[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 50 (Wednesday, March 17, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H1489-H1494]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               MANAGING THE CRISIS ON THE SOUTHERN BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I stand here on behalf of the freedom-
loving members of the Republican Study Committee, the conservative 
conscience of the GOP Conference, and the largest caucus with over 150 
members and our friend and fearless leader   Jim Banks from the Hoosier 
State.
  Mr. Speaker, we come to this Chamber with grave concerns, with 
profound grief over what is happening to this great Nation at the 
southern border, along the border of States like my home State of 
Texas. My citizens are on the front lines, and the citizens of the Lone 
Star State and border States are at ground zero of this self-inflicted 
crisis.
  Just because the President won't acknowledge that there is a crisis 
doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. Mr. Speaker, it is raging out of 
control. It is an unmitigated disaster, and as I said, it is self-
inflicted.
  Reinstating catch and release while we are recovering from a 
pandemic? Are you kidding me? We have put mandates and restrictions on 
the American people who have sacrificed by staying at home. Some have 
lost their jobs. They don't know how they are going to make ends meet 
for their family.
  Everybody stepped up, Mr. Speaker. They did what they were told to do 
in some cases, but they all acted responsibly for the sake of our 
country and their fellow man and the country that they love. And now, 
we are just letting people cross our border illegally, violate our 
sovereignty, break our laws, and then just be released into the 
interior of our country with no testing and no screening.
  In Texas, Mr. Speaker, we are coming back. We have folks back to 
work. Kids are in school. My kids are in school. We feel normal again, 
and we are blessed to be in a State that puts a premium on individual 
liberty and personal responsibility. We have worked hard to get to 
where we are now.
  We didn't like everything that was done to us by our government. We 
didn't like all the protocols and mandates, but we did the best job we 
could for the sake of our fellow Americans. Now, we have the potential 
for a flare-up in the pandemic because our hospitals are going to be 
overwhelmed again.
  Our schools are already overwhelmed as they try to do right by their 
students, let them come into the classroom, have that support 
structure, knowing that to close your doors on these kids is to close a 
bright future for them. It is to lock them out of their greatest 
potential and to give them grief and all kinds of heartache and mental 
health concerns.
  We have our police, who have been disparaged with cries to defund the 
police. They would be dismantled if the bill that passed the House 
supported by the Democrats ever became law and ripped away the tools 
that they have to not only keep our community safe but to protect them 
in the process. We have stripped them--or would if the bill passed--of 
their legal liability protections. All the while, we are putting more 
pressure on our local law enforcement to do the job that the Federal 
Government under this Commander in Chief has failed to do.
  The Commander in Chief is supposed to provide for the common defense. 
He is supposed to be the exemplar for rule of law. He is the chief 
enforcer of the law. What kind of example is our President setting to 
just throw caution to the wind and let folks come into this country who 
are not our citizens, prioritizing them over the safety and health of 
our citizens?
  I got to hear some of my colleagues express concerns over women's 
rights and protecting women from abuse. We all support that, and our 
hearts go out to any victims of abuse in this country or any country. 
But meanwhile, because of the policies that have been passed by this 
President, reinstating catch and release, empowering sanctuary cities, 
repealing the stay in Mexico policies, halting funding for the border 
wall, all of these things have sent a message that we are open for 
illegal business.
  If you ask the cartels, business has never been better. We are lining 
their pockets while they exploit vulnerable people who are hopeless. 
They are being exploited.
  Mr. Speaker, one out of every three women are sexually assaulted on 
their trek to this country. That statistic is from Doctors Without 
Borders. Children are used as a passport, trafficked by these cartels. 
We have empowered these cartels. This is a disaster on so many levels, 
and I am glad my colleagues are here to express these same sentiments 
in their own words.
  Mr. Speaker, I will end with this. It is clear there is a cause and 
effect here. It is clear that policies have consequences. They incent 
behavior, and the behavior is causing chaos at the border.

