[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.

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