[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 51 (Thursday, March 18, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H1573-H1576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      ADDRESSING THE BORDER CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Cloud) for 38 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address the Biden border 
crisis, the unraveling of what was once a managed situation.
  We are a compassionate Nation, but lawlessness is not compassion. 
Aiding and abetting cartels is not compassion. Putting policies in 
place that allow evil actors to abuse women on a journey is not 
compassion. Allowing them to grow and be funded into a destabilizing 
force in Central and South American nations that are trying to thrive 
and survive and create an economy for their own people, that is not 
compassion.
  The policies that the Biden administration has put in place have 
caused this crisis at the border. It is different from the previous 
administration that came in, inherited a problem and had to put 
policies in place and make difficult decisions to come up with a 
solution. This administration inherited a solution and has put in place 
policies that have created a problem.
  It was predictable. It was easy to avoid. It is unfortunate that we 
have to be here again to talk about this today, but we are here because 
the lives of those affected matter. They deserve it. They need their 
story to be told.
  It is ironic that we are taking people off the border right now, our 
good men and women who signed up to protect and secure our border, to 
defend the Constitution, and to protect our communities. We are 
actually taking them off the border to sit at computers to do paperwork 
to process what has become a migrant humanitarian crisis.
  We have essentially turned our brave men and women into the last 
mile, so to speak, for cartel activity. The business model that the 
cartels have to work throughout the world to bring people to our 
border, to charge them thousands of dollars each while they abuse them 
on the journey, while they put them into indentured servitude and then 
hand them over to our people simply for processing. That is not what 
they signed up to do.
  The migrants deserve better as well, as do, certainly, our 
communities. We understand the strategy of the cartels to overwhelm our 
border and our resources with the humanitarian crisis and then sneak in 
drugs that destroy the lives of our young people and our families.
  We have to fix this. We can secure our border. We can protect the 
lives of these people, and we can keep this Nation strong. We can help 
push back the cartel influence in our Nation and throughout Central and 
South America.
  I have a couple of fellow Members of Congress and friends here who 
have valuable experience. I thank them for joining me today to help us 
with this conversation.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the good gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. 
Norman).
  Mr. NORMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Cloud for organizing 
this Special Order on this topic that the country is dealing with 
today.
  The Trump administration established strong laws against illegal 
immigration. President Biden has decided to disregard any success 
achieved by his predecessor and, instead, announced open borders to the 
world.
  This problem was not created due to conditions abroad but by 
decisions made at home, and they were political decisions, 
unfortunately.
  Since President Biden was elected, illegal border crossings have 
skyrocketed. In February 2020, the CBP announced that over 35,000 
migrants tried to cross the border illegally. To put this in context, 
this past February, that number far surpassed 100,000.
  Despite having the statistics to prove it, President Biden refuses to 
call this situation a crisis, which it is.
  Aside from halting construction on the border wall as performed by 
President Trump, the Biden administration

[[Page H1574]]

has reimplemented a system of catch and release and implemented 
selective enforcement of our immigration laws.
  They have suspended the removal of most people with active 
deportation orders and even released COVID-positive detainees into our 
country. Really? If you go out of the country as an American and come 
in, you have to be tested. This administration has no policies in place 
to test or provide masks and definitely not to know what is coming into 
the country for other viruses.
  The problems we are experiencing are more than politically motivated. 
They are counterproductive and put the safety of the American people in 
jeopardy. Our social systems and border officials don't have the 
capacity or the resources to handle an overwhelming surge in illegal 
border crossings.
  Let me be clear, our immigration system needs judicial review and 
legislative reform. Americans want a secure southern border. 
Disregarding any form of success on our border is not the answer that 
we need.