  I believe this President is obsessed. This is just a fundamental 
question, why our President would allow this to happen. I believe he is 
obsessed with undoing anything that has the name ``President Trump'' on 
it, regardless of its merits. I believe he is equally obsessed with 
placating the left and their radical agenda. I have come to that 
conclusion.
  Mr. Speaker, we are going to speak to this. We are going to tell the 
truth. We are going to lay out the facts. We are going to call on our 
President to do the right thing and prioritize the American people and 
their safety and security.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good).
  Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank my distinguished colleague 
and fellow Member from Texas for yielding.
  Our country's future will forever be changed based on how we manage 
or refuse to manage Biden's border crisis. And, yes, it is a crisis.
  Steady merit-based legal immigration is stabilizing. It provides a 
talented pool of workers, effectively permits patriotic assimilation, 
and enriches our culture. We can debate how best to achieve those 
objectives and what immigration levels or numbers are in the best 
interests of our Nation and our citizens, but what is not open for 
honest debate, or at least debate that honestly places the interests, 
safety, and security of American citizens first, is the need to secure 
our border and eliminate illegal immigration.
  President Biden's open border policies threaten our security, overtax 
our resources, jeopardize public health, and turn every town into a 
border community.
  As others have said, without a border, we don't have a country; we 
have a landmass, one that is currently under invasion. That is an 
invasion that is with complicit approval from the President's policies 
and the support of the Democratic Party, and this is especially 
egregious and inexcusable.

                              {time}  2045

  The fact is that, in the 56 days since President Biden was sworn in 
on January 20, illegal immigration has surged and our southern border 
has been overrun.
  We are not stopping illegal immigrants based on their inability to 
provide for themselves and not be a burden on our economy, our social 
services,

[[Page H1490]]

our education system, our healthcare system.
  We are not stopping illegal immigrants based on whether or not they 
test positive for COVID.
  We are not stopping illegal immigrants based on whether or not they 
have a criminal record.
  We are not stopping illegal immigrants based on whether or not they 
intend to do us harm.
  The bottom line is that we don't even know who is coming, and we 
don't even know why they are coming.
  Meanwhile, the President sends FEMA to the border, not to help 
prevent the emergency crisis of illegal crossing, but actually to help 
illegal aliens get into our country.
  And how does a Democrat majority respond?
  With two new amnesty bills that will incentivize and reward lawless, 
illegal behavior with amnesty and citizenship.
  Memo to the President and Democrat majority: You get more of what you 
incentivize.
  We can only conclude this is what they want.
  Mr. Speaker, these two bills combined will provide amnesty to some 5 
million illegal aliens, including some with criminal backgrounds. These 
two bills make it more difficult for law enforcement to detain or 
deport illegal aliens. These bills will facilitate chain migration, 
leading to more non-merit-based immigration. And these two bills 
inexcusably provide no provisions to address the Biden border crisis.
  Just today, in apparent recognition that the crisis is not playing 
well with the American people--you know, the forgotten citizens of the 
country--NBC news--not exactly a conservative news outlet--is reporting 
that the Biden administration is telling Border Patrol that they can no 
longer talk to the media or do ride-alongs that enable the media to see 
firsthand what is happening at the border. Instead, Border Patrol is 
supposed to let all communication come from Washington.
  The American people are not stupid. They know what is going on, and 
they don't want America to be turned into a sanctuary nation.
  Mr. Speaker, we, on the Republican side, are going to fight for them. 
We are going to fight to protect the country we have today, and we are 
going to fight to protect the country we want to have tomorrow.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia for 
his remarks. He talked about the incentives. We talked about cause and 
effect, and we talked about the consequences of bad policies.
  Mr. Speaker, we have had double the apprehensions this year in 
January over last year in 2020, well over twice as many illegal 
crossings in the month of February. We are now 5,000-plus a day of 
people pouring into this country, 500 a day of illegal minors 
trafficked here by the cartels. And the CBP tells us that there will be 
over 120,000 by the end of the year. It will be a record year. Those 
are the results. And the facts don't lie, whether this President or our 
colleagues believe it or not.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of Texas 
(Mr. Babin), who represents Texas 36th Congressional District.
  Mr. BABIN. Mr. Speaker, as co-chair of the House Border Security 
Caucus, I very much appreciate the opportunity to come to the floor 
with the Republican Study Committee to talk about the most pressing 
issue our Nation is facing today, right now; and, sadly, it was 
entirely avoidable.
  There are no ifs, ands, or buts. The crisis on our southern border is 
a direct result of President Biden's failed immigration and border 
security policies--miserably failed.
  My colleagues on the other side of the aisle have predictably done 
what they do best: Blamed President Trump and his administration.
  But anyone with a pulse can see that this border crisis started the 
very day that President Biden was sworn in. On his first day in office, 
Biden stopped construction of the border wall, ended the national 
emergency declaration on the southern border. He stopped the migrant 
protection protocol so asylum-seekers would have to wait in Mexico.
  And rather than utilizing the title 42 health restrictions to protect 
Americans during this pandemic, Biden and his administration are 
releasing COVID-positive illegal aliens into Texas to worsen the 
pandemic and fan out across this country.
  He would go on to stop deportation, stop enforcing immigration laws, 
bring back ``catch and release,'' and end the hard-won changes that 
President Trump had initiated to control our southern border.
  He has specifically said that Americans will not be prioritized--
repeat: Will not be prioritized--over illegal immigrants for access to 
COVID-19 vaccines, and promised citizenship to millions upon millions 
of migrants here illegally, which does nothing but incentivize more 
illegal crossings. All of this in less than 2 months.
  Who on earth is surprised that there is a massive border crisis?
  Yes, President Biden owns this border crisis. The truly sad reality 
is this isn't Biden's first rodeo. When he was vice president, he saw 
surges on the border, and he knows full well what exactly that means.
  He saw children being used and recycled by smugglers. He saw women 
and children physically abused, raped, and even murdered by the 
cartels, who fully control our southern border now, empowered by 
President Biden. He even saw American families torn apart after a loved 
one was killed by a dangerous criminal illegal alien.
  He should know better. And you know what? He does know better. 
Unfortunately, he is controlled by politics and his radical leftwing 
base, and he won't turn back now.

