[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 30, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5163-S5164]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. CARDIN. Madam President, recently, I joined the Senate delegation 
to visit the southern border and view firsthand the migration and 
humanitarian crisis facing the United States.
  We visited the Donna Holding Facility, the Catholic Charities Respite 
Center, the McAllen Border Patrol Station, and the Ursula Centralized 
Processing Center. Earlier this week, I held a roundtable discussion on 
my trip at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Highlandtown. The group 
was organized by the Latino Providers Network in Baltimore, which 
included representatives from the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee 
Service, Catholic Relief Services, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and 
other nonprofits in the community that do work in Baltimore and at our 
border.
  I was impressed by the Catholic Charities Respite Center run by 
Sister Norma Pimentel. The center provides a warm meal, a shower, a 
change into clean clothes, medicine, and other desperately needed 
supplies. These migrants are very lucky to make it there.
  What I saw in McAllen, by contrast, was very disturbing. I saw many 
families huddled together in overcrowded conditions. I saw children 
behind fencing and, basically, in cages. Some children wore clothing 
that was soiled and had not been changed since they arrived in the 
United States. Children and families were supposed to be there in 
temporary holding only for a day or two, but we heard stories that 
families are being held for up to 10 to 14 days and, in some cases, 
even longer.
  Why are migrants leaving their homes in the first place? These 
individuals are desperate. They are desperate because they are fleeing 
violence and persecution in their home countries. These families are 
often given a terrible choice to have their young son or daughter join 
a criminal gang or suffer the consequences as a family. That means 
being attacked, kidnapped, and even murdered. Even though it is a 
dangerous journey, these families feel they have no choice.
  Let me remind my colleagues that these individuals are lawfully 
seeking asylum at our border and should not be treated as criminals. We 
need to respect their human rights, their rights under international 
law, and their rights under U.S. law.
  These migrants are not trying to do harm to the United States. 
Indeed, government officials told us that the vast majority of those 
screened present no safety risk, such as being on a watch list for 
terrorist or criminal behavior, and that most migrants have not tried 
previously to enter the country illegally.
  I am gravely concerned about the new metering system used by Customs 
and Border Protection for those seeking asylum and refuge in our 
country as part of the expansion of the Remain in Mexico program. 
Normally, a migrant would present themselves to a Customs or Border 
Patrol agent at the point of entry and ask to seek asylum. But under 
the Trump administration's new metering policy, Border Patrol agents 
will stop migrants at the border, oftentimes halfway across the bridge 
as they approach a legal border point of entry. Border Patrol will then 
give the migrant a number, and they will have to then wait for their 
number to be called before they can formally present themselves for 
admission at a legal point of entry.
  How long is the wait for your number to be called? In some cases, it 
is weeks or even months. In the meantime, migrants are told to wait in 
a border town and tent city set up on the other side of the border. One 
of most dangerous towns in all of Mexico is Reynosa, just across the 
border from McAllen Border Patrol Station. Migrants staying in these 
tent cities are subjected to violence, extortion, human trafficking, 
and even death at the hands of gangs that operate with impunity in the 
city, which are effectively not controlled by Mexican law enforcement 
authorities. In fact, the town is so dangerous that U.S. law 
enforcement personnel are forbidden by our government from visiting 
there or trying to meet with migrants on the Mexican side of the 
border. This is outrageous, and America can do better to live up to our 
values.
  Migrants who are desperately fleeing violence and prosecution at home 
come to the United States in search of safety for themselves and their 
families. Now they are told they must wait indefinitely on the Mexican 
side of the border in, essentially, a lawless town where they are at 
the mercy of criminals, gangs, and traffickers who prey on the most 
vulnerable.
  What happens next? Many of these migrants decide they have no choice 
but to cross the border illegally so that they can escape the camps in 
Reynosa. When migrants try to cross the border illegally, they face new 
dangers of dehydration, drowning, and even death.
  Under the Trump administration, the United States is undermining our 
asylum policy and America's leadership in the world in welcoming 
refugees and those fleeing violence and persecution in their home 
countries. Indeed, the Trump administration is deliberately trying to 
hurt migration and legitimate asylum seekers and refugees by making it 
more difficult to seek asylum and deter refugees from coming to the 
United States in the first place. Proposed asylum law changes, such as 
expansion of the Remain in Mexico and metering policies, will make it 
more difficult for asylum seekers to apply if they have traveled 
through multiple countries as they make their way to the United States.
  I believe asylum law should be changed to make it easier for migrants 
to apply in their home country, if safe, and expeditiously get an 
asylum determination from the U.S. Embassy so that they do not have to 
make the dangerous journey to the United States and try to cross our 
border with the uncertainty of what awaits them once they reach the 
U.S. border.
  I am concerned, as well, that migrants who do not ultimately make it 
through the process of applying for asylum may not receive proper 
notice of their hearings before an asylum judge to make their case. 
These are people who are released in our country but have to show up 
for a hearing. The notices may be given out in English, which many 
migrants cannot read. The address may be incorrect or outdated in terms 
of where the migrant is heading in the United States to await their

[[Page S5164]]

asylum hearing before the judge. In other words, the information may be 
inaccurate, and they never get the notices to appear. They are 
therefore out of status and never had a chance to make their case.

