[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 98 (Wednesday, June 8, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2850-S2854]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, I want to talk today about one of the 
most disturbing human catastrophes in the world. Now, I have recently 
visited the Ukraine border, and I have done medical mission work around 
the world from Haiti to Honduras to Africa. I have seen malnutrition 
and starvation. I have seen trauma. I have seen the consequences of the 
lack of potable water and sewage.
  I describe this so when I say our southern border--yes, our own 
southern border--is a humanitarian crisis, you know I am not speaking 
in ignorance or hyperbole. And this crisis, this humanitarian 
nightmare, has been created by our own President's policies.
  You see, when he was elected, he sent a loud invitation to the whole 
world; and more recently, when he said he was ending title 42, it was 
like turning on a stronger magnet. It was like sending a flare, a 
signal. It was like a giant Times Square billboard telling all the 
world: Come now, come to the United States. Amnesty is waiting for 
everyone.
  As for the cartels--the people traveling, they paid no mind to the 
court ruling. Instead, they kept coming. And as we speak, the largest 
caravan to date is on its way, with more than 15,000 people--bigger 
than my hometown of Great Bend.
  This invitation, this magnet has made an already treacherous, 
inhumane situation worse. Our President is, indeed, inviting people to 
their own peril, to their own harrowing, life-threatening journey.
  Let me share with you what I saw just 16 days ago on my fourth visit 
to the border.
  Upon our arrival and a short drive to the river, we found the Border 
Patrol and our National Guard hard at work with some 30 migrants in 
line waiting to be processed. They had turned themselves in. And within 
moments, within minutes, that line was over 100 people. And at the 
front of the line were two beautiful young sisters, ages 7 and 9. They 
were unaccompanied--no parents and no families. I can only imagine what 
it would have been like traveling over 1,000 miles from Central America 
to the Rio Grande River without your parents or without a family 
member. I can only imagine what might have happened to them on that 
trek.

  From the river, we traveled to a detention center where the migrants 
were held for 2 to 3 days.
  I have to again compliment our Border Patrol; they are doing an 
incredible job in a humanitarian crisis by providing showers, shelter, 
clothing, healthcare, and meals. The challenge is 80 percent of our 
Border Patrol officers are having to function like they are like 
running a restaurant, like running a hotel, functioning as social 
workers while our borders are left unguarded.
  And the get-aways--we haven't talked about the get-aways. Let me tell 
you the story of one young lady I met. Let's say she was probably 17 
years of age from Central America. She or her family paid the cartel 
some $3,000 to get from Central America through Mexico across the river 
and into the United States. Now, I don't know if she was raped or 
violated, but this certainly is a very common situation--all too common 
during this trek. We do know that some people in her group were asked 
to smuggle drugs across the border as part of their thoroughfare.
  Now, after crossing this treacherous river, she was abandoned by her 
coyote. She was already dehydrated, had dysentery. She was 
malnourished. She hadn't slept for days. And she was no doubt 
frightened. Eventually she found refuge at a cartel stash house on the 
Texas side of the border. Yes, now the cartel has cartel members living 
in America along the river and, as I later found out, all across 
America.
  Next the cartel arranged--of course, for a price--for her to be 
smuggled via car from a border city to a checkpoint some 60 miles away. 
Now these journeys, too, are treacherous, as migrants are often placed 
in containers, in the backs of trucks, or in the trunks of cars. And 
when they are chased by sheriffs, the drivers recklessly place their 
own human cargo in peril.
  But this person wasn't done yet. About 5 miles short of the 
checkpoint, the human smugglers let her out of the car. Then she had to 
walk around the checkpoint--probably a journey of 15 to 20 miles--
through the Texas heat, scrub brush, and rattlesnakes. In fact, many 
days now Texas Rangers find dead, decayed bodies of migrant workers or 
migrant folks who had not made the trek successfully.
  So this journey around the checkpoint would take 3 to 4 days. She was

[[Page S2851]]

