[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5153-S5156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Venezuela

  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I want to thank the leader, Senator 
Schumer from New York, for his introduction of the remarks I am about 
to make. But before I do, let me preface it by saying that I couldn't 
agree with him more. When you take a look at this empty Senate Chamber 
and realize we are in session this week with the possibility of 
bringing important legislation to the floor, you have to ask the 
obvious question: Where is everybody? Why aren't we acting like a 
Senate? Why are we meeting and having speeches instead of debate on 
important legislation? What could be more important than the security 
of an election?

  We have a lot of young people across America. We say to them: 
Register to vote. Your vote makes a difference. You get to choose the 
leaders for this country's future. Be sure and vote.
  But we have to be honest with you. Your vote is under attack--first, 
by apathy--people don't register and they don't vote--and second, by 
outside foreign influence and forces.
  We know what happened 4 years ago in the Presidential election. The 
Russians tried to invade the U.S. electoral process and change it. I 
know it firsthand because it happened first in the State of Illinois. 
Turns out someone put together a computer program that had a little 
opening in it, a little hole, and that is all they needed. Sitting in 
Moscow, these folks in front of computers were searching day in and day 
out for ways to get into the voters' list in Illinois, and they were 
successful. They were successful in invading the voting list, the 
official records of our State on the people who were eligible to vote. 
They could have done some mischievous things. They could have disrupted 
our election. Thank goodness they didn't, but it would have been as 
simple as going through and just changing the addresses, one digit in 
the address of every registered voter, so when that voter came to vote, 
the ID card or information given to the judge at the election place 
wouldn't match up in terms of their address with the official record. 
That meant they would have voted with a provisional ballot, and those 
ballots would have stacked up with the thousands of people who could 
have been victimized by the Russians in my State of Illinois.
  We said very publicly--we were the first State to say publicly: The 
Russians have done this to us.
  We didn't see any changes in the voter file. We knew they had the 
capacity and ability to do it, but they didn't. We have known ever 
since that they have been attacking our electoral process.
  Why didn't we hear about it as much in the most recent election in 
2018? Well, specifically because we were in the circumstance where we 
were fighting it. Our intelligence agencies were fighting it.
  So this is a valid issue, an important issue, and it is one that I 
hope Leader

[[Page S5154]]

Schumer made clear to those listening to this debate. Why won't Senator 
Mitch McConnell bring to the floor of the U.S. Senate election security 
legislation--bipartisan legislation--that will, in the course of 
passing it, make us safer when it comes to our electoral process? What 
is this kind of bromance between the President and Vladimir Putin? I 
don't understand.
  But now there appears to be another party on the scene. Senator 
McConnell is joining in this effort: Keep our hands off of Russia. 
Don't confront Russia. I don't understand why the Senator from Kentucky 
is taking that position. He should be pushing forward on a bipartisan 
basis to protect our election security.
  Madam President, now I see my friend and Republican colleague from 
Utah is here, and I know the purpose of his attendance. I am about to 
make a statement about TPS status for Venezuelans in the United States. 
I will preface it briefly, make my request, and allow the Senator from 
Utah, if he doesn't want to stay here, to respond, and I will continue.
  Last year, I went to Venezuela. It was my first time. I met with 
President Nicolas Maduro, and I said to him: If you have the election 
you plan to have, it will not be credible, and around the world, you 
will find the United States and many other nations will reject the 
outcome. You have to open up the process. Stop putting your political 
opponents in jail. Have a real election, a free election. Venezuela 
needs it, not just from a constitutional viewpoint, but your economy is 
in shambles, and if you want the world to join you in rebuilding the 
Venezuelan economy, you have to be the credible leader and you can't be 
if you go through with this election as planned.
  That was my speech. It didn't work. He had the election as he planned 
it. He made sure that his opponents were under house arrest or in jail. 
He fixed the vote and ended up declaring himself the winner, and no one 
accepted it. So across the world, you find this resistance to his 
leadership.
  There are some 70,000 people from Venezuela in the United States. 
They are here on visitor visas, work visas, student visas, and similar 
capacities. They are now being asked to return to Venezuela. But listen 
to the circumstances: In Venezuela--we know that it is not safe for 
Americans to visit. Senator Menendez has spoken on this issue. He is 
joining me in this effort today. We are warning Americans that it is 
unsafe to visit Venezuela, but we are telling the Venezuelans who are 
in the United States that they have to go back.
  What we are asking for is temporary protected status for these 
Venezuelans to be able to stay in the United States during the pendency 
of this contest that is going on about the future of that nation.
  People are literally starving to death in Venezuela. They have no 
medicine. It is in the worst possible situation. How can we in good 
conscience say to these Venezuelans who are in the United States that 
they have to return?
  So the purpose of my effort today on the floor is to say that we 
should discharge from the Judiciary Committee legislation that allows 
these Venezuelans to stay here while we have declared it so dangerous 
in their home country. It is a rational and thoughtful thing to do, 
although, sadly, the Trump administration has sent me a letter saying 
they don't approve of it.
  It is time for Congress to act. It is time for the Senate to act. I 
am going to make my formal motion at this point because Senator Lee has 
come to the floor.


