[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 48 (Monday, March 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1516-S1518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, last Thursday night, I was able to 
return home to Texas, and on Friday, I went to the southern border. 
Texas has 100 miles of common border with Mexico, and, obviously, we 
are at ground zero whenever there is a border crisis.
  I was glad to be joined by my friend Congressman Henry Cuellar, who 
has been a partner of mine on bipartisan, bicameral border security and 
immigration reform legislation in the past, and we were also joined by 
Congressman   Michael Burgess, our friend from North Texas.
  We visited a holding facility in Carrizo Springs, which houses young 
boys, ages 13 through 17, who were apprehended along the border. We 
were able to see the facility, which includes medical care, classroom 
space, dining facilities, and legal services for these young men. And 
we heard from the Health and Human Services workers who are doing 
everything they can to care for these children, despite being 
completely overwhelmed.
  When we visited, there were 679 children between the ages of 13 and 
17, but the facility is expected to reach capacity by today. This is no 
accident that we are seeing waves of unaccompanied minors coming across 
the border because the human smugglers and the drug traffickers 
understand our laws perhaps better than we do. And they know that if 
you are able to flood the zone with unaccompanied children, the Border 
Patrol are going to be distracted and diverted from their border 
security mission to take care of these children and to make sure that 
they are safe.
  In the meantime, the drug smugglers exploit those gaps left when the 
Border Patrol leaves the frontlines to handle and process these 
unaccompanied children. Last year, more than 80,000 Americans died of 
drug overdoses in this country, and, unfortunately, a significant 
percentage of that involves the methamphetamine, the fentanyl, the 
heroin, and the cocaine that comes up through the southern border in 
the hands of the same criminal organizations that move people, traffic 
in human beings, and, again, smuggle drugs.
  In the 2 months since President Biden took office, the situation 
along the border has come to rival the largest surges that we have seen 
in previous years. We remember the border crisis of 2014, when an 
alarming number of unaccompanied children and families came across the 
southern border and completely overwhelmed the system. That summer, the 
situation was so dire that President Obama called it a humanitarian 
crisis.
  Then came the surge in 2019. That May, Customs and Border Protection 
reported a recordbreaking 144,000 encounters with migrants along the 
southwest border, more than double the amount we experienced during the 
2014 humanitarian crisis.
  So if 2014 was a humanitarian crisis, 2019 was a humanitarian crisis 
on steroids. And I am afraid the current situation is going to get 
nothing but worse and perhaps outpace even the humanitarian crisis on 
steroids that we saw in 2019.
  What makes this even more complicated is, while this isn't the first 
surge of migrants we have seen across the border, it is the first time 
we have seen it during a COVID-19 pandemic. And based on the current 
trend, this one is shaping up to be far worse than anything we have 
experienced in the past.
  Last month, Customs and Border Protection encountered more than 
100,000 individuals coming across the border, the highest number since 
2006. Out of those 100,000 individuals last month, it included 9,000 
unaccompanied children and 19,000 migrants coming across as families; 
that is, some combination of a mother and father and minor children.
  Based on the sheer numbers, this is a problem. It is overwhelming the 
capacity--physical capacity--to house and to take care of these 
children and to make sure that these individuals are 
processed according to the law. Border Patrol and Health and Human 
Services and our immigration courts do not have the capacity to manage 
an influx this large.

