[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 15, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H597-H599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     DRUGS AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Stevens). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2019, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
South Carolina (Mr. Rice) for 30 minutes.
  Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman 
from Florida (Mr. Yoho).
  Mr. YOHO. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank my colleague and great 
friend, Mr. Rice, for allowing me this opportunity. The gentleman is 
truly a man of the people.
  Madam Speaker, 25 days, 25 days the government has been shut down--25 
days--making this the longest shutdown in U.S. history.
  Why has this been so long? It is because the Democrats refuse to come 
to the table and negotiate a solution. Instead, they would rather bring 
up messaging bills that don't fund vital programs, all so that they can 
say they didn't support increased border security.
  Well, let's take a look at the last 25 days.
  On the average, 2,000 inadmissible migrants arrive at our southern 
border daily. That means, in the last 25 days, approximately 50,000 
illegal migrants have sought entry at our border without going through 
the proper channels. And there are proper channels.
  Additionally, in December, 27,518 family unit aliens were apprehended 
for crossing the border illegally. If those numbers remain consistent, 
that means over 21,429 family unit aliens have been apprehended for 
illegally crossing in the last 25 days.
  In fiscal 2018, 2,028 illegal aliens arrested had homicide charges. 
If this number remains consistent, that means 139 homicide charges for 
illegal aliens in the last 25 days.
  Further, on an average, 300 Americans die per week from heroin, and 
90 percent of that heroin in the U.S. comes through our southern 
border. That means, in the last 25 days, approximately 1,000 Americans 
have died

[[Page H598]]

because of heroin illegally crossing our border.
  This doesn't even include the amount of fentanyl that crossed our 
southern border in fiscal year 2017, which was enough to kill every 
single American via overdose.
  If you talk to the Democrats, they will tell you $5.7 billion is too 
much to pay for protection at our southern border, but what they won't 
tell you is how much more it costs the Federal Government and American 
citizens by not securing our border.
  The argument the Democrats want you to believe is that this argument 
is strictly about the border wall. Therefore, they fear, if President 
Trump gets any funding for the wall, they lose, like this is some kind 
of game that we are playing to win.
  This is about them wanting power and winning the White House in 
2020--shameful.
  This is about border security, period.
  Democrats, I ask you to do what is right: Come to the negotiating 
table to end this shutdown. You don't lose, but America wins.
  Mr. RICE of South Carolina. Madam Speaker, Americans pay the price 
for our failure to secure our southern border in many, many ways. Our 
failure to control our southern border is a national disgrace.
  Some of the ways Americans pay for our failure is through illegal 
immigration, reduced wages from illegal immigration, drugs, violent 
crime, human trafficking, gangs, abuse of our welfare system, and 
potential terrorism.
  There are too many to explore here, but I want to focus on just a few 
of the larger problems. One is illegal immigration.
  First, I want to say I am not anti-immigration. I am anti-illegal 
immigration.
  You have to understand that, as a sovereign country, we have the 
right to decide who and how many people are allowed to become citizens 
of our country. And we are a very, very generous nation. Don't let 
anybody tell you that, because we are against illegal immigration, we 
are not a generous nation.
  We accept 1.1 million legal immigrants per year. That is almost twice 
as much as the next highest country--1.1 million legal immigrants per 
year. Now, we can talk about that number--is it too high, too low--but 
that is what the law allows.
  Most countries use their immigration system to make themselves more 
competitive, and that is what I am all about: make America great again, 
make the United States competitive again. You see, a competitive 
economy makes America the land of opportunity, and I am all about 
opportunity for my children and grandchildren and your children and 
grandchildren.
  Most countries use the immigration system to make themselves more 
competitive by using high-skilled immigration. In other words, if you 
have a skill set or an educational background that that country needs, 
you go to the front of the line.
  Our immigration system, on the other hand, is based on chain 
migration. Only 12 percent is skill based. That is less than half of 
what the average developed country provides. Canada and Mexico base 
much more of their immigration on skill set than we do here in America.
  The result of our chain immigration-based system is that primarily 
low-skilled, uneducated people are admitted through our legal 
immigration system. In fact, over half of our legal immigrants--legal 
immigrants. I haven't even gotten to illegal immigration yet. Over half 
of our legal immigrants end up relying on our welfare system, and this 
clearly makes us less, not more, competitive.
  President Trump and I agree that we should shift to a skill-based 
immigration system like Canada and Mexico have to grow our economy and 
create more opportunity for our children and grandchildren.
  So all that is bad enough, that we base our immigration on chain 
migration, that 65 percent of the folks coming in here have a low skill 
set and over half of them end up on welfare, Medicaid, food stamps, and 
the like, but now let's talk about illegal immigration.
  On top of that 1.1 million primarily unskilled legal immigrant 
workforce that we bring in every year, we have a flood of illegal 
immigrants. Nobody knows exactly how many, but it is hundreds of 
thousands of folks. The low end of the estimates is 300,000 to 400,000 
people per year on top of the 1.1 million that we admit legally.
  In a 2015 study, Harvard Professor George Borjas found that legal 
immigration, that 1.1 million legal per year, added 25 percent to the 
low-skilled workforce over the last 20 years.

