[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 74 (Monday, May 6, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2626-S2628]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Economic Growth

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, it is no secret that our economy has 
broken some pretty amazing records lately. Last week's job report 
surpassed all estimates and expectations, with a whopping 263,000 jobs 
created in April alone. The first quarter saw 3.2 percent growth, which 
is the best in 4 years.
  I still recall, back during the previous administration, when we were 
told that 2 percent growth was the new normal and that we could never 
grow our economy the way we have seen in recent months. Obviously, 2 
percent growth is not the new normal for the American economy. We all 
ought to be relieved and comforted by that fact.
  The unemployment rate has dropped to 3.6 percent--the lowest level in 
nearly half a century. Everybody who is able-bodied and willing to work 
and willing to be trained for jobs that pay well I believe has an 
opportunity to do so these days. There is no doubt that this is an 
incredible time for our economy, and I am confident that the pro-growth 
policies that we have brought to the table during this administration 
and during a Republican majority in the House and the Senate will 
continue to bring real benefits to families across the country. But we 
have also broken another record, one that has a much more negative 
impact, and that is especially in my State of Texas.


                                S. 1303

  In March, Customs and Border Protection encountered more than 103,000 
migrants along the southwestern border--the highest number since 2007. 
Unlike previous times when we saw numbers on that scale, these are 
people who simply show up at the border and turn themselves in to the 
Border Patrol and claim asylum--mainly families and unaccompanied 
children, if you could believe that. To put this figure into 
perspective, it is more than double that of the same period last year 
and more than six times that in 2017. So something is clearly afoot.
  Our country is simply not equipped to manage this sort of massive 
influx, and folks in my State are bearing the brunt of the humanitarian 
crisis.
  Again, I would remind those listening that the first person who 
called this a humanitarian crisis, in 2014, was President Barack Obama. 
He called it a humanitarian and security crisis. It has

[[Page S2627]]

gotten worse since then, not better. Many of our cities along the 
border and nongovernmental organizations--faith-based organizations 
that take it as part of their mission to deal with the needs of 
migrants along the border--are struggling to manage the growing need 
for humanitarian relief, as well as businesses and manufacturers that 
feel the tight squeeze of backed-up border crossings.
  Most folks here inside the beltway probably couldn't comprehend the 
cross-border traffic and how interdependent our economy really is. 
There are 14,000 to 16,000 truck trips a day across the U.S.-Mexico 
border at Laredo. As the already understaffed Customs and Border 
Protection has tried to manage the flow of family units and 
unaccompanied children entering our country, Customs agents had been 
pulled off of that duty--their ordinary duties--causing lanes to be 
closed and wait times to skyrocket. I was told by some American-based 
car manufacturers that they simply have had to hire charter aircraft to 
fly from the Mexican side of the border to the U.S. side of the border 
in order to meet their just-in-time inventory needs because, otherwise, 
trucks bringing those same parts across the border that ordinarily 
would have taken an hour to get across now are taking 14 hours or more, 
simply disrupting their supply chain and threatening to put many people 
in the interior of the United States out of work if this situation 
continues or gets worse.
  The aerial footage of the border looks more like a parking lot than a 
port of entry. Cargo trucks and personal vehicles sit at a complete 
standstill, backed up for miles. People are supplying drivers with 
water. Can you imagine being stuck in your car for hours on end with no 
preparation for food or water--or fuel, for that matter--based on the 
amount of time sitting idly in line?

