[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 186 (Tuesday, November 27, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7105-S7107]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, next Friday marks an important deadline in 
funding the Federal Government. While we have been effective in passing 
appropriations bills that have funded 75 percent or so of the 
government, there is still a small but important portion left to be 
negotiated before we break for Christmas.
  Part of the debate will be how we go about securing our border, 
especially as recently, several large caravans of men, women, and 
children have left their homes in Central America and made the long, 
dangerous trek to the United States via Mexico. The truth is that the 
caravans occur on a daily basis. Of course, most of that hadn't 
penetrated the consciousness of the American people because it took 
thousands of people en masse, in a big caravan, to actually get their 
attention and get the attention particularly of the President of the 
United States.
  I bet it would surprise most Senators and most Members of the House 
to know that in 2017 alone, there were 396,000 people detained at our 
southern border--almost 400,000 people. These caravans, whether they 
are the large, massive caravans like we see in Tijuana or the 
minicaravans that occur daily in places like the McAllen sector for the 
Border Patrol--this is a big and important issue. But funding is only 
one piece of the puzzle when it comes to border security and the 
migrant crisis.
  I would like to say that I was encouraged by a story that I saw in 
the Washington Post dated November 24 entitled ``Deal with Mexico paves 
way for asylum overhaul at U.S. border.'' This article goes on to talk 
about a policy of ``Remain in Mexico,'' where the Mexican Government 
has actually provided work permits and offered asylum to Central 
Americans transiting Mexico. Some of them have taken the Government of 
Mexico up on those, but many of them want to come to the United States, 
understandably, and the problem is how to deal with these large numbers 
of asylum seekers. This development, if it proved to be accurate, I 
think represents an impressive change in policy on the part of the 
Government of Mexico in a very constructive sort of way.
  I want to congratulate Secretary Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland 
Security, Secretary Pompeo, and the entire Trump administration for 
undertaking this delicate and difficult negotiation because this really 
represents a sea change in the way the Government of Mexico regards the 
migrant crisis. In other words, it is not just our problem. They 
themselves regard it as part of the solution to this challenge.
  But the truth is, we can't look at this issue like we are looking 
through a soda straw. I had reporters yesterday ask me ``Well, what 
about what is happening at the bridge in Tijuana,'' as if that were the 
whole story. We can't narrowly focus on just one part and refuse to see 
the full picture, and that is what I want to talk about here briefly.
  We won't secure our borders and we won't solve the migrant crisis or 
improve our asylum system by simplistically looking at the problem. We 
need to look at this as symptoms of a far more serious problem. This is 
especially true as the issue of migrants illegally crossing our borders 
is not new. It has been happening for a long time. It is only recently 
that there has been no new net migration from Mexico because of 
improved economic conditions there, and we have seen the flood of 
people coming up from noncontiguous countries, like those in Central 
America. But of course it started with the softening of our borders and 
the disregard of our Nation's immigration laws, and it has continued 
with the rise of crime and corruption across countries in Central 
America.
  We need to secure our borders, to be sure. You would not think that 
would be a controversial statement, but apparently some of our 
colleagues view our efforts to secure our borders with ridicule. They 
act as though this is not a problem, that this is something all about 
the midterm elections. Well, the midterm elections have passed, the 
problem persists, and we need to do something about it.
  We do need to partner with Mexico, as I mentioned a moment ago, but 
also the Central American governments to fight against the cartels and 
the gangs who are terrorizing these countries and affecting ours in 
such a negative way, in a way that will help address this migrant 
crisis that we are seeing symptoms of at the ports of entry in Tijuana, 
for example.
  In Tijuana, about 5,000 immigrants made their way there, and more are 
on their way. The truth is, every time someone successfully penetrates 
our border by exploiting gaps in our immigration law or by illegally 
entering the

[[Page S7106]]

United States, it is an encouragement for more people to do exactly the 
same. Anybody who thinks that a caravan of 5,000 migrants coming from 
Central America is the last caravan that will attempt to penetrate our 
borders is engaged in a flight of fantasy because human nature ought to 
tell us that if it is successful, there are going to be more right 
behind them. We need to deal with this. We need to deal with the crisis 
that the Tijuana mayor has called a humanitarian crisis. That reminds 
me of what President Obama called the crisis of unaccompanied minors 
coming from Central America a few years ago when he was President; he 
called it a humanitarian crisis as well. We need to work together to 
try to solve it.
  We know that this group of migrants isn't entirely made up of 
innocent asylum seekers fleeing poverty or violence in their home 
countries. The truth is, we haven't really been able to vet the people 
in the caravan. And that, of course, is one of the goals of our legal 
immigration system--being able to look at people as individuals and 
determine: Do you have a criminal record? Have you been deported 
previously for illegally entering the United States? It is true--I am 
confident that this mass of people does include people like criminals 
and other migrants who intend to exploit gaps in our immigration laws 
and some who have already been deported one or more times from the 
United States for violating our immigration laws.

