITIONAL GROUNDS FOR PER SE
INELIGIBILITY FOR ASYLUM.

Section 208(b)(2)(A)(iii) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1158(b)(2)(A)(iii)) is amended by
inserting after ``a serious nonpolitical crime'' the
following: ``(including any drug-related offense punishable
by a term of imprisonment greater than 1 year)''.

TITLE II--USE OF NATIONAL GUARD TO IMPROVE BORDER SECURITY

SEC. 201. NATIONAL GUARD SUPPORT FOR BORDER OPERATIONS.

(a) Deployment Authority and Funding.--Amounts appropriated
for the Department of Defense in this Act shall be expended
for any units or personnel of the National Guard deployed to
perform operations and missions under section 502(f) of title
32, United States Code, on the southern border of the United
States.
(b) Assignment of Operations and Missions.--
(1) In general.--National Guard units and personnel
deployed under subsection (a) may be assigned such operations
as may be necessary to provide assistance for operations on
the southern border, with priority given to high traffic
areas experiencing the highest number of crossings by
unaccompanied alien children.
(2) Nature of duty.--The duty of National Guard personnel
performing operations and missions on the southern border
shall be full-time duty under title 32, United States Code.
(c) Materiel and Logistical Support.--The Secretary of
Defense shall deploy such materiel and equipment and
logistical support as may be necessary to ensure success of
the operations and missions conducted by the National Guard
under this section.
(d) Exclusion From National Guard Personnel Strength
Limitations.--National Guard personnel deployed under
subsection (a) shall not be included in--
(1) the calculation to determine compliance with limits on
end strength for National Guard personnel; or
(2) limits on the number of National Guard personnel that
may be placed on active duty for operational support under
section 115 of title 10, United States Code.
(e) High Traffic Areas Defined.--In this section:
(1) The term ``high traffic areas'' means sectors along the
northern and southern borders of the United States that are
within the responsibility of the Border Patrol that have the
most illicit cross-border activity, informed through
situational awareness.
(2) The term ``unaccompanied alien child'' means a child
who--
(A) has no lawful immigration status in the United States;
(B) has not attained 18 years of age; and
(C) with respect to whom--
(i) there is no parent or legal guardian in the United
States; or
(ii) no parent or legal guardian in the United States is
available to provide care and physical custody.

TITLE III--NATIONAL SECURITY AND FEDERAL LANDS PROTECTION

SEC. 301. PROHIBITION ON ACTIONS THAT IMPEDE BORDER SECURITY
ON CERTAIN FEDERAL LAND.

(a) Prohibition on Secretaries of the Interior and
Agriculture.--The Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary
of Agriculture shall not impede, prohibit, or restrict
activities of U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Federal
land located within 100 miles of the United States border
with Mexico that is under the jurisdiction of the Secretary
of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture, to execute
search and rescue operations, and to prevent all unlawful
entries into the United States, including entries by
terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism,
narcotics, and other contraband through such international
land border of the United States. These authorities of U.S.
Customs and Border Protection on such Federal land apply
whether or not a state of emergency exists.
(b) Authorized Activities of U.S. Customs and Border
Protection.--U.S. Customs and Border Protection shall have
immediate access to Federal land within 100 miles of the
United States border with Mexico that is under the
jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior or the
Secretary of Agriculture for purposes of conducting the
following activities on such land that prevent all unlawful
entries into the United States, including entries by
terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism,
narcotics, and other contraband through such international
land border of the United States:
(1) Construction and maintenance of roads.
(2) Construction and maintenance of barriers.
(3) Use of vehicles to patrol, apprehend, or rescue.
(4) Installation, maintenance, and operation of
communications and surveillance equipment and sensors.
(5) Deployment of temporary tactical infrastructure.
(c) Clarification Relating to Waiver Authority.--
(1) In general.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law
(including any termination date relating to the waiver
referred to in this subsection), the waiver by the Secretary
of Homeland Security on April 1, 2008, under section
102(c)(1) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant
Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1103 note; Public Law
104-208) of the laws described in paragraph (2) with respect
to certain sections of the international border between the
United States and Mexico shall be considered to apply to all
Federal land under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the
Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture within 100 miles of
such international land border of the United States for the
activities of U.S. Customs and Border Protection described in
subsection (b).
(2) Description of laws waived.--The laws referred to in
paragraph (1) are limited to the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C.
1131 et seq.), the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969
(42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), the Endangered Species Act of 1973
(16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.), the National Historic Preservation
Act (16 U.S.C. 470 et seq.), Public Law 86-523 (16 U.S.C. 469
et seq.), the Act of June 8, 1906 (commonly known as the
``Antiquities Act of 1906''; 16 U.S.C. 431 et seq.), the Wild
and Scenic Rivers Act (16 U.S.C. 1271 et seq.), the Federal
Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et
seq.), the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act
of 1966 (16 U.S.C. 668dd et seq.), the Fish and Wildlife Act
of 1956 (16 U.S.C. 742a et seq.), the Fish and Wildlife
Coordination Act (16 U.S.C. 661 et seq.), subchapter II of
chapter 5, and chapter 7, of title 5, United States Code
(commonly known as the ``Administrative Procedure Act''), the
National Park Service Organic Act (16 U.S.C. 1 et seq.), the
General Authorities Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-383) (16
U.S.C. 1a-1 et seq.), sections 401(7), 403, and 404 of the
National Parks and Recreation Act of 1978 (Public Law 95-625,
92 Stat. 3467), and the Arizona Desert Wilderness Act of 1990
(16 U.S.C. 1132 note; Public Law 101-628).
(d) Protection of Legal Uses.--This section shall not be
construed to provide--
(1) authority to restrict legal uses, such as grazing,
hunting, mining, or public-use recreational and backcountry
airstrips on land under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of
the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture; or
(2) any additional authority to restrict legal access to
such land.
(e) Effect on State and Private Land.--This Act shall--
(1) have no force or effect on State or private lands; and
(2) not provide authority on or access to State or private
lands.
(f) Tribal Sovereignty.--Nothing in this section
supersedes, replaces, negates, or diminishes treaties or
other agreements between the United States and Indian tribes.

SEC. 302. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON PLACEMENT OF UNAUTHORIZED
ALIENS AT MILITARY INSTALLATIONS.

(a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the Secretary of Defense should not allow the placement
of unauthorized aliens at a military installation unless--
(A) the Secretary submits written notice to the
congressional defense committees and each Member of Congress
representing any jurisdiction in which an affected military
installation is situated; and
(B) the Secretary publishes notice in the Federal Register;
(2) the placement of unauthorized aliens at a military
institution should not displace active members of the Armed
Forces;
(3) the placement of unauthorized aliens at a military
institution should not interfere

[[Page H7158]]

with any mission of the Department of Defense;
(4) the Secretary of Health and Human Services should not
use a military installation for the placement of unauthorized
aliens unless all other facilities of the Department of
Health and Human Services are unavailable;
(5) the Secretary of Health and Human Services should not
use a military installation for the placement of unauthorized
aliens for more than 120 days;
(6) the Secretary of Health and Human Services should
ensure that all unauthorized alien children are vaccinated
upon arrival at a military installation as set forth in the
guidelines of the Office of Refugee Resettlement;
(7) the Secretary of Health and Human Services should
ensure that all individuals under the supervision of the
Secretary with access to unauthorized alien children at a
military installation are properly cleared according to the
procedures set forth in the Victims of Child Abuse Act of
1990 (42 U.S.C. 13001 et seq.);
(8) the Secretary of Health and Human Services should fully
comply with the provisions of the Victims of Child Abuse Act
of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 13001 et seq.) with respect to background
checks and should retain full legal responsibility for such
compliance; and
(9) in accordance with section 1535 of title 31, United
States Code (commonly referred to as the ``Economy Act''),
the Secretary of Health and Human Services should reimburse
the Secretary of Defense for all expenses incurred by the
Secretary of Defense in carrying out the placement of
unauthorized aliens at a military installation.
(b) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) The term ``congressional defense committees'' has the
meaning given that term in section 101(a)(16) of title 10,
United States Code.
(2) The term ``Member of Congress'' has the meaning given
that term in section 1591(c)(1) of title 10, United States
Code.
(3) The term ``military installation'' has the meaning
given that term in section 2801(c)(4) of title 10, United
States Code, but does not include an installation located
outside of the United States.
(4) The term ``placement'' means the placement of an
unauthorized alien in either a detention facility or an
alternative to such a facility.
(5) The term ``unauthorized alien'' means an alien
unlawfully present in the United States, but does not include
a dependent of a member of the Armed Forces.