  And when you add the operational challenges and risks associated with 
the COVID-19 pandemic, it becomes even more difficult to house and care 
for these migrants, especially the children.
  The facilities like Carrizo Springs were previously at a 40-percent 
capacity to allow for social distancing--something we have heard a lot 
about in the last year--but the number of unaccompanied children has 
climbed so high that the Biden administration is now allowing those 
facilities to operate at 100-percent capacity, despite the obvious risk 
of spreading COVID-19 because of a failure or inability to socially 
distance.
  At one point last week, there were more than 3,700 children in the 
custody of the Border Patrol. By comparison, there were about 2,600 
children in custody at the peak of the 2019 crisis. So the numbers are 
significantly higher.
  Reports over the weekend show that the number has increased to more 
than 4,200, with nearly 3,000 held beyond the 72-hour legal limit 
imposed by a court settlement.
  While these migrant children are without a doubt the biggest victims 
of this crisis, there are cascading consequences. In Brownsville alone, 
more than 200 migrants were released from the Border Patrol's custody, 
having tested positive for COVID-19--200 positive for COVID-19, ushered 
into the country.
  So despite the obvious health risks, many of these individuals 
continued their travels to their ultimate destinations, both within and 
outside the State of Texas. Some traveled, we know, as far north as 
Maryland, North Carolina, and New Jersey. And this rapid-pace catch-
and-release practice places a serious strain on the resources of our 
border communities.
  During the deadly winter storm last month, the mayor of Del Rio 
pleaded for the administration to stop releasing migrants into the city 
and surrounding area. The city's capacities were already stretched 
thin. The mayor, Bruno Lozano, said: ``We will be forced to make a 
decision to leave them without resources under these dire 
circumstances.''
  When the President's Chief of Staff was asked recently about the 
border crisis in a recent interview, he said: ``We inherited a real 
mess.''
  Well, that is not the way I see it. The policies the administration 
inherited deterred the human smugglers, the coyotes, and cartels from 
even attempting to smuggle children into the United States, 
particularly during the

[[Page S1517]]