  As I said before, legal immigration has countless benefits to this 
great Nation. We have a right and a responsibility to know who and what 
comes into our great country.
  Mr. CLOUD. I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Miller).
  Mrs. MILLER of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, 
Congressman Cloud, for this very important Special Order. The House of 
hypocrites may be a more fitting name than this House of 
Representatives.
  The Democrats have facilitated the building of a 10-foot-tall wall or 
fence with razor wire around the people's House, our national Capitol 
Building, and surround themselves with police and National Guard. Yet, 
the same people refuse to protect our Nation's border and the continued 
construction of our border wall.
  Last week, the Democrats passed two bills that diminish our Second 
Amendment rights. The Democrats are the people who have told you we 
don't need guns and walls, yet they have surrounded themselves with 
guns and walls for months.
  There are real dangers posed by allowing this massive illegal 
immigration invasion. We don't know who the people are that are coming 
or what their intentions are. We do know that a lot of them are 
bringing in drugs, women and children to be trafficked, COVID and other 
diseases, and weapons.
  I call on President Biden and the Democrats to stop obstructing the 
enforcement of our immigration laws and facilitating this invasion on 
our southern border.
  Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the good gentleman from Florida 
(Mr. Posey).
  Mr. POSEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the good Congressman from Texas (Mr. 
Cloud) for leading this important discussion.
  When I visited the border, I saw the dangers of open borders, not 
only for Americans, but for thousands of illegal immigrants smuggled 
across the border.
  Open borders empower drug cartels. Cartels are ruthless and inhumane 
in their treatment of their human cargo.
  President Trump secured agreements with El Salvador, Honduras, and 
Guatemala that curbed the flow of illegal immigrant caravans. Those 
agreements, along with the Remain in Mexico agreement, deprived the 
cartels of billions and billions of dollars and saved hundreds of 
thousands of immigrants from sexual abuse and exploitation at the hands 
of the ruthless drug cartels.
  Sadly, on January 20, President Biden gave the ruthless cartels a 
green light to resume their exploitation of women, children, and young 
men when he signed executive orders effectively repealing those 
agreements, which had curbed illegal immigration and were defunding the 
cartels.
  Now, the record-low crossings of immigrants and drugs have been 
replaced by record highs. Customs and Border Protection agents are 
overwhelmed and have resorted to catch and release, which rewards the 
cartels, further enriching those guys.

                              {time}  2100

  Rather than abandoning border security, the Biden-Harris 
administration must abandon the failed policies that created the 
crisis.
  Restoring our border is essential to putting the safety and security 
of Americans first, to protect immigrants from exploitation and harm, 
and to deprive the drug cartels of victims and revenue.
  The worst is still to come if this administration continues down this 
reckless road.
  Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Posey for his comments. It is 
interesting of him to point out the former ``Remain in Mexico'' policy 
that was removed under this administration. Ironically, if you are a 
U.S. citizen going to Mexico, you will have to remain in Mexico and not 
be allowed into our very own home country unless you have a negative 
COVID test. However, this is not happening with the migrants at the 
border currently.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the good gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar).
  Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I have the honor of representing Yuma County, Arizona. 
And as many of you know, Yuma is the epicenter of the Biden-created 
border crisis. When Mr. Biden says he is not going to enforce our 
immigration laws, when he says he is not going to build a border wall, 
it has dire consequences.
  We are seeing the tragic consequences of that right now in Yuma. Mr. 
Biden's decision last month to release illegal immigrants in Yuma 
County on a daily basis has opened up a spigot of border crossings into 
my great State of Arizona.
  Now my worst fears are coming through: Illegal aliens are flooding 
into Yuma. We have now ceded operational control of the border to the 
cartels.
  In less than 2 months, the Biden administration has destroyed much of 
President Trump's progress in securing the southern border. The Biden 
administration's open border policy, coupled with Nancy Pelosi's 
amnesty bills taken up this week--this very day in Congress will only 
exacerbate the growing humanitarian health and security crisis along 
the southern border.
  It is shocking to me that the House Democrats' answer to the Biden-
created border crisis is to take up legislation that would give 
amnesty, plus a path to citizenship, to more than 5 million illegal 
aliens. This is like pouring gasoline on a wildfire.
  We should be enforcing the immigration laws we have on the books. We 
should not be giving amnesty to millions of illegal aliens. Mr. Biden 
should never have halted final construction of the border wall. 
Unfortunately, Democrat's hatred for President Trump clouds their 
ability to work together towards commonsense reforms.
  Instead, Democrats rammed their radical amnesty legislation through 
Congress, even with confirmed reports that suspects on the terrorist 
watch list have attempted to enter into our country.
  What is happening in Yuma and all along the southern border is 
unconscionable. The crisis is only getting worse. Unfortunately, 
today's action on the House floor sends exactly the wrong message. We 
should not be incentivizing more illegal immigrants to unlawfully enter 
our country. Instead, we must condemn these attempts, enforce the laws 
on the books, and take all necessary steps to get our border under 
control.
  God help us all if these two bills become law.
  Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Gosar for his remarks.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the good gentleman from Montana (Mr. 
Rosendale).
  Mr. ROSENDALE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the open 
border policies of the Biden administration, which have created the 
worst border crisis in recent memory.
  After the surge in 2019, the Trump administration built the wall 
system to secure our border, ended ``catch and release,'' and, most 
importantly, actually enforced our Nations' laws, making it harder and 
less desirable to come to our country illegally. And it worked. Illegal 
border crossings fell to record lows.
  Unfortunately, on his first day in office, in an act of spiteful 
partisanship, President Biden undid all of that with the stroke of a 
pen. The results are clear and disturbing. February border 
apprehensions were tripled what they were last year under President 
Trump, with a number of accompanied children in custody already 
shattering a record.

