[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 160 (Wednesday, September 16, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5632-S5637]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                         Issues Facing America

  Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, when I was growing up, I was 
raised to believe in the American dream. My mom taught me that we were 
blessed because God and our Founders created the greatest country ever, 
where anything was possible. We weren't allowed to complain. Debt, Big 
Government, socialism, and communism were bad. College was for a better 
paying job. Church on Sundays was absolutely not optional.
  While I didn't always appreciate my tough-love, my-way-or-the-highway 
mom growing up, I now thank God every day for my mom and this country. 
She gave me the opportunity to experience every lesson this country had 
to offer before I was 20.
  Sadly, the values that I grew up with are becoming a way of the past, 
but I believe these values, these virtues, can and should be part of 
our country's future. The left has worked hard over the last 50 years 
to discredit the values of the America I was raised with and the values 
of the America I want my grandkids to grow up with.
  In recent weeks, we have seen the Democrats try hard to paint our 
President and the entire Republican Party as ``darkness,'' but let me 
tell you what darkness would actually look like in America.
  What if our country turned the keys over to the far left and turned 
away from capitalism in favor of socialism? The data is already in on 
that. The result would be the same as it has been throughout history: 
Socialism would destroy our economy and cause widespread poverty and 
oppression. Darkness.
  What if our country just gave up on the battle to protect innocent 
human life and agreed with the political party that proudly embraces 
the killing of the unborn at any time, for any reason? Darkness.
  What if we decide to change our First Amendment, editing out our 
freedom of speech and freedom of religion, forcing Christians and Jews 
to retreat from the public square and silencing any who dare to speak 
up? Darkness.
  What if America did what every authoritarian government in history 
has done and must eventually do--disarm the American people? Darkness.
  What if we defunded our police forces across the country, even just 
partially? What would happen to public safety? How would life in our 
cities be affected? Turn on your TV for the answer. Darkness.
  What if we allowed people to throw homemade bombs at police and burn 
down police stations and then pretended that these violent 
demonstrations are peaceful? Darkness.
  What if we enacted the Green New Deal? Literal darkness.
  What if we let China--a Communist country that systematically 
imprisons and murders its own citizens--take advantage of American 
workers and put them out of work? Darkness.
  What if we teach our kids that America is a bad country with an evil 
history that must be erased and that America is fundamentally a morally 
bankrupt country? Darkness.
  Republicans are fighting for issues that the American public care 
about. People want good jobs, a good education for their kids, and they 
want to live in safe communities. Republicans are working to defend our 
law enforcement, invest in our military, secure the border, and stop 
illegal immigration. Republicans are standing up to dictators in Latin 
America and to Communist China, after the Democrats have appeased them 
for decades.
  Here is the fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans: 
Democrats want to control your life; Republicans want to give you a 
life. Republicans want to give every American the opportunity to live 
their version of the American dream. Governments don't do that. 
Politicians don't do that.
  The American people are dreamers, and if we get government out of 
their way, the innovation, determination, and entrepreneurial spirit of 
the American people and American business will shine bright.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
  Mr. YOUNG. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the dangerous path 
that national Democrats are spiraling on down and to caution our 
countrymen not to follow them. Radicals on the far left have hijacked 
an otherwise righteous cause and are in command of a once proud 
political party that traces its heritage back to Jefferson and Madison.
  The violence the radicals have unleashed threatens lives. The cancel 
culture they imposed curtails liberty. And their misguided means of 
creating economic equality endangers the pursuit of happiness.
  Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and their hand-picked Democratic candidates 
are

