[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 66 (Friday, April 16, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H1886-H1888]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION FAILURES CREATING BORDER CRISIS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr.
Grothman) for 30 minutes.
Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, just prior to coming to Washington this
week, I spent a couple of days down at the Mexican border to see for
myself exactly what was going on down there.
I visited the El Paso sector. I would like to thank the Border
Patrol, ICE, the ranchers, and local law enforcement for being so
helpful and informative to the nine Congressmen who were in the El Paso
sector over the weekend.
Our goal was to see over the last few months how things have changed,
and in the last 5 months, things have changed dramatically at the
border.
For one thing, illegal apprehensions are way up. In March, we had
172,000 illegal apprehensions, and that doesn't include, of course, the
people who snuck across without being apprehended. This time last year,
in March, there were 34,000 illegal apprehensions. What could cause an
increase from 34,000 to 172,000?
It was painful not only to hear about the numbers but to see row
after row of young children on mats just waiting for something to
happen.
Now, what has happened? What happened at the border to get a fivefold
increase in 1 year, as well as seeing all these children in almost
inhumane conditions waiting to be taken away to somebody who they hope
will take care of them?
First of all, this administration got rid of the migrant protection
protocol. Donald Trump, I am sure in very difficult negotiations, had
Mexico agree to hold people south of the border pending hearings for
asylum. That was a huge benefit.
Secondly, we had agreements with Central American countries so that
when people came here from other Central American countries or South
America, they would be held south of the Mexican border.
Third, we changed things to the old-fashioned catch and release,
where we touched people, but then when we are dealing with families, we
let them in the United States pending a hearing on immigration. We
changed title 42 to allow more people to come into this country,
whether or not they have COVID.
Finally, we have a President who, during the campaign, made many
different statements indicating that illegal immigration was not going
to be a problem during his administration, whether he was promising
free medical care, supporting sanctuary cities, ending the public
charge rule. And President Trump had said: Immigrants coming here, we
don't want you here if you are going to wind up on welfare.
It is no wonder they were wearing Biden T-shirts. We make stimulus
payments to people who are here illegally.
Given all these changes, is it a surprise that so many people want to
come here? In addition to the fact that the changes in the laws
themselves cause people to get to the Mexican border to come here, it
is advertising to the world that the United States does not care about
immigration laws.
Now, we have to do something. We have dug ourselves a deeper hole in
our relations with both El Salvador and Mexico. It is important to
treat our Latin American cousins with respect. But in February, the
President of El Salvador, President Bukele, was not given an audience
when he showed up in this country in February. Is that the type of way
we should treat our Central American allies when we want people held
south of the border?
The Mexican President feels that President Biden has made himself out
to be the migrant President. Mexico does not like this free-for-all at
our
[[Page H1887]]
southern border in which we are strengthening the control of the drug
cartels.
But, again, our relationship is going south there. The migrant
protection protocol, in which we are holding prospective applicants for
asylum south of the border, has ended.
Another thing that I think is causing this problem is the actions of
the President and Vice President. Three weeks ago now, our Vice
President was appointed to be in charge for the administration on what
goes on at the southern border. She hasn't been there yet. This has to
raise red flags all over the world.
Do the Vice President and the President get along? Right now, it is
not hard to find articles by talking heads. Did the Vice President want
this position? Has she accepted the position with any enthusiasm? Why,
for 3 weeks, in what to me is probably the second biggest crisis, maybe
the biggest, at least the second biggest crisis the United States has
undergone in the last 6 years, why do we have a person in charge of the
crisis who has not gone down to the border? Does she consider this a
serious problem or not?
I would love it if she gave a speech, a wholehearted speech, saying
that she does believe we have a problem on the border, and she is going
to do something.
I am going to divert a little bit from my discussion on what is going
on at the border. I want the Biden administration to also give a little
thought to how this looks to other countries around the world. I don't
like the United States to have enemies--and I don't consider these
countries necessarily enemies--but there are times when, clearly, we
are being challenged by Russia, China, Iran, and other countries around
the world.
