[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 46 (Thursday, March 11, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1490-S1493]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I am here on the floor today to talk 
about the unfolding, urgent situation on our southern border, and I do 
so as the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security and Governmental 
Affairs Committee.
  This unfortunate situation at the border includes a lot of kids 
coming over the border, UACs, as they call them, unaccompanied alien 
children. These children are making a long and dangerous journey north, 
putting themselves at risk and bringing our immigration system and our 
shelter system along the border to a breaking point.
  You may have heard that the Biden administration insists this is not 
a crisis. Here are the facts. You decide.
  This chart shows the dire situation that we are in. On Tuesday, the 
most recent confirmed information we have is there were 3,400 of these 
children in Border Patrol custody. Ten days ago, that number was 1,700. 
So in 10 days, this number has doubled. To put this in perspective, at 
the very height of the border crisis in 2019 that we all remember being 
talked about a lot on the floor of this Senate and around the country, 
families and children were coming in, in big numbers. At the very 
height, it was 2,600 unaccompanied kids. Today, based on some 
information we just received anecdotally from the Customs and Border 
Protection folks, it is over 3,500. It is a 35-percent increase even 
from where it was during the crisis, and it is growing.
  Under law, these children have to be transferred to the Federal 
Department of Health and Human Services, HHS, within 72 hours of their 
being apprehended, and why we had that law in place was to be able to 
help these kids. So instead of being in a Border Patrol detention 
facility, which, by the way, were all designed for single males--they 
don't have any separation, don't have any trained people to help 
provide care to children, and it is law enforcement, Border Patrol 
agents--but within 72 hours, we had said that you have to transfer 
these children to a Health and Human Services facility that is 
appropriate for children. How is that working?
  Again, as of Tuesday, there were 3,400 of these kids in Border Patrol 
custody in the wrong kind of detention facilities for children. There 
were 2,800 children who were ready to transfer to HHS. In other words, 
they had been screened, gone through a process. As of Tuesday, there 
were 500 beds available, meaning 2,300 children are remaining in Border 
Patrol custody in overcrowded, adult facilities without proper care 
because there is nowhere to take them.
  Look, it is a bad situation. HHS contractors are supposed to be 
trained to care for the kids. The Border Patrol

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agents are not trained for that. They are doing their best, but it is 
not a safe situation for the kids. By the way, nobody in Border Patrol 
believes it is a good situation for the kids. These facilities, the 
Border Patrol facilities at the Border Patrol stations and HHS 
facilities are all at a breaking point. They are busting at the seams. 
Is that a crisis? I don't know. You decide.
  This influx comes, by the way, during a season when you normally 
don't have a lot of people coming over the border. This is in the 
winter. Normally, in the spring and then in the fall, you see the 
biggest influxes of families, kids, individuals. So we expect these 
numbers to get a lot worse. We expect it to get a lot worse into the 
spring.
  By the way, we spoke to Customs and Border Patrol folks today. They 
told us the numbers are up again today. In fact, we have some internal 
document from the Department of Homeland Security that a media 
organization reported on. It is an official document that says DHS, 
themselves, predict there will be 117,000 children who will be placed 
in this situation this year. So they know it just is growing.
  Again, is it a crisis? You decide. It is certainly a dangerous 
situation. By all accounts, many of these migrants, including children, 
face serious threats to their lives and well-being on the trip north.
  Just as happened in the past surges in 2014 and 2019, we know this 
includes many victims of human trafficking who are deceived and coerced 
by traffickers and smugglers as they are taken from Central America up 
to the U.S. border. The trip is treacherous. We have evidence that 
exploitation and sexual abuse occurs along the way.
  In 2019, again, the last time this happened, estimates of migrants 
who were victims of sexual or physical abuse along the journey ranged 
from 30 to 75 percent. Individual victims have described incredibly 
disturbing accounts of being subjected to violence, sexual assault, 
rape by traffickers and other criminals. It is a bad situation.
  By the way, this situation is the direct result of policy changes. 
The new administration came in determined to dismantle all of what the 
previous administration had done to try to disincentivize people from 
coming to the border, and they have been effective in doing that. They 
have dismantled the immigration practices and proceedings that were 
working to reduce these incentives. It had resulted in very few kids 
coming to the border, as an example--almost none.