                              {time}  1830

  Then you add illegals on top of that. Professor Borjas said, for 
every 10 percent you add in competition, you reduce wages by at least 3 
percent.
  Folks, if you add 25 percent more competitors, wages will go down. 
That is Economics 101.
  If you look at this chart, this is a chart of wage increases in the 
United States from 2000 until now. You can see those folks at the upper 
end of the scale. They are not really affected by low-skilled illegal 
immigration, and their wages went up and went up substantially.
  If you look at the 75th percentile, they are not affected either. 
Their wages went up and went up substantially.
  But the median income, they are flat. They haven't had a raise in 20 
years. The people at the 25th percentile and the 10th percentile, they 
haven't moved at all. They are the people who are the most hurt by 
illegal immigration, by competition from low-skilled illegal immigrants 
who work for nothing and who cheat hardworking Americans out of jobs 
and out of wages, and this chart proves it.
  Let me tell you, not only does it cheat the people on the low end of 
the scale, but it actually helps the people on the higher end of the 
scale.
  People like your children and your grandchildren with a high school 
education, people who are trying to get their heads above water but 
they can't because they are drowned by a flood of illegal aliens who 
work for practically nothing, this primarily affects those on the lower 
end of the income scale, as I just showed you, who just can't seem to 
get ahead.
  Friends, Democrats used to say they are for the working man, and they 
love to talk about income inequality. The people on the high end have 
gone up; the people on the low end haven't. Well, guess what? Here is 
why. Illegal immigration plays a huge part in that.
  So let's stop complaining about income inequality, and let's actually 
doing something about it. Let's secure our southern border, stop the 
flow of illegal immigrants who work for practically nothing and cheat 
the folks on the low end of the scale out of jobs and wages, and let's 
watch wages rise.
  It is not that hard to understand. It is common sense. It is 
Economics 101. The American middle class has suffered for decades as a 
result of our uncompetitive economy, and illegal immigration is one of 
the primary reasons.
  Now, let's talk about what illegal immigration does to our social 
safety net. In addition to drowning our middle class, illegal 
immigration strains our social safety net and costs taxpayers billions 
of dollars.
  These figures are from the Center for Immigration Studies, and the 
chart represents the percentage of immigrant-led households in blue and 
native-born households in red.
  The percentage of immigrant households that get food aid in America 
is 45 percent; native-born households, 21 percent. So illegal 
immigrants get twice as much food aid as native-born citizens.
  Medicaid, 50 percent of illegal immigrants get some type of Medicaid 
benefit; only 23 percent of native-born Americans.
  Cash benefits, when you include the earned income tax credit, 31 
percent of illegal immigrants get some form of cash subsidy from the 
United States Government; only 10 percent of native-born Americans.
  If you take all that in total, 63 percent of illegal immigrants get 
some type of government benefit, as compared to 35 percent of native-
born folks.
  The last column represents the percentage of uninsured. Twenty-four 
percent of the illegal immigrants have no insurance as compared to 7.5 
percent of native-born households.

[[Page H599]]

  When you think about people showing up at the emergency room and 
hospitals, and the government and taxpayers having to cover the bill, 
25 percent of the illegal immigrant families are one of the main 
sources of that problem.
  Last year, in my home county, Horry County, South Carolina--now, 
Horry County is a long way from the southern border, over 1,500 miles. 
But there was a claim brought against the school system in Horry 
County, South Carolina, by the U.S. Department of Justice. It seems 
that the Department determined that Horry County wasn't doing enough to 
accommodate students who couldn't speak English.
  Well, you wouldn't think that would be that much of a problem in 
South Carolina, being that we are such a long way from the southern 
border. As it turns out, 5,511 out of 44,700 students in Horry County 
were English as a second language. That is 13 percent of the student 
body in Horry County, South Carolina. So the school board agreed to 
settle that claim by paying $600,000 more to provide more accommodation 
for those students who couldn't speak English.
  Let's get off of illegal immigration and talk about one of the other 
great scourges that Americans endure as a result of our failure to 
secure our southern border.
  In 2017, 72,000 Americans died from drug overdoses. That is up 100 
percent in a decade. For most diseases and sicknesses, the cures are 
getting better and deaths are leveling off. It is the opposite for the 
drug scourge.
  That 72,000 Americans who died in 2017--think about this, guys; 
listen to this--is more than traffic deaths, which was 37,000, and 
homicides at 17,000, combined. Traffic deaths and homicides killed 
54,000 Americans in 2017. Drug overdoses killed 72,000 people. It is 
exploding.
  Last year, there was a 38 percent increase in meth, 22 percent 
increase in heroin, and 73 percent increase in fentanyl seized at our 
southern border, and that is only what we seized. If that is not a 
crisis, I don't know what a crisis is.
  The DEA reports that 300 Americans die every week from heroin, 90 
percent of which comes across our southern border. Madam Speaker, 95 
percent of the cocaine comes across our southern border, and much of 
the fentanyl comes across our southern border.