COVID-19 pandemic. They required, under the Migrant Protection Program, 
migrants to remain in Mexico while their asylum claims were being 
processed.
  Of course, the Biden administration has, in sort of a reflexive 
manner, reversed all of the previous administration's policies without 
any plan to put in its place and without regard to the consequences.
  Well, the Migrant Protection Program, which was negotiated with the 
government of Mexico, worked pretty well. It allowed border communities 
to know that they wouldn't have to bear the brunt of thousands of 
migrants coming across the border into their communities while 
simultaneously battling a pandemic.
  The Biden administration didn't inherit this mess; it helped create 
it. President Biden campaigned on the basis of policies that would lead 
to this very outcome.
  One woman who crossed the Rio Grande on a smuggler's raft said the 
Biden administration is the reason she and her 1-year-old son attempted 
the journey at all. She said: ``That gave us the opportunity to come.'' 
And come they did.
  Whether you call this a mess, as the President's Chief of Staff did, 
or a human challenge, as the Secretary of Homeland Security did, I can 
tell you one thing: Unless the Biden administration reverses course, it 
will only get worse. We usually see the peak numbers of migration 
happen during the springtime and in the early summer, frankly, because 
of the weather and the ease of passage. So we haven't seen nothing yet 
compared to what we will see unless action is taken.
  During my visit last Friday, one of the people involved in the 
operation of the Carrizo Springs facility said: This is a category 5 
hurricane with tropical storm force winds on the coast. It is coming.
  Well, we have seen this before, as I said--many times, in fact. And 
unless action is taken to stem the flow of migrants across the border, 
that category 5 hurricane is going to break the entire system.
  In my time in the Senate, I have always looked to the men and women 
on the ground--the Border Patrol who wear green uniforms, the Customs 
and Border Protection officials who wear blue uniforms. I have looked 
to them to learn more about how things are going and how Congress and 
other policymakers can provide support.
  As I said, we share a 1,200-mile border with Mexico, and our border 
communities are made up of incredible networks of law enforcement, 
local leaders, and nongovernmental organizations that work together to 
help keep the migrants safe, as well as communities safe. Many of them 
are motivated solely by their humanitarian impulses, and we couldn't do 
as well as we are doing without them.
  One frustration I have heard in recent weeks is over vaccine 
distribution for Border Patrol and other Federal officers who have no 
choice but to come in contact with COVID-19-positive migrants coming 
across the border. These men and women--Federal employees, Federal law 
enforcement officers--are at significant risk of contracting COVID-19 
because of their work with detained and vulnerable populations.
  We know that more than 8,000 Customs and Border Protection employees 
have tested positive for COVID-19, and 27 have died since the start of 
the pandemic. More than 2,800 of these 8,000 cases have been in my 
State of Texas. But despite this knowledge, the administration has not 
made vaccinating these men and women on the frontline a priority.
  Last week, Senator Sinema of Arizona and I sent a letter to Secretary 
Mayorkas to advocate for Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland 
Security's other Federal law enforcement officers to be prioritized for 
vaccination. I am glad to announce that the administration responded by 
opening a vaccination clinic in the Rio Grande Valley, which is a great 
first step, but law enforcement across the entire border deserve to be 
vaccinated as soon as possible. If the administration is going to 
implement policies that create even more dangers to these frontline 
officers and agents, the very least they can do is offer them 
protection from COVID-19.
  After visiting the Carrizo Springs facility, Congressman Cuellar and 
I traveled to Laredo, TX, where we met with a group of mayors, county 
judges, and a range of community leaders for a discussion on the ways 
this crisis is impacting them.
  We discussed the bungled mess of the immigration courts, which have a 
backlog of 1.2 million cases. In fact, the human smugglers and drug 
cartels know that because of our laws and our failure to offer 
consequences associated with illegal entry into the United States, that 
we will never get to those 1.2 million backlog cases and that people 
can simply evade the law by refusing to show up for their court-
appointed date.
  Well, we talked about how the biggest beneficiaries of the crisis 
weren't the migrants crossing the border but, rather, the transnational 
criminal organizations--the cartels, the human smugglers, and the 
coyotes who bring them here. Border Patrol told me that the average 
smuggling fee for cartels to bring a single unaccompanied child into 
the Del Rio Sector was more than $7,300--$7,300 per child. The Chief of 
the Border Patrol sector there in Del Rio told me that just this year, 
they have detained people from 54 separate countries--54 separate 
countries--coming through the Del Rio Sector of the Border Patrol. So 
this is like the United Nations coming across our border, and, frankly, 
it is such a financially rewarding business for the human smugglers and 
the criminal networks, they will literally bring people from anywhere 
around the world across our southern border into the United States. 
That ought to concern all of us.
  Well, the Border Patrol is mounting a struggle against the border 
crisis and the pandemic simultaneously. Like cities across the country, 
our border communities have already had a very difficult year battling 
COVID-19. They had to cover a range of expenses created by the pandemic 
in order to keep their communities safe and healthy. But, unlike other 
communities across the country, they had the added economic hardship 
created by nearly a year of legal limits on nonessential cross-border 
travel.
  Prepandemic, visitors from Mexico would travel across the border to 
shop, eat at restaurants, and visit their family members. They were a 
huge economic driver in our border communities from El Paso all the way 
down the Rio Grande to the Rio Grande Valley. But the ``pause'' on 
legitimate nonessential travel has created a serious economic strain on 
these communities, and those leaders are struggling to understand the 
disconnect between the Biden administration's two different approaches.
  One of the participants at the roundtable said: ``I don't understand 
how you can catch-and-release and not let our neighbors across the 
border come over and spend money in our communities to help [grow] our 
economy.''
  This confluence of crises is a one-two punch for our border 
communities, and it is unfair that they are expected to carry the 
burden of a crisis that should be the responsibility--is the 
responsibility of the Federal Government.
  In many cases, nongovernmental organizations carry a significant 
amount of weight that, quite frankly, is unfairly placed on their 
shoulders. Congressman Cuellar and I were joined in Laredo with three 
incredible NGOs whose resources are already stretched thin because of 
the pandemic and have managed to take on a substantial amount of work 
in managing this humanitarian crisis.
  I want to commend Catholic Charities of Laredo, the Sisters of Mercy, 
the Holding Institute Community Center, and other NGOs along the Texas 
border for everything they have done to respond to the humanitarian 
crisis. I encourage anyone who is interested in understanding the 
crises and working to find solutions, including President Biden, to 
visit our border and to hear from these same individuals firsthand.
  No matter what party controls the Senate, the House, or the White 
House, these law enforcement, local leaders, and NGOs are doing 
everything they can to keep both migrants and their communities safe. 
They are currently overwhelmed, frustrated, and eager for change, and 
their voices must be heard.
  We are at an inflection point in the humanitarian crisis, and unless 
the administration acts and acts quickly, we are headed down a very 
dangerous

[[Page S1518]]

path. We have seen enough of these surges in the past to know what to 
expect.
  If you are opposed to human trafficking, human suffering, drug 
smuggling, pushing migrants into the shadows, then you should be 
absolutely alarmed by what is happening along the border today.
  The hurricane is on the way. I hope the administration and Congress 
will take a serious interest in acting before it makes landfall.
  I yield the floor
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Rhode Island.