  I believe the United States is the most generous country in the world 
when it comes to legal immigration. We naturalize almost a million 
people a year, and we are the better for it. We have always considered 
ourselves to be a nation of immigrants but not uncontrolled illegal 
immigration. That is a recipe for chaos and danger. We have always been 
a nation that believed in some order, and the rule of law was important 
when it came to naturalizing people and becoming part of the great 
American family. We have always provided refuge to those who fled their 
countries based on persecution because of their religion or their race 
or their political orientation or their nationality or because they 
belong to a particular group. We expect those who enter our country to 
respect our sovereignty and the rules and laws of the U.S. Government. 
There is a process for coming into the country legally, and that is the 
process that should be followed here.
  I might say that when a mob of migrants tries to break through the 
border barriers in Tijuana, it is fundamentally--in addition to 
everything else I said--unfair to the people who stood in line and 
tried to enter the country legally and waited their turn for them to 
break to the head of the line and try to enter by force.
  Unfortunately, there are organizations that exploit our generosity 
and use our borders as a transit corridor for all sorts of illegal 
activity, including drugs and human trafficking. Believe me, if you 
look at the trial that is occurring in Manhattan today, El Chapo, you 
can learn a little bit about the complex, big, lucrative business that 
being head of a drug cartel entails.
  Unfortunately, transnational criminal organizations--another word for 
cartels--have overrun some of the legitimate governments in Central 
America, and it is no wonder that people are fleeing. Therein lies the 
root of the current problem. The cartels and the gangs have figured out 
that it is quite lucrative to traffic migrants to the United States. 
Based on what I have read, maybe $6,000 to $8,000 is paid to a drug 
cartel--one of these transnational criminal organizations--to transport 
a person from Central America to the United States. That is a pretty 
good, lucrative business. Unfortunately, it is illegal and dangerous 
too.
  This is exactly the same business model that is used to transport 
drugs into the United States. Last year, according to the Centers for 
Disease Control, 72,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in the United 
States. About 50,000 of those were opioid-related. Some of those were 
fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. Some of those were prescription opioids. 
But a significant portion of those were heroin, and 90 percent of the 
heroin that makes its way into the United States comes from Mexico.
  This is the dirty business of the cartels, these transnational 
criminal organizations--trafficking migrants and children and women for 
sex and illegal drugs. They are commodity agnostic--whatever will make 
them money, they will engage in, no matter how vile, how cruel, or how 
dangerous. They have no morality whatsoever and no regard for life at 
all. The cartels know we are a generous country and take full advantage 
of our gaps in border security and immigration laws. As long as we fail 
to address this issue, we are complicit in making these cartels richer. 
By our own inaction, we are facilitating their illegal and dangerous 
enterprise.
  This is not just a problem with immigration or drugs or smuggling; it 
is about all of these issues combined. It starts with the reign of the 
cartels and gangs in countries like Mexico and countries in Central 
America. Gangs like MS-13 and Barrio 18 in Central America threaten the 
safety and stability of the people who live in those countries. They 
fill an endless circle of supply and demand and operate in a vacuum of 
power with impunity. But their terror does not stop at their border or 
our border. Like the mob we have seen on TV, they are crashing through 
borders and threatening our border communities. They are interrupting 
legitimate trade and commerce through the ports of entry.
  We saw that the port at San Ysidro was shut down because it couldn't 
accommodate the mob of asylum seekers and conduct legitimate trade and 
traffic at the same time. So it has a very real prospect of threatening 
to disrupt not only the U.S. economy and jobs but that of our Mexican 
colleagues as well. I think that is part of what has gotten the 
attention of the Government of Mexico. Their life blood is trade with 
the United States. If that is prevented because of the mobs of people 
coming across, trying to break through barricades and enter our country 
illegally, then that threatens that life blood and their economy.
  My home State of Texas shares a 1,200-mile common border with Mexico, 
and about 40 percent of my constituents are of Hispanic origin. The 
communities along the Texas border are vibrant, and they rely upon the 
millions of dollars of legitimate trade that pours through our ports of 
entry. Texas is home to 29 air, land, and sea ports of entry. That is 
more than any other State in the Nation. About half of the U.S.-Mexico 
trade moves through a Texas port of entry.
  As the volume of commerce that crosses our borders has tripled in the 
last 25 years, Customs and Border Protection has struggled to keep up 
with the staffing needs. The infrastructure is old and is being 
exploited, too, particularly by drug traffickers, who move their high-
value cargo through the ports of entry.

