[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]
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
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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.
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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.