[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 125 (Wednesday, July 24, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Page S5035]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. President, my second topic involves a visit that I and a 
delegation of Senators made just a week ago--it will be a week ago on 
Friday--to McAllen, TX. I guess there were 13 of us in total. During 
that visit and throughout the course of the day, we toured DHS 
detention facilities--DHS is the Department of Homeland Security--
including the Border Patrol facility in McAllen, TX, and the processing 
centers in both Donna and Ursula, TX.
  I saw children who needed better care. I saw the overcrowding of 
adults, who were packed into cages or glass-enclosed rooms, and you 
couldn't hear the voices of those behind the glass. I saw the need for 
hygiene products and better access to showers. At the same time, we 
also saw Catholic Charities--the Respite Center, run by Sister Norma 
Pimentel, known to so many as just ``Sister Norma''--where migrants 
were welcomed, where migrants were cared for, and where migrants were 
treated with compassion.
  I believe the White House's policies take the opposite approach--that 
of not welcoming migrants but of pushing them away. I believe several 
of those policies make it bad not only for the migrants or immigrants 
but also for the DHS personnel who have to do the work every day. It is 
also bad for the security of our Nation.
  I know, last Friday, that our delegation met a number of dedicated 
personnel who work hard and who care about the families, but I cannot 
say that about all of those who work there. So, when there is 
mistreatment or when there is abuse, we need to make sure there is full 
accountability. At the same time, there are folks who work in our 
government who may not agree with the White House's policy on 
immigration or asylum or on its migration policy in general but who 
have difficult work to do. To those who are doing good work and showing 
compassion and respect, I commend them for that.
  Instead of closing the door on asylum seekers who flee terrible 
violence and persecution, we should adopt policies that are more humane 
and that will help alleviate instead of exacerbate the humanitarian 
crisis. We should utilize effective alternatives to detention, like the 
Family Case Management Program--a pilot program that began in the last 
administration and pretty much ended in this administration. It had a 
99-percent attendance rate--or success rate--at immigration court 
proceedings. The Family Case Management Program also had 99-percent 
compliance with ICE's monitoring requirements.
  We should ensure that migrant children are cared for by child welfare 
workers and have their medical needs fully met. We should also work to 
address the violence, poverty, and persecution that are causing so many 
to flee. I am a cosponsor of the Central American Reform and 
Enhancement Act, which is legislation that would address the root 
causes of migration by increasing aid to the Northern Triangle, 
creating new options for refugees to apply for entry from Mexico and 
Central America, and, of course, increasing the number of immigration 
judges to reduce court backlogs and creating new criminal penalties for 
the smuggling and defrauding of immigrants.
  We know that some of the dollars recently appropriated will help on 
some of these priorities, but we have to make sure the dollars are 
spent wisely and appropriately and in full compliance with the law.
  We are indeed a nation of laws, and we are also a nation of 
immigrants. These two principles are intertwined in our values, and 
they are not--they are not--competing values.
  We should be trying over and over again--both parties, both Chambers, 
and the administration--to pass something comparable to the 
comprehensive immigration reform bill that this body passed in 2013 
that did not get a vote in the House.
  Let me conclude this part of my remarks with this: The problem is not 
that we must choose between principles like being a rule-of-law country 
and being a nation of immigrants; the problem is that our immigration 
system is badly broken. If there are suggestions to be made to improve 
the asylum process, we should be open to that, but pushing immigrants 
away and ending or short-circuiting or undermining the asylum process 
is not in the interest of the country.
  It is entirely possible to have an immigration system that both 
respects the rule of law and treats all individuals with human dignity. 
I will continue to press the administration and the House and the 
Senate to work on bipartisan solutions so our immigration system again 
reflects those American values.