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Foxx). Pursuant to House Resolution 696,
the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers) and the gentlewoman from New
York (Mrs. Lowey) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky.

General Leave

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 5230, and that I may
include tabular material on the same.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Kentucky?
There was no objection.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 6 minutes.
I rise today to present H.R. 5230, which provides immediate, short-
term funding to address the southwest border crisis.
In total, this bill provides $659 million to meet urgent border
security and humanitarian needs for this fiscal year ending on
September 30.
Thousands of illegal immigrants, including unaccompanied children,
have flooded our borders and overwhelmed our current facilities and
personnel.

{time} 1200

This includes a staggering number of children, arriving with no
family, who are being smuggled across our borders by criminal
organizations, subject to abuse and violence. We need to put safeguards
in place to prevent them from taking this dangerous journey, as well as
provide the resources needed to take care of them and process them
appropriately.
The President must take the lead on this by mitigating this crisis,
turning back the tide of illegal immigrants, and fully enforcing our
laws. This problem has, without a doubt, been exacerbated by the
administration's policies on immigration, and it is up to the
administration to find a way to fix that problem.
In the meantime, however, Madam Speaker, it is plain that something
must be done to ensure that our law enforcement personnel and Federal
agencies have the resources needed to deal with this dire situation in
the short term.
The $659 million in funding in this bill focuses on three areas--
border security, humanitarian assistance, and prevention--to meet the
most pressing needs. Of this total $659 million, $462 million is
provided to increase security and enforce our laws, boosting personnel,
and increasing detention space to the largest capacity in our history.
Part of this funding will help accelerate judicial proceedings by
increasing the number of temporary judges and outfitting all
immigration courtrooms in the Nation with teleconferencing equipment
that would allow them to be able to join in the process of adjudicating
those cases on the border. There are some 332 of those courtrooms
around the country.
We have doubled existing funding for the National Guard to bolster
their presence along our border, as they assist Customs and Border
Protection with surveillance, investigations, and humanitarian efforts.
The bill also provides $197 million to take care of these
unaccompanied children, ensuring they have proper housing, meals, and
temporary care while they are in U.S. custody.
Madam Speaker, to stave off the continued influx of illegal
immigration, the bill redirects existing State Department funding to
ensure that countries like Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador must
quickly accept and repatriate those returning from the U.S.
This bill draws a hard line on spending, scrubbing the President's
request to focus on the most immediate needs. It does not including
funding for longer-term needs or unnecessary programs, like cash
subsidies for coffee farmers. Any additional funding for this crisis
can and should be addressed under the regular appropriations process
for fiscal year 2015.
In addition, to make sure that this bill doesn't add a penny to our
deficit, Madam Speaker, every dollar spent here is fully offset from
somewhere else by making noncontroversial rescissions of unused, excess
prior-year funds.
Lastly, the bill includes several policy provisions recommended by
the Speaker's Working Group on the Border Crisis, led by the chairwoman
of the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee,
Representative Kay Granger from Texas. She will speak soon.
This includes a change in a 2008 law to ensure that all unaccompanied
minors arriving in this country are treated the same as Mexicans and
Canadians for the purpose of removal.
It also strengthens the law prohibiting immigration status to
criminals convicted of serious drug crimes and prohibits the
Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture from restricting Customs
and Border Protection apprehension activities on Federal land on the
border, and it expresses congressional intent that detained aliens
awaiting processing should not be housed on military installations.
Madam Speaker, this is a good bill. This is a fair, sensible, and
reasonable address of the most immediate needs on the border. It also
puts in place much-needed policy changes that should stop the flow of
unaccompanied children who are being put at risk during their long,
dangerous journey through Mexico.
It is our congressional duty to quickly pass this bill in short
order. Therefore, I ask all Members to support it, and I reserve the
balance of my time.

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Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume,
and I rise today to oppose this bill that, sadly, falls short in too
many ways.
The key Federal agencies tasked with responding to the humanitarian
crisis on our borders are dangerously close to running out of money.
These unanticipated costs are affecting the core functions at the
Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services. Although
the bill includes funding to hire additional immigration judicial teams
and help set up new repatriation centers in Central America, the
amounts provided are insufficient.
The Justice Department and the State Department will not be able to
handle their duties without significantly more resources. All four
departments need more funding than this bill provides and fewer
partisan immigration policy riders than this bill now contains.
Our majority unwisely included legislative language to make sweeping
changes to current law related to due process and immigration
proceedings. Controversial legislation hastily added to an emergency
supplemental is not the way to address a complicated problem.
On July 8, the President requested $3.7 billion in emergency funding.
The bill provides less than $700 million. The President requested
funding through fiscal year 2015. This bill barely covers the remaining
weeks in FY 2014, setting this House up to do this all over again in
September.
The President's request also sought emergency funding to combat a
dangerous wildfire season. As of Monday, the Forest Service reported 26
large uncontained wildfires burning in eight States. As a Member from
New York, a region devastated by Hurricane Sandy, I am acutely aware
how important it is for the Federal Government to provide a robust
response. With the House adjourning today, Federal agencies will be
left to fight August fires without more funds.
This bill also fails to provide funding to procure more Iron Dome
interceptors for Israel as requested. Hamas has used the ongoing crisis
in Israel and Gaza as an excuse to launch thousands of rockets at
Israeli cities and towns. The Iron Dome missile defense system has
proven highly effective at neutralizing the rockets.
In addition to not funding important priorities, the majority offsets
the funding that is provided with cuts to other programs. We should
provide emergency funds in a crisis situation.
Lastly, I strongly object to the majority's significant policy
changes to existing law without any hearings or markups. Three-quarters
of this appropriations bill is straight authorizing legislation.
Clearly, many factors led these desperate parents to hand off their
children to complete strangers, with the hope they make their way to
safety here.
We ought to consider the complicated policy questions and provide a
carefully considered solution, yet these policy changes reveal a knee-
jerk response coupled with another bill to deport children who are
already in the U.S.
In addition to emergency appropriations, we should consider
bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform passed by the Senate over 1
year ago, which could have helped to prevent the current humanitarian
crisis along our southwest border by increasing border security
personnel and nearly doubling the number of immigration judges.
The two measures we will consider today are deeply disappointing.
Madam Speaker, we should provide sufficient funding to cash-strapped
agencies quickly and without the baggage of controversial immigration
policy riders. I regret we will not do that with this bill, and I
regret even more the consequences of our failure.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Granger), the chairman of the Foreign
Operations Subcommittee on Appropriations, but more importantly, she
has accepted the responsibility of the Speaker to put together a task
force to investigate the problem on the border and to recommend
solutions--and she has, with great success.
Ms. GRANGER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding.
Madam Speaker, as we speak, unaccompanied minors continue to be sent
from Central America through drug cartel smuggling networks across
Mexico and through our southern border.
Families are being lied to and manipulated by the coyotes. The $6,000
their families spend to send their children to the United States goes
into the bank account of the most powerful drug cartels in the world.
Since October, over 58,000 unaccompanied children have made the
dangerous journey to the United States, and many more will continue to
come unless we send a clear message that they will not be allowed to
stay in the United States.
I have seen firsthand the crisis that has unfolded at the southern
border in places like the Rio Grande Valley and south Texas. I have
seen the women and children sleeping on the floor of a bus station in
Laredo.
I have seen motherless infants being cared for by any stranger who is
around. I have seen the children who are alone in detention facilities
in McAllen, Texas, and I have seen the 1,200 children who are being
sheltered at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, and--most
disturbing of all--I have heard the stories about the most God-awful
journey anyone should ever have to experience.
We are here today because we have a responsibility to stop this
crisis. The President has failed to lead, so I firmly believe this
Chamber must act. Doing nothing is not an option.
Since June, when the Speaker asked me to lead a working group to
provide policy recommendations on what we can do to address the crisis,
I have been to the Texas-Mexico border twice and led a codel to
Guatemala and Honduras, to see where the children are coming from and
why. I will be returning to the border tomorrow for a third time.
The members of the working group dove headfirst into this issue to
understand this crisis and provide recommendations for a short-term,
immediate response. The policies we recommended are not an attempt for
immigration reform. They are serious solutions to address this crisis.
I want to take a moment to recognize the hard work of the members of
the working group who have made policy recommendations to the
conference and the expertise they brought to the table.
I want to thank the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Bob
Goodlatte; chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Michael McCaul;
chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, John
Carter; chairman of the Western Hemisphere Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee, Matt Salmon; Congressman Steve Pearce from the Financial
Services Committee; and Mario Diaz-Balart from the Appropriations
Committee.

