[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 164 (Wednesday, September 22, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6616-S6619]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. CRUZ. Madam President, I rise today to call attention to the 
humanitarian crisis that is happening right now in the State of Texas, 
another one happening right now in Del Rio, TX--yet another consequence 
of President Biden's and Vice President Harris's dangerous refusal to 
enforce our laws or to protect our border, a refusal that is causing 
people to die; that is causing young girls to be trafficked; that is 
causing drugs to pour into our State; and that is causing our 
communities to become much less safe.
  Right now, thousands of Haitians are camped under a bridge in Del 
Rio, TX,

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after illegally entering our country. Six days ago, I went down to Del 
Rio myself to see firsthand what was going on and why this was 
happening. The sheer number of people under the bridge took my breath 
away. People were struggling enormously, including infants, including 
young children, and I learned from authorities on the ground what had 
happened and that this was a man-made crisis. To understand what 
occurred, we have to go back to September 8.

  On September 8 and in the weeks that preceded it, there were between 
700 and 1,000 people under that bridge in Del Rio. That was about the 
traffic that was coming in each day illegally. Then, on September 8, 
the Biden administration made a political decision. There were some 900 
Haitian illegal immigrants who were scheduled to board planes and be 
deported back to Haiti. Roughly, 85 percent of the illegal immigrants 
crossing at Del Rio are from Haiti originally. On September 8, the 
Biden administration canceled those planes. It informed those 900 
Haitians that they would not be deported but that they would, instead, 
be allowed to stay in the United States, and what happened next is 
simple.
  Those 900 picked up their phones, and they called their friends; they 
called their families; they texted their friends and families. Between 
the period of September 8, when the Biden administration canceled those 
flights back to Haiti and September 16--8 days later when I was in Del 
Rio--the 700 people under the bridge had become 10,503. That is what 
the total was the day I was there--10,503 packed in in deplorable 
conditions. They had already crossed into the United States. They were 
packed under that bridge because the Border Patrol lacked the capacity 
to process anything close to that number, and within a couple more 
days, the 10,503 had become 15,000 people.
  To put that in perspective, the city of Del Rio has a population of 
35,000 people. Nearly half the population of Del Rio was under that 
bridge. We have seen bread and water and toilet paper and basic 
necessities flying off store shelves in Del Rio, which wasn't expecting 
to have to handle such a massive influx of illegal immigrants.
  The people of Del Rio are concerned; they are dismayed; they don't 
understand why the Federal Government refuses to enforce the law. Law 
enforcement is concerned and dismayed and doesn't understand why Joe 
Biden and Kamala Harris won't enforce the law. The mayor in Del Rio is 
a Democrat, and he is frustrated and dismayed with the crisis the 
Federal Government has caused.
  In the past month, I have traveled throughout South Texas, doing 
roundtables--sitting down with farmers and ranchers, sitting down with 
sheriffs and local law enforcement, sitting down with elected 
officials. A great many of the elected officials in South Texas are 
Democrats. South Texas, historically, has been a very Democratic region 
of the State. To a person, every elected Democrat with whom I sat down 
was horrified at what was happening.
  More than one elected Democrat in South Texas said to me: If the 
National Democratic Party is the party of open borders, I can't be for 
that.
  You know, in this body, we listen to lots of elected officials from 
States that don't have a border with Mexico pontificate on how 
enforcing the border is somehow cruel. I will tell you what is cruel: 
having 10,503 people underneath a bridge, in shantytown conditions, 
where children, where women, where men are sleeping out in the elements 
and where even more come.
  One of the things that strikes me about that Del Rio influx is many 
of those individuals had already been granted asylum in Mexico. So they 
had come from Haiti to Mexico. They had been granted asylum--they were 
living legally in Mexico--but when the Biden administration canceled 
the flights back to Haiti and word got out of, ``Hey, come to Del Rio. 
It is olly olly oxen free. If you come to Del Rio, you can stay in 
America,'' it took 8 days for 700 people to become 10,503.
  The Biden administration has also shut down five Border Patrol 
checkpoints in the Del Rio sector area of responsibility so they can 
redirect personnel just to process the mass of illegal immigrants under 
the bridge in Del Rio, and, of course, it is at those checkpoints that 
trucks carrying illegal immigrants or trucks carrying drugs into our 
country are caught.
  So, with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris pulling the personnel away from 
that, we know yet more illegal immigrants will stream into this 
country. We know yet more women will be raped and sexually assaulted by 
human traffickers. We know more children--more little boys and more 
little girls--will face physical assault and sexual assault from human 
traffickers. We also know that more heroin, more fentanyl--more illegal 
drugs--will pour into our States. And, by the way, not just the State 
of Texas, but every State in the Union will have more people die from 
illegal drugs because Joe Biden and Kamala Harris refuse to enforce the 
law and are pulling law enforcement off of their job of protecting our 
communities.
  On Monday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro 
Mayorkas went down to Del Rio. Let me say I am glad he did. Joe Biden 
hasn't been to Del Rio. Kamala Harris hasn't been to Del Rio. She is 
ostensibly the border control czar, but the czar can't be bothered to 
actually go to the southern border where the crisis is occurring.
  Secretary Mayorkas, in Del Rio, said: ``We are very concerned that 
Haitians who are taking this irregular migration path are receiving 
false information that the border is open.''
  Well, I wonder why they think the border is open. Maybe it is because 
the Biden administration halted the deportation flights to Haiti. Maybe 
it is because Joe Biden is releasing Haitians who illegally cross the 
border at Del Rio into the United States at a staggering scale. Maybe 
it is because Joe Biden halted construction of the border wall the day 
that he became President. Maybe it is because Joe Biden reinstated the 
failed catch-and-release policy or maybe it is because Joe Biden, on 
day 1 of the Presidency, ended the incredibly successful ``Remain in 
Mexico'' policy, which was an international agreement that President 
Trump had negotiated with the Government of Mexico that provided that 
when people crossed illegally into Mexico, that they would remain in 
Mexico while their U.S. asylum case was proceeding.
  That agreement was phenomenally successful--so much so that last 
year, in 2020, we had the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 
years.
  I want to point out to you that some of the Democratic Party, some in 
the media like to say: Well, this problem has been with us a long time. 
This problem is not Joe Biden's fault; it is not Kamala Harris' fault. 
We can't solve the crisis at our southern border.
  If you hear elected Democrats saying that, if you hear the corrupt 
corporate media saying that, you know they are not telling you the 
truth.
  Why is that? Because last year, 12 months ago, we had the lowest rate 
of illegal immigration in 45 years. We know how to solve this crisis. 
The ``Remain in Mexico'' international agreement worked, and Joe Biden 
and Kamala Harris, for political reasons, decided to tear up that 
international agreement and declare open season on our southern border.
  This year, since Joe Biden has been President, over 1.2 million 
illegal immigrants have come into the United States. We are on pace for 
more than 2 million this year, which is the highest rate in 20 years.
  Do you want to see how much policy and politics matter? We went from 
the lowest rate in 45 years last year to the highest rate in 21 years 
this year. And it is all because of politics, because Joe Biden and 
Kamala Harris had made promises to the open-border radicals in their 
party.
  I will tell you, I have been to the border. I have been to the Biden 
cages. For 4 years, Democrats went on and on and on. The corrupt 
corporate media went on and on and on about kids in cages. You couldn't 
turn on the evening news without hearing ``kids in cages.''
  What they didn't tell you is that Barack Obama built those cages, 
and, today, under Joe Biden, the cages are bigger and they are more 
full than they were before.
  Every Democrat who stood up and lamented ``kids in cages'' and the 
House of Representatives--Representative Ocasio-Cortez has a famous 
photo of her grasping her head by the kids in cages. Well, I am going 
to give a simple challenge for Representative Ocasio-