  The American people deserve to know that President Biden is taking 
advantage of them through this crisis. And while the American people 
were locked down for a year because of the pandemic, illegal aliens 
roamed free. While they worked hard, paid their taxes, and saved just 
to get by, illegal immigrants cost them billions every year with free 
education and healthcare.
  My great State of Texas and the other border States cannot take 
another minute of Biden's border crisis. The President of the United 
States needs to step up and he needs to lead. Lives are at stake.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for his 
remarks. He mentioned as one of the policies that this current 
President has put in place through a unilateral action--by the way, he 
has done more executive orders than the last three or four Presidents 
combined--was to repeal or rescind the national emergency declaration. 
But it is so rich, so rich that at the same time he is doing this, the 
Democrat leadership of the House under Speaker Pelosi has lined the 
streets around the perimeter of the Capitol with the National Guard. 
The height of hypocrisy.
  Mr. Speaker, the American people aren't buying this. They are not. 
The Speaker called the walls at the southern border protecting our 
fellow Americans and communities immoral, until she erected razor-wire 
fencing around the people's House. It is offensive. It is shameful, and 
it is an outrage. And it is a double standard, if I have ever seen one.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Hern), a 
good friend of mine, and a colleague representing Oklahoma's First 
District.
  Mr. HERN. Mr. Speaker, I thank my distinguished colleague from Texas 
for yielding. I appreciate him leading this Special Order on such an 
important issue in our great country.
  Mr. Speaker, we are here today to shed light on a situation that is 
getting worse by the minute. The longer Joe Biden and his White House 
ignore the crisis on our border, the more challenging it becomes to get 
it under control.
  But one would have to wonder: Is that what he wants by allowing this 
to continue on?
  Under President Trump, border security was a top priority. He was 
ridiculed for that top priority of securing our Nation, the sovereignty 
of our Nation. Illegal entries plummeted under President Trump, and 
over 450 miles of border wall were built at the fighting and scratching 
every single way against our Democrat colleagues' desires.
  Mr. Speaker, Biden's trend has been to reverse and dismantle anything 
and everything that President Trump touched over the last 4 years, no 
matter who it may hurt. On day one of his Presidency, he 
unconstitutionally halted congressionally appropriated funds