{time} 1215

One of our conclusions from the last several weeks is that Congress
should not provide more resources to the administration without
changing the policies that have led us to the situation we are in
today. Administration officials and officials in the Central American
countries have all said that we have to make changes to the Trafficking
Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008. A month ago, it
appeared there was a bipartisan consensus forming on this issue.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said from the White House
podium just 3 weeks ago, when discussing changes to the 2008 law, that
it is ``a priority of this administration, and if you listen to the
public comments of Democrats and Republicans, it sounds like it's a
bipartisan priority.''
I agree, and it is disappointing that the White House has backed down
from their original statements on how we can immediately address this
issue.
We are not asking for a repeal of this law. We are saying we need to
tweak the 2008 law so that all unaccompanied minors are treated the
same as Mexican and Canadian children for removal purposes. The policy
changes included in this bill ensure that children receive a prompt
hearing within 7 days after they are detained and require that a judge
rules no later than 72 hours after a hearing.
Accelerating the hearing times requires more judges. I thank the
chairman for including the necessary funding to hire 40 temporary
judges until this crisis is under control.

[[Page H7162]]

For repatriations, we are prioritizing last in-first out. That means
the last child to go into United States Government custody will be the
first one we send home. After families have spent between $6,000 and
$9,000 to send their children here, this will send a strong message to
the families in the countries of origin that their children will not be
permitted to stay. This is a message of deterrence.
I also note that Chairman Rogers has prioritized funding for Central
American countries to safely and humanely return these children,
working with these countries as we return their children, as they have
asked us to do.
With the surge of children, there has been increased pressure on our
Customs and Border Protection officials. This supplemental deploys the
National Guard to assist high-traffic States. This will free up the
Border Patrol to focus on their mission.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman an
additional 1 minute.
Ms. GRANGER. To fully support the Customs and Border Protection's
mission, we include a provision to allow unfettered access to Federal
lands. Right now, through a memorandum of understanding, Border Patrol
officials are only permitted to pursue suspects onto Federal lands.
They cannot do regular patrols.
Finally, the supplemental includes a sense of Congress that children
should not be detained at military bases. While this will not change
the law, this provision addresses a serious and growing concern for
Members of Congress, not the least of concerns is that children should
not be stored on military bases.
The Congressional Budget Office has given its assessment of policy
changes in this bill. They have said that, because the legislation
allows for the children to self-deport, it will lead to immediate
savings.
This is a smart, targeted bill that addresses the crisis immediately.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the supplemental and show the
American people that we are going to end this crisis.
Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), the distinguished ranking
member of the Labor, Health and Human Services Subcommittee on
Appropriations.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I must rise in opposition against this
irresponsible and insufficient border supplemental.
For months, Democrats have urged this majority to pass comprehensive
immigration reform--the bill that was passed on a bipartisan basis in
the United States Senate--reform that reflects our values and the
country that we want to be: one with strong enforcement at the border,
the deportation of dangerous criminals, and a path to citizenship that
protects workers, helps families reunite, and clears backlogs.
But this Republican majority has done nothing. They have refused to
act. My colleague from Texas is right--doing nothing is not an option.
Now we face a humanitarian crisis on our border that demands an
immediate response, but the majority's answer is just to send home the
children who enter our country alone regardless of the violence and the
imminent danger that they face.
This bill only includes $197 million for providing shelter and care
for these refugee children. While these kids are here, we have a moral
and, yes, we have a legal responsibility to provide for their housing,
care, and processing in the most cost-effective way possible. This
insufficient amount will mean that HHS will have to make up the
difference through high-priced, short-term contracts. That will cost us
more in the long run, and it could result in cuts to other priorities,
like education, health, medical research, and job training.
If Congress tries to make up these shortfalls elsewhere, this is not
responsible leadership. Our policy, signed into law by President George
W. Bush, provides for the appropriate screening of those who may be
victims of trafficking, and that rightly includes unaccompanied
children. This supplemental appropriation would change this policy and
would almost certainly result in children being returned to the
violence that they are desperately trying to escape.
America can do and should do better. We should help protect those
kids who are in serious danger, and we should push the leaders of these
nations to address the root causes of why so many of their citizens are
fleeing. We should pass comprehensive immigration reform. It is time
for leadership from this Republican majority.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter), the chairman of the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Homeland Security.
Mr. CARTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Madam Speaker, it is a proven fact that lawlessness breeds
lawlessness, and, sadly, I believe this assertion sums up the issue
that is confronting us today.
Thanks in large part to the President's political decision not to
enforce our immigration laws, a chaotic situation has erupted into a
national security crisis and a law enforcement nightmare along the
border.
We all know the facts:
An estimated 90,000 unaccompanied alien children will cross into
south Texas' Rio Grande Valley by the end of this fiscal year. Another
145,000 children are estimated to flood the border in fiscal year 2015.
And these staggering figures do not include the tens of thousands of
families who will also surge across our border over the same period of
time.
As a result of this influx, our brave Border Patrol agents, CBP
officers, and ICE agents are spending countless hours in caring for
children rather than focusing on their primary enforcement missions.
This would be tragic if it weren't so preventable.

Madam Speaker, we do not have an open border policy in this country,
and as we tragically learned on 9/11, border security and the integrity
of our immigration system truly matter to our Nation's security and the
rule of law. So, today, we offer a strong but initial step to provide
both the right tools and the right authorities to address and deter
this seemingly unending influx of illegal aliens.
Included in this package is $405 million, completely offset by
recovered funds, for the Department of Homeland Security, funds that
will enable the CBP and ICE to enforce our laws and apprehend, detain,
and deport illegal aliens. Perhaps most importantly, this bill fully
funds the administration's realization that detention is, in fact, a
necessary deterrent to illegal immigration.
The President requested funds to fully support the long-mandated
annual bed capacity--a complete reversal from his budget request in
which he proposed, instead, to reduce detention beds by nearly 10
percent. The President has also retracted his policy on the detention
of families who illegally cross the border. This bill provides funding
through the end of the fiscal year to support 34,800 detention beds and
an additional 6,320 family detention beds--a total of over 41,100
detention beds--to enable the necessary consequence management for
breaking the law.
Lastly, this bill includes policy changes to bring reform and parity
to the adjudication and reparation of these children and to prevent
these children from being placed with criminals.
Madam Speaker, we must act and we must act now. Lawlessness has bred
lawlessness, and we must act to stop it and to secure our borders. I
urge my colleagues to support this strong bill.
Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 4 minutes to the
gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price), the ranking member of the
Homeland Security Subcommittee of Appropriations.
Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong
opposition to this misconceived and under-resourced legislation.
For a while, it looked like we might do better than this. As the
ranking member of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, I
was pleased to take part in a delegation to Guatemala and Honduras,
ably led by Chairman Kay Granger. But as successive versions of the
Republican bill have surfaced over the past 2 weeks, in an apparent
quest for votes only among

[[Page H7163]]