[[Page H1575]]

  This truly is a humanitarian crisis of our time. On the treacherous 
trip to our country, illegal aliens are subject to abuse, rape, gang 
violence, and harsh weather and terrain. Once they arrive, often they 
are forced into sex slavery or indentured servitude to pay off their 
debts to coyotes or the cartel. Open borders and amnesty are not 
compassionate. They are heartless. The level of human suffering taking 
place on the border due to President Biden's policies is truly tragic. 
The result of these policies was completely predictable.
  When I visited the border just over a month ago, agents told me 
troubling stories of illegal aliens, specifically citing President 
Biden's immigration policies as the reason they decided to come to 
America. And this week, House Democrats passed amnesty measures that 
will only make the situation worse.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge President Biden and House Democrats to 
reconsider, set aside partisanship, and work with us to secure our 
border, enforce our laws, and address the humanitarian crisis at the 
border before it is too late.
  Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the good gentleman from Arizona 
(Mr. Biggs).
  Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, Mr. Cloud, for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, earlier today, Democrats ignored President Biden's 
inhumane border crisis and passed two amnesty bills. The bills actually 
encourage illegal immigration.
  Here is the way it works: The cartels have operational control of our 
border. They do. No one crosses the southern border unless the cartel 
says it is okay. The cartels are advertising now. NGOs funded by this 
government are advertising down in the Northern Triangle states in 
Mexico: ``Come north.''

  They give brochures how to get here. And what happens is caravans are 
forming now. But more than that, we have got people lining up at the 
borders to come across. It is a treacherous journey.
  Mr. Speaker, parents are giving their kids to coyotes to bring 
forward. And these people have no respect for human life. No respect. 
And that is because of the policies of this administration. And I will 
tell you what I heard someone on the floor of the House state today, 
and I am going to quote it.
  They said, ``This bill is not amnesty. It does not grant anybody 
amnesty. It allows individuals to get right with the law and become 
legal workers in the United States.''
  That is the definition of amnesty. Look it up in Merriam Webster.
  Earlier this week, Secretary Mayorkas admitted, ``We are on pace to 
encounter more individuals on the southwest border than at any time in 
the last 20 years.''
  Let that sink in: More than any time in the last 20 years.
  And the answer to this by our Democrat colleagues is to pass amnesty.
  Mr. Speaker, we hear moving stories that all Dreamers came to the 
United States as little children, graduated from high school as 
valedictorians and are now working as doctors saving lives.
  If that were true, why did these bills include waivers for illegal 
aliens who have been convicted of crimes?
  Why didn't these bills include language to require that illegal 
aliens who will get amnesty at least have graduated from either high 
school or college?
  The contents of the bills the House passed today do not match the 
rhetoric of the open borders crowd. We can spend hours talking about 
the heartfelt stories, what happened to people, kids who I have seen, 
who have been rented out and used multiple times to take advantage of 
these policies. Time doesn't allow for me to do that, but we must 
continue to fight this horrible scourge because it is a humanitarian 
crisis.
  Don't paper over it claiming that you are compassionate when you are 
enticing people to put their lives in the hands of people who don't 
give any consideration for human life.
  Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his remarks.
  Indeed, it is true that these cartels have a weird, perverted 
thinking when it comes to people. For them, they are just a business 
product. In their mind, they can sell a kilo of coke once, but they can 
get residual income from a human life.
  It is pathetic, disturbing, troubling, to say the least, that we, by 
our policies, empower this kind of activity on our southern border.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the good gentlewoman from Colorado (Mrs. 
Boebert).
  Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas, my good 
friend, Congressman   Michael Cloud, for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, the Biden regime has focused all its time and energy on 
benefiting those who have done it all wrong. Fascist governors imposed 
draconian lockdowns and sent their States into economic disaster. So 
Biden passed the blue State bailout.
  Did you commit a felony? This administration wants you to vote.
  And now this administration wants to give special privileges to those 
breaking Federal law and crossing the southern border.
  Mr. Speaker, it is past time that we fix the broken immigration 
system and secure the border. That is my hard line. That means building 
the wall, properly funding Border Patrol, and enforcing the laws we 
have on the books--exactly what President Trump did, which led to 
record low illegal crossings. This is the right and humane thing to do.
  Getting children out of the hands of cartels and coyotes, and making 
it clear that the American government will put those coming the right 
way, the legal way, they will be rewarded. But, no, this administration 
has become a marketing wing for the cartels, urging folks from all 
around the world to flood our southern border.
  These cartels are making billions of dollars on human smuggling 
alone, and billions more on drug trafficking. The result of Biden's 
collaboration with cartels is the highest number of unaccompanied 
minors we have ever seen. Thousands of criminals, and even individuals 
on the FBI's terrorist watch list, crossing our border.
  Mr. Speaker, this administration is incentivizing unaccompanied 
minors to make the hazardous and potentially fatal journey across our 
southern border. That is child abuse. This administration has signaled 
that we will not fortify our southern border, and we have seen those on 
the terrorist watch list try to enter. That is a dereliction of duty. 
And we have seen this administration fail to uphold and enforce the 
laws of our Nation. That is a betrayal of the American people.
  The most moral thing we can do is build a wall and secure our 
southern border. It is shameful and immoral to signal to poor and 
desperate people that if you break our laws, if you cross our borders, 
if you somehow make it, if you somehow don't get caught and survive, 
then we will take care of you with our hard-earned tax dollars. Let's 
ask California how that is working for them.
  Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. Boebert for her remarks.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the good gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Clyde).
  Mr. CLYDE. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to shine a light on the 
current crisis that is plaguing our southwest border. Customs and 
Border Protection agents has stated that they are encountering more 
than 3,000 illegal immigrants per day. It has also been reported that 
Customs and Border Patrol encountered the highest number of illegal 
aliens recorded in the month of February in over 7 years, at 100,441 
encounters.