                  Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 549

  Madam President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous 
consent that the Judiciary Committee be discharged from further 
consideration of H.R. 549 and the Senate proceed to its immediate 
consideration; further, that the bill be read a third time and passed 
and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table 
with no intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. LEE. Madam President, I reserve the right to object after raising 
a couple of observations.
  It is important to know that this bill was passed by the House of 
Representatives Thursday night. We just received the paperwork from the 
House of Representatives yesterday. This is a bill that did not pass 
unanimously in the House of Representatives--far from it. There were at 
least 158 Republicans who voted against it.
  There are a number of my colleagues in the Senate who, like me, would 
like to see this and many other bills considered but would also like 
the opportunity to adequately review the legislation as passed and to 
propose amendments and have those amendments voted on. So passing this 
bill right now without that opportunity to review it, to propose 
amendments and have those considered, and just passing this unanimously 
is not the way we ought to be passing this legislation.
  I am happy to work with my distinguished colleague and my revered 
friend from Illinois in moving in that direction, but we are not ready 
to pass this by unanimous consent right now. We have amendments to 
propose. So on that basis, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  Mr. DURBIN. Madam President, I want to thank my colleague from Utah. 
I am sorry he objected to my request.
  Why are we moving so quickly on this? Because it is a matter of life 
and death, that is why. Why did we decide that this is of such an 
emergency nature that the House has moved on this already? Because, 
literally, people who are forced to return to Venezuela may face death. 
That is why we are moving on this as quickly as we are.
  I want to thank the House of Representatives for passing this 
measure. It is time for the Senate to act, and we certainly have the 
time on the floor to achieve that.
  As I mentioned, if you go to Venezuela, as I did last year, you can 
see literally on the streets the impact of this disintegration of their 
economy and the problems they are facing.
  I visited Children's Hospital in Caracas, and it was heartbreaking 
for the medical staff to sit down at the table and tell me they didn't 
have the basic medicines we find in our medicine chests at home or in 
the clinics of America when it came to treating these children. They 
did not have antibiotics. They didn't have cancer drugs.
  The economy in Venezuela is disintegrating before our eyes, and these 
people--Venezuelans in the United States, students and others--are 
saying they would like to remain in the United States and stay here 
until it is more stable in their country. Historically, there were no 
questions asked, and we did that. We have done it over and over again. 
But under this administration, whenever the word ``immigrant'' comes 
into the conversation, they freeze.
  The same Trump administration has told us that the Maduro regime is 
unacceptable and that we have to get rid of it because of the terrible 
things that are happening, that the people of Venezuela should have a 
free election to decide their leader. This same administration will not 
help the Venezuelans who say they are fearful of heading home to a 
country that is so dangerous.
  Let me read what this administration, which refuses to give temporary 
protected status, says to people from the United States who may want to 
visit Venezuela. To me, it tells the whole story. Here is what the 
Trump State Department says about Venezuela today in the following 
travel advisory to American citizens:

       Do not travel to Venezuela due to crime, civil unrest, poor 
     health infrastructure, and arbitrary arrest and detention of 
     U.S. citizens. . . . Violent crime, such as homicide, armed 
     robbery, kidnapping, and carjacking, is common. . . . There 
     are shortages of food, electricity, water, medicine, and 
     medical supplies throughout much of Venezuela.

