[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 10, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S4745]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, a new report from NBC News last night 
detailed the inhumane treatment of migrant children at the Arizona 
border stations: allegations of sexual assault, retaliation by Customs 
and Border Protection officers, overcrowding, lack of showers, lack of 
clean clothes, and lack of space to sleep. The accounts made by dozens 
of children at these facilities are horrifying and are completely 
unacceptable.
  In the wake of several similar reports about the treatment of 
migrants by CBP officers in Texas, in the wake of revelations of secret 
Facebook groups where Border Patrol officers joke about the horrid 
treatment of migrants, it is abundantly clear that there is a toxic 
culture at Border Patrol that can only be changed--only be changed--by 
the immediate firing and replacing of top leadership at the Agency. CBP 
needs to clean house. The top people at CBP ought to be fired now.
  In just a few days on the job, Mark Morgan, the Acting Commissioner, 
has already shown himself to be far too callous about the way in which 
children and their families are treated. We need committed law 
enforcement professionals to take over the CBP, particularly those who 
have training and expertise in working with vulnerable populations.
  There are rumors that Mr. Morgan was chosen because he is a tough 
guy--a tough guy--on kids. But he is a tough guy who will tolerate an 
out-of-control culture in many parts of the CBP.
  It is a perfectly wrong choice for what is going on there. I will say 
this to President Trump. He is not going to help you. Whatever 
Americans' views are on immigration, they don't like pictures of little 
children in squalid and awful conditions, whoever they are.
  The Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, Kevin McAleenan, who 
oversees CBP, needs to take this matter into his own hands. He has 
shown far more balance, far more expertise, and far more ability to 
talk about the truth--not some ideology--than Morgan or some of the 
others. He should take this matter into his own hands and pursue 
changes to the Agency that go beyond mere investigations and reports.
  CBP needs a real change in personnel and in leadership, and it needs 
it now. The reports by NBC News and many others are a stain on this 
great Nation. We are not perfect. We are a lot better than most 
everyone else. But in the past, when there was a problem, we didn't 
revel in it; we tried to solve it. We cannot allow what is happening at 
the border to continue.