[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 12, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3339-S3342]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, we have had many discussions on what is 
happening on appropriations bills. So I thought I could help clear some 
things up.
  Next week, the Senate Appropriations Committee will mark up a 
supplemental appropriations bill. We are doing this to address the 
humanitarian crisis, which it is, on our southern border. There is 
absolutely no need for this to be a partisan process. So many of us, 
Republicans and Democrats, agree we need to address the humanitarian 
crisis on our southern border.
  We have seen the news reports showing crowded conditions at Custom 
and Border Protection facilities. We have seen the pictures of women 
and children sleeping outside on the ground because the facilities are 
full. I have gone through places where they basically have cages 
holding children--and this is happening in America. And we have seen 
the numbers of unaccompanied children in our care swell as kids come 
across the border looking for help and compassion.
  Now, most of these people are fleeing violence or dire poverty in 
their home countries. Most know how dangerous the trek north will be, 
but they feel they have no choice but to make the trek anyway. Some 
have said they know they may die on the trek north, but they are going 
to die from gang violence and the murderers back home if they do not. 
They fear for their lives.
  By the time they reach us, they are exhausted, they are scared, and 
they are hungry. The vast majority actually just turn themselves over 
to Border Patrol Agents as soon as they cross into the United States. 
Rather than try to evade law enforcement, they look for the U.S. 
authorities in uniform. They turn themselves in to them and are then 
escorted by Border Patrol through the billion-dollar, actually useless, 
Trump wall. They are not looking to do us harm. They are looking for 
mercy.
  Now, we may disagree about what has led to this crisis and what 
changes may be needed to our immigration system. But I take issue with 
claims from across the aisle that Democrats oppose any and all 
solutions to address this crisis. Everybody knows that is simply false.
  We have a responsibility to make sure that the people in our care are 
treated humanely. After all, we are Americans. We ought to show the 
world we stand for American values. As vice chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee, I take this responsibility seriously.
  The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee 
Resettlement--the Agency that cares for unaccompanied children who 
cross the border--is running out of money. They are expected to exceed 
their Federal appropriations by the end of this month. Because they are 
running out of money, they have already begun to scale back on services 
that are not critical for life and safety, including education, 
recreation, and legal services. We ought to take action. Customs and 
Border Protection processing facilities are vastly over capacity. That 
not only creates dangerous conditions for the migrants who are in our 
care but also dangerous conditions for our Border Patrol staff.
  We have seen these pictures of men and women and children sleeping 
outside with Mylar blankets in temporary shelters, under bridges, and 
in overcrowded conditions inside facilities that cannot accommodate 
them. I have seen this. It cannot continue. We have to do better. We 
Americans have American values. We should act like it.
  The Senate Democrats are willing to provide money to address these 
problems. We have a responsibility to do so--Republicans and Democrats 
both--but we also have a responsibility to put basic conditions on this 
money. We want to make sure the taxpayers' dollars are appropriately 
spent. We cannot provide a blank check, especially to this 
administration.
  HHS and DHS facilities have to meet appropriate standards. So the 
care we provide reflects the fact that we are Americans with American 
values. We must not let detainees languish outdoors in 100-degree 
temperatures for more than 30 days without showering or changing 
clothes--and that is happening.
  Children in our care should only be housed in facilities that meet 
State licensing requirements--not in cages. They should have access to 
education, recreation, and legal services. DHS should not be using 
information on potential sponsors for unaccompanied children to deport 
them. We found that has happened. We had people willing and capable of 
taking care of these children instead of the U.S. taxpayers spending 
thousands upon thousands of dollars. Instead of saying thank you, we 
say: Well, we are going to check your background. Maybe we should 
deport you.
  It makes me think about the number of people who have served in our 
military and overseas that are immigrants and then get deported. Now, 
that is hard to understand. It is probably easier to understand for 
people who have refused to serve, but it is hard to understand.
  That is no different than saying: Oh, you served our country, you 
faced dangers, and you were shot at wearing the uniform of this 
country. But we are throwing you out.
  Now, Members of Congress with oversight responsibility of these 
Agencies should be able to have access to detention facilities. The 
Trump administration should not request these resources

