[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 159 (Wednesday, September 15, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6531]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BORDER SECURITY

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, border security is one of the 
government's most important responsibilities. A sovereign, successful 
Nation's self-determination and safety depend upon it, and we are no 
exception.
  Our border security rests exclusively with the Federal Government. 
And the Department of Homeland Security--a Cabinet created in 2002, I 
believe, in the aftermath of the September 11 attack--is entrusted with 
this paramount duty of protecting our border.
  Fusing homeland with security for its name wasn't an accident. That 
wordage casts the Department's purpose to protect the country from 
external threats, both from people and from products. And Americans pay 
for that Department handsomely and for its responsibilities about $52 
billion a year.
  However, a grave, unprecedented crisis exists at our southern border. 
Our television reminds us of that fact daily. Foreign nationals are 
illegally crossing into our country from Mexico by the thousands every 
day. I heard recently that last month was the biggest number coming in 
for over 20 years. But illegal immigration isn't the only crime 
cascading over our borders.
  Mexican cartels are importing deadly drugs and trafficking humans. 
These horrific, unabated events make very clear that the cartels 
effectively control our southern border. They actually manage who and 
what enters our country from Mexico.
  But the danger is preventable. The trouble exists because the current 
administration deliberately refuses to secure the border.
  Homeland Security's border dereliction is inexcusable, and it happens 
to be life-threatening, not only from drugs but from criminals and for 
national security because terrorists have been arrested.
  Communities across all States, then, are plagued by the crime and the 
drugs killing Americans by the tens of thousands every year. The figure 
from 2020 is over 93,000 Americans dying from drug overdoses--a 31-
percent increase from just the previous year. That exceeds the Rose 
Bowl's capacity, as just one example of comparison.
  One drug is very prolific: Mexican fentanyl, probably fentanyl coming 
through Mexico from China. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid. It is 50 
times more potent than heroin. An infinitesimal amount, even as small 
as a grain of salt, can cause a death. The cartels are producing the 
deadly drug and smuggling it into the United States at record highs. 
They are also adding fentanyl to other drugs for increased potency and, 
of course, increased profits--often without the user of that drug even 
knowing that fact--and sometimes even market that fentanyl-laced drug 
into heroin.
  Unsurprisingly, then, deaths result. From January 2019 to June of 
2019, almost 62 percent of the overdose deaths involved a fentanyl-
related substance.
  The authority scheduling fentanyl analogs expire next month. Congress 
must act to permanently schedule these drugs and punish the cartels and 
the drug dealers who spread this poison across our communities.
  We are a nation of compassion, but we are also a nation of laws. We 
are not obligated under any charade of compassion to ignore border 
crime, particularly the surge of deadly drugs killing tens of thousands 
here each year. But the government, as we see, sits idly by as cartel 
drugs poison Americans and unleash drug-related violence upon our 
communities.
  Border security is essential in keeping our public safety threats and 
a cartel-controlled border presents our greatest criminal threat.
  The Federal Government must be a staunch ally to the States in 
stopping the crime. The cartels benefit immensely from an unsecured 
border, and they are not exactly screening for threats to our national 
security and public safety.
  We have reached a critical juncture and must choose who actually 
controls the southern border, and, consequently, our self-determination 
and our safety. Violent drug cartels or home security--which is it? The 
choice directs our future.

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