[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 96 (Monday, June 10, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H4385-H4386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            PROTECTING THE INTERESTS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, I would like to spend today addressing 
the events over the weekend with regard to President Trump's decision 
and then decision to withdraw the threat of a 5 percent tariff on goods 
coming in through Mexico.
  I particularly want to comment with regard to observations that I 
have made, because 10 days ago I was in Mexico in the Laredo sector of 
the border, and about 4 months ago I was in the Tucson sector of the 
border. Both times, I received a thorough tour of the border from our 
great Border Patrol, and the observations that I have made down there 
lead me to believe that we ought to stick with President Trump as he 
does what he can to defend our border. Indeed, my analysis in both 
Arizona and Texas is that, right now, we are facing one of the greatest 
threats to the future of America.
  Before going into it in general, I would like to thank our Border 
Patrol for all the wonderful things they are doing.

  I don't know how many Americans know that, right now, our Border 
Patrol has 2,000 empty positions. The Border Patrol should have 21,000 
people. It has got only 19,000 people on the border.
  Right now, we are in the position in which the Border Patrol is 
processing over 130,000 people a month, up from only a bit over 40,000 
a month just 7 or 8 years ago. This means, since, like everything else 
in the world, a lot of paperwork is required wherever something is 
done, that the Border Patrol is woefully underfunded and understaffed.
  I would like to apologize to the Border Patrol for a statement made 
by one of my colleagues in which she stated:

       With five kids that have died, 5,000 separated from their 
     families, I feel like the evidence is really clear that this 
     is intentional. It is a policy choice being made on purpose, 
     and it is cruel and inhumane.

  Madam Speaker, I will tell you, those Border Patrol folks and the 
customs people are working as hard as they possibly can. Maybe people 
don't realize that, last month, over 13,000 unaccompanied minors came 
across the border. That is not people who are separated from their 
families. Those are minors who come in separated from their families. 
Many of these people have spent days coming through Mexico to come 
here.
  We were told that one of the problems they had is that, when Border 
Patrol began to take care of kids, some of these kids were used to 
having one meal every 2 days. It took a while for their bodies to get 
used to having three meals a day. They are receiving medical care 
within the first 48 hours they are here and thorough medical care 
within 72 hours after they come here.
  I would say that people coming here are getting better medical care 
than perhaps they have ever had in their life--and surely better 
nutrition than they have had in a long time, better education than they 
have had in a long time.
  For Members of Congress to respond to the great deal that the Border 
Patrol is doing when, inevitably, despite their best efforts, a couple 
of people have come here without medical treatment for weeks, to claim 
that the Border Patrol or somehow the administration is intentionally 
allowing kids to die after they worked so hard to save the kids is one 
of the most embarrassing things I have seen in this Congress.
  I assure members of the Border Patrol that, at least among the people 
I hang around with, we respect the job they are doing, and I invite all 
of my colleagues to come down to the border so they don't make a 
ridiculous statement that, when a few people are not able to be kept 
alive down there, it is something done on purpose.

                              {time}  2015

  Let's look at the crisis down there and the hand Donald Trump is 
being dealt.
  In May, the Border Patrol itself--and this is before Customs, just 
the Border Patrol--found over 130,000 people crossing the border. The 
vast majority of those came here seeking asylum, which means they 
aren't going to be kicked out. They are given a court date 3, 4, or 5 
years out in the future and given a green card to go find a job.

[[Page H4386]]