[[Page S3340]]

from Congress and then not tell Congress what they are going to do with 
it by saying: We sure as heck are not going to let any Member of 
Congress--Republican or Democrat--see what we do with it.
  Money appropriated for humanitarian assistance should be used for 
humanitarian assistance. It should not be diverted to pay for a wall, 
which would do nothing to solve this humanitarian crisis.
  Now, these should not be controversial propositions. They are 
reasonable conditions to include. They should get bipartisan support. 
We can do it if Republicans want to, but what we are not going to do is 
allow the Trump administration to use this humanitarian crisis to 
supplement funding for an enforcement agenda that is not only 
controversial but also ineffective and cruel.
  For example, the President has asked for funding to increase ICE 
detention facilities by 7,600 beds. There is no need for this increased 
funding. We should not provide it.
  The administration's inclination at every turn is to just use 
detention to solve our immigration problem, while not actually working 
to solve our immigration problem, at enormous cost to the American 
taxpayers. It is expensive, inefficient, and it is wrong. The other 
thing is that it does not work. Alternatives to detention exist. They 
are safe, effective, and enormously less expensive to the taxpayers.
  The administration needs to use the resources it has for ICE 
detention services to house those people who truly present a danger to 
our communities. Yes, house somebody who is a criminal. House somebody 
who has a criminal record. But do not lock up every man, woman, and 
child simply for being here without proper documentation, spending 
thousands upon thousands of taxpayer dollars to lock up a 5-year-old. 
They are really not the people we should worry about. But the Trump 
administration's dramatically escalating the arrest and detention of 
immigrants who have no criminal record makes no sense. It is an 
enormous waste of taxpayers' dollars.
  We carefully negotiated ICE bed levels in the fiscal year 2019 
Homeland Security appropriations bill just a few months ago, which got 
strong bipartisan support. That was just a few months ago; there is no 
reason to revisit it now just a few months later.
  Congress should also ensure that funding it approved 2 years ago--
overwhelmingly, by both Republicans and Democrats--to deal with the 
root causes of immigration from Central America is spent for those 
purposes. If we do not deal with the reasons people are leaving their 
countries, of course they are going to keep coming. That is just common 
sense, and that is why we appropriated these funds. That is why 
Republicans and Democrats voted to appropriate these funds and the 
President signed those appropriations bills. We should insist they are 
used for the purposes that Republicans and Democrats voted for them to 
be used.
  When President Trump decides to withhold a half a billion dollars of 
that funding, that is self-defeating. That does about as much to stop 
illegal immigration as tweeting about it does.
  So in addition to being ready, willing, and able to help address 
humanitarian issues at the border, Democrats are also advocating for 
longer term solutions that both parties should support if we are 
serious about solving this crisis.
  As some Senators recall, when I was chairman of the Senate Judiciary 
Committee, we had months of hearings, weeks of markup, hundreds of 
pieces of information coming, and witnesses, and I brought a 
comprehensive immigration bill to the floor 6 years ago. There were 68 
Senators, Republicans and Democrats alike, who voted for it. Even 
though it passed the Senate, the Republican Speaker of the House 
refused to bring it up.
  The irony is that yesterday the Acting Homeland Security Secretary 
testified that if we had enacted that bill--the bill I brought to this 
floor, which 68 Senators voted for--it would have made a difference in 
the current crisis. It is unfortunate that the Republican Speaker 
blocked it.
  He did say it would violate the Dennis Hastert rule, and they had to 
uphold that. Well, no, it violated common sense by not bringing it to a 
vote.
  So as we did back then, any immigration reform we consider today has 
to be done on a bipartisan basis. That is how we got the big vote here. 
I know that these are controversial matters. Of course they are. That 
is why we struggle over them. But bipartisanship is the only way to get 
things done around here.
  Given the urgency of the need on the southern border, I hope my 
Republican colleagues will not use this bill as a vehicle to force 
debate on divisive immigration proposals that should be left to the 
authorizing committees, not to the Appropriations Committee. If we turn 
this into a protracted debate about immigration reform, we will only 
delay much needed humanitarian assistance on the southern border.
  We could do both. Pass the appropriations bills, but then let's have 
a real debate, as we did a few years ago, on immigration reform, 
something that got two-thirds of the Senate--Republicans and 
Democrats--to vote for it.
  As I said at the beginning, consideration of a supplemental 
appropriations bill to address the humanitarian crisis should never be 
a partisan issue. We all want to make sure that we appropriately care 
for the vulnerable families seeking refuge at the United States of 
America's border.
  I urge all Members to focus on areas of agreement in this package. 
There are a lot of areas we can agree on, Republicans and Democrats. 
Focus on it, pass it, and get assistance out the door as quickly as 
possible.
  I see another Senator is waiting.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, thank you for the recognition and 
opportunity to speak with my colleagues about an issue that I think is 
so incredibly important.
  We just heard the Senator from Vermont discuss the issue at the 
southern border. I made a return trip--one of many I have made to the 
southern border over the past decade--this past Friday. I have to tell 
you, I thought this situation was just a terrible situation a decade 
ago. As I have continued to visit and work on issues that deal with 
illegal immigration, illegal aliens, working on immigration reform over 
the past decade, many times with great frustration because we cannot 
achieve bipartisan agreement, I saw a situation on the southern border 
this trip that was far worse than I ever could have imagined.
  In the middle of all of this are some very brave Border Patrol 
agents, ICE agents, DHS agents, Coast Guard that are there providing 
healthcare--they are carrying out their job every single day. I am 
grateful to them for their service. I am so impressed by their resolve 
to protect this Nation--to protect it.
  There is a lesson we could learn from these Border Patrol agents. As 
they go out, underfunded, disrespected, not knowing what they are going 
to encounter, there is a lesson that every single American could learn. 
These men and women are dedicated. They show up. They do their job. 
They value--they value--citizenship in this country. They value this 
Nation's sovereignty. And one of the things they know is that 
citizenship--citizenship--is something the American people should hold 
very dear. It should not come to somebody illegally approaching our 
country. It should not come to somebody who is coming here to do us 
harm.
  I will tell you this: To enter one of those reception centers or 
retention centers in the El Paso sector--which is there in Southwest 
Texas and right on the New Mexico-Mexico border--is to enter an area 
where you can just feel the chaos and the uncertainty. It permeates the 
air.
  People know this is difficult. The American people should know this 
is very difficult. It is a terrible situation that our men and women of 
the Border Patrol are dealing with--to see young mothers alone with 
their babies, waiting for answers from a Federal agency about where 
they are going to go or what is going to happen to them because 
somebody in Central America lied to them--a cartel lied to them, 
misrepresented to them what they were going to see.
  I heard from a Border Patrol agent that there are adults who are 
saying:

[[Page S3341]]

Well, this is not what we were promised. This isn't what we were 
expecting. Maybe we should just go back home. They were lied to.
  This is why we need to get busy with changing the asylum laws, the 
magnet that is pulling people here. Change this. It is why I applaud 
the efforts of the President for making certain that we are dealing 
with Mexico--having them secure their southern border, having them call 
out the National Guard to make certain these cartels are not able to 
operate in Mexico.
  Our Border Patrol--as I said, I am just so grateful we have them, and 
without Americans knowing, they are blessing our lives every single day 
because they show up and do the job that is in front of them without 
proper resources because there has not been bipartisan agreement here.
  Then, every day they go home, and they have encountered people who 
have measles, mumps, H1N1 flu, TB, scabies, lice. That is what they are 
exposed to every single day as they do their job. Healthcare is not 
their job. Securing the southern border is their job, and everybody who 
is against giving the Border Patrol what they need to secure that 
border needs to begin to think twice about that and have compassion for 
these men and women who are on the frontline.
  The appalling conditions absolutely shock the conscience, but they 
didn't surprise me. This is what is happening because people think they 
can get by with coming here illegally. Last month, 144,000 migrants 
crossed the border--last month. In Tennessee, that is just under the 
size of Clarksville, TN. Think about a whole city coming in.
  In the first 8 months of this fiscal year, 411,000 unaccompanied 
children and families made that same journey.
  This past weekend, when I was out with the Border Patrol, 12 people 
in 3 groups were apprehended right in front of me. That was in the 
timespan of 30 minutes. There were four from Honduras, and eight were 
from Cuba. That is just a handful of the approximately 1,000 illegal 
aliens per day who are apprehended in the El Paso sector.
  Ninety percent of those people come as family units, clogging a 
system designed to process adults traveling alone. The sheer number of 
people our agents are struggling to process and control is staggering.
  Right now, the facilities at the El Paso border station house are 
taking in 1,247 illegal aliens. That facility is built to accommodate 
123. At just one station in the El Paso sector, $26,000 a day is spent 
on food, just food--food. Where are they getting this money? It has not 
been appropriated. They are taking it out of their operations budgets. 
This is why they need us to surge resources to the southern border--
resources for more agents, resources for more technology, resources for 
a border wall to stop illegal entry into this country.
  If it were just a question of numbers, the situation may seem more 
manageable. But as I mentioned, disease, drugs, and a frightening 
disregard for the law have transformed these border stations into 
refugee zones.
  Right now, agents at camps are working overtime every single day, 
trying to keep up. Loopholes in regulations controlling the release of 
unaccompanied minors to purported custodians are endangering the 11,507 
children who crossed the southern border in May of 2019.
  I want to be certain everybody understands this: 11,507 is the number 
of children who crossed that southern border in the month of May.
  To make things worse, we are seeing child predators and traffickers 
cross the border in increasing numbers. Girls as young as 10 years of 
age are being given pregnancy tests--10-year-olds--because traffickers 
or adults who are not family members are the ones who are bringing them 
in. This is an area where my colleagues across the aisle need to work 
with us and put a stop to this. We don't know if these children are 
going to smuggling rings, or sex rings and being sent to a pimp, or to 
labor gangs and being sent to a boss. We don't know because many of the 
people who are the so-called custodians who are accepting these 
children, who are their sponsors, guess what, they are in the country 
illegally.