  With nearly $1.7 billion in products crossing our border every day, 
as I have said, these delays have had a serious impact on manufacturers 
and retailers in industries ranging from automobiles to medical devices 
to just simply the produce that we take for granted in our grocery 
stores.
  A report released last week by the Texas-based Perryman Group 
estimated that these slowdowns could cost the U.S. economy $69 
billion--$69 billion--over a 3-month period. Nearly half of that--an 
estimated $32 billion--would be a direct hit on the Texas economy.
  Last week, I heard from the Chamber of Commerce in San Antonio and 
the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce about these wait times. Their members 
are facing delayed orders and increased shipping costs because of these 
wait times, and they want us to do something about it. That is not an 
unreasonable desire or request.
  Unlike a lot of folks inside the beltway here in Washington, they 
have to manage this crisis. They have to deal with it. They can't 
ignore it or turn their eyes in another direction. They don't care 
about talking points or winning a messaging war. They want a solution 
to their problem. So, now, in addition to the humanitarian and security 
crisis that President Obama talked about in 2014, we have the beginning 
of a full-blown economic crisis as well.
  It is an understatement to say that there is a lot of disagreement on 
what the solution might look like, but anyone who has taken an 
elementary school class can tell you that, for it to pass a Republican-
led Senate and a Democratic-controlled House, this must be bipartisan. 
I should say that anybody who has happened to see ``Schoolhouse Rock!'' 
should know that it is going to have to be bipartisan and bicameral and 
that the President has to sign it in order for it to pass.
  Over the years, I have worked closely with my friend and fellow Texan 
Henry Cuellar on legislation to strengthen both border security and 
customs operations along our State's border with Mexico. Henry is a 
Democrat from Laredo, TX. I, obviously, am not, but that doesn't mean 
we can't find common background. That is actually what I believe our 
constituents sent us here to do--not to sacrifice principles but, when 
there is a problem to be solved, to work together in a bipartisan way 
to try to solve it. So last week, we introduced a bill that could bring 
those recordbreaking border numbers back down and finally provide some 
relief for law enforcement, for our cities, for our NGOs, and for our 
businesses struggling to manage.
  I have spent a lot of time with the officers and agents who defend 
our borders every day, and I always ask them: What can I do to help 
you? What do you need from Congress in order to succeed at the job we 
have asked you to do?
  There are two common answers I hear. One is to close the loopholes 
that serve as a magnet or a pull factor on this massive wave of 
humanity from places like Central America into the United States, with 
people claiming asylum because they know they can exploit the loopholes 
that exist in the law and be successfully placed in the United States, 
never to be heard from again as they blend into this great American 
landscape. In other words, they know they can successfully make it from 
here into the United States unless these loopholes are filled. That is 
what the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection have implored 
us to do, along with the Department of Homeland Security--to close 
these loopholes.
  The main people benefiting from these loopholes in our asylum laws 
are the human traffickers, the drug traffickers, and the people who get 
rich moving this massive humanity from Central America into the United 
States. They charge, $5,000, $6,000, $7,000, or $8,000 a person. Of 
course, these are also the same criminal organizations that move drugs 
into the United States, trafficking women and children for sex.
  Last year alone, we know that 70,000-plus Americans died of drug 
overdoses in America. About half of them was from opioids, including 
heroin--90 percent of which comes from Mexico--along with the synthetic 
opioid known as fentanyl, which those of us working here know is much 
more powerful and much more dangerous than heroin, which is dangerous 
in and of itself. The same people who are trafficking in these migrants 
are trafficking in the drugs that are killing Americans on a daily 
basis and taking advantage of the desire of women and children to make 
their way here to the United States and turning them into virtual sex 
slaves.
  The people who have patiently and properly tried to enter our country 
legally are frustrated by illegal border crossers who try to game the 
system and use well-intentioned laws as a literal get-out-of-jail-free 
card.
  One of the most frequently exploited loopholes is known as the Flores 
Settlement Agreement, which was created to ensure that unaccompanied 
children aren't spending long periods of time in the custody of the 
Border Patrol. It was and remains an important protector for the most 
vulnerable individuals who come across our border and ensures that 
these unaccompanied children may be processed and released either to 
relatives or to the Department of Health and Human Services.
  A later, misguided ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 
2016 effectively expanded the time cap for unaccompanied children to 
families--that is, adults bringing one or more children across the 
border with them. These smugglers and human traffickers aren't fools. 
They see this as an opportunity to be exploited, and they know that by 
posing as a family, these individuals will be released after 20 days 
and can virtually disappear into the interior of the country. The child 
traveling with them could have been kidnapped, smuggled, or 
trafficked--all of which has happened before.
  Sadly, this is a common occurrence. The Department of Human Resources 
announced last week that they have identified more than 1,000 cases of 
fraudulent families trying to cross the border since October of last 
year. Clearly, the criminal element is exploiting our laws and hurting 
innocent children, and by doing nothing, we ourselves are complicit in 
their bad behavior.
  That is why we need to act. That is the one thing we can do. We need 
to clarify that Flores only applies to unaccompanied children and not 
to these family units who are gaming the system. First and foremost, 
this would protect children from being used as an entry ticket by 
criminals and smugglers, and it would also eliminate a pull factor for 
those tempted to try to use this method to gain entry.

