[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 181 (Thursday, November 15, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7027-S7030]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Immigration

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I wanted to come back to the floor after 
speaking a little earlier this morning about the so-called caravan of 
migrants coming from Central America up through Mexico and who are now 
located in Tijuana, many of whom will be seeking asylum here in the 
United States. Coming from Texas with a 1,200-mile common border with 
Mexico, caravans are not unheard of; in fact, we have many caravans 
showing up on a daily basis at Border Patrol stations, including 
unaccompanied children and families.
  What has happened is that the cartels--these transnational criminal 
organizations--have figured out, as part of their business model, that 
they can make money by shipping migrants up through Mexico into the 
United States or they can ship drugs from Mexico into the United States 
or traffic in children and women for sex slavery.

[[Page S7028]]

They have figured out that they can make money because of the gaps in 
our border security, because of the characteristics of our law that 
make it impossible for us to deter many of the immigrants coming from 
Central America.
  I know that during the recent midterm elections, there was some 
thought that President Trump or others were just sort of making this 
issue up in order to energize voters leading up to the midterm 
elections. Well, I will not comment on the politics of this; I will 
just say that this is a phenomenon that has been occurring on a daily 
basis in the recent past. It is because of a glitch in our laws that 
our Democratic colleagues are well aware of, and that we have tried to 
fix, but they simply will not cooperate with us in order to fix it.
  Basically, what we would do is treat somebody who enters the United 
States from noncontiguous countries the same way we would if they came 
into our country illegally from Mexico. That is the long and short of 
it. But they will not have any part of it because they feel as though 
this advantages them politically because by enforcing our laws, by 
securing our borders, they believe that somehow that could be portrayed 
as anti-immigrant, which is demonstrably false.
  About 40 percent of my constituents in Texas are of Hispanic origin, 
many of whom live along that international border. They understand that 
the cartels that traffic in people and drugs and contraband are 
criminal organizations that threaten their security and safety. So I 
feel very strongly about this issue, and I think somebody needs to 
speak up and state the facts.
  These caravans are bringing thousands of migrants coming from Central 
American countries, mostly women and children. But you can imagine, if 
one caravan of several thousand people is successful in breaching our 
border and entering the United States without regard to our immigration 
laws, what that will do to encourage further efforts. So this is not a 
one-off; this isn't just something that is going to happen one time. 
This will get worse and worse and worse. If you went down to some of 
these Central American countries and asked them who would like to 
immigrate to the United States, you are going to see not just hundreds 
and thousands, but hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions, of 
people who would like to come to the United States.
  We have to have an orderly way to deal with immigration.
  Somebody asked in this last midterm election: What is your position 
on immigration?
  I said: It is really simple. Legal immigration is good; illegal 
immigration is bad.
  So we know that this current caravan is not made up entirely of 
asylum seekers or people trying to flee poverty and violence in their 
home countries. It is made up of migrants from other parts of the world 
who travel to Central America so that they can take advantage of that 
porous border and the pathway to the United States. They come from 
countries all around the world, including special interest aliens from 
countries that, unfortunately, are plagued by terrorism. I am not 
saying we have a bunch of terrorists in this pack; I am just saying it 
is a vulnerability that could be exploited by anybody who wants to take 
advantage of these gaps in our law and our lack of security.
  It also includes people who have been arrested in the United States 
and deported back to their home countries, who are reentering the 
United States in violation of our immigration laws. They have already 
committed criminal acts, and they are coming back in, disguised, among 
the larger caravan of Central American immigrants.
  One thing the Border Patrol has also made clear is that because the 
Border Patrol has to deal with this mass of humanity coming up across 
the border while somehow treating them in a humane fashion, which we 
all would want them to do, the cartels realize the Border Patrol is all 
balled up trying to process this caravan of Central American 
immigrants, so that opens up avenues by which to import illegal drugs 
into the United States, another moneymaking proposition for the 
cartels. Ninety percent of the heroin--an opioid--90 percent of the 
heroin that comes into the United States comes from Mexico.
  Somebody said to me recently: Well, the cartels are commodity 
agnostic. I thought that was a pretty good way of expressing it. In 
other words, they are into anything that will make them money. No 
matter how debased, no matter how cruel, no matter how inhumane, they 
are willing to do anything to make money.
  By not dealing with this issue in a responsible fashion on a 
nonpartisan basis, we are making the cartels rich. More people have 
died in Mexico since 2007 than have died in the wars in Afghanistan and 
in Iraq combined. Incoming President Lopez Obrador has said that he 
wants to deal with the violence in Mexico as part of his new 
administration. Frankly, I think we need to help him, but we need to 
recognize the reality. This is not benign activity; this isn't a mom-
and-pop operation where people who want jobs are coming into the United 
States. This is a big business.