[[Page S6618]]

Cortez and for every Democrat in this body: Go see the Biden cages with 
your own eyes.
  I have seen them--the Donna tent facility, with over 4,000 people, 
with little boys and little girls on top of each other. Just a couple 
of weeks ago, when I was in the Rio Grande Valley, the rate of COVID 
positivity in the Biden cages was over 22 percent.
  And all the Democrats who talked about this, if they don't go, if 
they don't denounce the Biden cages, then they are telling you that 
they are hypocrites; that they didn't believe it when they said it; 
that they didn't care about it when they said it; that it was all 
politics. It wasn't about their kids.
  Why does Joe Biden refuse to go to the Rio Grande Valley? Because if 
he goes, the TV cameras will come with him.
  Why does Kamala Harris, who is supposed to be the border czar--she is 
supposed to be in charge of this--why won't she go to the Rio Grande 
Valley? Because if she went, the TV cameras would come and would show 
the Biden cages.
  And the Democrats are counting on the corrupt corporate media to 
suddenly say: Nothing to see here. Fifteen thousand Haitians under a 
bridge in Del Rio? Nothing to see here.
  Does anyone want to know what Joe Biden's favorite ice cream flavor 
is? That is the news. Never mind 1.2 million illegal immigrants. Never 
mind when I took 19 Senators down to the border. We went out on the 
river and saw a man floating dead in the river who died trying to cross 
illegally. Never mind the South Texas farmers and ranchers, the moms 
who told me: I won't let my teenage kids go out on our ranch without 
being armed with a loaded firearm because there are so many human 
traffickers and narcotics traffickers that it is dangerous for them to 
go out on their own ranch.
  Never mind the South Texas farmers and ranchers, who told me at 
roundtables how tired they are of going out and finding dead bodies.
  Do you want to understand what is happening? You say there is no 
crisis? Come to Brooks County. I invite every Democrat here to Brooks 
County. Brooks County in South Texas, it is just north of the border. 
Brooks County, over and over and over again, there are dead bodies of 
illegal immigrants.
  The traffickers who are bringing them in, they are not nice guys. 
They are not humanitarians. They don't give a damn. That means, if one 
of the illegal immigrants is a pregnant woman, is a young child, is 
elderly, is sick, they just abandon them. They leave them in the rough 
terrain in the summer heat, and, over and over again, the farmers and 
ranchers encounter dead bodies on their property, where the traffickers 
have abandoned them.
  I ask you: Is that humane? Is that compassionate, that Joe Biden and 
Kamala Harris policy that encourages, that puts people in harm's way 
and results in people dying?
  When we were down at the border, we saw a young girl who had been 
gang raped by the human traffickers who had brought her to America. The 
rate of sexual assault is staggering, particularly among the girls and 
young women, so much so that a significant percentage of young women, 
before they take the harrowing trip with the traffickers, will implant 
a birth control because they know the odds of their being sexually 
assaulted are so great.
  And I will tell you, as I was doing the roundtables, one of the 
things I saw also was the colored wrist bands. So the traffickers are 
global cartels that are criminals. They are vicious criminals. They 
charge anyone--a young man, a young woman, a little boy, a little 
girl--thousands of dollars, anywhere from 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, $8,000 to 
cross into the United States.
  By the way, do you know there is 100-percent operational control on 
the border--100 percent--on the southern side? Nobody crosses the 
border without the cartels' permission. If you do, they will kill you. 
Every person who crosses the border does so after paying the cartels, 
because you will be killed otherwise.