  Last week, the Secretary of Homeland Security said in a press 
conference that the surge of unaccompanied kids is a ``challenge'' but 
not a ``crisis.'' He then deflected blame to the previous 
administration. That is fine. Look, I wish it were just a challenge 
that didn't require an urgent response, but that is not the reality 
along the border today. I, frankly, don't care what we call it. Call it 
a difficult situation, a challenge, whatever you want, but I care a lot 
about what we do in response.
  There is an old saying that says Washington only responds to a 
crisis. I think, unfortunately, there is a lot of truth to that. We 
have to respond here. We have to do something. That is why I think we 
need to consider this dire situation a crisis before it gets much 
worse.
  The next chart shows the reality, which is this surge happened almost 
immediately after President Biden and his administration were sworn in 
and they made these announcements about changes in policy. Here we have 
the election. Here we have the swearing-in. Look at this huge surge in 
both family units and in these kids. As I said, we have twice as many 
kids today as we had 10 days ago.
  This is surging up. Nearly 10,000 unaccompanied alien children and 
twice as many family members crossed our border in February, and that 
is the shortest month of the year. These surges stopped under the 
previous administration because they put in place policies that reduce 
the incentives for individuals, families, and unaccompanied minors to 
try to unlawfully enter the United States. In less than 2 months, the 
Biden administration has systemically taken away these tools that were 
being used to reduce these incentives. On day one, the new 
administration revoked the emergency declaration for the border, 
stopped construction of the border fence, and placed a 100-day halt to 
deportations. Not surprisingly, this gave traffickers the green light 
to exploit the situation, and more people and more drugs are now moving 
across the border.
  Next, the new administration reversed what is known as the Migrant 
Protection Protocols or the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy, which required 
asylum seekers to wait in Mexico rather than being released in 
communities around the United States while waiting for their asylum 
claims to be adjudicated. About 20 percent of the asylum seekers who 
went through the entire application process, including all of the 
hearings, were granted asylum in 2018.
  So, if you go through all of the process, about 20 percent of those 
individuals actually got asylum. Now, that is a self-selected group 
because I know not everybody goes to the hearing. In fact, the best 
data show that most don't show up for all of the hearings. The long-
term data show that about half of all asylum applicants eventually get 
removal orders due to their not attending all of their asylum hearings. 
We don't have great data on this, to be honest, and some people say 
that very few go to these asylum hearings. Some say more do. The point 
is that about half of them are getting removal orders--we know that--
for not attending all of their asylum hearings.
  Given that there is a 1.2 million-case backlog in America today for 
asylum applicants and that there were fewer than 5,000 noncriminals 
deported last year by ICE, that tells us that, under the current 
system, if you are a noncriminal asylum seeker who is denied asylum and 
is subject to one of these removal orders, it is highly unlikely that 
you are going to actually end up being deported from the United States. 
Asylum seekers know that. So do the traffickers. It is no wonder there 
has been a surge of those who want to live in the United States who 
have come to the border and sought asylum in recent years.
  I went to the border in 2019, and many of my colleagues have been 
down to the border to see this situation. I will be going back again 
soon to see firsthand what is happening and to see how we can help. It 
should not be a partisan issue. It should be one in which Democrats and 
Republicans alike see what is happening--see the tragedy unfolding 
along the border--and do something to address it. This Migrant 
Protection Program put in place by the Trump administration had 
resulted in a sharp reduction in the surge of asylum claims as people 
realized, pending their asylum hearings, they were not going to be 
released in U.S. communities. Now we are seeing the reverse happen.
  Second, the Biden administration actually suspended Safe Third 
Country agreements with the Governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and 
Honduras, which allowed migrants to apply for asylum in the first 
foreign country they crossed into. This, of course, reduced incentives 
for migrants from those countries to make the long, arduous, and 
dangerous journey to the southern border.
  These agreements were in the process of being fully implemented, but 
they were already helping and had the potential of finding a much more 
expeditious way to identify and process those who would qualify for 
legitimate asylum-refugee status before they would come all the way to 
our border. All that work that has been accomplished has now been lost. 
I urge the administration to reinstate those Safe Third Country 
agreements with Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.
  Third, the new administration has also significantly changed the way 
we process migrants during the COVID-19 crisis. Instead of establishing 
the practice of turning away most immigrant and nonimmigrant visa 
holders to protect the health and safety of the American people, we are 
now learning from media reports, including the Washington Post, that 
this new administration has made an unofficial exception to the COVID-
19 rules for children and for families.