  Those are the words of the Trump administration about this country of 
Venezuela, and when I ask that those who are Venezuelan who are in our 
country not be forced to return to those conditions, there is an 
objection not only from my friend the Republican Senator from Utah but 
also from the Trump administration.
  Now, make no mistake, if temporary protected status is granted, that 
does not mean we won't ask any questions of the Venezuelans here. They 
will have to go through a criminal background check. If they are a 
dangerous person, they are gone, period. No questions. They are gone. 
And that is the

[[Page S5155]]

way it should be. But for those, for example, in my State who are 
university students, who have their student visas coming to an end--
they are asking me: Senator Durbin, will you allow me to stay in the 
United States until it is safe in my country?
  Is that an unreasonable request? If it were Americans in similar 
plights in places around the world, wouldn't we say: Give them a break. 
Give them a chance to stay in a safe place.
  I will close. I want to defer to my friend from New Jersey, Senator 
Menendez, on this issue.
  When I went to Venezuela last year, in Caracas, I had a meeting. It 
was a dinner meeting, and it was an unusual one because it was with six 
members of the General Assembly who are opponents of President Maduro, 
who is currently their leader in that country. These opposition leaders 
opposed him, and their lives were at stake because of it.
  We had dinner in a restaurant. It was an unusual dinner. It was 
upstairs in a back room, and the door was closed so that no one could 
see us. There were six of them, and they said to me: If you come back 
next year, Senator, two of us will have been deported, two of us will 
be in prison; and two of us will have disappeared.
  That is what happens to the opposition in Venezuela if you happen to 
oppose President Maduro. It is that dangerous.
  One of those six was a man named Juan Guaido. I met him that night 
for the first time. Little did I know that he would step up several 
months ago and put his life and his family's lives on the line to say: 
I think Venezuela needs new leadership. Exceptional courage on his 
part. I met him then. I have met his wife since. They are literally 
risking their lives for their country. They understand how dangerous it 
is.
  All I asked for today on the floor is for those Venezuelans who wish 
to stay here in safety until this political scenario plays out, that 
they be allowed to stay here. That is all I was asking for--temporary 
protected status. I am sorry that Senator Lee objected. He did note, 
though, that in some period of time--I hope very soon--he will 
reconsider that position and give us a chance to provide safety for the 
Venezuelans who are visiting here in the United States.
  Because he is here and has been such a great ally of mine in this 
effort, I would like to yield the floor to my friend from New Jersey, 
Senator Menendez.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, let me thank my colleague from 
Illinois, who has been a clarion voice in this regard, a strong 
proponent of human rights and democracy in Venezuela and in other parts 
of the world, but in this case, in Venezuela; who has traveled there at 
a time when people could not travel--certainly from the Congress--in an 
effort to see if there was a pathway forward and to see the plight of 
the Venezuelan people. I really appreciate his cosponsorship with me on 
this temporary protected status for Venezuelans. His leadership is 
critically important, not only as the Democratic whip but also as a 
senior member of the Judiciary Committee that I hope can take up this 
legislation.
  I will say this: I regret that our colleague from Utah, No. 1, 
objected, and No. 2, left. I would just make two observations on his 
comments. No. 1, there was a strong bipartisan vote in the House of 
Representatives. So, no, there was not unanimity, but there was a 
strong bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives. Secondly, this 
legislation has been over here in the Senate for some time. We have 
offered it for some time, so it is not new.
  Thirdly, I would just say as to whether we get to legislate in this 
Chamber, that depends on the majority leader and his side of the aisle, 
who control the floor. We would like to see legislating take place. We 
would be happy to have a debate on the fierce urgency of this as it 
