[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.

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