  The Biden executive order terminating the construction of the wall 
caused this crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made it worse. The 
Biden border crisis stands to threaten not only U.S. communities along 
the southern border, but also Americans throughout the interior. And as 
a result of the Federal Government's inaction, local border communities 
are stepping up to fill the void.
  But, unfortunately, these localities do not have the authority to 
retain these illegals who plan to travel to dozens of cities throughout 
the country. We must do everything in our power to protect Americans 
from unnecessary exposure to the coronavirus.
  It seriously troubles me that the Secretary of Homeland Security 
acknowledged just yesterday in a committee hearing that the Department 
not only does not know how many illegal immigrants have been released, 
but they are also not testing all of them for COVID-

[[Page H1576]]

19 before releasing them. Let that sink in.
  The Department charged with protecting the homeland lacks an 
executable strategy to ensure that all illegal immigrants are properly 
screened and tested before they are released into the interior.
  In order to right this wrong and stand up for the safety of all 
Americans, I will be introducing the COVID-19 Border Protection Act, a 
bill that repurposes COVID relief funds, funds from Democrats' nearly 
$2 trillion package slated to be sent overseas, to test immigrants who 
are encountered by Federal officials at the border and quarantine those 
who test positive. I took an oath to protect all Americans, and this 
bill does just that.
  The crisis at the border is unacceptable and it exemplifies the 
threat posed by the rollback of Trump-era policies that were tough on 
illegal immigration.

                              {time}  2115

  Illegal immigrants should not be allowed to enter our country to 
begin with, and a wall would help do just that. But they should 
certainly not be allowed to enter and spread the COVID-19 virus. All 
Americans should be appalled with the crisis at the border.
  I call on my colleagues to join me in rejecting the administration's 
America second policies and get tough on illegal immigration.
  Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, we are indeed a compassionate Nation, we 
recognize that everyone on this planet are people created in the image 
of God. We understand that people are hurting all over the world.
  The solution for that, however, is for us to be that shining city on 
the hill, for us to be an example to the world. For them to know that 
if you live by the same principles that have made this Nation into one 
of the brightest beacons of freedom through all of human history that 
you can achieve the same results.
  We want people to prosper everywhere. We want every nation to 
prosper, and that is why we are so intent on stopping this terrible 
scourge that is at our southern border. These cartels are wreaking 
havoc in the lives of these people, and we have to put an end to this.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an article titled ``Color-Coded 
Passage: Why Smugglers are Tagging U.S.-Bound Migrants with 
Wristbands.''
  It has recently come to light that a number of the migrants are 
coming over with wristbands. The question was asked, Why?