[[Page H1491]]

meant to secure and strengthen our southern border. He indicated a 
complete reversal on border policies, refusing to condemn Democrats who 
call for open borders. This led to thousands of immigrants to believe 
our borders were open and they could enter with no consequences. They 
even had shirts promoting the idea that Biden should let them in.
  Mr. Speaker, it has been less than 2 months since Biden took office 
and already the situation at our southern border has reached 
unprecedented levels, levels like we haven't seen in 20 years. Border 
agents are reporting the number of illegal entries, especially 
children, is higher than we have seen in decades.
  Detainment facilities--what the Democrats have now called reception 
centers and concentration camps; that is what they called them under 
President Trump--are over capacity. Children are being sent to Dallas, 
hundreds of miles away from the border, to be held at the convention 
center.
  Americans returning from abroad are required to take COVID tests 
before reentering our own country, but Biden is allowing thousands of 
migrants into the country without even testing them for COVID, packing 
facilities way over capacity.
  Hypocrisy is nothing new to this administration. In spite of 
everything I have already said, Biden refuses to call it a crisis. CNN 
is even calling it a crisis, but Biden doesn't want to label it. He 
doesn't want to own it, calling it an inherited mess from the Trump 
administration. Every single person in America knows that is not true. 
To make it worse, House Democrats rejected any amendments on their 
partisan immigration bills this week.
  My amendments asked that known gang members not be eligible for 
amnesty.
  How could you not allow that to be added to this bill?
  That we create a tax credit for employers who want to do the right 
thing and implement E-Verify in their companies to make sure they are 
hiring legal American workers, and that illegal immigrants who have 
committed crimes in our country not be eligible for amnesty. Now, 
everywhere--except for in Congress--any good American would want those 
in the bill. But not here, not my Democrat colleagues.

  These are all commonsense ideas that a vast majority of Americans 
support, but Democrats would rather have open borders with no 
consequences for those who break the laws in our country.
  Just this week, four people on the terrorist watch list were caught 
attempting to illegally entered our country. If we lower the standards 
and restrictions on our border, we know we never would have caught 
them. We wouldn't have even known that they were here. That should 
scare us all to death.
  Mr. Speaker, I and many of my Republican colleagues have been to the 
border to see this terrible situation firsthand. I would encourage 
every Member of Congress to go see it. And for that, I thank my 
colleagues for standing up here tonight at this hour, for speaking up 
on this crisis. It is so important to the American people and the 
sovereignty of our Nation.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma, our 
neighbor to the north, for his remarks. He mentioned that some 
political opportunists were characterizing these detention facilities 
under the leadership of President Trump as concentration camps. They 
called the men and women in uniform, our sons and daughters, who were 
called to duty to come alongside the Border Patrol agents to secure our 
southern border and defend our people, ``storm troopers.'' They 
referred to our attempt to humanely and safely detain the unaccompanied 
minors as ``kids in cages.''
  Mr. Speaker, where are they now? Where are they now?
  Where is the outrage?
  Where is the indignation?
  Where is the name calling?
  How soon we forget.
  Mr. Speaker, 13,000 children are being detained right now in far 
worse conditions and far more crowded than before.
  Where are those colleagues of ours that were clanging gongs and 
sounding the alarm?