  The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that two gangs, 
MS-13 and Barrio 18 now rule over most of El Salvador, terrorizing that 
country's population. These gangs and the cartels that support them 
throughout Central America take advantage of a very simple economic 
principle: supply and demand. So as long as there is demand in the 
United States for heroin and other illegal drugs, as long as there is a 
demand for low-wage labor, these gangs will fill that supply. As long 
as there is a demand for sex slavery, these gangs and these cartels 
will meet that supply.
  So this makes our relationship with our friends in Mexico very, very 
important. Our two governments need to work more closely together 
because U.S. and American interests are interrelated and aligned. This 
is not just an illegal immigration or drug smuggling problem; it is all 
of them combined. It is a question of whether the Government of Mexico 
can actually control or defeat the cartels that threaten the safety and 
stability of their people in that country and have this business model 
that I mentioned.
  So our partnership with Mexico--under the administration of President 
Lopez Obrador, who will be sworn in on December 1; I hope to be there 
at that inauguration--must continue to grow and evolve because the 
gangs, the cartels that hurt and kill people in Mexico and then 
threaten our security and safety here in the United States are going to 
also evolve and adapt to make sure they can maintain their dominance in 
the region. That is why programs like the Merida Initiative are vital 
to our collective success in combating this multiheaded monster.
  It is clear we should take into account how to combat the flow of 
illicit drugs into the United States and how we can help restore the 
relationship--our relationship--with those communities and those 
countries and law enforcement personnel in Central America.
  This crisis extends far beyond how to treat the flood of migrants 
that come across the border. This is not a political issue alone, as 
some would have it. People act as though the President dreamed this 
issue up in order to gain advantage or energize his base during the 
recently passed midterm elections.
  In Texas, communities along our border rely heavily on legitimate 
trade and travel across our ports of entry. It is really important. 
That is why NAFTA and the renegotiation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade 
agreement was so important, and it is important to the entire country 
because 14 million jobs depend on trade with Mexico and Canada. You can 
imagine, if our ports of entry are clogged with caravan after caravan 
of tens, hundreds, thousands--maybe hundreds of thousands--of migrants 
from Central America seeking asylum in the United States, we are not 
going to have much legitimate trade and commerce across those ports of 
entry, and it is going to harm not only my State, but the United States 
as a whole.
  We can't forget that our border communities are critically important, 
and any solution we find must somehow balance our normal compassion for 
people who are vulnerable and people who are seeking a better life with 
the rule of law and our ability to protect our own sovereignty by 
securing our borders and controlling illegal immigration into the 
United States.

[[Page S7029]]