  On June 7, border agents seized enough fentanyl to kill nearly 2 
million Americans. I was there in that port when they seized 5 kilos, 
but the drug lords and the cartels are undeterred. They are so bold in 
this; do you know what they are doing now? They are posting Facebook 
ads soliciting mules to run their deadly product across the border. We 
have to do better. This is something that should no longer be up for 
debate.
  I sponsored the Accountability for Care of Unaccompanied Alien 
Children Act to codify information-sharing agreements between the 
Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human 
Services. This would help protect minors from the ravages of 
exploitation and human trafficking, but that protection isn't possible 
if there are not going to be agents able and available to check on who 
is attempting to claim these children.
  I know some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are not 
for these agencies sharing this information, but let me tell you 
something. If this is going to help keep children safe, if it is going 
to keep them out of these sex trafficking and human trafficking gangs, 
we need to know who is a criminal alien, who is in this country 
illegally, and these children do not need to be sent to them.
  We know the White House in May sent an emergency request for $4.5 
billion in funds to increase shelter capacity at the processing 
centers, to feed and care for the detained migrants, to hire agents and 
staff, and to bolster law enforcement's ability to shelter and protect 
unaccompanied minors. Our border agents need this money to protect our 
border and to protect our Nation's sovereignty.
  Yesterday, before the Senate Judiciary Committee, acting DHS 
Secretary Kevin McAleenan expressed serious concerns for Border Patrol 
agents who are forced to play the part of a translator, caregiver, 
counselor, and nurse.
  Let me ask a question. What do my colleagues think would happen if 
the Border Patrol decided they had had it? They had had it. They were 
tired of it, and they were not going to show up for work, to work 
overtime, to work hard hours, to do a job they are not trained to do. 
They are trained to protect the border; they are not trained to be a 
caregiver and a nurse. What would happen if they reached the breaking 
point, and they didn't show up--because, let me tell you something, 
this border has reached a breaking point.
  It is time for us to realize, yes, there is a crisis. It is a 
humanitarian crisis; it is a national security crisis, and it is time 
that our Border Patrol be shown the respect--the respect they deserve 
by funding the needs that they have to protect each and every one of us 
and to help keep this Nation safe and secure.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Nebraska.


                         Year-Round Sale of E15

  Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, yesterday I had the privilege of joining 
President Trump in Nebraska and Iowa for the official announcement of 
the year-round sale of E15. The announcement is the product of years of 
work across party lines to fight for the hard-working agriculture 
producers in Nebraska.
  If you ask any family who lives in rural America, they will tell you 
how important fuel prices are in their lives. With longer-than-average 
daily commutes to work or to drop off their children at school, 
escalating gas prices make life more difficult for everyone.
  A needless barrier has restricted consumers from filling up their 
vehicles with E15 fuel during some of the busiest months of the year--
the summer driving season. Each year, from the beginning of June to 
mid-September, retailers were unable to offer fuels with higher blends 
of ethanol without a Federal Government-issued waiver. This means that 
renewable solutions to reach our Nation's vital fuel needs have been 
needlessly anchored to an older era. The ban on the year-round sale of 
E15 has robbed Americans of an opportunity to save money at the pump 
with the purchase of a cleaner fuel.
  Nebraska stands proudly as the largest producer of biofuel west of 
the Missouri River. We are home to 25 ethanol plants, which produce a 
total of more than 2 billion gallons of renewable fuel each year. 
According to the Nebraska

[[Page S3342]]