How does the United States look to other countries when we can't even
secure our southern border, when it looks like we are not even trying
to secure our southern border? I want the Biden administration to think
that the complete inaction at the southern border, allowing tens of
thousands of people to cross every month, sends a message around the
world that this administration is not yet fully engaged.
The Vice President has said she wants to deal with root causes. If
root causes mean people making less money than in the United States, I
mean, we are going to have open borders forever.
We have something great here in the United States, and if we feel
that some people would rather live here, or they are not materially as
well off as in the United States, I will tell you, if we are not going
to secure the border until that is solved, we are not going to solve
this problem until we have over a billion new people in this country.
We noticed other things on the border. We noticed the stopping of
building the wall. It is not until you are down there that you see all
the planks that are supposed to be put together on the wall just
sitting there in the sun. Somebody presumably paid for these things. I
don't know why, since we had all the pieces for a wall down there, that
we didn't at least try to build it for another month or 6 weeks so that
the material down there could at least have been used.
I want to point out, by the way, with regard to the wall, because
some people think it cost money, compared to the alternative, not only
people coming in this country using the services we provide, but we
were told at the southern border that when you have the old-fashioned
barbed wire, you maybe should have two or three Border Patrol agents
per mile. But when you have the wall, you need one agent for every 2
miles. There is a tremendous savings in the number of people you need
in Border Patrol at the border if you had the wall.
The idea of stopping it mid-construction, where you have all these
metal beams spread out just lying in the southern sun, is very
frustrating.
Another thing to point out is that we met with ranchers down there.
How difficult it must be for ranchers to see members of drug cartels
walking across their land. Wouldn't that just scare you to death? A
horrible thing.
We look at the human toll of people sneaking into this country
because they are escorted into the country by the drug cartels. A lot
of people don't realize this. Another reason so many people are pushed
across the border, and another organization that will educate people
around the world that you ought to come to the United States, is the
Mexican drug cartels.
Why do they do that? They do that because they are charging 3,000
bucks a head for every Mexican person who comes across the border. They
are charging $5,000 a head for every Central American. They are
charging $8,000 to $10,000 a head for every Brazilian.
As long as the drug cartels are making money at the border, is it any
surprise that we have such a surge here, as they attract people or
encourage people to come to the United States?
I want to make another point about these poor children at the border.
What goes on right now is that the children come to the border. If they
are unaccompanied, we hold them, looking for somewhere to put them in
the United States. It is very heart-rending to see all these kids
without anybody there.
But right now, under the current protocols, if you have a child who
has parents in Honduras, but you give them a piece of paper saying that
he has an aunt and uncle in New York, rather than send that child back
to his parents, they send them to the aunt and uncle in New York, who
are here illegally.
Does that make any sense? That is what is going on.
{time} 1445
One thing that really irritates the Border Patrol down there is they
know that if American parents were to send a 5-year-old child, let's
say, and drop him off at the Milwaukee airport and hope he shows up in
the airport in Miami the next day, Child Protective Services would be
there saying: What is wrong with the parents?
Here at the southern border, we are co-conspirators on these
dangerous trips for the children, some of which wind up dying, and many
of them wind up being sexually assaulted, which is just a horrible
thing.
Another thing that we found out at the border is that the amount of
hardcore illegal drugs is rocketing up. I know some people may say that
is an old story. The week before I went to the border, I happened to
visit with the DEA in Milwaukee. Last year alone, in Milwaukee County,
540 people died of illegal drug overdoses. When I talked to the people
at the DEA in Milwaukee, they felt it was entirely possible that all
540 people were poisoned to death with drugs either brought across the
southern border or ingredients for drugs brought across the southern
border.
Madam Speaker, look at the skyrocketing number of people who are
dying of hardcore drugs.
Why is that?
We should have anticipated it.
The powerful Mexican drug cartels are going to make money. There was
a time, maybe 10 years ago, when marijuana coming across the southern
border was common. But now as more American States legalize marijuana--
Washington, Colorado, and what have you--there is so much marijuana
being produced in the United States that there is no money to be made
by importing marijuana from Mexico.
