[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 69 (Wednesday, April 27, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H4570-H4573]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
{time} 1930
CRISIS AT OUR SOUTHERN BORDER CONTINUES
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 4, 2021, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Perry) for 30 minutes.
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I am joined here this evening by some of the
other members of the Freedom Caucus to talk about what everybody is
talking about or one of the things everybody is talking about, which is
the unmitigated disaster, the calamity, the crisis at the United States
southern border.
Today, Secretary Mayorkas was here on the Hill, and I think the term
he used was that the border was effectively managed. Effectively
managed, Mr. Speaker. I think maybe we are asking the wrong question
because effectively managed seems very different in the minds of many
Americans than apparently it does to the good Secretary.
It seems to me that just looking at the numbers--and I think we
oftentimes talk too much in numbers--the toll is in real human lives,
but we do need to talk about the numbers a little bit just to emphasize
the scale.
Effectively managed. For us, for Americans, we think we should have a
sovereign country that has a border where the United States of America
determines who gets to walk across the border and what the process is.
Of course, that is obliterated right now. That is totally gone.
I think when the Secretary says that it is being effectively managed,
I think that is in terms of the new left's version of the border of
America, which is to allow it to be as open as possible, to be violated
as many times as possible, and to make as efficient as possible those
violations on a daily basis.
In other words, let's move across as many people as we can, legally
or illegally, without regard to the safety of the country, without
regard to the health of the country, without regard to the financial
circumstances of the country. All of that stuff is out, quite honestly,
without regard to the sentiment of the American people whom we all
serve--our bosses.
In his mind, apparently, it is effectively being managed. Every time
we allocate more money, the charge is it is to more effectively manage
or secure our border. Ladies and gentlemen and Mr. Speaker, what that
means under President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas and the left's reign
across
[[Page H4571]]
America right now is that they are efficiently--and becoming more
efficient at it--moving illegal aliens into our country, into our
neighborhoods.
Maybe you say, Well, look, these are just people that are looking for
a better life. Many of them are, that is true. We don't hate anybody.
Every one of us wants to help. What comes with that? What comes with
the wide open border?
Mr. Speaker, what comes with it is a record number of fentanyl
overdoses, the leading cause of death for young people between the ages
of 18 and 42 in America today. That is what comes across the border.
MS-13 and the criminal element.
It is said that we need a humane policy. This is a humane policy? Mr.
Speaker, I don't know whether you know this or not, but, unfortunately,
a young National Guardsman died while trying to help people that were
trying to cross the river, they seemed like they were struggling so he
jumped in to help them. He lost his life.
I don't know if it is true, but it is reported that after those
people came across or got across they were arrested for drug
trafficking. When they found the young servicemember's body, it was
with another person who happened to be an illegal alien that was trying
to cross. Of course, it is not reported, but I think there are
literally hundreds and hundreds of dead illegal aliens that have tried
to cross the border in the last 14 months. How humane is that?
Human trafficking. We have passed numerous bills in this House of
Representatives, Mr. Speaker, even since you have been here, about
human trafficking. Yet, the taxpayers of our country are forced to
finance the largest human trafficking operation the world has ever
known. These are the same people paying the taxes.
Mr. Speaker, I went to the grocery store before I came here, I
bought, I think, seven items: a loaf of bread, cheese, normal things--
two little bags. It was $50. These are the same people that are paying
$50 for the groceries for two little bags that have got to pay for all
of this.
I have a regular-size car, it has about 292,000 miles on it, and it
was $75 to fill it up. We are telling them, under penalty of law,
unless you pay for this you will go to jail, and you will lose your
house if you don't pay your taxes.
Mr. Speaker, this is unconscionable. We are currently at 8,000 per
day. There are 8,000 illegal crossings per day. We are here to talk
about title 42, which is only going to at least double that--and that
is according to this Department of Homeland Security. Double that.