  But often, when they come, they will cross, and they will end up at a 
stash house. I have been to those stash houses. I have been out on the 
midnight patrols with the Border Patrol. You go into those stash 
houses, and there are colored wrist bands that they put on the illegal 
immigrants, and the colors correspond to how many thousands of dollars 
they paid and how many thousands of dollars more they owe.
  Often, when they get here, the cartels will say: Thank you for your x 
thousand dollars. We want y thousand more.
  Tragically, it is at those stash houses in the United States where 
many of the sexual assaults occur. And so these immigrants, many of 
whom are young children, teenage children, when they get here, the 
Biden administration delivers them to their final destination. Joe 
Biden and Kamala Harris and their administration are the last mile of 
the human trafficking network.
  But for the 14-, 15-year-old boy who arrives in Atlanta, who arrives 
in New York, who arrives in Detroit, who arrives in Nashville--many of 
those 14- and 15-year-old boys owe thousands of dollars to the cartels, 
which means they arrive in your city--you might think Georgia is not a 
border State. But when teenagers are arriving in Atlanta owing 
thousands of dollars to the cartels, they work for the cartels, and the 
cartels know who their family is and where their family is, and they 
risk their mother or father being murdered if they don't work for the 
cartels to pay off the cartels.
  The young women have it even worse. There are teenage girls who make 
the decision: I want to come to America; I want to come to the promised 
land.
  We have been a beacon of hope to millions throughout our history. 
They don't realize they are stepping into Hell on Earth when the 
traffickers take them and then take them to a cartel facility in 
whatever city they end up in, where many of those teenage girls, still 
owing thousands of dollars to the cartels, have to work to pay off that 
debt by forced prostitution. Young girls forced into a life of sex 
slavery because the alternative is murder at the hand of the cartels. 
This is happening.
  The fact that Joe Biden doesn't want to talk about it, the fact that 
Kamala Harris claims it is not happening, the fact that the corrupt 
corporate media ignores it, it doesn't stop the fact that hundreds of 
thousands of people are suffering.
  Mr. President, you and I are on the Senate Judiciary Committee. We 
have had four hearings in the Democrat-controlled Judiciary Committee 
on amnesty. In case the American people missed it, we get that the 
Democrats want amnesty for every illegal alien. That is not lost on 
anybody.
  We haven't had a single hearing on the humanitarian crisis at the 
border. We haven't had a single hearing on the Biden cages.
  Is it really the case that no Democrat in this Chamber cares about 
the children being assaulted, cares about the children catching COVID, 
cares about the illegal immigrants being released by Joe Biden and 
Kamala Harris with COVID into our communities?
  I get, politically, that this is an inconvenient topic to discuss. It 
is not the political narrative Democrats want to address. But every 
Democrat in this body needs to ask: Did you believe one word of the 
rhetoric you said during the Trump administration? Or was it all 
politics?
  And, by the way, I saw the kids in cages, and I went to them directly 
when Obama was President. I saw them when Trump was President. I saw 
them when Biden was President. The difference last year is that we had 
the lowest numbers in 45 years. We were fixing the problem last year by 
enforcing the law.
  Joe Biden has created this crisis through political divisions.
  I make one final point: right now, 10 to 15,000 Haitian illegal 
immigrants under a bridge in Del Rio, TX. It is easy for Democrats to 
say: Well, that is not my problem.
  It is easy for Democrats to say: I have never been to Del Rio. What 
do I care about those folks in South Texas.
  I ask you: How would this issue be different if those illegal 
immigrants--if their point of entry was Martha's Vineyard? How would 
this issue be different if their point of entry was Silicon Valley, 
perhaps right outside the headquarters of Google--15,000 illegal 
immigrants under bridges?
  The corrupt corporate media doesn't care. The Democrats, I hope, will 
demonstrate that they do.
  And I will tell you this: The American people care. What is happening 
at

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our southern border is wrong, and it needs to end.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Ossoff). The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. HASSAN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.