  NGOs in Texas made a strong case to our delegation to reinstate the 
Family Case Management Program, which the Trump administration has 
canceled. They explained that if ICE reinstated this program, we could 
see 99 percent compliance with immigration court orders without the 
need for expanded detention and overcrowding. This compliance rate is 
backed up by the track record and statistics of the Department of 
Homeland Security itself when the program was in use. This program is a 
promising alternative to detention that should be expanded instead of 
canceled by the Trump administration.
  Let me say a word about the Border Patrol agents themselves. They are 
trying to do their jobs under difficult circumstances. The main problem 
is the Trump administration's asylum policies, not the Border Patrol 
agents. I hope that the recent emergency supplemental appropriations 
measure passed by Congress and signed by the President will help in 
terms of providing better and more humane care to children in Health 
and Human Services Department custody, under the auspices of the Office 
of Refugee Resettlement. The measure seeks to improve conditions for 
migrants in the Department of Homeland Security's custody by addressing 
the dangerous overcrowding found by the Department of Homeland 
Security's inspector general. The bill improves due process for 
migrants and seeks to ease the immigration court backlog by hiring new 
immigration judges to hear cases and giving migrants greater access to 
the legal orientation program.
  What should Congress do to address the immediate needs of migrants, 
particularly the children, as well as addressing the root cause of this 
humanitarian crisis? I am a cosponsor of the Stop Cruelty to Migrant 
Children Act. This bill would provide guardrails and minimum standards 
for the treatment of children and families, ensuring that government 
funds are not used to traumatize or harm asylum seekers. It would do so 
by dramatically reducing family separations, setting health and safety 
standards, ending the operation of refugee shelters by for-profit 
contractors, making it easier to place children with sponsors, and 
ensuring that unaccompanied children have access to legal counsel.
  In terms of root causes, I have joined with my colleagues in 
introducing the Central America Reform and Enforcement Act designed to 
address the endemic violence and humanitarian crises that are driving 
immigration from Central America and also to smooth the path of those 
seeking asylum in this country. This bill would condition assistance to 
the Northern Triangle governments in order to address the root causes 
of the violence and instability that are driving migration and crack 
down on smugglers, cartels, and traffickers exploiting children and 
families.
  This legislation also enhances monitoring of unaccompanied children 
after they are processed at the border, provides a fair legal process 
for asylum seekers, and improves immigration court efficiencies. Those 
are some of the things we can do.
  In particular, this legislation would reverse the ill-advised foreign 
aid cuts made by the Trump administration that are worsening the 
migration crisis in the Northern Triangle, which includes Honduras, El 
Salvador, and Guatemala.
  I am concerned, however, that the President sees immigration and 
immigrants as a good political issue for the 2020 election. Congress 
needs a partner to take up and pass comprehensive immigration reform, 
which I believe could pass comfortably in both Houses if the President 
of the United States would join us in a constructive manner for 
comprehensive immigration reform.
  This administration has shown just the reverse. The administration 
has proposed a Muslim ban, canceled temporary protected status, 
canceled the DACA--Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival--Program for 
Dreamers, tried to institute an asylum ban, lowered and now seeks to 
eliminate refugee admissions, increased domestic immigration 
enforcement for nonviolent offenders, and sought to expand the program 
of expedited removal of residents in the United States without due 
process or a court hearing.
  In many of these cases, the Trump administration's decisions have 
been subjected to successful legal challenges in court, and, 
thankfully, our independent judiciary has largely continued to uphold 
the rule of law and serves as an important check and balance against 
the worst excesses of the Trump administration as it disregards our 
laws and the Constitution.
  I therefore urge the President to reverse course and work with 
Congress on comprehensive immigration reform, which must include 
sensible border security. Yes, we do need border security. In these 
times, when we have international terrorism and international drug 
trafficking, we need to know who is coming into our country. We have to 
have an orderly way to process those who want to work or live or go to 
school in the United States. But it must include an asylum policy for 
families who are at risk in their native country.
  Let us build on the proud history of America and welcome those who 
seek refuge from persecution and want to help build a better America.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TESTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.