[[Page S2628]]

  Of course, we know there are legitimate families who cross our 
border, and we must take additional steps to confirm these biological 
relationships and enable them to remain together in custody. No one is 
advocating for separating these families from their children. The 
HUMANE Act that Congressman Cuellar and I have introduced requires all 
children to undergo biometric and DNA screening--something the 
Department of Homeland Security has recently been testing. This was in 
order to defeat the fraudulent claim of biological or familial 
relationship with a minor child in order to gain entry into the United 
States. I believe we have a responsibility to ensure that children are 
actual family members and not being used as a pawn by the smugglers.
  Our legislation also provides safeguards to prevent children from 
being placed in the custody of dangerous individuals, such as sex 
offenders or human traffickers. The last thing we should want to do is 
welcome these unaccompanied children here to America, only to place 
them, by action of the Federal Government, in the hands of sex 
offenders or human traffickers because of our failure to take all 
necessary caution to prevent it.
  Consistent with the recommendations from the bipartisan Department of 
Homeland Security Homeland Security Advisory Council, the HUMANE Act 
would require DHS to establish at least four regional processing 
centers along the southern border to house and process these families. 
It is important that we provide them humane and compassionate housing 
while they await their asylum hearing in front of an immigration judge.
  By not doing so, by engaging in what has come to be known as catch-
and-release, we essentially help facilitate the entry of these 
individuals into the United States and encourage this pull factor that 
would only encourage not only 76,000 migrants, like we saw come across 
the border in February, not 103,000, like we saw come across the border 
in March, but we are going to see those numbers continue to go up and 
up and up and up, because, if you think about it, there is simply no 
reason for them not to come. The smugglers are getting rich, and people 
who want to come into the United States by falsely claiming grounds for 
asylum have found a way to exploit our system. When we look in the 
mirror, the only ones we can blame are ourselves for failing to act.
  We know these regional processing centers could serve as a one-stop 
shop, with DHS personnel, including asylum officers, on site to 
adjudicate claims and expedite the entire process. We want to make sure 
that if somebody does have a bona fide claim for asylum, they get to be 
heard by an immigration judge and they get that immigration benefit to 
which the law entitles them. But if they are not entitled to asylum, if 
they can't make their case to an immigration judge, they should not be 
able to do an end run around the system and enter the country under 
false pretenses.
  These central processing centers would also provide families with 
better living conditions that can be provided at a CBP detention 
facility meant to hold strictly single adults.
  To prevent this humanitarian crisis from having a deeper impact on 
legitimate trade and travel, this bill mandates the hiring of 
additional Homeland Security personnel and upgrades our ports of entry 
to expedite the legal movement of people and goods.
  Just the binational trade with Mexico supports about 5 million jobs 
in America; with Canada, another 8 million. That is why the North 
American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, is so important, and now that 
it has been supplanted by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement that we will 
be taking up soon, it is very important for us to keep legitimate 
commerce and trade flowing between Mexico, Canada, and the United 
States because 13 million jobs or more in America depend on that 
binational trade. That is another collateral piece of damage as a 
result of this humanitarian crisis as well.
  This is an opportunity for us to consider a bipartisan and bicameral 
piece of legislation to solve a real and growing problem, and I hope 
both of our Chambers will take seriously our responsibility to act and 
to act soon.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Ernst). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.