There is already a crisis at 8,000 per day. I come from a town of
about 2,000 people. Every day, four times that many people come across
the border illegally and reside in the United States and take away and
steal our opportunities. They steal the American opportunity for
education, for safe streets, for a starting job--your first job out of
high school. All of that is stolen.
Mr. Speaker, I would contend that Secretary Mayorkas should be
arrested for violating the law because indeed he is violating the law.
He is not enforcing the law. He swore an oath. It is in the law. People
say we need new laws. Mr. Speaker, even members of your party are
saying we need new legislation to combat this.
What is any legislation going to matter if the administration refuses
to faithfully execute the laws of this land? It is listed right in the
Constitution, Mr. Speaker. It is right in there. It is right in there.
Faithfully execute the laws of the land. Yet, we have a President and
we have a Secretary that refuse to do it.
Mr. Speaker, I am joined here by my great colleagues. I yield to the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Good).
Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Mr. Perry's
leadership on this issue.
Secretary Mayorkas' testimony today in a hearing was that the border
is secure. You have to ask yourself: What would an unsecure border look
like as defined by this administration, by this President, and by this
Democrat majority?
I wish the Democrats were with us across the aisle tonight to try to
defend the indefensible. I wish the Democrats were here tonight to tell
the American people why they are intentionally, willfully, and
purposefully facilitating this border invasion.
Many of us thought the President would open the border, would rescind
the policies that were making the border secure under the Trump
Presidency, but most of us probably underestimated how effective he
would be in facilitating the invasion at the border, to your point,
some 7,000 to 8,000 a day now that we encounter, that we apprehend
before we bus or fly them into the interior of the country.
Never in the history of the country has our own President done more
to intentionally harm the United States than what this President has
done in his first 16 months. If we secured the border now--if today we
secured the border, we have done irreparable, untold harm to the
country that will only be shown in the next days, weeks, months, and
years ahead.
We have got 2,000 criminal aliens a day evading apprehension. Think
about this. This administration's policies are welcoming these illegal
aliens into the country, giving them their free phones, free
transportation, free education, social services, and healthcare, and
releasing them into the interior of the country wherever they want to
go without even a day to appear in court.
Why are the 2,000 a day avoiding apprehension? Those are the ones
with the criminal backgrounds, the terrorist ties, trafficking drugs,
trafficking humans, children, and what have you, who don't want to be
captured, don't want to be apprehended.
This administration admits that 42 on the terrorist watch list have
been caught in the last year coming into the country out of the 2
million plus who they apprehended. What about the 700,000 in the first
15 months that they didn't apprehend? How many of those have terrorist
ties? We have no idea. The country will find out, sadly, in the days,
the weeks, and the months ahead.
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the good gentleman. I yield to the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Hice).
Mr. HICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I, likewise, am deeply grateful for
your leadership in putting this together.
Mr. Speaker, this is a call for our entire country to come together.
This should not be something that is wrapped up in partisan politics.
We are talking about securing our border. Securing our border. Right
now, we have a discharge petition to save title 42, unfortunately
Democrats are refusing to support that discharge.
I am calling on them tonight to come on, to sign on to the discharge
and let's save title 42. This is in defense of our country and in
defense of our national security.
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Hice, could you tell us how many have signed? How many
Democrats have signed the discharge? The discharge brings the bill to
the floor. How many have signed?
Mr. HICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, there are zero, to my knowledge.
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, there are Democrats out there talking about
the border crisis and saying we have to fix it, yet they won't sign it.
Mr. HICE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I am calling on them tonight--we
are calling on them tonight to sign it. This is a national security
issue. What is the problem here? It makes no sense to me. We have no
Democrats that have signed on to this discharge petition.
As you mentioned, we are now watching--and Mr. Good from Virginia as
well--we are watching now the numbers soar to the point of more than
doubling the maximum that we have had in the years past. In year 2000
we had 220,000 apprehensions, and now it is going to soar over 500,000.
We are sitting back here in the people's House doing nothing about it.
We are responsible as the governing body of this country to defend our
borders.
