[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
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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.