[[Page S5633]]

empowering the radical wing of today's national Democratic Party--the 
same people responsible for the chaos now on full display across our 
country. The national leaders of the Democratic Party offer them 
sanctuary.
  They make excuses for radicals' destructive behavior, the way an 
embarrassed parent does for a mischievous child. To them, the riots 
that are occurring from Minneapolis to Indianapolis are only peaceful 
protests. Promises to defund police departments are just ways of 
reimaging police--whatever that means. It is the same sleight of hand 
that turns government-run healthcare into Medicare for all who want it.
  Most Democrats will not publicly embrace the socialist policies the 
mob howls for because they know the American people will not buy it. 
But once in power, they will be all too happy to implement these 
radical policies, and that means a mainstream national Democratic 
agenda that will abolish and defund police departments; take away on-
the-job insurance; pack the Supreme Court of the United States; raise 
taxes; give Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico the same number of U.S. 
Senators that the State of Indiana has; eliminate the legislative 
filibuster and, therefore, the right of the minority within this 
institution; and spend trillions of dollars of new government programs 
that Americans don't need or want.
  They are allies--the destroyers and these national Democrats I 
reference--only they can't be straight with the American people about 
their alliance, and their leaders just can't seem to summon the simple 
moral clarity that says racism is evil and so is using it to justify 
violence and vandalism.
  Blessedly, in my State, local Democratic elected officials have had 
enough. In fact, in recent weeks, several Hoosier public servants have 
left their party and they have become Republicans. To clearly 
understand the choice before us, we need only listen to their 
explanations why.
  This is Brian Snedecor, mayor of Hobart, who just switched from a 
Democrat to a Republican. He says:

       I must be true to my God, my family, myself and those that 
     have supported and believed in me . . . I want Hobart to be a 
     place for business to come and the American Dream to be 
     achieved.

  And then we have Dave Wedding, Vanderburgh County sheriff, who also 
just became a Republican. Sheriff Wedding says:

       I'm tired of seeing fires set in our streets. I'm tired of 
     people defying God, our church, our police, our government 
     and everything we stand for.

