[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.
____________________