                      [From Reuters, Mar. 9, 2021]

Color-Coded Passage: Why Smugglers Are Tagging U.S.-Bound Migrants With 
                               Wristbands

         (By Adrees Latif, Laura Gottesdiener, Mica Rosenberg)

       Penitas, TX.--Along the banks of the Rio Grande in the 
     scrubby grassland near Penitas, Texas, hundreds of colored 
     plastic wristbands ripped off by migrants litter the ground, 
     signs of what U.S. border officials say is a growing trend 
     among powerful drug cartels and smugglers to track people 
     paying to cross illegally into the United States.
       The plastic bands--red, blue, green, white--some labeled 
     arrivals or entries in Spanish, are discarded after migrants 
     cross the river on makeshift rafts, according to a Reuters 
     witness. Their use has not been widely reported before.
       Some migrants are trying to evade border agents, others are 
     mostly Central American families or young children traveling 
     without parents who turn themselves into officials, often to 
     seek asylum.
       Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley sector, which 
     spans more than 34,000 square miles (88,000 square 
     kilometers) along the border in southeast Texas, have 
     recently encountered immigrants wearing the bracelets during 
     several apprehensions, said Matthew Dyman a spokesman for 
     U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
       The ``information on the bracelets represents a multitude 
     of data that is used by smuggling organizations, such as 
     payment status or affiliation with smuggling groups,'' Dyman 
     told Reuters.
       The differing smuggling techniques come as Democratic 
     President Joe Biden's administration has sought to reverse 
     restrictive immigration polices set up by his predecessor, 
     former President Donald Trump. But a recent jump in border 
     crossings has Republicans warning the easing of hardline 
     policies will lead to an immigration crisis.
       U.S. border agents carried out nearly 100,000 apprehensions 
     or rapid expulsions of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in 
     February, according to two people familiar with preliminary 
     figures, the highest monthly total since mid-2019.


                            PURPLE BRACELET

       ``They run it like a business,'' said Cardinal Brown, which 
     means ``finding more patrons and looking for efficiencies.'' 
     Migrants can pay thousands of dollars for the journey to the 
     United States and human smugglers have to pay off drug 
     cartels to move people through parts of Mexico.
       ``This is a money-making operation and they have to pay 
     close attention to who has paid,'' she said. ``This may be a 
     new way to keep track.''
       Criminal groups operating in northern Mexico, however, have 
     long used systems to log which migrants have already paid for 
     the right to be in gang-controlled territory, as well as for 
     the right to cross the border into the United States, 
     migration experts said.
       A migrant in Reynosa--one of the most dangerous cities in 
     Mexico across the border from McAllen, Texas--who declined to 
     give his name for fear of retaliation, showed Reuters a 
     picture of a purple wristband he was wearing.
       He said he paid $500 to one of the criminal groups in the 
     city after he arrived a few months ago from Honduras to 
     secure the purple bracelet to protect against kidnapping or 
     extortion. He said once migrants or their smugglers have paid 
     for the right to cross the river, which is also controlled by 
     criminal groups, they receive another bracelet.
       ``This way we're not in danger, neither us nor the 
     `coyote,' '' he said, using the Spanish word for smuggler.
       One human smuggler who spoke on conditions of anonymity, 
     confirmed the bracelets were a system to designate who has 
     paid for the right to transit through cartel territory.
       ``They are putting these (bracelets) on so there aren't 
     killings by mistake,'' he said.
       Migrants and smugglers say the use of bracelets to 
     designate who has paid for the right to cross the river is a 
     system required by the cartels that control waterfront 
     territory in the conflict-ridden state of Tamaulipas.
       In January, a group of migrants were massacred in 
     Tamaulipas state just 40 miles (70 km) west of Reynosa. 
     Twelve local Mexican police have been arrested in connection 
     with the massacre.
  Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, a migrant in Reynosa said this: ``He paid one 
of the criminal groups in the city after he arrived a few months ago 
from Honduras to secure the purple bracelet to protect against 
kidnapping and extortion.''
  ``He said once migrants or their smugglers have paid for the right to 
cross the river, which is also controlled by criminal groups, they 
receive another bracelet.''
  So basically, cartels are going throughout, they are recruiting 
people to come, charging them thousands of dollars. At each step along 
the way they have to pay another fee to get across the territory that 
is controlled by cartels.
  One human smuggler who spoke up, of course, on the condition of 
anonymity, confirmed that the bracelets were a system to designate who 
was paid for the right to transit through cartel territory. And this is 
what he said: ``They are putting these bracelets on so there aren't 
killings by mistake.''
  This is what we are allowing, and it is tragic. We can do better than 
this.
  We can mitigate the influence that the cartels are having at our 
border, and communities throughout my State, in particular, in Texas, 
and throughout our Nation. We can mitigate this humanitarian and this 
national security crisis, and I encourage the White House to do so, and 
for this House to take up legislation to secure our border as well.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________