Republicans, they have reflected less and less of what we learned on
that trip.
The bill under consideration provides less than $1 billion for the
Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Justice,
and State--far below the President's request, what is being considered
by the Senate, or what is required to deal with the crisis on our
borders and beyond.
The bill only provides funding for anticipated needs for the
remainder of this fiscal year, a mere 2 months. I would object to that
less if the majority had any plans for actually completing our
appropriations bills before the end of September, but we all know that
they do not. Indeed, it appears unlikely that our Homeland Security
Appropriations bill will make it to the House floor.
The approach taken in this legislation shows a fundamental
misunderstanding of the issue before us. This isn't a border security
crisis. This is a humanitarian crisis. We don't need to deploy the
National Guard or surge our border capacity, because we are not failing
to catch individuals as they cross. In fact, these young people are
turning themselves in!
Now, we do have some agreement on the need to expedite the
consideration of the claims of these minors for asylum or other forms
of relief. But at $12.9 million, the House bill falls far short of even
the administration's modest request for more immigration judges.
Instead of focusing on this area of agreement, the majority relies
upon a questionable and controversial rewriting of the Wilberforce law,
enacted in 2008 to deal with child trafficking. My own view is that the
Cuellar-Cornyn proposal incorporated in the bill both fails to address
deficiencies in our present screening of Mexican youths for signs of
torture or fear of persecution, and risks transferring these
deficiencies to the treatment of Central American children. In any
event, it is not wise to complicate or delay the consideration of this
emergency supplemental request with an authorization bill that surely
requires more deliberation.
Madam Speaker, there have been some recent signs of progress down at
the border. Over the past few weeks, the average daily apprehensions of
unaccompanied children have dropped from 400 to well under 200. That
doesn't mean the crisis is over. We can easily see another spike in
apprehensions in the coming weeks.
We need a bill that both provides resources and reflects our values.
Faith leaders of all traditions across the country are calling on
Congress to provide the social and health services these children
desperately need.
Perhaps the greatest failing of this legislation is that it fails to
move us toward any viable, long-term strategy to address the causes of
the current crisis. Beyond any funding we appropriate to help manage
the flow of unaccompanied children or families over the next several
months, we are setting ourselves up for similar crises in the future if
we aren't willing to invest in a long-term strategy to help Honduras,
Guatemala, and El Salvador--the three countries that are the source of
the vast majority of unaccompanied minors--to stabilize their
economies, to modernize their institutions, to reduce the levels of
violence and the grip of the drug cartels and street gangs.

{time} 1230

Madam Speaker, I fear that the bill before us fails to address either
short-term or long-term needs, and much of what it does contain is
irrelevant to the current crisis.
Madam Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul), who chairs the Homeland Security
Committee of the House.
Mr. McCAUL. Madam Speaker, let me thank the chairman of the
Appropriations Committee for his hard work and Chairwoman Kay Granger
for heading up this task force that I was honored to be a part of.
As the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee and a former
Federal prosecutor who has dealt with the border for many years, I have
never seen a crisis quite like this one. This crisis demands action. It
demands leadership, and it demands a solution to the problem.
Since the President enacted DACA in 2012, we have seen 60,000
unaccompanied children cross into the border, in the Rio Grande Valley
sector of Texas alone, 250 per day.
We went down there to see these children. These children are the
victims caught between the administration's policies and the coyotes
and the traffickers who exploit them and make money, between $5,000 to
$10,000 apiece.
Madam Speaker, this bill fixes that crisis. First and foremost, this
changes the 2008 trafficking law as a message of deterrence. This
crisis will not stop until we start sending them back, and all this
does is it treats Central Americans the same way we treat Mexicans. It
will provide for swift removal in a humane way back to their countries
of origin.
It is unfortunate that the administration, while initially
supportive, has now flip-flopped on that issue.
It also provides for the detention, removal, and repatriation of
these children.
For me and my home State of Texas, importantly, it calls for the
deployment of the National Guard to the southwest border to secure our
border. My Governor, Governor Perry, has already activated the National
Guard. But it is the Federal Government's responsibility, under the
Constitution, to pick up that price tag, and that is precisely what
this bill does.
Finally, Madam Speaker, I think, importantly, it directs the Southern
Command, our military, to help secure the border between Guatemala and
Mexico, which I believe, and I know the chairman of Appropriations as
well believes, is a key to stopping the flow out of Central America.
Madam Speaker, the time to act is now.
Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Roybal-Allard), a member of both the
Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Homeland Security
Subcommittees.
Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Madam Speaker, 2 weeks ago, I visited the border
and saw small children held in tiny cells and forced to sleep on cold
concrete floors and benches. The treatment of these vulnerable kids,
many of whom fled their homes to escape extreme violence, shocked me as
a mother and as an American.
Unfortunately, this bill contains only 11 percent of the resources
the President requested for the Department of Health and Human
Services. This paltry amount will only make conditions worse for these
vulnerable children by limiting the Department's bedspace capacity and
exacerbating delays in transferring children away from the overcrowded
Border Patrol stations into the more suitable conditions of HHS.
Unfortunately, insufficient funding isn't the only flaw in this bill.
By treating all children the same, the majority means taking away
protections and treating Central American children like Mexican and
Canadian children who have limited protection under current law.
This legislation sadly undercuts the current critical humanitarian
and due process protections for these desperate children seeking safe
haven from the horrors of violence in their country.
Without due process, many of these children who would qualify for
protection under our laws will be returned straight into the arms of
the traffickers or their impoverished violent neighborhoods. That is
why, national antitrafficking organizations like the Alliance to End
Slavery and Trafficking strongly oppose this bill.
Madam Speaker, the Republican supplemental is an irresponsible and
inadequate bill that does little to protect our borders or address the
humanitarian crisis facing our Nation. The bill is a senseless and
deeply flawed political ploy that my Republican colleagues know will be
rejected by the Senate.
Instead of playing political games, let us act in the best interests
of our country and these kids by passing a bill that upholds our
American values, honors our heritage as a nation of immigrants,
protects our borders, and fully addresses the causes and consequences
of the humanitarian crisis on our border.

[[Page H7164]]

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent), a member of our committee.
Mr. DENT. Madam Speaker, I rise in very strong support of this border
security legislation presented to us today, for a number of reasons.
It does provide for humanitarian assistance. This legislation does
deal with this issue in a compassionate, thoughtful way to deal with
the unaccompanied children. It secures the border, provides for funding
for the National Guard, and it does many other things, too, in terms of
policy changes that would treat these children just as we would treat
unaccompanied children who cross the border from Canada or Mexico. It
is the right policy for a whole host of reasons.
Just last week, Congressmen Gerlach, Meehan, and I visited an Office
of Refugee Resettlement program in Womelsdorf, Berks County in
Pennsylvania, and those children are treated compassionately.
But let me tell you what will happen if we do nothing here today. The
children who are coming into my district in Womelsdorf, and also in
Allentown, where I will be visiting a center tomorrow, these children
will, in fact, keep coming into our communities and they will be
treated humanely. Then they will be resettled and reunited with parents
or family members who are already in the United States and, in most
cases, here unlawfully.
That is what doing nothing means. The children will keep coming. They
will be resettled throughout the country, and they will basically
reside somewhere within the interior of this country. That is what
doing nothing means. It would be reckless and irresponsible for the
House to walk out of here today without addressing this border and
humanitarian crisis.