Right now, because of the surge that is taking place, Mr. Speaker, we
are having Customs and Border Protection agents who are now being moved
to process these illegal individuals. There are ICE agents who are
being moved to process these individuals coming across our border.
The U.S. Marshals are leaving the various places around this country
where they are serving to go to our southern border to try to help with
this crisis that has no business even being a crisis. Now, we have all
these agents who are not even doing their job because they are
processing illegal individuals coming across into this country.
Now, we hear that DHS is calling on other Federal Government agencies
to
[[Page H4572]]
provide doctors. I don't know about you, but I don't know of many
agencies in the Federal Government who have doctors. Where are they
going to come from? Perhaps the Department of Defense. Certainly, there
are some doctors in the VA.
Let's say those doctors go to the southern border, then what happens
to our veterans who now are lacking doctors to serve them? None of this
makes any sense, and it leaves our entire country in a very vulnerable
position.
Mr. Speaker, I would just say that border security is an enormous
component to national security, and if we do not have secure borders,
we do not have a secure Nation. I am calling on our Democrats today to
sign on to the discharge petition. Let's save title 42. For crying out
loud, let's defend our borders and get over the partisan politics and
do the right thing and defend our borders.
{time} 1945
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Colorado
(Mrs. Boebert).
Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for leading us on
this topic, once again, because this is such an important topic to get
out to the American people. Just listening to the gentleman from
Georgia speak about this being a national security crisis, that is
exactly what this is. We are not a secure nation without secure
borders.
I live in Colorado, and my State is a border State right now with all
of the illegal aliens. We are up to 2.5 million who have been
apprehended at the southern border, not including the 700,000 gotaways
that went past CBP and were not apprehended, probably because they did
not want to come into contact with CBP.
Who knows what kind of history they have?
Just like Congressman Good spoke on, we don't know who is coming
across our southern border. It is estimated that if this pace keeps up
under Biden's tenure, we will have 8 to 10 million illegal aliens in
our country by the time he leaves office.
This is absolutely absurd.
And now what?
I serve on the Budget Committee; and everyone is wanting more money
right now, more money from the American taxpayer. We can't say where
the money went in Afghanistan. We can't talk about the $86 billion in
weaponry and equipment that was left behind. The southern border has
millions of dollars being spent each and every day on a border wall
that is not being built.
Secretary Mayorkas was here today testifying in front of this body,
and he says that there are millions of dollars being spent on this wall
that is not being built, and they want more money--not to secure the
southern border though, but to process and release more quickly.
This is not what we need to be spending the American taxpayer dollars
on. Customs and Border Patrol agents are not travel agents. Secretary
Mayorkas needs to be held accountable for what is going on.
I just want to say one thing, he did mention that it is Congress'
responsibility to fix what is happening at the southern border. Well,
we want to do that. We want to be a part of the solution. We want to
secure our border, stop the human trafficking, and stop the flow of
fentanyl that is coming into our country killing record amounts of
Americans. We want this to end. We want our Nation secure.
That is why we have the title 42 discharge petition, to force a vote
on the House floor under Speaker Pelosi's House of Representatives
where she won't voluntarily bring that up. We want to be a part of the
solution.
I am proud to be serving with Members here speaking about this and
informing the American citizens back home, and I thank the chairman for
doing this tonight.
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Colorado for her
remarks.
Mrs. Boebert talked about the wall that is not being built;
unfulfilled contracts, Mr. Speaker, costing, as Secretary Mayorkas told
us today, $72 million, $72 million to not build the border wall, to not
honor the contracts that the United States has made with the
contractors, $72 million. Yet they are asking for more money.
Mrs. Boebert also knows that even though we have contracted for more
beds to deal with the influx, we actually leave them empty while we pay
NGOs--nongovernmental organizations--to put these people up in hotels.
And I will remind you, Mr. Speaker, that the folks whom I serve--my
bosses--can barely afford their groceries or their gas, but they are
forced to pay for this. We will talk about national security because
border security is national security.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the good gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cloud).