  This is a much worse situation than when large numbers of people 
crossed the border 12 or 15 years ago. At that time, people would come 
across, and they would be told to go back. They would try again, and 
they would go back. We might have the same person counted three or four 
times.
  Here, with the vast majority being asylum claims, they will stay 
here, and they will get green cards. We are in a situation in which our 
Border Patrol is overwhelmed, not to mention we are no longer picking 
our immigrants, as we do when people are sworn in legally, as we do 
when they get regular work permits. Instead, we are getting people who 
are sneaking in here or claiming asylum under questionable 
circumstances.
  We also find that when we are, in essence, telling the world that we 
have open borders, more and more people come here. When we talked to 
Customs, which is a small segment of the number of people who are 
coming here, we were getting people from beyond Mexico or Central 
America. We are getting people from Venezuela. We are getting people 
from Cuba. We are getting people from Africa. In other words, the whole 
world is finding out that, right now, we are not enforcing our 
immigration laws.
  It is not surprising that when a lot of people come here, 
particularly when we are dealing with a border controlled by dangerous 
cartels, that people die trying to get in here. In the Tucson sector 
last year, almost 250 people were found dehydrated to death. The reason 
they were found that way is because the cartels may escort them to the 
United States, but they don't escort them to civilization. They just 
direct them to go one place or the other, and they wind up dying in the 
desert.
  In the Laredo sector, it is not unusual to have people drown in the 
Rio Grande River. Again, because there is a perception that America 
doesn't enforce its immigration laws, people try to walk across the Rio 
Grande. They are swept under, in the undertow, and they wind up dying. 
They wind up drowning.
  Again, these deaths are the fault of a system in which people believe 
that we do not enforce our immigration laws.
  What was President Trump to do? The obvious thing to do would be to 
tell Congress that we need more Border Patrol agents so that people 
don't sneak in here. The obvious thing to do would be to tell Congress 
that we need more judges to make sure that when people claim asylum, 
their claims are heard immediately, and they can be sent back rather 
than sit around here for 3 or 4 years. The obvious thing to do would be 
to build a wall, which may cost $7 billion or $8 billion.
  If we do those three things, we would send a message to the world 
that our immigration laws are supposed to be respected. We would no 
longer have so many people drown in the Rio Grande. We would no longer 
have so many people dehydrate to death. We would no longer have a 
situation in which the U.S. taxpayer is on the hook for probably over 
$100 billion a year between medical expenses, education expenses, and 
criminal justice expenses. That is what would happen if we began to 
enforce our immigration laws.
  However, when President Trump asked for help from this body, this 
Congress that is so quick to spend money on everything, this Congress 
that last time around increased discretionary spending over 11 percent 
in 1 year, this House of Representatives that is about to pass a series 
of appropriations bills increasing discretionary spending by 4 or 5 
percent a year, all of a sudden, this Congress decides to get frugal on 
the one thing that is the biggest crisis of all.
  So, President Trump is in a box. Because we won't give him any more 
money, eventually, he decides that perhaps by imposing tariffs on 
Mexico, he can stop what amounts to an invasion of the United States.
  What does President Trump get? He gets Senators from his own party 
shooting at him from behind. He gets American businesses looking at 
their profit and loss for the next quarter, profit and loss for the 
next year, not considering the damage that is done to America over the 
next 2, 3, 4, or 5 years as unlimited people are coming here. They are 
shooting him in the back. Shame on the Republicans.
  I am not afraid of being critical of President Trump. He tweets a 
little too much. But I will tell my colleagues that when President 
Trump is finally trying to get us to enforce our borders, he is being 
shot at by his own team, by members of the Chamber of Commerce and by 
Republican Members of the Senate. This has to stop, or we are going to 
lose our country.
  It is important that the American people stand up and let their 
elected representatives know this cannot go on any longer. We have to 
do something about the border.
  It is embarrassing how little this body is doing. It is embarrassing 
the small amount of money or no money that is being spent in the areas 
that it has to be spent. Quite frankly, it is embarrassing that more 
Congressmen are not speaking out on what is going on at the southern 
border, other than our friend from Illinois, who kind of implies that 
when somebody dies in the horrible system that exists right now, that 
it was done intentionally.
  In any event, I encourage American businesses to stop looking at just 
what is going on in their profit and loss statements next quarter or 
next year. I encourage the Republican representatives, all 
representatives, to understand that President Trump, when he tries to 
do something at the border, he is trying to protect America in the 
future and not get cheap political points by implying that we can 
continue to go ahead with the current system of over 130,000 people 
coming here.
  I do want to point out that President Trump, who is very pro-
immigrant, is not talking about reducing the 700,000 new people sworn 
in as Americans every year. President Trump is not talking about 
reducing the 4 million people who are here every year on work permits. 
Indeed, President Trump has made it clear that we could increase that 
number of people coming here legally.

  We have to stop people coming across the border on bogus claims of 
asylum and sneaking across the border and other places.
  It is time for this House to act. Fill those vacant 2,000 slots on 
the Border Patrol and add another 2,000 or 3,000.
  It is time for this body to act and get some judges on the border to 
adjudicate the asylum claims.
  It is time for this House to act and make sure that we have a secure 
border through a wall.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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