This bill is the right thing to do. It secures the border, provides
humanitarian assistance, and it makes the necessary policy changes to
stop this flow of children.
This is a tragedy that these children are leaving their countries in
this way. I can't imagine the desperation these families must feel,
that they would let their children travel with somebody unaccompanied,
drug dealers and cartels and human smugglers, coyotes. It is
unthinkable. We need to make sure this stops. Many children aren't
making it along the way.
I met with a 5-year-old girl who told me her horrible story, and I
shudder to think of the children who didn't make it.
That is why we need to act today. It is the right thing to do, it is
the compassionate thing to do, and it is in keeping with our American
tradition.
Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the minority whip of the House.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentlelady for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I was going to ask my friend from Pennsylvania whether
he had talked to the Senate and thinks this has any chance of moving
this week; and the answer I think I would give is no, it does not. So I
agree with him. It would be tragic not to act.
It is tragic that we are acting in a partisan fashion, which almost
ensures inaction on this, the last day that we are going to be here. We
should be acting in a bipartisan fashion, as I have urged the majority
leader to do.
What is a bipartisan fashion?
A, considering the emergency need today and funding the resources
necessary to respond to that; B, taking under consideration the
substantive legislative changes that can be affected that will help
this issue, will send the messages that the gentleman wants to send.
He is my dear friend and a good Member of this body, but I will tell
you, this bill has had no hearings, no committee consideration. Yes,
there was a partisan task force, but this has had no consideration in
this legislative process.
The majority leader, last week told me that there would be no bill
that did not get 72 hours' notice. The gentleman knows you have a bill
on the floor, which is contingent, of course, on the passage of this,
which has had a few hours' notice, at best. Last night, I think at 10
o'clock the Rules Committee met on DACA.
So I will tell my friend that, had we acted in a bipartisan fashion,
A, at whatever level of funding we could agree, pass a bill to meet the
immediate crisis, B, have hearings on the ramifications of the law that
passed with only two votes in opposition--over 405 Members voted for
the 2008 legislation. We are changing that without a hearing either in
subcommittee, committee, or full committee. That is not the way we
ought to be working. That is not good for our country. It is not good
for this institution. It is not fair.
I would urge my colleagues to defeat this legislation.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mrs. LOWEY. I yield the gentleman an additional minute.
Mr. HOYER. I believe, once again, we find the Republican Party
divided. Because they are divided, they are trying to cobble together
some of their hardest-line Members so that they can get them to vote
for this supplemental.
And they put on a bill which has had no notice to the American people
or to Members of Congress. It is ironic that people are supporting this
who demanded that we read the bills. There was no bill to read until
this morning.
How sad for the American people. We have a humanitarian crisis that
must be addressed without delay, and the way to address it without
delay is to give the resources necessary and then pursue the
legislative process, not together. It will slow it down, and I predict
it will not pass the Senate. I think the gentlemen and ladies on this
side of the aisle know that the Senate is not going to pass this bill.
So if you really think we ought to act now, do so in a bipartisan
fashion, and then let us debate the legislation before us.
Mr. McCaul just said this is a real crisis. He just said it just
minutes ago, Mr. McCaul, the chairman of the committee. This is a real
crisis which demands action. The recommendation that has been made to
us will undermine action by this body in the face of crisis. We should
not pass this legislation. We ought to pass a very simple resource to
the crisis now and legislation later.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I don't know where the
gentleman gets his information, but this bill was filed Tuesday.
You have had since Tuesday morning to study this bill, and that is
the appropriate--under our rules, that is the appropriate time.
Mr. HOYER. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield to the gentleman from Maryland.
Mr. HOYER. As I understand it, the DACA legislation is dependent upon
this legislation. That was not filed 72 hours ago.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. That is not this bill. Reclaiming my time,
this bill has been available to you since Tuesday.
Madam Speaker, may I inquire of the time we have remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Kentucky has 10\1/2\
minutes remaining, and the gentlewoman from New York has 14 minutes
remaining.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah), the ranking
member of the Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee.
Mr. FATTAH. Madam Speaker, we are here because the President of the
United States has requested an emergency supplemental appropriations of
about $3.7 billion. The Senate has acted in the range of about $2.7
billion. The House now comes in at one-sixth of the request to deal
with this crisis. It ignores the wildfires in the West, the challenges
that relate to other parts of the bill that were presented by the
administration, and it says we are acting responsibly.
I rise in opposition to the bill. I understand what the majority is
offering, and I think it has been stated pretty clearly.
I believe, if we have children who are presented to us without
adults--who have been the victims of trafficking, which is what the
majority has said, they have been trafficked by cartels and paid
criminal enterprises to bring

[[Page H7165]]

them to our border; the majority says some of them have been sexually
abused and mistreated in other ways--I don't believe that our response
should be to close the door.

{time} 1245

So as we think about our responsibilities as the United States of
America, a Nation that had 12 million people without documents when the
President was sworn into office--50,000 children, just like the 5-year-
old girl that my colleague said he met and talked to--the idea that our
moral responsibility is to say to her, ``You go back to where you came
from,'' I don't believe that that is what we should be doing.
So I reject this--not because of the numbers or the other things. I
think this is morally deficient, that our great country would say, as
we demand other countries around the world take in refugees who are
facing dangerous circumstances, that what our answer is, No, not here.
Not in our backyard.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), the chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee.
Mr. GOODLATTE. I thank the gentleman from Kentucky for his leadership
on this issue.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5230. There is a
crisis at our border. It is a crisis, a disaster of the President's own
making.
The Obama administration's lax immigration enforcement policies have
given confidence to parents who are in the U.S. illegally that they can
stay, and now they are finding ways to bring their children, who are
still in Central America and beyond, to the United States unlawfully.
Although President Obama has many tools at his disposal to stop this
surge at the border, he refuses to use them, and instead proposes to
make the situation worse by taking more unilateral actions to stop the
enforcement of our immigration laws.
It is ultimately up to President Obama to end this crisis by
reversing his policies that created it. However, since he refuses to do
so, we have to act to the extent we can to provide narrow and targeted
funding to meet the immediate needs of our law enforcement agencies at
the southern border. We have to enable them to do their job, to secure
our border, and enforce our immigration laws. And we should act to
provide narrow tweaks to the 2008 law regarding the removal of
unaccompanied alien minors.
Because of the President's inaction, we are taking the responsible
step today of passing these narrow fixes that will help the American
people avoid billions of dollars in additional costs due to the
President not trying to solve this problem but asking for more money to
continue to resettle thousands and thousands, tens of thousands of
people into the interior of our country.
While the bill is not perfect, it does give law enforcement many
tools they have requested. For example, while I was in the Rio Grande
area earlier this month, Border Patrol agents cited administration-
created restrictions that bar them access to Federal land as a
significant stumbling block to securing the border. One of the most
important provisions of this bill gives Border Patrol agents access to
Federal lands so they can stop drug traffickers, human smugglers, and
unlawful immigrants from exploiting these gaps along the border.
Since the President isn't taking serious action to address the crisis
at the border, the House is doing so today, and I urge my colleagues to
support this bill.
Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the
distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Becerra), the chair of the
House Democratic Caucus.
Mr. BECERRA. I thank the ranking member for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I agree with those who have said that doing nothing is
not an option. But making matters worse should not be an option either.
Stripping children of the chance to establish their credible fear of
death or endangerment is a crude and cold way of dispensing justice in
America. That is not the American way.
This bill is a patch, not a solution. It lasts 2 months. So we will
be right back here, trying to solve this challenge again, in September.
Governing and budgeting in pieces is what leads to government
shutdowns. That is not the American way.
This bill robs Peter to give to Paul. How does this bill fund the
money to pay for the border work that has to get done? First, it strips
emergency funding to tackle devastating wildfires that the President
has requested because the States have requested it. Second, it takes
$407 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster
relief fund, money which would be used to help people who have been
devastated by wildfires and other natural disasters.
Madam Speaker, if we had passed immigration reform a year ago with
the bill that passed the Senate on a bipartisan basis--which on this
floor, we have been denied a vote on for more than 380 days--we would
not be looking at a crisis on the border the way we are today. But that
is the difficulty we have.
When you don't fix the broken immigration system, this is what you
encounter. And these piecemeal approaches aren't going to solve
anything. We are going to be right back at it in September. That is not
the American way. We provide justice to people. We make sure we
dispense it the way we should, and we take care of our emergencies.
Let's get this done the right way. Let's do two things: let's give
the emergency funding that the people need at the border to run this
process right, and then let's finally on the floor of this House have a
vote to fix a broken immigration system.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Salmon), a member of the Speaker's task
force that investigated the border problem.
Mr. SALMON. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Secure the
Southwest Border Act of 2014.
This kind of came to light a few months ago when The Arizona Republic
published a story that these families were being dropped at bus
stations in Tucson and Phoenix. Then it highlighted the current
administration's catch-and-release policies that are encouraging
literally swarms of people to come across the 1,500-mile desert of
Mexico into the United States, risking life, risking their happiness.
And the fact is, we can't keep doing nothing. This bill will stop
these waves and waves of people from coming across our border.
As we went over to Guatemala and we went to Honduras and we talked
with our State Department folks, that is exactly what they said: You
have got to make it clear that we move from a catch-and-release policy
to a detain-and-deport policy. And that is what this bill does. If we
want to send a strong message to people that that $5,000 to $8,000 that
they are paying to these thugs that are transporting across the border
and hurting these young boys and girls along the way and then holding
them for extra money, extorting their parents, that if we want to stop
this from happening and stop the pain that is going on with these
children, then the best thing that we can do is to send a clear message
that in America, there are no permisos--permits, permissions; if you
make that journey, you are going to be sent back to your country. That
is the only thing that is going to make it happen.
Now, our liberal friends, they want to just throw more money at the
problem and perpetuate the problem. They want it to keep happening. I
say that is not compassionate. I say continuing that pain and that
harm to these children is not a good thing to do, and the way to stop
it is to send a clear message.