Mr. CLOUD. Mr. Speaker, this issue is so important, and I thank the
chairman for putting this together because this is the message that we
need to continue to speak about.
Being from south Texas, our district sees every week the effects of
this and has for years. I have met the young women who have been
abused. I have been to the ranchers who have found rape trees on their
properties. We have seen now throughout the Nation of the effects of
the drugs that are pouring into our community. Under the Trump
administration we had actually seen a decrease in drug overdoses in our
country for the first time in a long time. Now we know that fentanyl is
the number one killer of young people in our country.
All this is because this administration has chosen, instead of
partnering with communities to protect our border, to be the last mile
delivery system for the cartels. And so whatever dollars we send them,
they repurpose. Instead of using them for securing our border and to
doing the things we sent them to do, they have retasked the
individuals, as has been mentioned, but they turn them into the last
mile delivery system for the cartels. So we are aiding and abetting
cartels to profit hundreds of millions of dollars constantly and
continually.
What this does is not only destabilizing for our country, we know of
community members, of course, all of us, whose families have been
affected by the drug epidemic in our country; we know of crime going up
in cities; we know of communities burdened with hospitals and schools
having to figure out how to deal with this administration who will not
work with them or let them know when midnight drops are being made in
their community and the like.
I talked to a farmer today--not only do farmers deal with the migrant
traffic through their crops and such--about the cartel. Basically the
cartel controls everything. They have the operational control on the
southern side of the border, so everything illicit and not comes
across. So in the ag industry, for example, a lot of cows will start in
Mexico and come to a feedyard in the United States before they make it
to market. Well, to cross into the United States they are having to pay
cartels a couple thousand dollars to make it through their property,
and that is what we would consider the legal trade, the proper trade;
not to mention the illicit drugs and the human trafficking that is
going on. We continue to allow this to happen because of the Biden
administration.
Now, if you think of this, if we were to ask the cartels to design a
border policy for the United States, it would look very much like the
border policy we have now because, frankly, they don't want open
borders. What they want is just a shred--an illusion--of security so
that they can continue to profit off of getting people and getting
drugs into the United States of America.
So we have got to stop this as a country. We cannot continue to aid
and abet cartels to do their illegal and illicit activity. We cannot
continue to allow a narco-state to develop on our southern border and
is now working its way into our country. This is ridiculous.
When I am trying to explain this to people back home, people back
home in Texas ask me: What does the Biden administration not get?
What do they not get?
How bad does it have to get before they understand it?
We saw it today with Secretary Mayorkas saying that we are
effectively managing the border.
I have to explain to Texans that this administration simply has
different goals than you do. We think border security; they think what
can we do to aid and abet cartels.
[[Page H4573]]
This is tragic. It has to stop. We have a title 42 discharge
resolution with 211 Republicans on it. We need seven Democrats. There
has been a lot of lip service as we get close to election time about
supporting title 42. Put your name on the line. We only need seven of
you to stand up.
Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I had a constituent say to me a
couple weeks ago: Nothing this Democratic Party is doing makes sense
unless they hate the country.
Carry these policies to its logical conclusion. As Congresswoman
Boebert said, they are on track for 10 million illegal border crossings
in this President's first and only term, I hope.
Ten million, apparently, is not a problem. We cannot get one
Democrat. We cannot get one Democrat.
Where are the Democrats?
Mr. Speaker, do you want to know why they are going to lose the
majority?
It is because of what Congressman Cloud just said.
Carry these policies to its logical conclusion. Ten million is not
scary to them.
What if it was 100 million?
What if it was 1 billion?
We have got 7 billion people in the world who don't live in the
United States.
How many of them would come here if they could?
We have put out the sign, the Democratic majority and the
administration, come. If you want to come in the country, come now. The
border is open. We are welcoming as fast as we can, as much harm as we
can do before the election in November, before 2 years from now in 2024
when the Presidential election changes. Carry it to its conclusion.
