[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 3, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1001-S1002]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              IMMIGRATION

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on a completely different matter, just 
6 weeks into unified Democratic government, we already have another 
crisis brewing on our southern border. In January, Customs and Border 
Protection logged more than 78,000 encounters on our southwest border, 
more than double the figure from January of 2020.
  Last week, HHS sources told reporters we just logged the busiest 
February in the history of the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program. 
The number of kids turning up on our border with no parents is soaring, 
and everyone expects the numbers to keep climbing.
  Now the Biden administration is reportedly planning to reopen the 
same kinds of emergency shelters over which Democrats vilified the 
Trump administration a couple of years back. Both President Biden and 
his Secretary of Homeland Security have said this week they don't think 
this is a crisis. Not a crisis, they say? Well, if this isn't a crisis, 
with unaccompanied kids pouring in and exceeding the capacity in a 
pandemic, I would hate to see what one looks like.
  The cause of this emergency is not some mystery. It is not mysterious 
at all. Everybody knows exactly what happened. The new administration 
explicitly campaigned on weakening border security, and 6 weeks in, 
they have reversed the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy, begun letting more 
people in in a haphazard way, and broadcast confusing mixed messages.
  The L.A. Times says: ``Biden immigration policy stirs confusion at 
Mexico border.'' They interviewed one woman who crossed the Rio Grande 
``on a smuggler's raft'' and was only briefly detained before being 
released into our country. She explained she had specifically come 
because of the new Biden administration: ``That gave us the opportunity 
to come.''
  Another reporter put it this way: ``The message received in Tijuana 
and other Mexican border cities was

[[Page S1002]]

simpl[e]: Joe Biden was now letting people in.''
  We are not just talking about the fine details of border policy. The 
big backdrop behind this whole discussion is the sweeping leftwing 
amnesty plan that the Biden administration unveiled before they were 
even sworn in. They want to fast-track 11 million illegal immigrants 
into temporary legal status, then green cards, and then full 
citizenship.
  The far left loves this approach, but so does a certain cross section 
of Big Business. There is a whole lot of cultural power and economic 
power pushing the liberal vision. As for the best interest of American 
workers, well, that is not as trendy a cause in certain circles.
  The truth is that it is not helpful or compassionate to just open up 
our borders. It is not fair to American citizens and workers, but 
neither is it fair to the people who are being lured into a 
humanitarian crisis in the middle of a pandemic because they believe 
this Democratic administration just conspicuously turned on a neon 
``Vacancies'' sign.
  Republicans just spent 4 years making major headway on the security 
and humanitarian crisis at our border. It took serious policy changes. 
It took international diplomacy with multiple countries, and it took 
border enforcement.
  The American people would be better served if the Biden 
administration had chosen to build on this progress instead of rapidly 
trying to tear it down.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hickenlooper). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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