We have got folks on my side of the aisle that have problems with the
bill. What do they have a problem with? Nothing inside the bill. Not
putting the National Guard on the border, not stopping the catch-and-
release programs, and not giving unfettered access to our Border
Patrol. They can't come up with a good reason to vote against it. They
are playing right into Harry Reid's hands.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.
Will the gentleman from Arizona yield?
Mr. SALMON. I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Do you understand that the experts have told

[[Page H7166]]

us that if we do nothing, if we don't change the law, that another
145,000 people will be with us next year alone? Is that not correct?
Mr. SALMON. That is what I understand.
I also understand that conservative estimates indicate it is going to
cost $2.6 billion a year to care for just half of the nearly 60,000
that are already here. We are talking about billions and billions of
dollars, not to mention the fact that these children are being sexually
molested along the way, that they are being killed along the way, that
they are being sold into slavery, and we can stop it.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Just focusing on the money part of this, the
gentleman from Arizona is saying, if we don't change the law, we can
expect to pay another few billion dollars a year----
Mr. SALMON. Just to care for those kids.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. To care for that continuing stream of people
coming across?
Mr. SALMON. Right.
And, Mr. Chairman, I can't understand how any conservative in good
conscience would not want to stop that hemorrhage and make sure that we
are not spending those billions of dollars that should be going to pay
down our Federal debt.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Well, I would think that not only
conservatives would like it, but that everybody would like that kind of
savings.
Mr. SALMON. I think so too.
Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I would just like to say to the
distinguished chairman, I would have liked to have heard from these
experts in hearings. Unfortunately, the majority has not had hearings,
and we are bringing this bill to the floor without any hearings,
without any witnesses, and without any information.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Will the gentlewoman briefly yield on that
point?
Mrs. LOWEY. I would be delighted to yield to the gentleman from
Kentucky, if I have the time.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. The 145,000 additional people coming across
the border, that number came from the Department of Homeland Security.
So those are governmental estimates, if we do nothing on the law
change.
I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I would also like to say to our
distinguished chairman that it would have been helpful in having an
analysis of the current statistics and the future prospects at
hearings. But we are bringing this bill to the floor. The majority is
bringing this bill to the floor without any hearings, without any
discussion. This is really not the way to pass important legislation.
And, again, we had a bill. We could have had comprehensive
immigration reform that passed the Senate in a bipartisan way.
I am now pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California
(Ms. Pelosi).
Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, the
ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, who, from day one of
knowing about this challenge that we have with the children at the
border, has reacted in a very wise, humanitarian--yes--and practical
way as to what the best way is to address the challenge, honor the
values of our country, and save the children.
I was interested in the back and forth between the distinguished
chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Rogers, and our ranking
member on the subject of the change in the law that is in the
legislative language that is in this supplemental, because I agree with
our distinguished whip, Mr. Hoyer, and other who have said: There are
two things happening here. We need to address the humanitarian
challenge. We need resources to do that for particular purposes. And we
should do that in the supplemental.
Another is to change the law, which we shouldn't do in a
supplemental. It is legislating on an appropriations bill in a manner
in which all kinds of statements can be made which may be anecdotally
significant but not significant in terms of the difference that they
make, a difference enough to change the law.
So when people talk about witnesses in one context or another, just
saying something on the floor of the House, it is interesting. But
there should be hearings. If we are going to change the law, there
should be hearings where testimony can come forth, be challenged,
confirmed, whatever it may be. But a serious discussion worthy of the
country that we are, worthy of the Congress that passed the Wilberforce
law, which was a very bipartisan initiative. And I salute my Republican
colleagues who played such an important role in passing the bill. And
that bill directed agencies of government to incorporate
antitrafficking and protection measures for vulnerable populations,
particularly women and children, into either post-conflict or
humanitarian emergency assistance and program activities, according to
the law.
There was a purpose for the law. But with a phrase in an
appropriations bill, we want to undermine that purpose. That is not
necessary to do here. Why does this belong in a bill where we are
allocating resources to meet a humanitarian challenge that we have?
Now let's get to what is in the actual supplemental.

{time} 1300

I had hoped that we could work in a bipartisan way, and I thought
that is the path we were on. The Republican majority wanted to decrease
the amount of resources and the amount of time--well, that is
commensurate, if it is a lower amount of money and a shorter period of
time, that is okay, but when you change what that money is for, then
you are doing a disservice to the entire issue.
Instead of providing adequate resources to meet the humanitarian
needs--the immediate humanitarian needs--largely of these children,
that is just totally inadequate in this legislation, in terms of its
proportionality in the bill, whether it fails to provide any resources
for legal assistance to these children to plead their case.
They may have a legitimate cause for asylum--refugee status to come
into the United States or not, but they should be represented, and they
should be represented in a way that repatriates them back to their home
country, if they do not qualify in a way that is safe. This legislation
does not do that.
The American people are fair-minded, they are wise, they are
practical, and they want to help, but they want to do so in a way that
is fair to everyone involved. They want to feed the children. There are
not enough resources here to do that with the humanitarian side. They
want us to honor who we are with due process for these children. This
legislation does not do that.
They want to have judges to quickly facilitate giving these people a
hearing, in addition to the representation that they should have due
process. The bill does not. It tramples due process to rush terrified
children back to the violence of their home countries.
That is not who we are as a country, and it also poses a particular
danger to children victims of gang violence and human trafficking,
which takes us right back to the Wilberforce bill--human trafficking.
It is a global crisis. It is happening at our border.
We have a bill to stop it. This legislation on the floor today
weakens that and then, in a manner of distribution of funds and paucity
of funds, does not address the challenge. It takes us backward. It is
hard to understand.
Now, what we should be talking about, what Mr. Tierney suggested, how
do we help communities that are receiving these children into their
communities and our country? Again, how do we help? This bill hurts.
Madam Speaker, in addition to this--I guess the way you were able to
get the votes for this bill--which is even opposed by people who are
anti-immigration because it is not bad enough--was that you had to
sweeten the pie by having a followup bill that would only be taken up
if enough of your Members agreed to vote for this bad bill, and that
again does not address who we are as a country.
We are a great country because we are a good country. Others have
said that as long ago as 200 years ago or longer, so let us be good and
let us be great, and let us do something that really was closer to what
the Republicans were talking about earlier in this discussion. It seems
that in order to get more votes, you had to make the

