[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 123 (Monday, July 22, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4958-S4959]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BORDER SECURITY

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, over a week ago, I traveled to the 
Texas-Mexico border with the Vice President, as well as the Presiding 
Officer and other Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee. We 
visited McAllen, which is located in the heart of the Rio Grande 
Valley, which is a beautiful region with a thriving economy, but folks 
in the region continue to struggle to manage the growing humanitarian 
crisis caused by the massive influx of migrants arriving at our 
southern border.
  The Rio Grande Valley has been disproportionally impacted by this 
migrant crisis, with 46 percent of all apprehensions last month 
occurring in that sector. It has taken a toll, as you might expect, on 
the Border Patrol, the Department of Health and Human Services, local 
communities, and the nongovernmental organizations working to provide 
care for these migrants.
  Our trip provided the opportunity for the Vice President and members 
of the Judiciary Committee to meet with the men and women who are on 
the frontlines of this crisis and hear about the challenges they face 
every day. We also discussed what Congress needs to do to help them 
address this crisis.
  Chairman Lindsey Graham invited all the members of the Judiciary 
Committee, both Republicans and Democrats, to go on the trip, but 
unfortunately none of our Democratic colleagues accepted that 
invitation. Instead of going on a bipartisan basis, Senate Democrats 
chose to wait a week and go on what was clearly a partisan messaging 
mission.
  The minority leader said the purpose of the trip was to 
``investigate, inspect and evaluate conditions for migrants at 
facilities on the border.'' They traveled to McAllen--exactly where we 
were 1 week before--and they had a very similar itinerary, but they had 
a very different mission. Our mission was to find out what Congress 
needed to do to help fix the problem; theirs was to shine a light in a 
partisan fashion on conditions of migrants, which are largely of 
Congress's own making as a result of congressional inaction on dealing 
with the underlying causes.
  We both met with Chief Patrol Agent Rudy Karisch, toured the Donna 
holding facility, heard from Border Patrol agents, and had the chance 
to speak to the migrants themselves, but our takeaways from these 
nearly identical trips were quite different. This was like ships 
passing in the night.
  I left that trip feeling immense gratitude for our professional 
Border Patrol agents, whom we met, working tirelessly to fulfill their 
duties with the utmost professionalism and compassion. As this crisis 
has grown, they have been asked to do more and more with less and less. 
They go to work each morning not knowing exactly what the day will 
bring. Will they encounter a group of hundreds of migrants? Will they 
find abandoned children left for dead by smugglers? Will they rescue a 
drowning family from the Rio Grande or, worse, find the remains of 
those who have succumbed due to the dangerous journey in very hot 
weather?
  This growing crisis is not the fault of our professional law 
enforcement officials working along the border, and despite what our 
colleagues across the aisle claim, it is not a side effect of the 2016 
Presidential election either. This migrant crisis has been bubbling up 
for years. We got a glimpse of how bad it could be in 2014 when then-
President Obama announced there was a ``humanitarian and security 
crisis''--his words--on the southern border. In May of 2014--the height 
of apprehensions that year--nearly 69,000 people were detained at the 
southern border. In May of this year, that number more than doubled to 
144,000 in 1 month alone. So President Obama called it a ``humanitarian 
and security crisis'' in 2014, and the problem has roughly doubled 
since that time.
  If there is one thing I hope our colleagues found on their trip, as 
the minority leader said, to investigate, inspect, and evaluate, I hope 
it is this: I hope their investigation confirmed what they have 
reflexively denied for months on end--that there is, in fact, a crisis 
at the border. I hope their inspection revealed that the problem isn't 
with the administration's policies or with the actions of our Border 
Patrol; it is our broken immigration system. And I hope they evaluated 
that without some type of action--real action--by Congress, the 
situation along the border will only continue to get worse.
  As this senseless partisanship over border security carries on, 
people living and working along the border are also hurting. When we 
were in McAllen a week and a half ago, we heard from one Border Patrol 
agent, Oscar Escamilla, who talked about the role Border Patrol plays 
at the centralized processing centers. He said:

       We wear different hats. Sometimes we're fathers, sometimes 
     we're mothers, brothers, sisters, play pals, and even 
     counselors. We do this because we care. We do this because 
     there is a real need.

  There is certainly a need.
  Last month, we passed bipartisan legislation to send much needed 
humanitarian relief, which will provide some temporary help. That bill 
also included funding for the departments and agencies that have 
depleted their resources trying to manage this crisis the best they 
can, and it made $30 million available for impacted communities to 
apply for reimbursement from the Federal Government. In other words, 
they have had to pay out of their own pockets for something that is the 
Federal Government's responsibility, and I am glad that at least we 
provided $30 million for reimbursement.
  This was a long-overdue and important step to support those who have 
been working day in and day out, hour

[[Page S4959]]

by hour, minute by minute, to manage this crisis, but, as the folks we 
talked about in McAllen reiterated, the underlying problem still 
exists. In other words, you can treat the symptoms, or you can treat 
the cause. But we shouldn't be confused. We have been maybe addressing 
some of the symptoms; we have done nothing to address the underlying 
cause.

  These officers and agents work incredibly hard to enforce our laws 
and provide compassionate care for those in their custody, but without 
meaningful action from Congress, we are sending them into a losing 
battle. Without fixing the loopholes and repairing the broken system 
that facilitated this humanitarian crisis in the first place, we will 
find ourselves experiencing deja vu every few months. If you think $4.5 
billion was needed for this emergency just a couple of weeks ago, wait 
for 6 more months, when there will be another $4.5 billion required and 
thereafter and thereafter and thereafter.
  Well, what is the answer to the underlying root cause? What does 
Congress need to do in order to fix it and to staunch this flow of 
humanity across our border?
  Well, there is only one bill out there with bipartisan support--with 
support both in the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate--that 
would provide relief along the border, and that is the HUMANE Act. It 
is an honest, nonpartisan attempt to fix the problem--no poison pills, 
no radical proposals, just reasonable policy designed to solve the 
problem.
  This bill would close what has become known as the Flores loophole, 
which is often exploited by human smugglers as a way to gain entry into 
the United States. This is an effective way to stem the flow of those 
trying to game--to game--our immigration system without inhibiting 
legitimate trade or travel.
  In addition, the HUMANE Act would improve the way we process 
individuals entering into our country. We got the recommendation for 
the legislation from the bipartisan Homeland Security Advisory 
Committee. It would, for example, establish regional processing 
centers, which would have personnel on hand from across the government 
to assist, including medical personnel and asylum officers right there 
at the border in regional processing centers.
  Finally, it would improve standards of care for individuals in our 
custody--something we all want to see happen. It would require the 
Department of Homeland Security to keep families together during court 
proceedings and ensure that migrants have timely access to medical 
assistance, as well as recreational activities, educational services, 
and even legal counsel.
  The HUMANE Act also requires additional training for Customs and 
Border Protection and ICE officers, otherwise known as Immigration and 
Customs Enforcement--in other words, everyone who deals with children.
  The HUMANE Act is the only bipartisan bill currently proposed, and I 
would urge all of our colleagues to give it serious consideration.
  I can only hope that this trip our Democratic colleagues took 
convinced them that it is time to quit playing games and get serious 
about finding a solution to the humanitarian crisis on our southern 
border.
  I yield the floor.

                          ____________________