[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 93 (Tuesday, June 4, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3172-S3173]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, too much of our conversation about 
migrants seeking to enter at the southern border has to do with what 
happens when they get here. Not enough of our conversation concerns how 
we deal with the problems in the countries from which the migrants are 
coming. Many of these migrants are fleeing vicious gang violence, 
corruption, domestic abuse, drug cartels, and economic hardships that 
are so severe that they would risk a journey of 1,000 miles on foot 
rather than to stay where they are.
  We simply have to do more to help the countries from which these 
folks are coming to fix the problems that are causing their people to 
flee. That is getting at the root causes here, not at just putting on a 
bandaid after they get to the border, and that may be the most 
effective way to deal with the overall issue. Unfortunately and as 
usual, the Trump administration has done the opposite. Its policies are 
exacerbating the vicious conditions in these Central American 
countries.
  President Trump has cut $450 million in security assistance to 
Central American countries and has provided no information about why 
the cuts have taken place and where the money will go. As usual, it 
seems it is sort of on a whim. He gets this idea in his head and spews 
it out without checking it and without explaining it even when it has 
the consequence he doesn't want, which is more people coming to our 
southern border.
  Now what the President has proposed are tariffs on Mexico that would 
be massively destabilizing to our economy and theirs--a policy that 
will only lead to more migration. These whimsical and erratic proposals 
by the President that seem to pop into his head and with which he goes 
forward without

[[Page S3173]]

checking are making a mess of what is going on at the southern border.
  So I would say to the President: There is a much better way to 
address the migration issue than with tariffs. Deal with the problems 
in the Central American countries that are causing the migration in the 
first place.
  The Democrats have proposed legislation that would do just that--stem 
the tide of migrants and help to reduce the backlog of cases. How?
  First, allow asylum seekers to apply for asylum in their home 
countries. If the people under all of this gang violence and 
viciousness and economic hardship would be able to apply for asylum in 
Honduras or in Guatemala or in El Salvador instead of having to take a 
dangerous and often expensive 1,000-mile trek, they would do it. Why 
don't we do that? Let's increase the number of immigration judges so 
there could be adjudication rather quickly, and let's build the 
capacity of Central American countries to crack down on the violent 
gangs and vicious drug cartels.
  Our bill would provide $1.5 billion in security assistance to these 
countries, which is far more than the Trump administration has cut, but 
it is still nonsensical to have cut this money. This administration 
gets in its own way almost every day, but the solutions we proposed are 
the types we should debate.

  So we are going to push forward with these proposals. Democrats will 
seek to add these policies to any package of border legislation that 
comes here before the Senate. If no legislation dealing with the border 
comes up, Democrats will seek to add security assistance for Central 
American countries to an appropriations bill and push for language that 
requires the administration to use it. This is so important that we 
will push hard in whatever vehicle we can find to move this proposal.
  Again, all of these policies would have a far greater impact, with 
far less disruption, than slapping tariffs on one of our Nation's 
largest trading partners.
  Now, frankly, I don't believe President Trump will actually go 
through with the tariffs. When he doesn't, we should be ready to 
proceed to these commonsense policies instead.
  President Trump has a habit of talking tough and then retreating 
because his tough talk can't be implemented or doesn't make sense. 
President Trump has a habit of proposing asinine and dangerous policies 
before backing off, and President Trump has a habit of pretending that 
the very act of not following through on a misguided policy is somehow 
a victory. I wouldn't be surprised at all if President Trump didn't 
follow through on these tariffs either.
  We Democrats have proposed a much better solution to the problems the 
President is talking about, and when the President backs off on 
tariffs, as I believe he will, this is a solution ready to go that can 
get bipartisan support that can actually stem the problems we have at 
our southern border.


                100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment

  Madam President, next, on the 19th Amendment anniversary, today we 
observe the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment by the U.S. 
Senate--a critical step in the long march for equality that began at 
the very founding of our country, when Abigail Adams importuned her 
husband to ``remember the ladies'' when drafting the Constitution, a 
reminder that fell on deaf ears. It was a march that gathered numbers 
and force at Seneca Falls, under the leadership of brave New Yorkers 
like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and found expression in the abolitionist 
movement.
  While that march for equality under the law achieved a great and 
long-overdue victory 100 years ago, it is still not over. We have a lot 
to do. Wearing the yellow rose is wonderful, but it is not enough.
  When women in the workplace do 100 percent of the work but only earn 
80 percent of the pay as a man in the same position, the march is not 
over.
  When good legislation like the House-passed Violence Against Women 
Act to provide justice to survivors of domestic violence and stalking 
languishes in this Chamber in a legislative graveyard because the NRA 
is opposed to it, that march is not over.
  When the States are passing laws making it harder for minorities to 
vote, when State parties gerrymander districts to limit minority 
representation, and when the Supreme Court pretends that discrimination 
no longer exists in this country and guts the Voting Rights Act, the 
march to equality and universal suffrage is not over.
  Without universal suffrage, democracy is incomplete. That was the 
lesson of the women who organized, protested, and compelled their 
government to pass the 19th Amendment by the slimmest of margins. So 
let us not consider June 4 a day to look back with complacency and 
remark on our historical progress, but rather as a day to look forward 
and recognize what we still must achieve.
  There is no shortage of good work we could take up here in the 
Senate--paycheck fairness, Violence Against Women Act, the Equality 
Act, voting rights, election reform--to make sure all Americans can 
enjoy the full blessings of liberty. These pieces of legislation have 
passed the House and ended up in the legislative graveyard of the 
Senate. I can think of no better way to honor the legacy of the 
suffragists than to continue their work on breaking down barriers and 
strengthening our democracy.