[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 55 (Wednesday, March 24, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S1742]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Madam President, on another subject, I want to speak again about the 
border crisis created by the Biden administration. I spoke on this 
subject just last week, and the situation has not improved since then.
  Encounters with family units and unaccompanied alien children 
continue to increase. There are now new reports that at some segments 
of the border, illegal immigrants are being released into the interior 
of the United States without receiving a notice to appear in 
immigration court. To be clear, it appears that the administration is 
now releasing some illegal immigrants into the United States without 
even attempting to give them immigration court dates, much less taking 
any real steps to ensure that they actually schedule their hearings and 
show up for their court dates in the future.
  Once again, this is totally unacceptable. This is catch-and-release 
without even pretending to care whether the immigrants show up for 
court or are removed from the country in the future. This is also not 
sustainable. Every sovereign nation has a right as well as a duty to 
its citizens to control its borders. What we are seeing from this 
administration isn't border control or security. You see it on 
television. It is chaos. It is what happens when you broadcast to the 
world that you have no intention of enforcing our Nation's immigration 
laws.
  The President could take action to end this crisis today if he 
actually wanted to. He could restore the Migrant Protection Protocols 
and the asylum cooperative agreements that the Trump administration 
signed with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
  He could start building more physical infrastructure along our 
southern border as administrations of both parties have done for over 
20 years, including the administration in which Biden served as Vice 
President. Fencing isn't something new, and it has not been a partisan 
issue until just here lately.
  Rather than propose unserious blanket amnesty legislation that 
contains no real border security, the President could work with 
Congress on commonsense changes to our immigration laws that we all 
know are needed.
  Finally, the President could make clear that he is in favor of fully 
enforcing our immigration laws as written, across the board, 
remembering that he takes an oath that has the words to ``faithfully 
execute'' the laws.
  Unfortunately, this administration believes that the surge in illegal 
immigration at the southern border, due to its policies, is a process 
to be managed rather than a crisis to be stopped. As long as that is 
the case, we won't be able to truly secure our border and cut off the 
flow of illegal immigration to this country. Let's hope things change 
soon.