[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 51 (Thursday, March 18, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1624-S1625]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BORDER SECURITY

  Mr. McCONNELL. Yesterday, Secretary Mayorkas testified the ``border 
is secure and the border is not open.''
  Yet the situation on our southern border has required FEMA, the 
Federal Emergency Management Agency, to be called in. So either this is 
the first time FEMA has been deployed just to admire a situation that 
is going smoothly or the administration is not being straight with the 
American people.

[[Page S1625]]

  Here are the facts. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 
100,000 migrant encounters in February--100,000. That was up 28 percent 
from January. DHS projects the March totals will keep 2021 on pace for 
the most border encounters in 20 years. Unaccompanied child arrivals 
have jumped 63 percent, on pace to shatter all-time records.
  This would be a humanitarian crisis under any circumstances, but it 
is even worse during a global pandemic. These thousands of 
unaccompanied kids are being housed in three-high bunk beds in 
facilities now stuffed at more than triple capacity. During the 
pandemic that is keeping kids out of schools and small businesses from 
fully reopening, these failing policies have us crowding these kids 
together down at the border.
  And, don't forget, the Biden administration policy directs CBP to 
release migrants on U.S. soil while they await asylum rulings. That is 
without--without--a negative COVID test. So good luck to the 
communities on the border.
  This isn't just a health and humanitarian crisis, though. It is a 
security crisis as well. New reporting suggests that multiple people 
arrested at the border in recent months have been matched to names on 
the FBI's terrorist watch list.
  Democrats claim this overall influx is not because of their new 
administration. Well, that would be news to the migrants themselves. 
Some of these people have told reporters it was Democrats' rhetoric 
that led them to come. Some have shown up wearing T-shirts with the 
Biden campaign's logo on them.
  Administration officials keep sending mixed messages, repeating 
phrases from the White House podium like ``now is not the time to 
come.'' So there will be an appropriate time sometime later for people 
to enter our country illegally?
  Speaking of mixed signals, this week, the House is voting on 
immigration bills. Are they leaping into action to repair the crisis? 
No, that is not what they have in mind. They are taking up an amnesty 
plan that would create a special new pathway to citizenship for illegal 
immigrants working in certain industries.
  So to summarize, the administration can't admit they have caused the 
crisis. They have yet to address the crisis. And House Democrats are 
backing policies that would only exacerbate the wrong incentive.

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