                              {time}  2100

  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of 
Wisconsin (Mr. Tiffany), my colleague, who represents the Seventh 
Congressional District.
  Mr. TIFFANY. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Texas 
for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, America's border is under siege, and it is a siege that 
this administration continues to encourage with each passing day.
  They say it is not a crisis or an emergency, even as they have 
dispatched FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to help 
manage the disaster that they have created.
  In February alone, the shortest month of the year, overwhelmed border 
patrol agents encountered more than 100,000 illegal aliens crossing our 
southern border, including 30,000 unaccompanied children and minors. 
And that does not include the countless illegal aliens that slipped 
through undetected.
  Mr. Speaker, as many as 25 percent of the illegal aliens that the 
border patrol apprehends are testing positive for COVID--and not all 
are being tested.
  Thanks to the administration's catch-and-release policies, many of 
these aliens immediately board buses and fan out across the country, 
making every State a border State. That includes my State in the far 
north, Wisconsin, because I hear it from sheriffs and law enforcement 
all over northern Wisconsin, especially the drugs that flow in, the 
fentanyl, the methamphetamines, that flow into our communities killing 
our citizens.
  Drug seizures were up more than 50 percent last month driven by huge 
spikes in meth and heroin, deadly poisons that ravage our families. In 
what is fast becoming a Washington tradition, the other side has tried 
to pass the buck and blame the border disorder on the last 
administration.
  This is a tired talking point; one we will hear repeated over and 
over to explain away the policy failures of the one-party government 
they control. But facts are stubborn things.
  This tidal wave of drug and human trafficking is a direct result of 
White House promises of amnesty, and the rollback of the commonsense 
border security safeguards put in place by President Trump. That is why 
it began at the end of January.
  So what is their answer to this crisis? It is to pour gasoline on the 
fire by passing two amnesty bills that will give legal status to at 
least half of the estimated 11 million illegal aliens already in this 
country, including criminal aliens who have been convicted of multiple 
DUIs, drug and weapons violations, and even voter fraud.
  One of the bills even includes an unbelievable provision allowing for 
the reimportation of foreigners who were deported as long as 4 years 
ago, bringing them back and giving them green cards. This is a slap in 
the face to the legal immigrants who have followed our laws. This is a 
slap in the face to American taxpayers, millions of unemployed 
Americans, and countless American families who have lost loved ones to 
the scourge of drugs like meth and fentanyl.
  Even worse, it is a financial bonanza for the human traffickers and 
foreign drug cartels who prey on the vulnerable and profit from their 
misery.
  So let's get this straight. The first act of this President was to 
open the borders and close our schools, or make sure that they stay 
closed. The first act of this President was to open the borders, the 
pipeline that brings the drugs and the human trafficking into America, 
but they closed the pipeline that gives us energy independence in 
America.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for the administration to stop pretending 
that this crisis isn't happening, and to start defending the American 
people.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, listening to the gentleman, it is just 
hard to believe that in the greatest country on planet Earth, that this 
is what we are allowing to happen. Reimporting people who violated our 
laws, had due process, and we did what the law says, detain and deport.
  Today, under Present Biden's deluge of executive orders, they are 
released and rewarded: free healthcare, compliments of the taxpayers of 
the United States; free education, compliments of the taxpayers of the 
United States. We spend $12 billion in Texas alone on illegal 
immigration, and the price has just

[[Page H1492]]

climbed higher and higher under this President.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. 
Bishop), my dear friend, representing the Ninth Congressional District.
  Mr. BISHOP of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
Texas, my friend, Mr. Arrington, for hosting this Special Order, it is 
an extraordinarily important topic.
  Here is another angle on it. Tomorrow, on the floor of this House, 
Democrats will pass two mass amnesty bills, H.R. 6 and H.R. 1603. 
Consider that at the very time Democrats are bringing these amnesty 
bills to the floor, what promises to be the largest surge of illegal 
immigration on the southern border in at least 20 years, is building 
toward an unknown climax. The Biden administration has precipitated a 
humanitarian crisis so big that even they can no longer deny it.
  Less than 2 months after terminating President Trump's declaration of 
an emergency on the border, Secretary Mayorkas of the Department of 
Homeland Security, has been constrained to send FEMA, the Federal 
Emergency Management Agency, to facilitate the Nation's response to 
this crisis.
  Today, in the Committee on Homeland Security, I asked Secretary 
Mayorkas about the deliberate and absurd rhetoric used by the 
administration: Come, but don't come now.
  I was unable to secure from Secretary Mayorkas a straightforward 
acknowledgment that it is always wrong to incite migrants to enter the 
United States illegally.
  And, amazingly, when I asked the Secretary whether he and the Biden 
administration had been expected or were surprised by the crisis that 
is now blooming on the southern border, he was caught off guard. He 
said he had no expectation whatsoever. I couldn't believe it, and I 
don't think the American people can believe it.