relates to this issue of TPS, temporary protected status.
  I fear my colleague was unaware of what he objected to. This is 
urgently needed legislation that would have granted that temporary--
underline temporary--protected status. This is a class of people who 
need to be protected, the approximately 200,000 Venezuelans currently 
residing in the United States.
  As we all know, the Maduro regime has created an unprecedented 
humanitarian crisis in Venezuela that has now forced more than 4 
million Venezuelans and migrants to flee their homeland--more than 4 
million. Think about it. This is on the verge of becoming one of the 
greatest humanitarian catastrophes in a refugee situation that we have 
in the world--and that is something considering what has happened in 
Syria and other places in the world--right here in our own hemisphere.
  In response to this humanitarian tragedy, last December--this has 
been around several months--Senator Durbin offered the first bipartisan 
bill to provide TPS for Venezuelans, which we reintroduced in February. 
Last week, the House passed their own bipartisan version of the 
legislation with support of dozens of Republican Members. It is an 
unconscionable moral failing for the Senate not to approve this 
legislation.
  Earlier this month, as the senior member of the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee, I traveled to the Venezuela border to see the 
crisis firsthand. I returned convinced that we cannot afford to sit on 
the sidelines any longer. My colleague, I think, would not have 
objected to TPS for Venezuelans if he saw what I saw.
  During my trip to Cucuta, I walked on the Colombian side of the Simon 
Bolivar International Bridge, between Colombia and Venezuela, amidst 
thousands of Venezuelan refugees--30,000 cross each and every day--and 
migrants who cross into Colombia each and every day. I joined thousands 
of Venezuelans who were fleeing hunger as they sought food at the 
Divine Providence soup kitchen.
  I visited patients seeking medical care that is no longer available 
in Venezuela. By the way, Venezuela should be one of the wealthiest 
countries in the Western Hemisphere. It has huge oil and natural gas 
reserves, but despite that they can't get medical care in Venezuela 
because the hospital system has completely collapsed. When I was there 
in Colombia at the border, the United Nations High Commissioner for 
Human Rights issued a report decrying that the Maduro regime's security 
forces had murdered nearly 7,000 Venezuelans in the last 2 years--
7,000. My colleague cannot possibly want to return Venezuelans to the 
cruel conditions they are fleeing. That is what temporary protected 
status is all about.
  I have applauded--I don't find too many times in which I am in 
agreement with the Trump administration, but I supported their efforts 
on sanctions and other efforts around the Maduro regime so we can 
restore democracy and human rights, but how can you say and do all the 
things you are doing in Venezuela and then have a deportation force 
that wants to round up these people who have done nothing wrong and 
send them back to the country where 7,000 have been killed by Maduro?
  These extraordinary conditions have scattered millions of Venezuelans 
in countries across the Americas. Today 1.3 million reside in Colombia, 
750,000 in Peru, 250,000 in Ecuador, and the numbers keep growing. 
Colombia and its neighbors have largely welcomed Venezuelans as they 
flee a devastating humanitarian catastrophe.
  By not approving this bill today, the United States is failing to 
match their efforts and failing to approve temporary protected status 
for the vulnerable of Venezuelans already living in our country.
  For those who doubt whether TPS would make a difference for these 
Venezuelan families, let me share with you a few stories provided to my 
office by the respected Venezuelan human rights group Foro Penal.
  Yuley Gomez is the mother of Luis David, a 4-year-old who has a 
delicate heart condition. In Venezuela, Yuley asked for help from 
everyone she could, but all she received was a prescription for 
painkillers. In a closed-door meeting, she was told privately to wait 
for the inevitable death of her child, a 4-year-old. Just imagine being 
told to wait for a son or daughter to succumb to a treatable illness. 
No parent would do that.
  After great personal sacrifice, Yuley made it to the United States 
and admitted her son into Boston Children's Hospital. Three years 
later, David is

