[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 104 (Tuesday, June 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4531-S4532]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BORDER SECURITY
Mr. CRUZ. Madam President, on Sunday, June 20, Joe Biden will have
been President for exactly 5 months. In these 5 months, we have seen
crisis after crisis after crisis. We have experienced a gas crisis,
where we had gas lines and skyrocketing energy prices. We are on the
verge of an inflation crisis, where everywhere we look, prices are
rising on food, on housing, and on lumber. We have already had a war in
the Middle East, and we have a border crisis that has been raging so
intensely that we are on pace to see 2 million illegal immigrants come
through our unsecured border this year.
Just last month, 180,034 illegal immigrants crossed the border. To
put that in perspective, that number is a 674-percent increase over the
number of illegal immigrants that crossed the border last May--a 674-
percent increase--and that number is a 21-year high. The reason for
this is simple: The crisis that has unfolded is the direct result of
political decisions made by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
No. 1, the first week in office, President Biden immediately halted
construction of the border wall.
No. 2, that same week, President Biden reinstated the failed catch
and release policy.
No. 3, most inexplicably, the Biden administration ended the ``Remain
in Mexico'' international agreement, a historic agreement negotiated by
President Trump with the Government of Mexico whereby the Government of
Mexico agreed that those who crossed illegally into Mexico would remain
in Mexico while their asylum proceedings were pending in the United
States.
That agreement was a tremendous success. It produced last year the
lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years. Let me repeat that.
Just 6 months ago, our country had achieved the lowest rate of illegal
immigration in 45 years. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris come into office,
they rip to pieces the international agreement that produced that
success, and today we have the highest rate of illegal immigration in
20 years.
Meanwhile, as the crisis rages, Joe Biden is nowhere to be found, and
Kamala Harris is nowhere to be found. In 5 months in office, Joe Biden
couldn't be bothered to go down to the border and see the humanitarian
disaster his policies have created. Kamala Harris, who was designated
``in charge of the border,'' seems determined to go anywhere she can
but the border.
In the 84 days since she has been tasked with handling the border
crisis, do you know how many press conferences she has given? Not even
one--not a single press conference in 84 days.
She can't be honest about what is causing the crisis so she hides
from questions. The one time she sought questions was with NBC's Lester
Holt, where he asked her about going to the border. She responded with
that now characteristic and, quite honestly, creepy laugh, where she
said: ``We've been to the border.'' I am not sure who the royal ``we''
was, but that ``we'' doesn't include Joe Biden, who hasn't been to the
border as President. That ``we'' doesn't include Kamala Harris, who
hasn't been to the border as Vice President.
And Lester Holt--to NBC's credit, Lester Holt actually asked a
followup question, and it was a very simple question: ``You haven't
been to the border?'' To which she responded, oddly: ``Well, I haven't
been to Europe either.''
(Mr. VAN HOLLEN assumed the Chair.)
Mr. President, we are not facing a humanitarian crisis, a border
crisis, a public crisis, a national security crisis in Europe. We are
facing it at our southern border. We are facing it in my home State of
Texas. And the Vice President, it seems, cannot be bothered to go and
see firsthand the failures that President Biden's policies are causing.
I also want to touch on one issue that greatly affects border
communities, and that is our land ports of entry.
While Joe Biden has repeatedly encouraged this crisis of illegal
immigration, he is at the same time preventing lawful border crossing.
Border communities are suffering immensely right now because
important land ports of entry in El Paso, in Del Rio, in Eagle Pass, in
Laredo, in Rio Grande City, in McAllen, in Pharr, in Brownsville remain
closed to everyone except those deemed ``essential'' traffic.
Basically, Mexicans who have a visa to enter the United States
legally cannot do so through these land ports of entry unless they are
going to school, working, or somehow considered essential. Nonessential
travel from the United States--into the United States from Mexico for
shopping, for visiting family and friends, for casual visits are not
allowed by the Biden administration.
Instead, the Biden administration has decided to keep our land ports
of entries closed for nonessential travel until at least June 21,
ostensibly because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This
[[Page S4532]]
decision makes no sense, when Americans have access now to effective
vaccines and the Biden administration is just fine with allowing
hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens to stream across the border and
be released in our communities.
Despite testing positive at a COVID positivity rate of 10 percent,
the Biden administration has no problem with that, and they perpetuate
the policies that continue that disaster. And yet, at the same time,
they shut down trade and legal tourism through our land ports of entry.
For a long time, I have summed up my immigration views very simply in
four words: ``legal, good; illegal, bad.'' I think the overwhelming
majority of Americans agree with that proposition. And yet, as we look
at the first 5 months of the Biden-Harris administration, it seems for
President Biden and Vice President Harris, their immigration policy is
legal, bad; illegal, good. That makes no sense. It is exactly backward.
We should open up our land ports of entry to legal tourism, which
would greatly benefit the border communities, especially in my home
State of Texas.
And we need to end this heartless, inhumane policy that is resulting
in tens of thousands of children being trafficked in by human
traffickers, which is resulting in thousands of children being
physically abused and sexually abused, being thrown into the Biden
cages, packed in larger and larger numbers.
Ignoring this problem won't go away. Behaving like an ostrich, Joe
Biden and Kamala Harris cannot plunge their heads into the sand and
hope the disaster at the border will magically disappear. They don't
want to go to the border because they know the TV cameras will follow
them to the border, and their only hope is people don't notice the
lives that are being destroyed, the crime that is coming in, the
vandalism that is coming in, the public health threat that we are
seeing.
This is not compassionate. It is not humane. This chaos is wrong, and
it is time to end.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arkansas
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