Is there any number that would concern the Democrat majority?
Is there any number where we could get Democrats to sign on to this?
Nothing they are doing makes sense unless they hate the country.
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, national security is community security. We
are here to talk about the border in general, but certainly title 42,
8,000 a day right now but soon to be double that, maybe more than
double that, 8,000 a day. So national security is community security.
I was watching a report on the television of a lady in New York--I
think it was New York--she got stabbed in the neck and the face over 50
times--over 50 times--murdered. And in the press conference the press
asked for the person--the perpetrator--whom they had caught his
immigration status. And law enforcement said: We are not going to get
into that. We are not going to get into that.
There is a Texas guardsman, a young man who would be alive right now.
There is a lady who was stabbed in the neck and the face 50 some times
who would be alive right now because this administration, the left, the
Democratic Party, unfortunately, apparently doesn't care about border
security, community security, title 42, preserving the American Dream,
and safeguarding the American people.
Mr. Speaker, we are going to lose a great Member of Congress here at
the end of this session. I often affectionately refer to him as the
closer because everybody is gone from Washington, D.C., but Louie is
still standing there telling the country what is happening.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the good gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert).
Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, the general from
Pennsylvania, for yielding.
This is so serious. While Homeland Security was having a hearing with
Secretary Mayorkas, we were having a hearing in our Crime, Terrorism
and Homeland Security Subcommittee, and we were hearing from victims of
human and sex trafficking and hearing about victims of human and sex
trafficking.
Mr. Speaker, how callous does a person have to be to not be moved by
young adults saying: My childhood was one of being constantly raped,
constantly beaten, and constantly forced to do terrible things, that
was my childhood because I had been sold into trafficking, human and
sex trafficking.
Now, one said that she had used the same visa that others had used
before--the very same visa. We are not checking visas very carefully.
Homeland security, that is their job.
But another came across our southern border, and, of course, our
Chairman Nadler really grilled in and focused on and had him say that
the number one problem he had was homophobia of people in the U.S. But
as I pointed out: You are being raped constantly over and over, it
doesn't sound like homophobia is your big problem.
It is not having a Department of Homeland Security that is keeping
the homeland secure.
This can't continue. For heaven's sake, we are losing this country,
and as we are losing it, it is absolutely immoral to turn a blind eye
to these children that are being sex trafficked because we won't secure
our border, and we won't have an administration that will keep the
oaths they made to defend, protect, serve this country, and serve the
Constitution.
It is a sort of fiduciary duty they have to this country, to the
people in this country; and by the relationship with our neighbors, to
other countries around us like Mexico for heaven's sake. It is
outrageous what is going on, and people's lives are being destroyed. As
the country is being destroyed, lives are being destroyed.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for claiming this time tonight. It
is a huge problem. If we don't get this fixed, we have no moral right
to exist; and if America doesn't exist, then there is no freedom in the
world.
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Louie, for his comments.
We have 2 minutes remaining by my clock here; is that right, Mr.
Speaker?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Pennsylvania has 1 minute
remaining.
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues from the House Freedom
Caucus. They are always the toughest and most courageous people in
Congress who are willing to do the uncomfortable things. They are
fighting to take action, not just rhetoric, but to take action.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Colorado (Mrs. Boebert)
to close us out.
Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, so many times we are accused of being
callous and heartless toward the people who are coming across our
border. But I attended a naturalization ceremony in my district, and it
was one of the most beautiful things I have ever experienced. I saw 41
true new Americans. They held in their hand the American flag. Tears
streamed down their faces. They invested their heart, their soul, their
resources, and their minds because they know they have what it takes to
do this the right way and make this a more perfect Union.
I saw the conviction that that flag right there, to them, is the one
universal symbol for liberty and justice for all.
There is a right way to do this, and we have to keep America free and
secure so people can come and live the American Dream.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding to me tonight.
Mr. PERRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded again to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President.
____________________