  Just like the Biden administration's rhetoric, these bills signal 
economic migrants that if they make the dangerous trek through Central 
America and Mexico, they will be met with amnesty, taxpayer-funded 
healthcare, housing, and anything else you can think of.
  Whether it is gutting the migrant protection protocols, otherwise 
known as ``remain in Mexico,'' and stopping border wall construction, 
the administration's message to migrants is clear: Come. Take your 
lives in your hands, brave the gangs, the coyotes, the smugglers, take 
the risk of sexual abuse. Come.
  Today, the Democrats are augmenting that clear-as-day message with 
more promises of amnesty, and that will be the bills tomorrow, which 
everyone here know will fuel more illegal migration.
  Let's face it, Democrats are committed to a regime of open borders, 
where any person from anywhere in the world has a right to enter the 
U.S. for any reason, even if that means migrants are assaulted or 
killed on their way to the border. And Democrats feel better about 
themselves. They assume a superior moral position by pursuing such a 
policy.
  It is no wonder, but apparently no cause for reflection by the Biden 
administration, that the CBP very recently apprehended four individuals 
on the terrorist watch list crossing the southwest border. Secretary 
Mayorkas admitted that today, and then went on to say: Well, it is 
nothing unusual, more or less. Amazing.
  I have heard some of my friends on the other side of the aisle 
complain that Republicans are not offering solutions.
  Let me offer three: End all talk of amnesty. Reinstate the migrant 
protection protocols that provide more for their safety than the policy 
does now articulate. And finish building the wall. Let's resume a 
responsible border policy. Let's consider, for once, the interests of 
the American people.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North 
Carolina.
  Mr. Speaker, again, I would say that America is the most generous 
Nation, not only the most powerful, but the most generous. We represent 
5 percent of the world population, and we represent 20 percent of the 
immigrant population. We welcome freedom-loving, law-abiding people who 
want to make America their home and make a better life for their 
family, but only if they respect our laws and our sovereignty and the 
safety of the American people.
  Millions of people wait for years to have legal status in this 
country, and this President has just created lawlessness and chaos, 
just like that, with a pen and a cell phone. The unilateral actions 
have been reckless and endangered not only our citizens, but the poor 
people that are making this trek on account of his message: Don't come 
now, is what he says, but come now. Come one, come all. It is a free-
for-all at the border, is what his policies say loudly and clearly.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my dear friend from the great State of 
Arkansas (Mr. Westerman), he represents Arkansas' Fourth Congressional 
District.
  Mr. WESTERMAN. Mr. Speaker, the Republican party has historically 
been, and I believe is still today, the voice for those who have no 
voice. We value life and believe all people should be treated with 
dignity.
  I appreciate the gentleman from Texas for leading this discussion 
tonight, for his compassion for people, and for his passion to serve 
Texas and America.
  Mr. Speaker, tonight, I not only rise to address the growing crisis 
on our southern border, but to be a voice for the persecuted. In an 
interview aired this morning, President Biden told migrants not to come 
to the United States, but still refused to recognize the situation as a 
crisis. Actions speak louder than words. It doesn't matter what you say 
when it doesn't match what you do.
  Such a directive is pointless, considering there are no policy 
changes to de-motivate the migrant surge, the likes of which the United 
States hasn't seen in 20 years. Our facilities and agencies are being 
overwhelmed by the surge.
  President Biden offered an open invitation for parents to send their 
children across the border without fear of being turned away. The 
result is catastrophic. While there have been migrant surges in the 
past, there has never been such a prolific number of unaccompanied 
minors.
  These policies are a driving incentive for parents to give their 
children to coyotes and traffickers who will abuse and use them, 
causing lifelong trauma. Over 500 children are crossing the border 
daily, including unaccompanied kids as young as 6 years old. These 
children are threatened and coerced by cartels to carry drugs over the 
border and exploited by sex traffickers.
  One in three women--one in three women, Mr. Speaker, will be 
assaulted as they attempt to make the journey.
  I just witnessed my colleagues from across the aisle spending an hour 
honoring women's history. What kind of history are the left's policies 
writing for these women? Young women, young women as young as 13 years 
old are being lured to Texas with the promise of a job in the service 
industry, and instead, are being sexually abused and trafficked.