  Border Patrol agents and CBP officers who are on the frontlines are 
telling us that they are returning to the pre-COVID practice of 
bringing people into the country despite the health crisis that all of 
us understand. The reports are that either the CBP officers are not 
testing kids and families for

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COVID at all or, if they are, they are still releasing some of those 
who test positive to shelters or into the United States with a request 
that they quarantine after they travel to their final destinations in 
the interior of the United States. In fact, we know of one instance in 
which more than 100 unlawful immigrants in Brownsville, TX, who tested 
positive for COVID-19, were simply told to quarantine when they reached 
their final destinations regardless of how many people they interacted 
with when taking a bus--in that case, most were taking a bus, 
apparently--or when taking a plane to their destinations. Obviously, 
that doesn't make any sense.
  The final policy changes that encourage illegal entry is the new 
administration's advocating for amnesty for those here illegally 
without making it clear that such amnesty would not apply to anyone not 
already here. That is important. As the experience of the last amnesty 
in 1986 demonstrated, unless it is very clear that illegal entry won't 
be rewarded, it will spawn more illegal entries. Now, let's face it. 
The traffickers and the smugglers are going to take advantage of this, 
and they are going to misrepresent the reality, but, still, it is 
important that all of us as policymakers make it very clear, as we talk 
about amnesty, that it is not as to the people who might come in the 
future; it is as to the people who are already here.
  I will say that the State Department has announced that it will be 
reinstating the Central American Minors Program, which was a 
streamlined refugee process that existed under the Obama administration 
and was run by the U.S. Government and the U.N. High Commissioner for 
Refugees, but it was discontinued under the Trump administration. I 
think it is a positive thing that they are reinstating that.
  We don't have all of the details yet, but I will tell you that 
standing up this program without incentivizing people to use it is not 
going to be very effective. Even if it were to be as effective as it 
was at the height of the program, which was during the Obama 
administration, it would not be nearly enough people. In 2 years, the 
program resettled 3,300 individuals. So 3,300 children were resettled 
in 2 years. That is not going to make a real impact when we are 
receiving, right now, 3,300 children every couple of weeks at the 
border. Again, I hope they do reinstate that program, as I think that 
would be positive, but they have to do much more in order to avoid this 
tragic situation from continuing and getting much worse.
  The decision by the new administration to change all of these 
policies, which were working, without having viable alternatives is 
causing this chaos. It was done without thinking through the real 
safety and security concerns for both communities and citizens of the 
United States as well as for these unaccompanied kids and their 
families. As a result, we have a surge of people being incentivized to 
enter our country unlawfully, and our systems are being strained during 
a public health emergency.
  This influx is even worse than in 2019, not just because the numbers 
are greater but because we now have the COVID-19 pandemic, and children 
and families are being forced into tight quarters in detention 
facilities. Asylum seekers with COVID-19 are being released into our 
communities, and Customs and Border Protection officers who haven't 
been able to receive the vaccine yet, which is a problem, are being 
exposed to this influx of migrants who haven't been tested. So it is an 
even bigger problem--forgetting the numbers--given the situation we are 
in.

  That ties in another concern I have about the way this crisis has 
been handled so far, which is the administration's response to the 
overcrowding at the shelter facilities. It has been to rush and 
potentially cut corners to place these unaccompanied children with 
sponsors because their goal, after HHS detention in HHS facilities, is 
to get these children out to sponsor families. The standards of due 
diligence that are required to ensure these children are not being 
placed in danger are not being met, as far as we can tell, which 
continues a troubling trend that goes back years and administrations.
  It is an issue I have worked on since 2015, when we had a terrible 
situation in my home State of Ohio wherein kids were given back to the 
traffickers by HHS--the traffickers who had brought them up from 
Central America by lying to their parents about what they were going to 
do: take them to school and so on. These kids ended up working on an 
egg farm, 6 to 7 days a week, below the minimum wage. I have seen this. 
I have seen what happens when HHS does not take its time and do it 
right, and it is very difficult for HHS to do that with the surge that 
it has.