given 2 days' worth of water--a milk jug full of water.
  A couple miles beyond the checkpoint, a new human smuggler, hired and 
coordinated by the cartel to pick her up, awaits. This is where I met 
our young lady. We watched as she and four others packed into a small 
car, and a fifth hopped in the trunk. After a short, high-speed chase, 
the car finally pulled over and the riders fled on foot. Now, most were 
apprehended very shortly, including the young lady in this photo.
  This is when I met the woman in the story for the first time. Again, 
she hadn't had water for 2 days. Her left knee was swollen and painful. 
She had multiple cuts that were infected, multiple bruises, and she was 
semicomatose, fading in and out. She had certainly heat exhaustion and 
was bordering on a heatstroke. Now, we were fortunate. With some minor 
first aid, giving her hydration, cooling her down, she is going to make 
it and she is going to be fine. But for many making this treacherous 
journey across the southern border, this story ends much more 
differently and much more tragically.
  I am asking--I am begging our President to turn off the magnet, to 
turn off the billboards that advertise for these people to risk their 
lives, to stop inviting them to their peril and perhaps their death.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. ROSEN). The Senator from Iowa.
  Ms. ERNST. Madam President, today, America looks like a country 
governed by teenagers who grew up reading ``Choose Your Own Adventure'' 
books. They got some authority and decided they could govern under a 
system of choose-your-own-laws. But a government that derives its power 
from the people cannot endure if its laws change every few years based 
on the whims of a select few in positions of power. That is, after all, 
why John Adams said we are ``a government of laws, not men.''
  Folks, our laws are not a buffet. You can't pick and choose which 
ones to uphold and which to overlook based on your desires. But that is 
exactly what we are experiencing today under Democratic control. This 
is a political party that wants to rule but do so without following the 
rules. They want to break our institutions, rig the system in their 
favor, and fundamentally transform our country.
  Today, we are seeing the result of this radical agenda. Look no 
further than the Biden border crisis. U.S. law requires that immigrants 
be deported or detained pending determination if they don't have a 
legal right to be here, but under this administration, enforcement 
simply no longer exists.
  In September 2019, on the campaign trail, Joe Biden proudly said to 
those seeking asylum in America:

       You should come.

  In March 2020, he said:

       The only deportations that will take place are commissions 
     of felonies.

  President Biden knew we didn't have the detention space, the 
enforcement capacity, or the administrative staff to follow the law, 
but he encouraged people to come, and they listened.
  If the illegal immigrants who have entered the United States since 
President Biden took office establish a new city, it would be the ninth 
largest city in the country, with a population of 1.34 million. And 
they are still coming. Just this week, we learned that what might be 
the largest caravan ever--nearly 15,000 migrants--is headed to our 
southern border. This is unacceptable and unsustainable, and it was 
completely avoidable.
  This manufactured border crisis is also a boon for the deadly drug 
cartels. Customs and Border Protection estimates that smuggling 
migrants into the United States earns cartels up to--get this, folks--
$6 billion a year. And in the first 3 months of 2022, Border Patrol 
seized over 150 pounds of drugs on the southern border. Our country has 
been struggling with an opioid epidemic for far too long, and the Biden 
administration's solution is an open border that will allow some of the 
deadliest drugs to be transported across the country, turning every 
State into a border State. In fact, in 2021, more than 100,000 
Americans died from drug overdoses--the highest number ever recorded--
with opioids such as fentanyl responsible for 3 out of 5 of those 
deaths. Not to mention the horrific abuses many young girls and women 
face at the hands of their smugglers.
  Folks, don't miss this: The Biden administration is aiding and 
abetting illegal immigration and all the criminal activity that comes 
with it. They have the tools in their toolbox to curb the flow of drugs 
and human trafficking and to stop the historic record of illegal border 
crossings, but they refuse to use them.
  On his first day in office, the President canceled the construction 
of the barrier along our southern border, calling it ``a waste of 
money.'' Ironically, his decision to not build the wall is the real 
waste of money because, while it is not providing any security, it is 
still costing taxpayers. Since pulling the plug on the project, Biden 
has continued paying contractors upwards of $3 million a day--yes, you 
heard it right, folks: $3 million a day--to watch over the unused 
materials that are lying in the desert. Taxpayers are being billed to 
babysit piles of surplus materials.
  But some States being overrun by the influx of illegal immigrants 
would still like to set up barriers to control who is coming across the 
border from Mexico. Taxpayers have already paid $350 million for the 
concrete, the steel, and the fencing that is now sitting idle, 
collecting dust and dollars. Why not let States that want to build the 
wall access these unused materials? It would save taxpayers money and 
deter the unprecedented number of border crossings that we have seen as 
a result of Biden's border policies--or in this case, lack thereof.
  To paraphrase a well-known quotation in Iowa, if you build it, they 
will come. Let's paraphrase: If you don't build it, they will come.
  Folks, America is and always has been a welcoming nation, but those 
seeking a better life here have an obligation to respect our laws, and 
the President has a sworn duty to enforce them. That is why I 
introduced the Border's Unused Idle and Lying Dormant Inventory 
Transfer Act, or the BUILD IT Act, which would turn over the unused 
materials already purchased by taxpayers to construct the southern 
border barrier to any State wishing to finish the job.
  President Biden's refusal to secure our border is causing chaos and 
allowing cartels to smuggle drugs into communities in Iowa and across 
the country, while costing taxpayers billions of dollars for nothing.
  Here is a simple solution: President Biden, please enforce current 
immigration laws, curb cartel activity, and put these materials to use. 
Let's end the taxpayer-funded waste, and let's stop the unprecedented 
flow of illegal migrants, and let's build it.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. BLUNT. Madam President, normally I don't like to use numbers in 
speeches because I think numbers get lost in people's minds as they are 
trying to wrap their heads around numbers, but I do want to use some 
numbers today because the numbers are just so incredible.
  During President Biden's time in office, the Department of Homeland 
Security has encountered illegal immigrants crossing our border more 
than 2.8 million times. In not quite a year and a half, 2.8 million 
people were encountered crossing the border. Last month alone, they 
caught people trying to cross the southern border illegally 234,088 
times. So a quarter of a million people just last month were caught 
trying to cross the border. That is the highest number in the 
Department's history. It is more than four times the average monthly 
number from 2018 to 2020. If you have a problem that is four times 
bigger than it was in the 3 preceding years, it is probably time to 
ask, what were they doing in those 3 preceding years that we are not 
doing now?
  Some of the people who cross the border got sent back and may have 
gotten caught later in the month. They may have been a catch-and-
release, and then they come back. But some people who cross the border 
didn't get caught at all. I am not sure that number is not bigger than 
the other number. But even if you had double-counting, it is still an 
incredible number: a quarter of a million people coming across the 
border illegally in 1 month who were caught--not who were coming across 
the border but who were caught coming across the border.