[[Page S5156]]

thriving, but he requires frequent checkups and treatments that remain 
unavailable in Venezuela to this day.
  Then there is Leila Calderon, who resides in my home State of New 
Jersey. Her nephew, who once lived with her in Caracas, is a pilot in 
the Venezuela Armed Forces. He was wrongly arrested for plotting to 
overthrow Maduro. In the absence of evidence, he was released from 
jail, but on his way home, he received a call warning him that military 
counterintelligence agents were waiting for him. When he tried to hide, 
security forces arbitrarily arrested his mother, his girlfriend, and 
his father-in-law. The following day, he was detained and charged once 
more, again with no evidence. He remains imprisoned today.
  Even Leila, who has publicly advocated for his release, has been 
labeled as a ``terrorist'' on national television by the regime thug 
Diosdado Cabello.
  Let me share the story of Omar Acosta. His brother, Captain Rafael 
Acosta Arevalo, was detained on June 21, 2019, by members of the 
Venezuela military counterintelligence. After being forcibly imprisoned 
for a week, on June 28 of 2019, Captain Acosta was rolled into an 
arraignment hearing in a wheelchair, visibly affected by torture. He 
died the following day. The kind of torture that took Captain Acosta's 
life is one of the many dangers Venezuelans in the United States would 
need to fear if we don't approve TPS.
  The Maduro regime's unthinkable abuses have created a full-blown 
refugee crisis in our own hemisphere. These extraordinary, and what we 
pray are temporary, conditions prevent millions of Venezuelans from 
safely returning home, including nearly 200,000 in our own country.
  There has been a broad bipartisan support for the Trump 
administration's effort to confront the Maduro regime. However, as we 
confront Maduro, we cannot turn our back on the Venezuelan people. 
Unfortunately, today the Senate has chosen not to act. We could have 
sent legislation to the President's desk that ensures that vulnerable 
Venezuelans in the United States are not sent back into harm's way--
into potential death or imprisonment. Instead, we did nothing.
  This is a tragedy in its own right. This is what we could have 
avoided today. I am sure Senator Durbin and I will continue to push 
forward. We will both challenge the leadership here to allow us either 
to have this passed or give us a vote. I think the community should 
know who stands on their side and whether they are willing to protect 
them temporarily from the enormous humanitarian catastrophe--the great 
risk of the loss of life or liberty that exists for Venezuelans in the 
United States who have fled to freedom.
  We are going to go out of session the end of this week. That means 
all these people will languish for the summer, not knowing whether, in 
fact, they can be deported back to a country in which they may well 
lose their life or their liberty. That is pretty outrageous. If we 
can't get it done this week, I hope to God we can get it done in 
September. If not, I worry about a continuing crisis that will only 
lead to greater uncertainty and create greater risk to those simply 
fleeing freedom and who are being, by the way, very productive citizens 
here while they are temporarily in our country.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Illinois.
  Mr. DURBIN. I want to thank my colleague from New Jersey for his 
statement and leadership on this issue.
  It is time. When you think about the circumstances, I am reminded of 
when I was in Caracas last year. It was 11 p.m. at night after I 
finished with this dinner with the opposition leaders. As I was headed 
back to the hotel, I saw long lines of people standing by ATM machines 
at 11 p.m. at night. I asked what that was all about. Well, they are 
facing hyperinflation in Venezuela--1 million percent, whatever it may 
be. Every day, these people have to stand in line to withdraw the 
maximum amount from their savings accounts so the next morning they 
have enough money to take the bus to work. That is the circumstance. 
The economy of this country has collapsed.
  The medical care, which you mentioned, and I found at this children's 
hospital and other places, is virtually nonexistent. Diseases, which 
were once eradicated in Venezuela, are returning. Children are dying 
from diseases which long ago we believed were gone. Now they are back 
because there is no vaccine, nothing to treat these children.
  When we ask the Trump administration, which has told us they want to 
get rid of Maduro, to give the Venezuelans a chance at a free election; 
when we ask them, will you at least show some sympathy for the 
Venezuelans in the United States who don't want to return, who want 
temporary protection until this political mess is over--when we ask 
them will you give them that protection, we get a letter from Mr. 
Cuccinelli, who is now the head of citizen services, saying: No, we are 
not going to do that.
  How can you have it both ways? How can you say you care for the 
people of Venezuela, you acknowledge the terrible circumstances of 
their leader, Maduro, yet when it comes to those in the United States, 
you force them to return to this circumstance?
  As you just described, for many of them, you are forcing the return 
to a circumstance which is threatening, if not deadly, with 7,000 
already killed by their secret police and who knows how many have not 
been reported who could have been victims as well.
  Today we made this request on the floor. A Republican Senator 
objected. The next time I am going to come to the floor, I will ask our 
Republican cosponsors to join us. This is a bipartisan effort to try to 
protect these Venezuela people. If they will come join us, perhaps the 
leadership on the Republican side will have second thoughts and give 
these people of Venezuela a chance to be protected here until their 
country is safe.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, one final comment to my colleague. The 
7,000 who have been killed by Maduro's secret police is reflective of 
the fact that those who are here are some of the earliest opponents of 
Maduro--those who tried to create change but fled. They have a 
heightened reason why, in fact, going back--in addition to the chaos 
and in addition to the danger--they are particularly threatened, at the 
end of the day, because they are the ones who were trying to create 
change and found a situation in which the threat of their life was at 
risk so they came to the United States.
  Getting protected status--if there was ever a moment in which 
temporary protected status was envisioned, it is for this situation.
  I yield the floor.
  Mr. DURBIN. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.