Ethanol Board, our ethanol plants provide over 1,300 good-paying jobs 
to Nebraskans, and this creates a $5 billion impact on our State. As I 
have said before, for Nebraska and much of the heartland, restricting 
the year-round sale of E15 was equivalent to benching our best player 
during the most important game of the season.
  For years, I have been fighting to put an end to this unnecessary ban 
that has restricted our farmers, retailers, and consumers for far too 
long. In 2017, I introduced the Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act, 
with the senior Senator from Iowa, to put an end to this decades-old 
regulation. The bill sought to extend the Reid vapor pressure waiver to 
ethanol blends above 10 percent.
  At the same time, I began holding very productive discussions with 
President Trump on the importance of E15 to the people of Nebraska but 
also to the people of rural America. The President agreed that this 
commonsense solution was needed. Last year, I was very proud to join 
him at the White House as he directed the EPA to allow for the year-
round sale of E15.
  Yesterday we turned a new page as President Trump's directive 
officially became a reality for farmers and ethanol producers. It was 
great to accompany the President, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny 
Perdue, and EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to deliver this 
encouraging news.
  We landed at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and headed to the SIRE 
ethanol plant in Council Bluffs, IA. There, we heard President Trump 
give a speech highlighting the essential role of our farmers, ranchers, 
and the ethanol industry. We also heard from a few Nebraskans on how 
this is impacting them.
  The first speaker was Kevin Ross. He is from Iowa. He is a sixth-
generation farmer, and he is vice president of the National Corn 
Growers Association. He said:

       I work in the greatest industry we have in this country, 
     and that's agriculture. We are blessed by God to have the 
     science that has let us achieve new heights in production. 
     Whether that's yield of corn, the efficiency of this ethanol 
     plant, or gains in my cattle, agriculture continues to do 
     more with less. . . . The economic benefits and the clean air 
     delivered through biofuels are wins for the seventh 
     generation on my family farm and wins for all U.S. citizens.

  Another guest speaker was Randy Gard. He is the chief operating 
officer of Bosselman Pump & Pantry and Bosselman Enterprises, located 
in my State of Nebraska at Grand Island. He said:

       Today is a great day for the American farmer, the ethanol 
     industry, fuel retailers, and the American consumer.

  After consulting with their customers, this company started offering 
E15 fuel a few years ago. Mr. Gard continued:

       We started to install the infrastructure, started to put 
     all the marketing information behind it, and we came up with 
     something fairly simple but compelling. We said E15 is simply 
     better fuel and it costs less. . . . It was easy for our 
     employees at our stores to articulate, easy for our customers 
     to understand, and it must have worked because in 2017, our 
     sales of E15 increased over 300 percent. In 2018, they went 
     up another 225 percent. And with the help of President Trump 
     opening the door for year-round E15, our newest projections 
     for this year show an increase of another 400 percent.

  Hearing the confidence of Nebraskans is encouraging, and this is why 
I have been determined to make the year-round sale of E15 a reality for 
them.
  The nets that have constricted innovation and market expansion in 
rural America for far too long have now been cut, and the news couldn't 
come at a better time for our farmers and for our rural communities.
  Last March brought unimaginable setbacks due to the historic flooding 
that ravaged through Nebraska and large regions of the Midwest. On top 
of higher input costs, tighter margins, and decreased commodity prices, 
these factors have created anxiety for our farm families. The lift of 
the year-round ban on E15 gives ag producers some much needed certainty 
during these very difficult times.
  America's consumers and retailers will also reap the benefits. They 
will no longer face confusion at the pump, as E15 will be labeled 
consistently, regardless of the season. With more competition in place, 
consumers can make the best fuel decision for their families and for 
their wallets. Retailers will no longer need to make those unnecessary, 
expensive adjustments to their infrastructure every year to accommodate 
for this regulation.
  The year-round sale of E15 implementation comes on the heels of more 
great news. EPA Administrator Wheeler recently announced that he signed 
a final rule which will implement legislation that I was proud to 
champion, the Fair Agricultural Reporting Method Act, also known as the 
FARM Act.
  This bipartisan legislation protects farmers, ranchers, and livestock 
markets from misguided, burdensome EPA reporting requirements. Due to 
regulations that were originally meant to address industrial pollution, 
chemical plant explosions, and the release of toxic materials into the 
environment, farmers faced uncertainty about reporting animal waste 
emissions on farms and ranches and other operations.
  These reporting regulations were not intended to affect livestock or 
animal agriculture. Yet our agriculture industry worried about this 
unnecessary burden for years. I have heard time and again directly from 
Nebraska's farmers and ranchers on how these regulations were cause for 
concern.
  The FARM Act implementation delivers a permanent fix to this issue by 
providing ag producers with exemptions to animal waste reporting 
requirements.
  In closing, I want to thank the bipartisan group of my Senate 
colleagues whose years of determined efforts paved the way for the 
fruition of these important measures, and I want to offer my sincere 
thanks to President Trump for following through on his commitment to 
rural America.
  I look forward to seeing the positive results that these commonsense, 
bipartisan measures will bring to hard-working men and women in the 
good life and throughout America's heartland. I am proud to fight on 
behalf of Nebraska's farmers, ranchers, and ag producers, who continue 
to fuel and feed the world.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Blackburn). The Senator from Missouri.