  The opioid epidemic is ravaging communities across the country, 
including my home State and district. In the past 3 years, 2014 to 
2017, the number of opioid-involved overdose deaths in South Carolina 
increased by 47 percent--47 percent--from 508 to 748.
  In 2017, 134 opioid deaths were in my little congressional district 
that I represent, the Seventh District of South Carolina. I asked 
Sheriff Thompson in Horry County, and I asked Sheriff Boone in Florence 
County, where these drugs are coming from. They looked at me and said 
80-plus percent comes from the southern border. That mirrors the 
reports from the DEA.
  As the President has stated, the status quo response to the crisis at 
our southern border is no longer effective.
  Nancy Pelosi said a wall as a part of the President's border security 
plan is amoral. I don't think so. But 72,000 Americans dead last year, 
I know that is amoral. 750 South Carolinians dead last year primarily 
from drugs coming across the southern border that we refuse to control, 
I know that is amoral. 132 residents of my district dead last year 
primarily from drugs coming across our southern border, I know that is 
amoral.
  The scourge of drugs caused by our failure to control our southern 
border doesn't just affect us. It affects our southern neighbors as 
well.
  Did you know there were more than 30,000 murders in Mexico last year? 
That is almost twice as many murders as we had, and they have a third 
of our population, so their murder rate is six times ours. Why is that?
  Well, large portions of Mexico are controlled by drug cartels. You 
see, our failure to control our southern border has given these people 
unimaginable power and wealth. They outrank the government in more than 
half of Mexico, and they will fight to protect that power and that 
wealth.
  Madam Speaker, 30,000 murders, six times the rate of murder in the 
United States, and it is largely our fault, because we haven't 
controlled our southern border. When a gang comes knocking on your door 
in Mexico or Guatemala and says they are going to take your son and he 
is going to be a part of their cartel, when they come and say, hey, 
your daughter is looking good, and they are going to grab her and sell 
her into human trafficking, what are you going to do? Are you going to 
sit there and take it?
  I can tell you what a lot of them are doing. They are picking up 
everything they have, and where are they heading? They are heading to 
the southern border of the United States.
  So the refugee crisis--think about this--because we have failed to 
control our southern border, because we have enriched and emboldened 
these drug cartels and drug lords, and we have allowed them to take 
over governing large parts of Central and South America, we have 
created the very refugee crisis that is creating a crisis at our 
southern border right now, because we have failed to control the flow 
of drugs. We have failed to stop these criminal organizations.
  The Democrats claim they are for border security, but they refuse to 
take any action or even participate in good-faith negotiations. Just 
last week, Nancy Pelosi offered $1 toward additional border security. 
Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and Barack Obama, when they were 
Senators, all voted in favor of funding a border wall in 2006. Why are 
they against it now?
  I will tell you why. It is their hatred for President Trump stopping 
them from doing what is best for their constituents. They see this as a 
political game, and they want to win, no matter what the cost.
  Let me tell you what the cost was last year: 72,000 dead Americans, 
750 in South Carolina, 130 in my district, and I promise you there were 
at least that many in Nancy Pelosi's district.
  Democrats try to make this argument solely about a wall. President 
Trump has repeatedly said we do not need a wall for the entire length 
of the 2,000-mile border, but physical barriers in selected areas are 
both effective and necessary.
  The Yuma border sector had the highest number of illegal crossings in 
the country before a barrier was built, resulting in a 95 percent 
decrease in apprehensions and a 91 percent decrease in crime. San 
Diego, once ground zero for illegal immigration, has seen a 92 percent 
decrease in apprehensions since the fence was constructed.
  The $5.7 billion passed by the House Republicans in December would 
have enhanced border security, not just a wall. Any meaningful plan to 
deal with illegal immigration must also require employers to verify the 
employment status of workers they hire and penalize employers if they 
break the rules.
  This system is called E-Verify, and it is already in place. It is 
managed by the Federal Government, but, amazingly, employers are not 
required to participate. So in addition to border security, we have to 
have E-Verify.
  It is time to stop the politics and secure our border.
  Democrats are terribly worried about who gets blamed for the 
shutdown. Frankly, I don't care who gets the blame. This is a fight, 
and it is a fight to keep drugs off our streets and out of the hands of 
our children. It is a fight to keep our communities safe. It is a fight 
for higher wages for hardworking Americans, for more jobs, and for our 
economy. And, friends, it is a fight worth having.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________