[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 176 (Tuesday, November 5, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6382-S6383]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Attack in Sonora, Mexico

  Mr. LEE. Madam President, I now wish to speak briefly regarding a 
tragedy that occurred just in the last 48 hours--a tragedy that 
occurred in the northern Mexican state of Sonora, a tragedy in which a 
handful of U.S. citizens--the precise number of victims still not 
known--but a number of U.S. citizens were murdered in cold blood. This 
attack was inflicted in a most gruesome manner and was carried out 
against a group which included men, women, and children.
  My thoughts and prayers go out to the families and loved ones of the 
victims. My thoughts and prayers are also extended to the 
administration of President Lopez Obrador in Mexico, whose inauguration 
I attended just a few months ago.
  This is a sobering task to have to identify the source of such a 
heinous and barbaric crime. I have every expectation, every hope, and 
every confidence in those who are assigned on both sides of the border 
to investigate this crime, figure out who did it, and to bring those 
responsible to justice.
  Mexico is a good neighbor to us. We have about $1.6 billion or $1.7 
billion every single day that crosses over our shared southern border. 
Mexico has been a good neighbor, a solid trade partner, and a country 
with which we share many interests. It is a country that desperately 
needs our prayers right now and our help and assistance.
  It has been publicly reported that President Trump and his 
administration are eager to help President Lopez Obrador in combating 
and detecting whoever was responsible for this heinous crime and 
bringing them to justice. I hope and implore the Lopez Obrador 
administration to accept President Trump's generous offer to help.
  This is not an easy task. If, in fact, this was an act, as it appears 
quite possible to have been, of a Mexican-based drug cartel, this is a 
big problem. It is a big problem either way. These drug cartels are no 
small threat to the safety and security of not only the people of 
Mexico but also the people of the United States.
  Think about it. Imagine someone sees in their next-door neighbor's 
backyard a poisonous snake--a poisonous snake that is big and that is 
headed toward his property. Is that neighbor going to stop and ignore 
that snake? In many circumstances, that neighbor is going to take 
action. He might not wait until his neighbor comes home to give the go-
ahead to take care of that snake. Why? Because that snake is headed 
toward his own backyard where his own children are playing.
  This is not something we can trifle with. This is a matter of utmost 
seriousness for the safety and security of the Mexican people and also 
the people of the United States.

[[Page S6383]]

  I applaud the Lopez Obrador administration for its efforts to root 
out corruption and to bring justice to the drug cartels. This brazen 
attack within the last 48 hours signals a need to do more. This is why 
I am so grateful to President Trump that he was willing to reach out 
and offer the assistance that can be provided by the United States. I 
urge President Lopez Obrador to accept it and to do so very soon.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. CRAMER. Madam President. First of all, I have never come to the 
floor of the Senate--and previously of the House--as ill-prepared as 
today, but I want to follow up on something my friend from Utah just 
spoke about, and that is the attack on the innocent people in the last 
48 hours. When I learned of it last night, I was stunned.
  I just got off the phone a few minutes ago with the brother and 
sister of one of the victims. A young mother, Anita Miller, was killed 
along with her four children. They were in the first SUV that was shot 
up and burnt. They were on their way to Phoenix to pick up their dad 
from North Dakota--Howard--who was working on an oil rig as this 
occurred. I just talked to Howard's brother Kenny and his sister 
Heather.
  All of the Millers and the LeBarons who are victims of this have 
many, many family members in North Dakota. They have lots of businesses 
in the State of North Dakota. They are hard-working, faithful people.

  It was a hard phone call to make. This was a hard message to deliver. 
And I didn't really know what to deliver except that I wanted them to 
know that the people of their country and the United States are hugging 
the people of their country, Mexico, and that what they have 
experienced is certainly the personification of evil in the form of 
these thugs from this cartel, for sure. They are people who kill with 
reckless abandon. They have no regard for life, even the life of 
innocent children. But we serve a God who personifies pure good, and 
the greatest response to pure evil is pure good.
  Kenny and I had a particularly long talk regarding his family--what 
they are experiencing and what is going on. They wanted me to know that 
they support the United States as well as their country. They wanted me 
to tell the President that they support what he is doing and appreciate 
his offer of help to the Mexican Government.
  I told them that there is lots of time for talking about the response 
of one government working with another but that, right now, grief is 
sort of the emotion of the moment, and remembering their loved ones is 
important, and we would be doing it as a Congress, as an 
administration, as a country, and as the State of North Dakota, which 
embraces these people we know and love so much. We will do what needs 
to be done, and we stand ready, first of all, to hold them up in prayer 
and to share their burden with them.
  I wanted to express as much as anything that their burden is ours 
today and that, to the degree we can share a burden like this, we are 
sharing it. We will react. We will respond in whatever way is 
appropriate and whatever way we can.
  I join Senator Lee in gratitude to President Trump for his reaching 
out and his offer of assistance. It can't be easy to live in a country 
or even to rule a country where the cartels are so powerful, where 
their weapons are as good as, if not better than, the weapons of the 
police and maybe even the military. It can't be easy to stand up to 
that, but with good friends and allies and neighbors, perhaps now, 
perhaps this event and perhaps the grief of these families will be the 
things that bring two countries together to fight this evil.
  I will end as I began and look forward to future days when we speak 
more thoroughly about it and there is more information on it, but to 
remind perhaps ourselves as much as anything, the only effective 
response to pure evil is pure love. As people of faith, we know pure 
love is personified in our Lord. So tonight, my message to the families 
in Mexico, North Dakota, and Utah is that we love them. We love them.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.