[[Page H7167]]

bill worse; the worse the bill, the more votes on the Republican side.
No, let's find common ground in the middle, where we can get the most
votes to do the best possible job that we can do. It may not be every
good thing we would ideally like to do, but it is a reasonable place to
go forward to honor what the national Catholic Conference of Bishops
have talked about, where all the people of faith are urging us to do
here in the Congress and the United States, and that is to honestly
respect the dignity and worth of all of these children, all of them
children of God.
I get mocked for quoting what the bishops have said because it is so
generous to the children, but let's give the children a fair shot.
Let's do better than this, and you know that this bill isn't going
anywhere, so once again, it is a waste of time. It is not a statement
of values. It is a statement of meanness.
The Republican bills responding to the humanitarian crisis at the
southern border are the latest evidence of their breathtaking
extremism.
The Republican proposal is unjust, inhumane and abhorrent to our
values as a nation. Their supplemental:
Fails to provide any resources for legal aid to children with
legitimate asylum claims;
Does not authorize enough judges to adjudicate extensive case
backlog;
Tramples due process to rush terrified children back to the violence
of their home countries; and
Poses a particular danger to child victims of gang violence and human
trafficking.
To coax their party into voting for even that much, Republicans are
also teeing-up a vote to bar any adjustment or expansion of DACA.
No additional relief for children and students;
No relief for parents of DREAMers;
No relief for parents of young U.S. citizens; and
Certainty that we will continue to tear apart immigrant families.
It is appalling that Republicans' price for doing next-to-nothing for
vulnerable children is the opportunity to vote against the young
immigrants who want nothing more than a future in the only country they
have ever known.
We should be acting on comprehensive immigration reform, but this
Republican Congress is allergic to meaningful solutions.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, may I inquire of the time
remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Kentucky has 5\1/2\
minutes remaining. The gentlewoman from New York has 8 minutes
remaining.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my
time.
Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), the ranking member of the
Agriculture Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.
Mr. FARR. Thank you, Madam Ranking Chair, for yielding.
I rise, Madam Speaker, on this bill with great concern. I am bringing
a lot of passion to this debate because I lived in the barrios like the
ones the children are coming from when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in
Latin America, very violent barrios.
Look, this is not a border crisis. It is not a border security issue.
This is a humanitarian crisis, and it is caused by problems on both
sides of the border. Our country has a lot at fault here because we
have not addressed comprehensive immigration reform, which means we
have 11 million people living in the United States undocumented.
They are essentially incarcerated in this country. They are not
allowed to go home because the minute they go home and try to get back
to the United States, they get arrested, and they are not allowed to
ever return, or they are barred for 10 years from returning.
So what happens, Madam Speaker? They have been living here for years
and years. They have children that they left because there were job
opportunities here, and those children are now living in places that
are really dangerous, and all of a sudden, yeah, things have changed.
They have got to get out.
These countries are ranked number one, four, and five of the highest
murder rates in the world. They leave them because there are real,
serious humanitarian crises. They are showing up on our border. They
are not sneaking across the border.
There is nobody having to go out there for these kids trying to sneak
in. They are throwing themselves--help me, help me find my relative, my
dad, my parent, my mom--in this country.
What does this bill do? It doesn't address the humanitarian problems
at either end. It hires more cops and puts military in there, National
Guardsmen.
Now, if that is such a great idea, why is California--with probably
the busiest border in the world with Mexico--not putting its National
Guard down there? Our Governors and our mayors don't think it is
necessary.
Madam Speaker, why are we putting more money in for National Guard?
We don't need the National Guard. We need Red Cross--it is a
humanitarian crisis--Red Cross. No, we are putting more and more money
for arms and more money for military and cops. I don't think that is
the right answer.
We are also doing something really dumb. We are stripping a law now
that says when we give money to these countries--by the way, before you
spend this money on your cops and on your military, you have got to vet
them. We have a human rights standard. This bill throws that out.
You don't have to do that now. We are going to give you $40 million
of American taxpayer money, and you don't have to do anything to abide
by human rights. Now, that is really dumb, and I don't think American
taxpayers want their money spent that way.
Madam Speaker, I am going to call upon my colleagues here not to come
down here and think of themselves in a partisan way or an election year
way, but come to this floor when you have to vote on this bill and
think of yourself as a parent, as a neighbor.
A kid has knocked on your door, and you go to the door and say: Oh,
my God he is crying, or she is crying. You say: What happened? They
say: In my house, they are raping people and killing people, and I am
running away. This bill says: Oh, what is your address? I will take you
home.
Don't vote for it.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cuellar).
Mr. CUELLAR. Madam Speaker, I support full comprehensive immigration
reform, but today's vote on this supplemental appropriation bill is to
provide funding to ICE, Border Patrol, and other agencies to deal with
the humanitarian crisis on the border, an area that I represent, an
area where I live, an area where 42,000 out of the 58,000 unaccompanied
kids have crossed.
The policy change in this bill is to get rid of a loophole in the
2008 law that the smugglers in Central America and Mexico have taken
advantage of. All due process and legal protections are left intact
under this proposed bill.
You will see under a CRS report that compares the current law to
today's bill, you will see that the same due process and the same legal
protections are left intact. In fact, I respectfully ask my colleagues
in opposition to show me specifically where there is due process and
legal protection that is taken away out of the bill. I yet have heard
where it does this.
Madam Speaker, I have also asked my colleagues in opposition
respectfully to sit down with me and offer their alternative solution
or their legislative proposal to this border crisis and have yet to
hear those solutions.
In this appropriation bill, we have to provide the funding to the
Federal agencies to provide an early border, but we can no longer
afford to play defense on the 1-yard line called the U.S.-Mexico
border. We need to play defense on the 20-yard line, and this is why
working with the Central American countries and working with Mexico to
address the core issues and to fix and to fight these smugglers is
vital.
I want to thank the men and women on the border that have defended
our homeland, and I want to thank the border communities, the churches,
and the nonprofits that have done so much to help these folks at the
border. In fact, I want to thank the chairman for allowing a provision
for the border communities to seek reimbursement for the allowable
expenses under this bill.

We cannot leave Washington today without putting the resources and
the policy change to address the border crisis. We are sent here to
address not the easy problems, but to address the hard problems.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.

[[Page H7168]]

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.
Mr. CUELLAR. I thank the Chairman.
Madam Speaker, we are sent here to Washington not to address the easy
problems, but to address the difficult problems that this Nation is
facing. When President John F. Kennedy was faced with a very difficult
crisis, he said:

I am not looking for a Republican answer or for a
Democratic answer. I am looking for the right answer.

I think today, in a bipartisan way, we need to look for that right
answer. I urge ``yes'' on this supplemental appropriation bill.
Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee), a member of the Labor, Health,
and Human Services; and Foreign Operations Subcommittees.
Ms. LEE of California. Let me thank our ranking member on
Appropriations, Mrs. Lowey, for yielding and for her steadfast
leadership.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this woefully
inadequate Republican response to the humanitarian crisis along our
border. Let me start by saying that as an appropriator, I am very
troubled by the shamefully inadequate funding levels and misguided
offsets in this bill.
I am also deeply concerned by the dangerous policy riders that strip
protections for vulnerable children--protections signed into law by a
Republican President, mind you.
Let's be clear. This crisis has nothing to do with the lack of
funding for immigration enforcement. We don't do anything to help these
children by pouring tax dollars into the further militarization of our
border, and that is exactly what this bill does.
Madam Speaker, our response needs to put children first. In a hearing
by the Congressional Progressive Caucus this week, we heard firsthand
from Central American children who had fled violence in their home
countries and who had passed through our broken detention system.
These children and thousands like them risk their lives on their way
to this country. Some had witnessed murders and gang violence in their
home countries and suffered freezing conditions and inadequate
nutrition while in detention in the United States.
These stories were chilling and made clear where we need to direct
our resources: humane care, access to due process, and support to end
the violence and poverty plaguing Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala.
Now, no one disagrees with protecting our borders, but come on, we
also have a duty to protect these children who, according to the United
Nations High Commission on Refugees, 60 percent of whom were
interviewed, these children need international protection.
My home district makes up Alameda County, where over 200 of these
children have been reunited with their families locally. Their stories
are real, and their stories are very, very powerful, so I urge a ``no''
vote.
Let's guarantee due process for these children who are fleeing
violence. Let's have a heart.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. May I inquire of the gentlewoman from New
York if she has further speakers? I am prepared to close. If the
gentlewoman has one additional speaker, then I reserve the balance of
my time.