I heard an anecdote of marijuana being brought here from Mexico, and
it was being carted around the Southern United States, looking for
somebody to take it. Nobody would take it because you can have higher
quality marijuana growing legally here in the United States.
So what are the Mexican drug cartels going to do?
They are going to import in this country more heroin, more meth, and
especially more fentanyl. That is what we are seeing at the border.
So rather than being a time to cut back and saying that we don't care
as much about the border, now is the time with the increasing number of
fentanyl deaths--540 in Milwaukee County alone last year from fentanyl
and the other drugs, which is a shocking number--now is the time to
dial up enforcement at the border. But instead, it seems, we are going
the opposite way.
I don't know what is going on that you want to let more fentanyl in
the country, Madam Speaker. I know there are some people who say that
it is a victimless crime or what have you, but you tell that to the
families of the 540 people who died last year in Milwaukee County. That
is another result of this lax, devil-may-care attitude, as far as what
is going on down there.
[[Page H1888]]
So the question is: What to do?
Maybe Mexico will not go back to the old agreement, but I think the
President should beg Mexico to go back to the migrant protection
protocol where one more time we are allowed to hold people on the
Mexican side of the border pending hearings as to whether they are
eligible for asylum.
Secondly, we have to hire more Border Patrol.
I want to go back and explain something. I talked about the 170,000
people in March who are touched by the Border Patrol. That doesn't
include people whom they don't catch. The more the Border Patrol has to
deal with the children on the southern border, the less time they have
to guard the border. So there is clearly a significant increase in
people crossing the border because they know the Border Patrol is no
longer there. They are dealing with paperwork for the children that
they have to process, and that has to be the priority.
If you are going to go down this path, President Biden, and not care
about the southern border or not reinstate the migrant protection
protocol with Mexico, at least hire more Border Patrol agents so we can
process the people you are letting in this country; and don't leave
these huge swaths of the southern border wide open.
Because of that, people I have talked to guess--this is a guess--that
whereas, last year, maybe 10,000 people a month were crossing the
southern border without the Border Patrol touching them, now it is more
like 30,000 people a month. What a disaster.
We should amend the Flores agreement, which is what is requiring us
to take so many of these children and ship them around the United
States. We should be able to send them back to their native country.
We should try to undo the damage we have done with the way we have
treated the El Salvadorean President and see if he can, one more time,
assist us in preventing people from all around the world coming up from
south of Mexico.
Since the metal beams used to put together a wall are just sitting
there in the hot sun, we should at least, at a minimum--it would be
great to build a whole wall--use up the raw materials for the wall that
are sitting down there. Actually, it is more than a wall; it is a whole
wall system. Just don't have those metal beams just sitting there in
the desert forever.
Above all, President Biden and Vice President Harris, show you care.
Show you care. Let the world know that the United States does not have
an open border for anybody to come across the border, be they criminal,
especially people coming across with that fentanyl. Show that you care.
Hold a press conference.
It would be nice if Vice President Harris would show that she
accepted her new job with some enthusiasm. Again, the talking heads I
read right now imply that maybe she didn't even want the job.
So, please, President Biden, show you care before we have 200,000
people a month coming in the country. Show you care a little about the
fentanyl crisis, as we are approaching 90,000 people a year dying in
this country of illegal drugs, most of which come across the southern
border. Show you care about those little children sitting in row after
row of mattresses on our southern border. Show you care about the drug
cartels and the way they are corrupting the Mexican Government and
beginning to corrupt the United States. Say you want to stop the system
in which they are able to make so much money sneaking people in this
country. Show you care about the poor ranchers on the southern border,
who have been there for generations and now have to be scared to death
to go out late at night and can't let their children ride their horses
on their land for fear of what will happen to them.
If you won't do it, we have to call upon the public and other Members
of Congress to let the Biden administration know that the current
situation is completely untenable. You have to step up to the plate and
do something.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________