                              {time}  2115

  What we are seeing now is but a fraction of what we could see in the 
coming months. This is the Biden administration's responsibility, and 
President Biden owes the American people answers.
  But President Biden is not alone. The majority party is neglecting 
their oversight responsibilities and aiding and abetting these 
dangerous actions.
  I am calling on President Biden and congressional Democrats--who I 
remind you are the majority in both Chambers--to take responsibility 
for the border crisis and work to fix it and to take responsibility for 
the trauma these children will endure on the journey across the border.
  Customs and Border Protection has informed Congress that four people 
on the FBI's terrorist watch list were apprehended at the border. If 
four were caught, how many got through? What is their intent?
  One day, Democrats are the arsonists, and the next week, the 
firefighters. They have pulled this trick on every issue, including 
energy, Medicare, and now our border. To bring partisan immigration 
bills to the floor without even an opportunity to amend the bills is 
bad governance anytime, but it is downright insensitive during this 
crisis.
  We are a nation of immigrants, and I support all legal immigration. 
But

[[Page H1493]]

open border policies are a direct threat to our national security and 
have created a humanitarian crisis. We should secure our borders and 
work on bipartisan legislation to address immigration issues, but 
Democrats refuse to even enforce existing laws.
  Mr. Speaker, what good is a new immigration law when there is no 
evidence that it will be enforced?
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for 
his heartfelt comments.
  Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time remains.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas has 21 minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, as you have heard from my colleagues, 
there are many levels and dimensions to this crisis. It is a national 
security crisis, Mr. Speaker. It is a public health and safety crisis. 
It is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, and it is only going 
to get worse until this President embraces the reality, resists the 
left's influence, and steps up and becomes the leader that our country 
needs at a time like this.
  I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for joining us in this Special 
Order.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman), 
who represents Wisconsin's Sixth Congressional District.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, we have already talked tonight about the 
numbers which come from the crisis at the southern border.
  During the Obama administration, Mr. Speaker, if you had 1,000 
contacts a day with people trying to sneak in this country, that was a 
lot. We are now at around 3,000 a day. February of this year compared 
to February of last year is up 173 percent. That is shocking. It didn't 
have to be.
  What incompetence did it take to get such a massive swing of people 
coming across our border?
  President Trump had something called the migrant protection protocol. 
When people tried to sneak in here and claim asylum, they were sent 
back and held by the Mexican Government pending a hearing. This was a 
great victory for President Trump.
  Maybe just because he is President Trump, it means you don't like 
him, Mr. Speaker, and you had to get rid of him like the protection 
protocol. So, we are back to the old days.
  Rather than being held south of the border, waiting to see if you can 
come here, you are escorted into the United States, turned over to some 
nonprofit organization, and told to disappear somewhere in the United 
States to show up for a hearing which you don't show up for. And that 
is, more than any other reason, why we have this problem.
  Another thing they have changed is that President Trump had worked on 
a deal with Central American countries so that people trying to come up 
here from South America and other Central American countries were held 
south of the Mexican border. One more good policy, but let's throw it 
overboard and see what happens.
  By doing this, not only do we let more people in the country, but we 
enrich and empower the drug cartels. The drug cartels are charging 
about $3,000 for every Mexican they let in here, about $5,000 for every 
Central American, $8,000 to $9,000 for every Brazilian, and up to 
$20,000 for every Asian.
  When you are making that kind of money, Mr. Speaker, you know very 
well the drug cartels will recruit as many people as they can to come 
into this country.
  Of course, nowadays, it is unlike years ago when they used to find 
marijuana. Now when people come across the border, it is fentanyl, 
meth, and heroin. So, in addition to the huge amount of humanity moving 
across the border, we have that many more drugs to kill the people of 
our country. I am sure the American people already remember we are 
losing about 80,000 people every year to illegal drug use, so much of 
which comes across the southern border.
  As has been mentioned by other speakers, there is an increase in 
sexual assaults as people try to come across the border and are 
escorted by the drug cartels.
  I want to point out that the drug cartels control that southern 
border. If you try to come here without their approval, Mr. Speaker, 
you are in big trouble. I will give you an anecdote from the last time 
I was down there. Three people tried to escort other people over the 
border. Two of them were skinned alive and died. The other was partly 
skinned alive and told to go back south to Mexico and tell everyone 
what happens if you try to come across the border without going through 
the drug cartels.
  Just as another indication of the huge problem we have at the border, 
last year, which was an unusually hot year, they found, in the Tucson 
sector alone, 100 bodies of people who dehydrated trying to come here.