  I happen to believe that every regular American feels the same way, 
and they will look to us to protect the American Dream and put out the 
fires--literal and figurative--in our streets.
  The choice that each of us must make in the coming weeks is pretty 
darned clear: law and order or anarchy; an economy that is growing or 
employers and workers which are grounded; citizens who are free and 
flourishing or subjects dependent on government.
  What the radicals don't understand is that though we were born by 
revolution, the history of America is one of steady progress--a 
determined march together for the common good and towards an ever 
better union. We have to lead that march.
  When far-left Democrats offer dangerous ideas and unfulfillable 
promises, Republicans will counter with innovative thinking and 
results-driven policies. We will create ways to help every American 
access affordable healthcare, afford a college education, advance their 
careers, raise a family, and buy a home that they can call their own.
  Republicans will play a part in the reinvigoration of economically 
disadvantaged areas, both rural and urban. Ours is an America where 
everyone lives free of fear and is able to speak their mind, and where 
citizens, no matter their color or their ZIP Code, can climb as high 
and fly as far as their ambition and ability allows.
  Their way leads to a dead end, ours to an endless frontier. They tear 
down. We will build. The path forward is clear.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Iowa.
  Ms. ERNST. Mr. President, I would like to thank my colleagues for 
joining me on the floor today. It is clear that America is facing two 
separate, very different paths.
  Last Thursday, the Democrats in this Chamber blocked much needed 
assistance to families and small businesses struggling to make ends 
meet amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and they did it for one 
reason only--politics. Our friends across the aisle didn't want to 
provide $15 billion in childcare, more than $250 billion of additional 
Paycheck Protection Program loans for small businesses, $105 billion 
for schools, and $20 billion for farmers.
  While this aid is vital to my fellow Iowans, it would have helped 
families and communities all across the Nation, in red and blue States. 
There is no denying that the damage being caused by this pandemic is 
real. Businesses are being shut down, schools are being closed, and 
lives are being lost. Yet this toll is apparently not enough for the 
other side to set politics aside, even momentarily, to come together 
and help our fellow citizens with their daily struggles.
  This senseless obstruction is leaving Iowa families to fend for 
themselves when they most need a helping hand. In so many ways, this 
represents the distinct difference between the two political parties at 
this very moment.
  While Senate Republicans are leading efforts to get America back up 
and running and guarantee opportunities for everyone, Democrats are 
embracing obstruction and anarchy.
  Following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, my friend 
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina introduced legislation to tackle 
police reform in a meaningful way. The bill he proposed would have 
enacted long overdue policies, such as finally making lynching a 
Federal crime, ending the use of police choke holds, expanding the use 
of body cameras by law enforcement, and increasing other forms of 
transparency and accountability.
  Yet despite the impassioned pleas of Americans across the country 
demanding justice for George Floyd and other African-Americans who have 
died in police custody, Democrats blocked the Senate from even debating 
Senator Scott's thoughtful police reform bill this past summer.
  Shouldn't we all be able to agree, regardless of our party 
affiliation, that Congress needs to take action to guarantee that no 
American should fear walking on the streets, especially in their own 
neighborhood? That guarantee should include people of color and 
peaceful protesters, as well as our law enforcement officers doing 
their jobs.
  As a consequence of the Democrats' obstruction, the streets in some 
of America's great cities have descended into a state of chaos and 
lawlessness, immersed in violence and vandalism, arson and murder.
  When taxpayers turn to their elected leaders--whether for assistance 
to provide for their families during a pandemic, for protection from 
unfair policing practices, or for simple safety when walking down the 
street--the Democrats have responded with silence and inaction.
  Even when I attempted to call up a bill to reauthorize the Violence 
Against Women Act--a bill that is very personal to me and that also had 
bipartisan support--the Democrats objected to that bill as well. And 
the same was true for my commonsense bill, Sarah's Law, which would 
hold illegal immigrants who harm or murder an American citizen 
accountable.
  It is no wonder that folks across this country are so frustrated with 
Washington and fed up with politicians. Folks, just one friendly 
reminder: Our country's direction will soon be decided by her people. 
America must now choose between two paths to take into the future, and 
that choice could not be starker.
  At a time when we need leadership and reassurance, the Democrats are 
instead offering obstruction, lockdowns, and anarchy. Our friends 
across the aisle are actually promising--folks, they are promising--to 
increase taxes on hardworking Americans and even promising to defund 
the police. That is right, folks. You get to pay more taxes in exchange 
for less safety and security. That doesn't sound like a good deal to 
me.
  Speaking of bad bargains, you can expect the Democrats to pass their 
Green New Deal if they are given the chance.

[[Page S5634]]

This radical environmental plan would destroy our very way of life in 
Iowa.
  The roadmap offered by Republicans is much brighter, to say the 
least: reopening America safely; real reforms to end excessive use of 
force by police without putting the safety of everyone at risk by 
defunding the police; building upon the successful pro-growth policies 
that created the greatest economy and historically low unemployment 
rates for every demographic; and bringing the jobs that were exported 
under the previous administration back to America and ending our 
dependency on foreign nations like Red China.
  Folks, with our country and the world facing one of the greatest 
health and economic emergencies in history, we simply cannot risk our 
recovery on the radical designs of the Democrats. Let's pursue the path 
towards a renewed United States of America that guarantees safety and 
greater opportunities for every citizen to pursue the American dream.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cotton). The Senator from Illinois.