  In the coming weeks, I hope we can work with the administration to 
determine a course of action that addresses the real needs of 
legitimate asylum seekers without rewarding illegal activity and making 
the drug cartels even richer than they are now and encouraging and 
condoning more and more violence, which harms people all across the 
region. We need to send a message that the United States alone cannot 
bear the burden of this mass migration, and we need to ensure that 
those who seek to enter the United States do so legally. We will work 
with our partners in Central America and Mexico to try to find 
solutions that will allow migrants to return safely to their home 
countries or find resettlement solutions in safe countries until the 
day I know they would hope for, when they could safely return home.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. ROBERTS. Mr. President, I rise today in support of confirming 
Michelle Bowman to fill the community bank specialist seat on the 
Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
  Miki is the perfect choice to be the first occupant of this seat on 
the Fed's Board. She comes from a long line of community bankers.
  In 1882, Miki's great-great-grandfather helped start her family-owned 
bank, Farmers and Drovers, in Council Grove, KS.
  She worked at Farmers and Drovers Bank from 2010 until January 2017, 
when she assumed her current position as the State Bank Commissioner of 
Kansas.
  Prior to moving back to Kansas in 2010, Miki worked in Washington, 
DC, for Kansas' native son, Senator Bob Dole.
  Miki also has experience working in the executive branch.
  She was appointed by President Bush to positions at the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency and at the Department of Homeland Security.
  This diversity of experience will serve her well in her upcoming role 
with the Federal Reserve.
  While we have made progress in providing regulatory relief to our 
Nation's community banks, it is critical that we keep it up and build 
on that work.
  Community banks did not cause the financial crisis and should not be 
regulated as if they did.
  Miki understands where the pain points are for community banks and 
will be a strong advocate for commonsense, risk-based regulation.
  I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of her nomination when she 
comes to the floor for a final vote this afternoon.
  Thank you.
  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. President, I rise to speak on the nomination of 
Commissioner Michelle Bowman to be a Member of the Board of Governors 
of the Federal Reserve System.
  The Federal Reserve is charged with ensuring financial institutions 
are safe and sound, promoting financial stability and carrying out U.S. 
monetary policy.
  Decisions made by the Federal Reserve have a significant impact on 
the economy, businesses, and households across the Nation.
  Commissioner Bowman is highly qualified to fill the Federal Reserve 
Board role reserved for a person with community banking experience.
  Commissioner Bowman has served as the State Bank Commissioner of 
Kansas since February 2017.
  Prior to that, she worked as a vice president at Farmers and Drovers 
Bank, a Kansas-based community bank with $175 million in assets.
  She has also previously served in a number of government roles, 
including as a staffer in both the Senate and House, as well as in 
various roles at the Department of Homeland Security.
  Commissioner Bowman learned banking from the frontlines to the back 
office at Farmers and Drovers Bank, an institution with which her 
family first became involved in 1882.
  As a former community banker and bank regulator, she is intimately 
familiar with the business of banking, its regulatory framework, and 
how regulators' decisions impact banks and the communities in which 
they operate.
  She knows firsthand the unique relationships that community banks 
foster with their local communities, often operating through 
relationship banking to provide access to credit, support employment, 
and promote economic growth.
  In her nomination hearing, Commissioner Bowman noted, ``I have 
witnessed firsthand how the regulatory environment created in the 
aftermath of the crisis has disadvantaged community banks.''
  ``If confirmed, I will bring this perspective to my work at the Board 
to ensure that rules preserve the resiliency of the financial system, 
but are appropriately tailored to the size, complexity and risk of an 
institution.''
  I am encouraged by the attention she has paid to the need to 
appropriately tailor regulations and the potential consequences of not 
doing so.
  In May, the President signed into law S. 2155, the Economic Growth, 
Regulatory Relief, and Consumer Protection Act.
  This bill tailors regulations for midsized and regional banks and 
provides meaningful relief to community banks.
  Commissioner Bowman brings a unique expertise and perspective to the 
Federal Reserve as it continues implementing key provisions of the 
bill.
  The Federal Reserve also sets U.S. monetary policy.
  In her confirmation hearing, Commissioner Bowman reassured the 
Banking Committee that her decisions would be based on sound economic 
policies.
  This is significant during a period of monetary policy normalization 
at the Fed.
  I am confident she will contribute positively toward the Federal 
Reserve fulfilling its mission.
  I will be voting in favor of Commissioner Bowman's nomination today, 
and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the Bowman nomination?
  Mr. GARDNER. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk called the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from Connecticut (Mr. Murphy) 
and the Senator from Florida (Mr. Nelson) are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Perdue). Are there any other Senators in 
the Chamber desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 64, nays 34, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 244 Ex.]

                                YEAS--64

     Alexander
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Burr
     Capito
     Carper
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Coons
     Corker
     Cornyn
     Cotton
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Donnelly
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Fischer
     Flake
     Gardner
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Hatch
     Heitkamp
     Heller
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     Kyl
     Lankford
     Lee
     Manchin
     McCaskill
     McConnell
     Moran
     Murkowski
     Perdue
     Peters
     Portman
     Risch
     Roberts
     Rounds
     Rubio
     Sasse
     Scott
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Warner
     Wicker
     Young

                                NAYS--34

     Baldwin
     Blumenthal
     Booker
     Brown
     Cantwell
     Cardin
     Casey
     Cortez Masto
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Feinstein
     Gillibrand
     Harris
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     King
     Klobuchar
     Leahy
     Markey
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murray
     Paul
     Reed
     Sanders
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warren
     Whitehouse
     Wyden

                             NOT VOTING--2

     Murphy
     Nelson
       
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nevada.

[[Page S7030]]

  

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