[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 21, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S5010]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. CASSIDY. Madam President, we are seeing record numbers of people 
coming to the U.S. Mexican border. I am told 63 different countries 
have folks that have arrived at our border.
  In the latest numbers released by the U.S. Customs and Border 
Protection, CBP, they encountered almost 190,000 people coming to the 
United States illegally through the southern border last month. That is 
the highest monthly number of encounters by CBP in two decades.
  This is where we are now. That number is up 471 percent from June 
2020. Across the board, every category of CBP encounter at the 
southwest land border--single adults, unaccompanied children, 
individuals in a family unit--they are surging in 2021, including in 
the hot summer months, when it has traditionally been that is when it 
falls. It is important because these people coming across in the hot 
summer months are at increased risk for death from dehydration and heat 
exhaustion.
  With June's tally, CBP's migrant encounters surpassed 1 million for 
the fiscal year.
  Now, in context, the last fiscal year had 460,000 encounters; fiscal 
year 2019, 980,000. That year was labeled a humanitarian catastrophe. 
That was for the entire year. Now, we are speaking of 1 million, and we 
have 3 months left to go in this fiscal year.
  On Monday, Texas and the national media broadcast videos of migrants 
trying to force their way past Texas border guards. Eight Federal 
agents and police officers pushed back on the gate to prevent a rush of 
about 300 people just breaking through, coming across the border from 
Mexico.
  By any definition, this is a crisis--for the individual, who is at 
risk of dying of dehydration in the desert; for our country, which 
cannot control the border crisis; for the infection of the COVID and 
coronavirus situation in our country, because, obviously, coronavirus 
could be rampant among these folks.
  The Biden-Harris administration could not be doing worse if they 
intentionally set out to mismanage the situation. This past weekend, it 
became clear that it is not just a situation on the border, but it is 
also a situation in Louisiana.
  On Friday, KTBS, a Shreveport news outlet, reported that U.S. 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement--ICE--dropped off approximately 80 
Haitian immigrants with little or no warning to local government and 
law enforcement officials.
  And, again, this is multiple levels. I presume that these folks are 
dropped off because we are out of capacity, but let's think about the 
individual being dropped off. A source told KTBS that the men had 
money, but some of the women had little or no money--no contacts, no 
money, they don't speak the language, dropped off in a strange city.
  Multiple Louisiana outlets are reporting approximately 400 immigrants 
from 42 countries have been dropped off by ICE in Shreveport since the 
end of March, but this is the first we heard. In Baton Rouge, WBRZ, the 
ABC affiliate, had photos and video of a similar dropoff in Baton Rouge 
on Friday, July 16. Monroe, LA, had a similar situation; Natchez, MS, 
similar as well.
  We called ICE over the weekend, and yesterday, they--we actually 
spoke to the acting director. He told me the dropoffs are ``not our 
common practice.'' I would argue that releasing migrants without 
notifying local officials--at least the NGOs that can give them help, 
particularly when there isn't--when some of them have no money, no 
contacts, no place to go, is not good. And he acknowledged that. In 
fairness, he acknowledged that that was a mistake and that the number 
of 70 was too large a number.
  He denied that it was a problem of capacity, but, frankly, when we 
see what is happening at the southern border and then we see a whole 
group of 70 being dropped off without the organization required to make 
sure there is seamless entry into our society, that tells me that there 
probably is a capacity problem.
  Again, you cannot imagine a worse immigration policy and execution of 
what we have seen in the first 6 months of this administration. It is 
incoherence; it is dysfunction. It appears that Washington told ICE: 
Just send them someplace with, again, little or no notice to State and 
local officials.
  We have to ask: Does the President, does the Vice President care 
about controlling the border? Do they care about communities? Do they 
care about these immigrants? It is almost as if they are wishing that 
the issue be swept under the rug
  Unfortunately, the crisis continues to worsen. I don't know if there 
is a plan. I say that because if there is a plan, we have not yet seen 
it executed. What we have seen is that record numbers of people are now 
coming into our country. It is more as if hands are being thrown up in 
the air.
  I will also say there was a lot of criticism of what President Trump 
did, but it is my observation, whatever the last thing the last 
President did was the first thing that worked because it is not as if 
they tried the immediate solution first off. It is like they worked 
through some things that didn't work and they finally got to where they 
were able to stem the tide.
  So if it is the era of ``let's do the opposite of what President 
Trump did, even if it is the only thing that has ever worked,'' we are 
in trouble.
  I do think it is time for the Biden administration to admit they were 
wrong and to begin going back to that which appeared to work.
  I want to thank the people of Shreveport. They have been kinder than 
the Federal Government in terms of helping people out--the churches, 
the NGOs that came out to help folks. As one of them said, the 
Scripture teaches us to help those who are aliens in our land.
  They have been willing to handle the situation when the 
administration failed. But the charity of the American people is not a 
substitute for a coherent policy, and this is an issue for the 
executive branch, specifically President Biden and Vice President 
Harris, who was personally put in charge.
  We need to get it right. We need answers. We need accountability. We 
need sound immigration and border policies, and it starts with securing 
our southern border and enforcing our laws.
  Again, the current situation is unfair to everyone--the migrants, the 
community, our country. The situation in Shreveport, Monroe, and Baton 
Rouge shows the failure of the policies. I don't think they are the 
only communities dealing with this, and we will continue to deal with 
it even more so until we have a controlled border.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. SMITH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ossoff). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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