  Under President Trump, Mr. Speaker, you know how good it can be. They 
went from a point where they were letting 100,000 people across the 
border, which was about 2 years ago, back down to, around December, 
about 10,000 people crossing the border. They did that with the migrant 
protection protocol, with dealing with Central America, and by being 
concerned about COVID.
  So, what to do now? I am sometimes asked how the United States got in 
this mess, and I am talking about a wide variety of issues. Where would 
the Founding Fathers say they screwed up?
  Until this, I always felt that if I look at the three branches of 
government and say between the legislative, executive, and judiciary, 
our Founding Fathers would have never believed the judiciary could have 
such complete lack of respect for the Constitution. But now, I have to 
answer something else.
  The press sometimes considers themselves the fourth estate. There are 
rumors right now that the Department of Homeland Security has put a gag 
order on the Border Patrol agents who always have so many interesting 
stories down there. If I think of our Founding Fathers now who wanted a 
free press, as disappointed as they would be in our President, as 
disappointed as they would be in our Congress, and as super 
disappointed as our Founding Fathers would be in our judicial branch, I 
think the area they would be most disappointed is in the fourth estate. 
The bootlicking sycophants of the fourth estate are just horrible. 
These toadies are ruining the country.
  Wake up. Insist on being able to talk to the Border Patrol. Get down 
to the Border Patrol and find out exactly what is going on.
  Mr. Speaker, my final plea tonight is for the press corps to wake up, 
get to the southern border, and report what is really going on down 
there.
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for 
his remarks.
  Mr. Speaker, I think that this administration and our current 
President, Joe Biden, would do well to take a page out of President 
Trump's playbook, and I mean this with all sincerity.
  The reason people by the millions followed this unconventional, 
nonpolitician businessman and leader is because they were convinced he 
would fight for them. It is because they watched as he followed through 
on what he promised he would do for them. And lastly, Mr. Speaker, it 
is because he put America first.
  Perfect he was not, but I will tell you what, Mr. Speaker, with every 
fiber of his being and ounce of strength in every waking moment, he was 
vigilant in keeping those promises, and one of them was to secure the 
border and stop illegal immigration once and for all.
  Politicians have come and gone. They have made the same promises but 
to no avail. President Trump reduced illegal crossings by 75 percent.
  We know what to do in this Chamber. We know the policies that would 
work to protect our fellow Americans, secure our border, and stop this 
chaos and madness that has ensued as a result of these reckless, 
unilateral decisions that this President is making.
  We know what to do, Mr. Speaker, but there is no political will to do 
it. The message, as we have said, is clear. It is demoralizing and 
insulting that the leadership of this administration and our Commander 
in Chief have prioritized illegal immigrants over our own citizens.
  I am wearing a mask in the people's House. Most of our colleagues, 
Mr. Speaker, have been vaccinated or have had COVID. We have social 
distancing, and we are still wearing masks. What a pathetic posture as 
we just release hundreds every day, thousands upon

[[Page H1494]]

thousands--some say the infection rate is upward of 20 percent--into 
the interior of our country and into our communities while we the 
American people have spent trillions of dollars and made untold 
sacrifices to help our country get back to its feet. It is just 
unbelievable.
  Those poor Border Patrol agents, who have had to hear that they too 
should be defunded, are hamstrung, at best. They see the revolving 
door.
  How would you like to go to work every day, Mr. Speaker, with a clear 
mission, and a righteous and patriotic mission, to secure the border 
and protect your citizens and have a Commander in Chief who says come 
one, come all, and has such little regard for the rule of law and for 
those who risk their lives every day to enforce it?
  These are just the cold, hard facts. It is the truth. I believe, and 
always have, in the American people's good judgment. While some folks 
may have had an aversion to the style and personality of the last 
President--I can appreciate that--they have to look back and say that 
he achieved unprecedented results that left this Nation safer, 
stronger, and more prosperous than we have been in recent history, if 
ever.
  Mr. Speaker, I pray our country will return to that level of 
strength, and I pray this President will embrace the facts and reality. 
I hope he comes to visit border States like Texas and listens to the 
cries that have gone unheard from his administration, from the people 
of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, California, and throughout this land who 
need him to step up and be our Commander in Chief.
  Mr. Speaker, I am done, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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