  Over the course of three bipartisan reports and hearings as part of 
the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which I chair, and across 
two different administrations, we found failures to ensure the safety 
of or to even keep track of these vulnerable children once they were 
handed off to sponsors as well as a fundamental refusal by Agencies to 
accept that they were responsible for the welfare of these kids. That 
is the reality. Our bipartisan investigations also found that the 
Office of Refugee Resettlement failed to exercise appropriate oversight 
at its facilities and wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on 
organizations and on contractors that could not acquire State licenses 
to safely open the planned shelter facilities.
  As those in this administration attempt to process this influx of 
unaccompanied kids and safely get them to longer term housing 
solutions, it is urgent that they do the due diligence on who is going 
to be looking after these children and not cut corners as some reports 
are indicating. That means fingerprinting the sponsors. That means 
background checks. That means home visits. The Federal Government 
cannot allow these kids to fall victim to human trafficking, to abuse, 
or other harm.
  I, along with my bipartisan cosponsors, will be reintroducing the 
Responsibility for Unaccompanied Minors Act again in the coming days to 
help ensure these requirements are met to protect our kids.
  Here is the reality: Once these children arrive at the border, there 
are no good options. The answer is to stop providing the incentives, 
the pull factor. That is the short-term imperative. We should not be 
encouraging these young people to make that arduous journey to then 
have them end up in a detention facility. That is wrong for them. It is 
a place where single males are crowded together but where kids are not 
taken care of. Then, when they have to go to the HHS facility, there is 
not enough room--again, making the point of there being 3,400 kids in 
detention and 2,800 kids who are ready to be transferred to HHS, to 
more appropriate facilities, but there are only 500 beds. So 2,300 are 
kept in these overcrowded facilities that are meant for single males. 
It is not a good option. There is no good option. The option is to keep 
them from coming up to the border in the first place.
  Yes, we can do more on the push factors also. That means investing in 
Central America and other places to try to make those countries places 
where people would want to stay rather than come to the United States. 
Yet, my colleagues, that is what is called a long-term solution. Let's 
be frank. I am for it, but we have to recognize that this is not a 
solution to the current crisis that we face.
  In the last 5 years, we have spent $3.6 billion of U.S. taxpayer 
funds in aid for these Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El 
Salvador, and Honduras. President Biden is proposing to spend another 
$4 billion in those countries. I support smart investments that don't 
get wasted because of corruption or other challenges, but it won't fix 
the crisis this month, this year, or next year. The development of the 
Northern Triangle is a decades-long effort--one we need to do but one 
that is not going to address, again, the crisis that we face now.
  I urge the Biden administration to also step up efforts to tie any 
aid to better collaboration with our international partners, including 
with the Governments of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, 
to address this challenge, discourage migration, and provide 
alternatives to those seeking to make the dangerous journey north. They 
need to help us, and they have in the past.
  In the Trump administration, we had a valuable partner in Mexico, as 
an example. It used tens of thousands of its

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own military to patrol its own southern border to ensure migrants could 
be processed, if necessary, and turned away if they didn't meet the 
requirements. That was very helpful. I am concerned that these troops 
have now been pulled back--that is the information that we are 
receiving--partly because, as we are told, President Biden is not 
encouraging the current Mexican leadership to continue this practice. I 
hope that changes. The current surge in unaccompanied children at our 
border, in the midst of a global pandemic, is a situation in which no 
one wins and the children lose the most.
  I am disappointed that the Biden administration chose to overturn the 
policies put in place by the Trump administration, which were to help 
control the flow of migrants during this pandemic, without having any 
viable alternatives. I am concerned that leaders at key Agencies 
involved in the response to this crisis are somehow seeing it as in 
their interests to downplay the severity of the situation.
  I urge the Biden administration to change course. Put back in place 
smart policies that reduce the pull factors, and address the need for 
legal and orderly processes for migration.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Texas.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, before he leaves the floor, let me just 
congratulate our colleague from Ohio.
  That was, perhaps, the most concise and informative speech I have 
heard on that topic, including speeches that I have given on that 
topic. In representing a border State, as I do, and in my having served 
on the Judiciary Committee and on the Immigration Subcommittee for my 
entire time here, the way he described it, I thought, was entirely 
accurate. I think you can call it a crisis, a challenge--whatever you 
want to call it--but it is getting worse all the time, and I think it 
will get much, much worse if we don't act and act together. So I thank 
him for his outstanding remarks.
  (Ms. CORTEZ MASTO assumed the Chair.)