                  Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 549

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I am going to make a unanimous consent 
request in a moment, but I would like to preface it by saying what it 
is about so that as we explain it after the unanimous consent request 
is objected to, it will be clearer.
  In the nation of Venezuela, there exists today an incredible 
political situation. I have been there to see it. There is a dictator 
in charge, and life on the street is deadly--so deadly that millions of 
Venezuelans are fleeing the country as fast as possible.
  There is a limitation on food and medicine. There is so much 
suffering and starvation and deprivation that these people have given 
up everything, and they are just leaving. The United States knows that 
this is under the leader, Maduro. It reached a point where it is 
physically dangerous--so much so that we have a warning to American 
travelers not to go to Venezuela, to stay away because it is too 
dangerous.
  Yet thousands of Venezuelans now in the United States are facing the 
threat of being forced return to this deadly, dangerous situation. The 
same State Department that warns Americans not to travel to Venezuela 
is now trying to force those Venezuelans who are here as students and 
others to go back to this deadly situation.
  Senator Menendez and I and others think it just makes sense for us to 
give these people a shelter until it is safe for them to return to 
their home. That is what this request is about.
  Mr. President, as 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 considered read a third time 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?
  Mr. THUNE. Reserving the right to object. On behalf of my colleague 
Senator Lee, who cannot be here to object on his own because he is 
chairing an Energy subcommittee hearing, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Illinois
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I know the Senator from South Dakota is 
making the objection on behalf of Senator Lee, and I have been called 
to do the same thing from time to time. I won't assign any political 
blame to him, but I will say this is a serious mistake and deadly 
mistake for these Venezuelans.
  This is an issue which in many parts of America is red hot. Those of 
Venezuelan ancestry or those who are here in a temporary status cannot 
understand what just happened. They want to stay here safely. They 
don't want to be forced to return to this nation that is such a 
dangerous place under this dictator.
  A number of times in the last year, Senator Menendez, who is on the 
floor with me here, has joined with me on behalf of the Venezuelan 
people. President Trump boasts that he supports these people.
  The idea is simple: While the country remains a dictatorial 
nightmare, grant Venezuelans in the United States temporary protected 
status or TPS. It is the kind of commonsense move a self-confident 
nation and one that really cares about humanity would do to demonstrate 
real leadership and accept.
  TPS is a temporary immigration status provided to foreign nationals 
if returning to their country poses a serious threat to their safety 
for any variety of reasons--natural disaster, environmental disaster, 
extraordinary conditions, armed conflicts. Certainly by every objective 
measure, the situation in Venezuela today is deadly and dangerous. It 
is not a permanent immigration status we are seeking for these 
Venezuelans, just a measure of American decency and solidarity with 
those who might be in the United States when a calamity occurs in their 
home country. Prior administrations of both political parties have 
granted it for people from countries facing these circumstances.
  The situation in Venezuela is dire. Currently, the United States is 
working with regional partners to foster an end to the disastrous 
dictatorship clinging to power in Venezuela.
  I was there before the sham 2018 election. What I saw was 
heartbreaking--people starving and fainting at work from malnutrition; 
hospitals without power or basic medicines. I visited a Catholic 
children's hospital in Caracas. They told me they didn't have the 
basics to treat these children. Antibiotics and cancer drugs were 
unavailable.
  Millions were fleeing this country and still are, as refugees into 
neighboring countries. There is brutal political repression. If you 
disagree with Maduro publicly, be prepared to go to prison. There is 
staggering government corruption and dismantling of the government's 
democracy. Now, the tragic impacts of coronavirus have made the 
situation worse as well.
  I supported this administration's efforts to work with other nations 
to support the interim Presidency of Juan Guaido. I had a chance to 
speak with President Guaido on the phone yesterday. I am deeply moved 
by his courage and concern for the Venezuelan people amid the 
suffering. Think about what he is up against. Here is a man who at any 
moment could face imprisonment or worse.
  It is remarkable that more than 2 years after an internationally 
discredited Presidential election, Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro 
is now planning another illegitimate election instead of finally 
holding a fair, credible Presidential contest.
  I asked President Guaido: Are there going to be any international 
observers of this international election coming up this December?
  Oh, yes.
  I said: Who?
  He said: The Russians.
  I said: What a coincidence. They are observing our election too.
  Venezuela has tragically fallen from President Trump's attention. One 
simple step he could take is grant TPS to Venezuelans here in the 
United States. He repeatedly refuses. There are travel warnings to 
Americans telling people not to go close to Venezuela, but for the 
Venezuelans here on visa or TPS status: You have to go home. The 
President has refused, I suspect, because the depth of his anti-
immigrant cruelty really has no limits.
  Despite the chest-thumping to audiences in Florida about taking on 
Venezuelan dictators, President Trump has, in fact, turned his back on 
the Venezuelans in the United States who truly need his protection. 
Nobody should be surprised, as former National Security Advisor John 
Bolton wrote in his book, that the President praised Maduro as 
``smart'' and ``tough'' and waffled on any kind of coherent policy in 
the region and told Bolton not to get too deeply involved. President 
Trump can't have it both ways.
  I have met many Venezuelans in my home State of Illinois. I can tell 
you that they are desperately worried about being forced to return to 
the chaos, violence, and hopelessness of the current Venezuela
  The Trump administration's travel advisory says it all:

       Do not travel due to COVID-19, crime, civil unrest, poor 
     health infrastructure, kidnapping, arbitrary arrest and 
     detention of U.S. citizens . . . . Violent crime, such as 
     homicide, armed robbery, kidnapping, and carjacking, is 
     common.

  Yet the Republicans come to the floor and object to our efforts to 
protect the Venezuelans who are doing

[[Page S5635]]

their best to avoid what I just read as a warning to American 
travelers.
  Just today, U.N. investigators released findings saying that under 
Maduro, Venezuela has ``committed egregious violations'' amounting to 
crimes against humanity. How can this President and the State 
Department possibly force people to return to Venezuela under these 
conditions? And now, with Maduro detaining returning refugees and 
calling them ``bioterrorists,'' the idea of going back is even more 
dangerous.
  Since the White House wouldn't act more than a year ago, the House, 
under Democratic control, passed a bipartisan bill granting TPS to 
Venezuelans by a margin of 272 to 158. Senator Menendez, Senator Rubio, 
and I introduced a similar Senate bill, but the majority leader, Mitch 
McConnell, still refuses to bring up any bill that just might not 
please President Trump--even ones that supposedly he is publicly 
supporting.
  Senator Menendez and I have tried to call up the House bill for 
passage, only to face objections, just as we did today, from Senate 
Republicans who refuse to stand up to this President's failure on this 
and so many other foreign policies.
  When we brought this up last July, Senate Republicans objected 
because they said they wanted to debate it in the Judiciary Committee. 
Well, 12 months passed with plenty of opportunities. Our Venezuelan TPS 
bill was referred to the committee in February of 2019. Yet there has 
been no action, no hearing, no markup. The Immigration Subcommittee is 
not overloaded with work. Under Chairman Cornyn, we have had exactly 
one subcommittee meeting in the past 1\1/2\ years. It hasn't held a 
single hearing this year, and the Senate Judiciary Committee hasn't 
considered a single immigration bill.
  This administration could grant TPS without congressional action, but 
it refuses. Senate Republicans could pass the bipartisan House bill to 
grant Venezuelans TPS, but they refuse as well. Let it be clear that 
the real failure to help Venezuelans in the United States rests on 
their shoulders--the President and the Republican majority in the 
Senate.
  The Venezuelan policy, like so many others with this administration 
and the Senate, is only there to serve President Trump and no one else.
  I made my offer in the hope that we could bring this matter to the 
floor. I am sorry it met an objection. I thank my colleagues for 
joining me on this effort.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that there may 
be portions where I may say a few words in Spanish, and I will provide 
a translation for the clerk.
  I ask unanimous consent to be able to do that.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, we are here today once again to join 
Senator Durbin, who has been on the floor with me or I with him I don't 
know how many times now as it relates to this issue. We are here to 
urge the Senate to immediately approve legislation that would designate 
Venezuelans for temporary protected status.
  There are some 200,000 Venezuelans who are currently living in the 
United States. They are unable to return home safely, and they would 
benefit from TPS.
  We should be doing the right thing. We should be upholding American 
values and offering them protection, but once again, our Republican 
colleagues have blocked our efforts.
  We know what is at stake. Venezuela continues to experience the worst 
humanitarian crisis in our hemisphere. Its people continue to suffer 
food and medicine shortages, levels of criminal violence akin to a 
conflict zone, and grave human rights abuses under the Maduro regime. 
As if that were not enough, Venezuelans face the alarming spread of 
COVID-19 with a public health system in ruins.
  For 7 years, Maduro's devastating abuses of the Venezuelan people 
have left them with little choice but to stay and suffer or flee and 
have a chance at survival--flee the political persecution, flee the 
oppression.
  In Maduro's Venezuela, families struggle to feed themselves and 
children tragically die of treatable diseases. More than half of all 
Venezuelan doctors have fled the country, and 40 percent of hospitals 
lack electricity and 70 percent lack regular access to water. Senate 
Republicans want to leave the Venezuelans who are in the United States 
at risk of deportation back to Maduro's nightmare rather than take 
action. Meanwhile, the Maduro regime is using the spread of COVID-19 to 
further tighten its control.

