[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 130 (Monday, July 26, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H3890]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CRISIS AT THE SOUTHERN BORDER

  (Mr. GROTHMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Madam Speaker, two weeks ago, I spent additional time 
at the U.S. border, which I think, by a mile, is the biggest crisis 
this country has.
  It has recently been brought to my attention that the Rio Grande 
Valley sector, where I was at, recently had 20,000 people a week 
processed. They had never seen such a thing.
  What difference does this make? The more people come across, first of 
all, it probably means more illegal drugs crossing the border, which 
means more fentanyl, which is the reason why we have 90,000 deaths a 
year in this country. Since they're processing more people, it means 
less Border Patrol agents to guard the more rural areas of the border, 
which means more people coming across.
  Finally, we are in a situation, we found out, down there, when they 
turn people over with COVID to the nongovernmental entities, those 
entities do not have secure facilities, and it means people are flowing 
into this country who we already know have COVID.
  Please, during this appropriations season, please add more money to 
our Border Patrol so we can get a handle on these ridiculously high 
numbers.

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