  Texans who live and work in those regions know they can't afford the 
cartels' continued exploitation of our flawed system. So we need to 
look at how we can address the thousands of migrants who look to cross 
our borders and the cartels who exploit our laws while we still protect 
legitimate trade and travel. Any solution we find must try to strike a 
balance between compassion for the migrants and respect for the rule of 
law and fundamental fairness to those who are doing it the right way.
  I have taken, of course, numerous trips to the border to meet with 
the Border Patrol, and I have heard from many of them on this issue. 
When migrant caravans cross our borders, Customs and Border Protection 
not only has to deal with this massive humanitarian crisis, but it has 
to ensure that the cartels can't take advantage of opportunities that 
have been opened up by the fact that the Border Patrol is now consumed 
with trying to process children and families through the ports of entry 
in accordance with U.S. law. The cartels know that and take every 
advantage by moving their drugs through the ports of entry or between 
the ports of entry because they know the Border Patrol is otherwise 
occupied with paperwork and other distractions.
  We need to work more closely with our allies in Mexico and Central 
America to keep commerce alive, which, as I said, is the lifeblood of 
the economy. By helping in Central America, we can begin to address the 
root problems that have forced many to flee.
  At the same time, we need to secure our borders and protect our free 
trade.

[[Page S7107]]

As I said, if our ports of entry are clogged with thousands of 
migrants, legitimate trade comes to a standstill. That not only hurts 
our economy, particularly in border communities along the U.S.-Texas 
border, but also our southern neighbor's, Mexico.
  The fact of the matter is the United States cannot alone bear the 
burden of this mass migration. We need our partners in Central America 
and Mexico to work with us to find solutions for these migrants, which 
is another reason I was encouraged by the article I mentioned in the 
Washington Post, which talked about the ``Remain in Mexico'' program as 
one way to begin to address some piece of this migrant crisis.
  My friend Henry Cuellar, a Member of the House of Representatives, 
who represents border communities in South Texas, likes to say that we 
should focus on pushing back our borders. I think that is right. Border 
security ends at our border, but it starts in Central America and 
Mexico.
  This week, the incoming President of Mexico, Lopez Obrador, will be 
sworn in. I hope to be at that inauguration on Saturday, December 1, in 
Mexico City. Soon-to-be-President Obrador said he is committed to 
dealing with the violence in Mexico that has been brought about by the 
cartels and gangs. I know the United States also shares a commitment to 
working with this new government in helping to reduce that violence.
  Our two governments should continue to work closely together because 
our interests are aligned. Both of our countries want security, and we 
want the prosperity that comes from legitimate trade. Both of our 
countries want to see a decrease in the cartel and gang violence. Our 
relationship is an important one, and it must continue to be nurtured 
and to evolve because the gangs and the cartels surely will continue to 
adapt.
  By partnering with governments in Central America and Mexico, we can 
help those countries in bolstering their economies, providing security 
for their people, and restoring the relationship between their 
communities and law enforcement to one that will be built on trust so 
that their people will feel safe again in their homes.
  I stand ready to work with others on this issue, but neither I nor my 
Republican colleagues can do it alone. This will take a full bipartisan 
effort, and it is going to take a more serious approach than I have 
seen in some press accounts in which people want to focus, as with a 
soda straw, on one narrow aspect of the problem when it is much more 
complex and much more dangerous than that. So I would invite all of our 
colleagues to join us in enforcing our laws and securing our borders 
and protecting our economy by securing free and fair trade.
  Those who say that by enforcing our laws one is somehow anti-
immigrant are engaged in a slanderous lie. It is simply not true. 
Immigrants who come to the United States legally, who have waited 
patiently in line, deserve the respect and deserve the reward of their 
complying with the laws on the books. Somebody who jumps to the head of 
the line and violates our laws, who has no respect for the safety and 
security of our border communities, and who wants to facilitate the 
business model that the cartels have, by moving poisonous drugs or 
migrants for employment or by trafficking children and women for sex, 
has no regard for our border communities, for the rule of law, or for 
those migrants who come to the United States legally and appropriately.
  This is not a onetime crisis. You can't be against human trafficking 
but for allowing migrants to be used as human commodities and to freely 
enter our country illegally. It is the same people who are bringing 
them into the country. You can't be against the opioid and drug 
addiction crisis but for allowing the cartels to exploit our borders by 
exporting their poison. You can't sit back and say you want to help 
migrants who flee their countries but not engage in bipartisan 
solutions. You simply can't have it both ways.
  I hope we will take another look at this humanitarian crisis, as the 
mayor of Tijuana is calling it and as President Obama called it a few 
years ago when we saw this flood of unaccompanied minors coming across 
our borders from Central America, and deal with it with the seriousness 
and the gravity that it deserves. I look forward to working with my 
colleagues both in the House and the Senate, as well as with the 
administration and our partners in Central America and Mexico, to find 
solutions that address the migrant crisis without abandoning the rule 
of law or opening our borders or encouraging others to ignore our 
immigration laws.
  I yield the floor.