  Last month, Human Rights Watch reported that dozens of journalists, 
healthcare workers, human rights lawyers, and political opponents have 
been detained or prosecuted for merely criticizing or questioning the 
regime's official statistics on the pandemic.
  Take the case of Ivan Virguez, a 65-year-old human rights attorney 
who had expressed concern on Facebook about ``quarantine centers'' that 
had been set up by the regime. In response, police officers handcuffed 
him to a metal tube in a prison yard, under the Sun for 2 hours, and 
left him without access to a bathroom for over a day, causing him to 
become sick with bladder pain. Ivan remains under house arrest and 
without access to his criminal file and no due process.
  (English translation of the statement made in Spanish is as follows:)
  As Senator Durbin said, ``just today, the United Nations released a 
report finding that Maduro's yearslong campaign of extrajudicial 
killings and torture amounts to crimes against humanity.'' Yet 
President Trump and Senate Republicans refuse to provide humanitarian 
protection to Venezuelans in the United States.
  The extraordinary conditions in Venezuela have forced more than 5 
million Venezuelans to flee their country in search of protection. Last 
year, I traveled to Cucuta, which is the border city between Colombia 
and Venezuela, and I saw for myself the thousands of refugees and 
migrants who cross every day. I will never forget their stories--
stories of heartbreak and suffering from people leaving everything they 
have ever known behind--their homes, their loved ones--in an attempt to 
survive.
  We have applauded Venezuela's neighbors, including Colombia, Ecuador, 
Peru, and Brazil, for welcoming Venezuelan refugees and migrants 
despite their having far fewer resources than the United States. Yet 
the Trump administration has failed to ensure that America lives up to 
its history as a beacon of freedom and hope around the world.
  Many Venezuelans in the United States today who would be eligible for 
TPS are stuck in immigration detention. The Trump administration and 
the Republican-led Senate have failed to grant them TPS, which leaves 
them facing uncertainty and the fear of deportation. Many others who 
have come from Venezuela to seek political asylum have been turned back 
and deported--back to countries like Mexico and with all of the risks 
that those border cities present. They have not even been given a 
chance to make their political asylum claims.
  So make no mistake: The Trump administration has all of the authority 
it needs to designate Venezuela immediately--it doesn't need this 
legislation--but the President has chosen not to. That is why we 
introduced legislation that would grant TPS to our Venezuelan brothers 
and sisters. The House has already passed a similar bill.
  Now, I have had other issues here in the Senate for which I have had 
to do this before, and I will do it again. I am not going to relent in 
our effort to grant Venezuelans the protections they deserve. Every 
time my Republican colleagues have wanted to stop our Nation from 
ultimately making progress, we have had to shame them into submission, 
and this is no different. I am not going to stop until the United 
States truly stands in solidarity with the Venezuelan people.
  If you don't want to give them TPS, let them make their claims for 
political asylum, but then you take them and turn them away before they 
can make cases for political asylum when we know--God--that there is a 
good case for political asylum coming out of Venezuela.
  Then we have had colleagues in the past, one being Senator Scott, of 
Florida, who came and objected to our TPS proposal for Venezuelans. He 
suggested