{time} 1315

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume
because before I turn to my colleague, the gentlewoman from California
(Ms. Lofgren), the ranking member, an expert on immigration on the
Judiciary Committee, I just want to make one statement again.
The Senate, after months of hearings, passed a bipartisan
comprehensive immigration reform bill. It is really very sad that today
we can't get together, Democrats and Republicans, and review the work
that had been done by the Senate and pass a comprehensive immigration
reform bill that would have prevented the emergency that we are trying
to address today. The majority of the bill that is included in the
supplemental should have been done through a thoughtful committee
process.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield the balance of my time to the
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lofgren), a member of the Judiciary
Committee Subcommittee on Immigration.
Ms. LOFGREN. Madam Speaker, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
tells us this bill would result in the U.S. sending children who have
relief available to them back to the conditions they fled, and will
result in many children being harmed and some being killed on their
return.
I join the bishops in opposing this bill.
With this bill, children who have been trafficked, who have fled
persecution, violence, and abuse, will be stripped of protections that
have existed for years.
Our laws provide that victims of persecution and torture must have a
meaningful opportunity to request safe haven. We need not prejudge the
outcome of these cases. We need only adhere to our laws that ensure
that each child is treated in a fair manner, that their case be
individually considered, and if they deserve protection under the law,
so be it; if not, they go home.
This is not new. Refugees have received protection in America for
decades. In 1980, the asylum system that we have today was established.
Most of the special protections for unaccompanied children were created
in 1997. Many were codified in 2002. Critics of the antislavery law of
2008 claim it has caused the influx of kids to America, but the
protections began in 1997, 17 years ago.
No, kids are fleeing because of the extreme violence in three
countries. Children from other countries in the region are not fleeing
here. And people from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala are fleeing
to every other country in the region--a 712 percent increase in asylum
cases in Belize, Nicaragua, and the other Central American countries.
What the 2008 law actually did was give less protection to kids from
Mexico and Canada, and that was a mistake because the U.N. review now
makes clear that, as a consequence, we are sending kids who have been
sex-trafficked back to their abusers. Rather than fix this loophole,
this bill would subject all kids to that flawed process. I can't help
but note that this will be the only immigration bill with an up-or-down
vote, a bill to strip victims of their protections.
Mrs. LOWEY. I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of
my time.
Madam Speaker, we have a crisis on our border with Mexico right now.
It can't wait. It is a humanitarian crisis. It is also a failure of our
border. It is an open border now unless you fix it. If we don't change
the law to treat Central American children the same as we treat Mexican
children at the border, you are going to be flooded. The amount now on
the border will pale into insignificance because Homeland Security
tells us they anticipate another 145,000 children next year, on top of
the tens of thousands of adults and families flooding across that open
border.
So we have an immediate crisis today. This bill is an urgently needed
bill. It provides immediate funding for critical border security and
these humanitarian needs. The money will be there immediately. If we do
not pass this bill today, you are going to risk these resources running
out. Then your hands will be tied. More and more immigrants will
continue to flood across that border if you fail to act.
This bill will allow the DHS, the Department of Homeland Security,
and the National Guard to tighten security and restore the border. It
will allow the Department of Justice to process the cases that may be
needed more efficiently. It encourages repatriation in the countries
from which these immigrants came, and it provides much-needed shelter
and care for the thousands of unaccompanied children who have recently
crossed that border.
We must act today before we leave town, not only to protect our
borders, but to help these unaccompanied children who are being brought
here by criminals, no less, on a long, dangerous, arduous journey,
subject to abuse, injury, and death along the way. How can you turn
away from these faces?
This bill directs responsible levels of resources toward the front
line, toward the highest priority needs. The bill

[[Page H7169]]

puts policy measures into place that keep criminals out of the country
and helps encourage children not to make that very dangerous, life-
threatening journey. The President's request would do nothing to
enforce our laws and make this Nation a safer place.
Help the problem. Stop the crisis. This bill does it. Vote for it.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, how is it that we can find it
within our capabilities to fund billions of dollars of deficit spending
on unpaid-for tax extenders one week, but we can't muster the humanity
to fund adequate legal representation for refugee children the next?
The President's request included a modest $24.5 million to fund the
Department of Justice's programs to provide legal assistance to these
children, their guardians, and law enforcement advisors in Central
America, yet none of this was included in the legislation. Instead,
Republicans focus only on punitive measures that will hasten the misery
of these children.
Madam Speaker, I am interested to know why Republicans are
comfortable spending untold amounts of American taxpayer's money on a
frivolous lawsuit, but will provide absolutely no money on legal
assistance for a child who, after traversing some of the most dangerous
terrain our world has to offer, must now navigate our immigration
system without the benefit of counsel. Make no mistake, these children
are refugees.
If Republicans are so concerned about the plight of these children
and making sure that we find a humanitarian solution, why have they
stripped away all of the human rights conditions and certification
requirements on the Guatemalan and Honduran militaries allowing them to
use the $40 million allocated to help with repatriation efforts? We're
going to throw these children who have fled for their lives from
horrific conditions right back to the same wolves who caused them to
flee in the first place, and then pay to ensure they are stuck there.
Madam Speaker, rather than focus on sending these children back as
quickly as we can, maybe we should take a page from the history books,
and find it in our hearts to help them find safety and a new life here
in the United States. In 70 years, we should be able to look back
proudly on that accomplishment, and not have to shamefully admit that
the United States could have done more.
Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition
to H.R. 5230, the woefully inadequate supplemental appropriations bill
that will only exacerbate the growing humanitarian crisis impacting my
home state of Texas.
Since the beginning of this year, nearly 60,000 unaccompanied
children have crossed the Rio Grande into south Texas. The vast
majority of these children are coming from three countries--El
Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras--where whole communities are being
terrorized by drug cartels and street gangs. Honduras, the U.N.
reports, has the highest homicide in the world. El Salvador and
Guatemala rank fourth and fifth.
Even before these children reach Texas, many of whom no more than
seven or eight years old, they must make the long and dangerous journey
through the remainder of Central America and Mexico. On the journey,
these children are easy targets for robbers, drug smugglers, and sex
traffickers, further traumatizing them before they reach our country.
Once reaching Brownsville, McAllen, or one of our other communities
on the border, these children are not trying to evade detection from
Border Patrol. In fact, there are countless stories of these children
running into the arms of our border protection officials, knowing that
they will be safe from the violence and trauma once in American
custody.
Madam Speaker, I can speak first hand, having visited our border
facilities in McAllen earlier this month, on the hard work our nation's
Border Patrol Officers are doing, along with their counterparts
throughout DHS and HHS during this humanitarian crisis.
Congress needs to respond to this crisis in the best traditions of
our great nation--with open eyes and compassion and balance the needs
of the American people with our nation's historic role as the place of
last refuge for those who are persecuted and in need.
The legislation before this chamber today, shamefully, does not
reflect our nation's best traditions. It is a misguided, knee-jerk
reaction that will do little to improve, or worst, exacerbate, the
growing crisis on the Rio Grande.
H.R. 5230 would provide only one-seventh of the funds the President
requested and would only authorize those funds through the end of
September. And of these funds, Madam Speaker, the vast majority are
directed towards greater border security and not--as is necessary--the
humanitarian aspect of this crisis.
I have always been supportive of greater border security and
providing our nation's Border Patrol Agents with the resources they
need to protect us. However, our country is already deporting record
numbers of people--over 1.2 million in the past three years--and there
is growing concern among our border communities that their towns and
cities are already being negatively affected by our border surge.
What these children need--and our DHS and HHS officials on the border
have requested--are not more boots on the ground, but more judges,
health officials, asylum officers, and facilities to temporarily house
these children while we determine if they need to return to their home
country or are eligible for asylum.
This legislation would further militarize our border, without regard
to the wishes of our border communities, by authorizing the deployment
of the National Guard and make null and void existing Memorandums of
Understanding between CBP and the Interior and Agriculture Departments
on protecting federal lands under these departments oversight, like Big
Bend National Park.
I urge my colleagues to demand a vote on a clean supplemental and to
vote against this shameful legislation.
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong
opposition to H.R. 5230 ``the Supplemental Appropriations to Address
the Southwest Border Crisis.''
This partisan bill does nothing to address the humanitarian crisis at
the border. Instead this bill undermines due process protections for
children who have been victims of trafficking, torture, and
persecution.
It is shameful Republicans are using this crisis to advance their own
agenda. In doing so, Republicans are jeopardizing children's lives, and
hypocritically reversing their position on a law they once supported.
With this bill, Republican Hypocrisy has been taken to another level.
Yesterday, I met President and Vice-President of the National
Association of immigration Judges, who said no current protections and
due process for these children should be changed. Republicans should
listen to them.
I urge my colleagues to oppose the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 696, the previous question is ordered on
the bill.
Pursuant to clause 1(c) of rule XIX, further consideration on H.R.
5230 is postponed.

____________________