[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 122 (Tuesday, July 13, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4849-S4850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
the crisis at our southern border. We have the humanitarian crisis 
there. We have a healthcare crisis there. And we also have a national 
security crisis there.
  Over the last 2 weeks, as I traveled the State of Wyoming, I heard 
from people all across the State about the condition of the southern 
border, and not surprisingly, the people of Wyoming recognize that 
there is actually a crisis at the southern border, and there is chaos 
at our border.
  People across the State of Wyoming are shocked--shocked--at the way 
the Biden administration has been acting deliberately to weaken our 
national security and security at our border. We need to strengthen our 
southern border. Leaving the border open is like leaving the door to 
your home open; maybe some good friends will come through the door, but 
sooner or later, the wrong people will enter your home.
  An open border is an open invitation, and it is an invitation to the 
whole world. Now, this includes drug dealers, sex traffickers, and it 
includes gang members, and it even includes terrorists. When President 
Biden took office, he flipped on the green light, and he rolled out the 
welcome mat. He sent a message to the world. The message was received: 
The border is open.
  Since President Biden took office, 600,000 illegal immigrants have 
been arrested crossing the border. This is more than the entire 
population of my home State of Wyoming. Border arrests have gone up 
every month since President Biden has been in the White House.
  Last month, a deputy Commissioner of the Border Patrol retired after 
27 years in that office. His name is Robert Perez. Since leaving 
office, he has had a few things to say. He said: ``What [Border Patrol 
is] seeing since February . . . is absolutely unprecedented.'' He said, 
``It's a crisis unlike anything I've ever seen. . . .''
  Right now, we are on the pace to 2 million illegal immigrants. That 
is what we are looking at, 2 million illegal immigrants crossing the 
southern border into the United States this year alone. That is the 
most in two decades, and those are just the illegal immigrants that we 
know about. In addition, tens of thousands of additional illegal 
immigrants are coming across the border and are not being stopped.
  At the same time, we are seizing more fentanyl at our border than 
ever before. The numbers are astonishing. This drug is so powerful that 
a fatal dose is the equivalent to just a pinch of salt. In the last 6 
months, Border Patrol has seized enough fentanyl to kill every man, 
woman, and child in America. Some experts will say that the amount they 
have captured, in terms of the synthetic drug fentanyl, is a small 
fraction of the amount that is actually getting across the border every 
day. This would mean a quarter-million pounds of fentanyl is likely to 
flow into the United States this year alone, and it is not just staying 
at our southern border. It is in every State of the Union.
  Look, this just didn't happen. Six months ago, the border was nearly 
secure. Then Joe Biden was sworn into office, and he undid the 
successful policies of the previous administration. He stopped building 
the wall even though it has already been paid for.
  Under the previous administration, asylum seekers had to remain in 
Mexico until their day in court. President Biden stopped that. He ended 
that policy, basically saying to everyone: Come in.
  It does seem that anything the previous administration did that was 
done successfully, President Biden has chosen to do the opposite. This 
isn't policymaking; this is knee-jerk partisanship.
  President Biden has had 6 months to fix the crisis that we are living 
with today. He is only making it worse, and he is doubling down on the 
mistakes he has already made. It wasn't enough to end the Remain in 
Mexico policy, which was successful and which Border Patrol agents tell 
me needs to be put back in place if the goal is actually to secure the 
border.
  Now, the Biden administration seems to be actively looking for people 
who had to wait in Mexico under President Trump and let them into the 
United States. He is inviting them into our country, and he is not 
stopping there. He is going further.
  Now, it seems like President Biden is going to open the door even 
wider. Last year, at the start of the pandemic, the previous 
administration closed our borders to people from coronavirus-impacted 
areas. This was a decision made by the Centers for Disease Control and 
Prevention. They did this under title 42 of our laws. This is a section 
of our laws related to public health.
  Well, it is likely to have saved thousands of American lives and 
protected our public health. It has also helped our Border Patrol. They 
will tell you that. They will tell you that this has helped them to 
stem the flow of illegal immigration over the past year.
  But now, President Biden, I understand, wants to end that policy--at 
least that is what the White House is telling the press. That means the 
crisis at the border is going to get even worse.
  You don't have to take my word for it, listen to what Democratic 
Congressman from San Antonio, Congressman Henry Cuellar, had to say. He 
represents a district in Texas right on the border--lives there, goes 
home every weekend, talks to the people, and knows the situation on the 
border. He recently said ending the title 42 order is ``going to 
provide another incentive.'' He said, ``The drug cartels are going to 
start saying you can come in.'' That is Congressman Cuellar, of Texas, 
and I believe he is right.

[[Page S4850]]

  President Biden has removed almost all of the policies protecting our 
border. Title 42 is the last one standing. Now, he is going to take 
this one down as well. Well, if he does, it will open the floodgates. I 
would expect tens of thousands more illegal immigrants coming into the 
country. It would create even more chaos from criminals all across the 
land--not just from Mexico, but from all across the world, coming 
across our southern border.
  As a physician, I am concerned about this decision from the fentanyl 
standpoint and also from the standpoint of the disease, the coronavirus 
and the new variants we are all dealing with. We know that people are 
coming from all over the world.
  When I was at the border this spring, at the Donna facility near 
McAllen, TX, the border agents said they had arrested people from more 
than 50 different countries coming across that southern border from 
Mexico into the United States.
  Now, this includes lots of places where the vaccination rates are 
much, much lower than they are in the United States and in some places 
where vaccines aren't even available.
  At the same time, we are seeing new variants of coronavirus rapidly 
spreading across the world; variants that are coming from other places; 
variants that are deadly; variants for which the vaccines that we have 
here in the United States may not be as effective as we had thought or 
as we would hope.
  So the country's threat for all of us is real. Since the pandemic 
began, more than 8,000 Border Patrol agents and officers have tested 
positive for coronavirus, and 32 of these agents have died of 
coronavirus.
  When I visited the border, I saw firsthand how unaccompanied children 
were routinely exposed to coronavirus. When I visited, roughly 1 in 10 
of these young people who had tested, tested positive for coronavirus. 
And they were all together in these holding pens, crammed in like 
sardines, one exposing the other and the other after that. These 
holding facilities packed 7,000 young people into one facility the day 
we were there, and they have exposed everyone in the facility.
  And, of course, after their time in the holding facility, they are 
released--many of them released while positive. So as new variants 
spread around the world, this puts our Nation in serious danger.
  That is why Republican Senators are sending a letter to President 
Biden. Our message to President Biden is this: Leave the CDC protection 
under title 42 in place. The American people need it. We need it from a 
public health standpoint. It protects our public health. It protects 
our border agents. It strengthens our border security.
  There is enough chaos at the border already--too many drugs, too many 
criminals, and they are already crossing the border. We need to stop 
this knee-jerk partisanship. And we need to get back to the policies 
that we know work; the policies that the Border Patrol tells us work; 
the policies that the Border Patrol advised the Biden transition team, 
prior to Joe Biden's getting sworn in and inaugurated as President of 
the United States, to keep in place.
  We need to finish the wall that has already been paid for. We need to 
bring back the Remain in Mexico policy. We need to enforce the law. We 
need to close the loopholes. We need to slam the door shut on the drug 
cartels. It is time to secure our border once and for all.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.