[[Page S5636]]

that we have to change all of TPS because, in fact, it had become more 
than a temporary protected status.
  Well, guess what. The Ninth Circuit Court actually made a decision 
which I disagree with, but we call attention to the action that comes 
on the heels of a disappointing Ninth Circuit decision issued on Monday 
that says that the Trump administration's cruel efforts to strip 
protections of over 300,000 current TPS holders is permissible. So 
there goes the argument that, oh, well, TPS is permanent. No. The 
President could have granted it, and he can end it when he feels the 
conditions in Venezuela no longer should give the opportunity for 
Venezuelans to continue to have temporary protected status. So that 
argument is out of the way.
  As for debating this in the Committee on the Judiciary, well, you 
have had over a year to debate it since we started this. You are in the 
majority. You control the committee, and you control the subcommittee. 
You could have had the debates. We don't come to the floor lightly to 
seek unanimous consent. We do it after having waited a considerable 
time for the debates to have taken place--the debates you said you 
wanted--but they haven't come.
  There are people living, working, and raising families legally in the 
United States who have Venezuelan backgrounds. Yet the President is 
doing everything he can to line them up for deportation. Of those at 
risk, 130,000 essential workers are among them, who have sacrificed 
their health during this pandemic to ensure that all Americans have 
access to healthcare, food, and basic necessities.
  The administration's efforts are also endangering over 273,000 U.S. 
citizen children who call a TPS holder ``Mom'' or ``Dad.'' That is 
right. In the midst of a deadly pandemic, this administration wants to 
deport the parents of hundreds of thousands of American children or 
force these families to relocate their children to unstable, wholly 
unfamiliar countries.
  This callous disregard for TPS holders and the greater immigrant 
community has to stop. We shouldn't wait for the Ninth Circuit's 
decision to be appealed. We have to create a permanent solution for TPS 
holders who have become integral to our communities and deserve a 
pathway. The Senate should not only take up TPS but pass the American 
Dream and Promise Act, H.R. 6, which passed the House with bipartisan 
support more than a year ago.
  What are we waiting for?
  (English translation of the statement made in Spanish is as follows:)
  Venezuelans deserve TPS right now. We cannot wait
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maryland.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleagues 
Senator Menendez and Senator Durbin in urging the U.S. Senate to do the 
right thing and grant protected status to Venezuelans in this country. 
At this moment, I thank them for their continued leadership on this 
issue and for making sure we have immigration policies that live up to 
what this country has always stood for.
  As my colleagues have pointed out, Venezuela is suffering a dire 
humanitarian crisis under the dictatorship of Nicolas Maduro. Its 
economy has collapsed, and its medical system is in free fall. They are 
governing through a reign of terror.
  Even before COVID-19 struck, Venezuelans were facing shortages of 
food, of water, of gasoline, and other lifesaving items. The pandemic 
has taken a very bad situation and made it much worse--in fact, 
desperate. An estimated two-thirds of physicians in Venezuela lack 
access to basic sanitary equipment, like gloves, masks, soap, or 
goggles, and only 25 percent of the doctors have reliable running water 
in their hospitals and clinics.
  On top of this desperate economic situation, you have the political 
tyranny and terror that has been imposed by the Maduro regime. In fact, 
as my colleagues pointed out just this morning, U.N. investigators 
found that Venezuelan security forces and allied groups have committed 
systemic human rights violations, including killings and torture, 
amounting to crimes against humanity. Reasonable grounds exist to 
believe that President Maduro and his Interior and Defense Ministers 
ordered or contributed to these crimes against humanity, which are 
documented in the U.N. report. The U.N. factfinding mission has said 
that other national jurisdictions and the International Criminal Court 
should consider prosecutions. So you have a desperate situation.
  President Trump claims to support the people of Venezuela who are 
facing this tyranny and this desperation. In fact, as Senator Durbin 
said, he has on numerous occasions said he was sympathetic and that he 
wanted to help.
  Here is what he said last year: ``To the Venezuelans trapped in this 
nightmare, please know that all of America is behind you.''
  That is what President Trump said. Yet he has refused to use his 
authority to take action to grant Venezuelans here in the United States 
that temporary protected status. He wants to send them back to what he 
describes as a nightmare--a nightmare that is getting worse by the day 
as documented by the U.N. report. He wants to send them back to a place 
where the U.N. has just implicated the government in crimes against 
humanity.
  Because the President refuses to do what he says--refuses to actually 
take action to help--the House has passed legislation to grant 
Venezuelans TPS. My colleagues Senator Menendez and Senator Durbin have 
introduced that legislation here in the Senate, and I am proud to 
cosponsor it. Yet, as we are saying here today, the fastest thing to do 
is to just take up the House bill and pass it. So it is incredibly 
disturbing that our Republican colleagues would get up and block a vote 
on that action on the very day when the government in question, the 
Government of Venezuela, has been found to have committed crimes 
against humanity.
  The majority in this Senate says: Well, don't worry about that. If 
you are here in the United States, we are going to insist that you go 
back home. We are going to insist that you put yourself and your family 
back this danger.
  That is what our Senate Republican colleagues are saying by blocking 
the vote on this House TPS measure. They are forcing innocent people to 
go home to what the President himself described as a nightmare.
  As my colleagues have said and as we know, this is part of an 
inhumane, anti-immigration agenda from this administration--from the 
Muslim ban, to ending DACA, to the termination of TPS for many other 
populations. This President has separated families and instilled fear 
in our communities.
  Senator Menendez referenced the Ninth Circuit Court's decision from 
earlier this week, the decision of its upholding, on a 2-to-1 vote, the 
President's decision to rescind TPS protections for over 400,000 
individuals who are here, working in our communities, living here 
legally with their families. Many of them have been here for over 20 
years. As he said, 130,000 of them are on our frontlines as essential 
workers. More than 10,000 of them are medical professionals who put 
themselves at risk to help others throughout our communities and our 
country. These are individuals who are our neighbors and small business 
men and women, and they are contributing to our communities and to our 
country. The President has said he wants to deport them--400,000 
people--despite this hour of peril both here and even more so in the 
countries to which they would be required to return.
  That is why we have to pass the SECURE Act--to provide stability and 
security to those who are on TPS. That is why we have to pass the 
American Dream and Promise Act that the House passed last year.
  That is why we need to grant TPS to Venezuela, so, as my colleagues 
say, this country can do what Presidents from both political parties 
have done in the past and Members of the House and Senate from both 
political parties have done in the past, which is to live up to the 
idea that we are a place of refuge for those who are facing political 
persecution at home.
  I don't know how you can more clearly define ``political 
persecution'' on this day than a finding by the United Nations that the 
Government of Venezuela is committing crimes against humanity, against 
the people of Venezuela. Yet, that is the day that, once again, we saw 
our Republican colleagues block this legislation that would allow our 
country to live up to our tradition of doing the right thing.

[[Page S5637]]

  As Senator Menendez said, I look forward to joining him as we 
continue to press this issue. I guess the only good news is that it 
seems to be getting a little harder for the other side--our Republican 
colleagues--to find somebody who wants to come here in the light of day 
and object to it. I hope that in the coming days, that number will be 
zero and we can actually pass this important piece of legislation.
  I yield the floor.

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