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  We have never seen such a massive or prolonged effort by people to 
illegally enter our country as we are seeing now. It has created a 
giant humanitarian crisis at the border. Ask anyone who lives in a 
border community the problem that has been created by this.
  The Biden administration's response has actually been to tie their 
own hands by removing the most effective tools we have to try to manage 
the situation. We developed a reasonable approach to the border based 
on lessons we learned from previous surges--one in 2014 when President 
Biden was Vice President and one in 2019. These policies helped cut the 
number of people trying to cross the border illegally. They allowed us 
to deal with legitimate cases of people seeking asylum in a much more 
responsible way.
  People who actually qualify for asylum come to the United States like 
people don't come to any other country in the world. We are still the 
most welcoming country in the world for people who have a legitimate 
request for asylum, but that doesn't include everybody who lives in a 
poor and dangerous place.
  In contrast to what we have been doing to make it easier for people 
to seek asylum and harder for people to illegally cross the border, the 
Biden administration has over and over again reversed the progress that 
is being made.
  As Senator Ernst just well pointed out, on their first day, they 
halted the construction of the border wall. The logical debate to have 
there was finish the wall in progress and then have a debate with the 
new administration about whether you needed more border wall, but they 
halted construction of the border wall. The material was there. The 
wall was in progress. In fact, the wall, in some places, had been 
removed so you could put the more effective wall up, so now there is no 
wall. There were places where we had known for several years now that 
people would come across if they could where there was no wall and 
there was no building the wall. They revoked a 2017 Executive order 
calling for stricter enforcement of the immigration laws. They canceled 
the Migrant Protection Protocols. They suspended asylum cooperation 
agreements known as safe third party agreements, third country 
agreements. If someone is unsafe where they live and has a legitimate 
claim for asylum, this is not a legitimate claim for entry into the 
United States; it is a legitimate claim to get to a safer place for 
them. Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador all had agreed to those 
third party, third country agreements.
  Even the leaders of even Guatemala and Mexico said that President 
Biden's policies are incentivizing illegal crossings at our southern 
border, which, of course, create a lot of illegal transit through their 
country as well.
  Now the administration seems intent on ending the public health 
policy known as title 42, which allows authorities to turn back many of 
the people caught crossing the border illegally. A Federal judge issued 
a preliminary injunction blocking the efforts to eliminate title 42, 
but the administration immediately decided they would appeal that 
decision.
  Now, that is exactly the wrong decision at this moment, particularly 
when the administration is arguing that we need billions of dollars of 
more money to fight COVID, and I think there is some merit to that 
argument, but you can't argue that we need billions of dollars to fight 
COVID and COVID is over at the border and is no longer a problem there.
  In fact, just the latest example of the administration over and over 
again responding to the crisis at the border with the wrong decision. 
Time after time, the White House could have looked at problems that it 
was causing with its immigration policies and reverse course. And time 
after time, it responded by going ahead anyway, doubling down on more 
than one occasion.
  According to the New York Times, there are tens of thousands of 
people who have been waiting in the border region for title 42 to be 
lifted. They are watching the Biden administration and the signals it 
is sending now and how it intends to deal with them the next time they 
cross the border.
  Most of them will be allowed to stay in the country while they go 
through immigration proceedings, many of which can take years to just 
get a hearing. That is why waiting in another country like Mexico was a 
policy that we should have continued to improve and move forward with 
because most people, when they are waiting, would find out that they 
didn't have a legitimate asylum claim; that they weren't going to 
successfully get into the United States and disappear into the country 
that we live in. And they would wind up going back and making it easier 
for other people who had a legitimate asylum claim to have that asylum 
here.
  What makes it worse, the administration has proposed taking away 
essential resources to enforce immigration law. With the budget that 
they requested for this year, the Department of Homeland Security 
specified cutting the enforcement and removal budgets to U.S. 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement by $614 million. It doesn't sound 
like, to me, that that is the way to deal with a problem that is the 
size of the problem that almost every American has a sense of.
  In April, the Homeland Security Secretary said that he will need to 
reprogram funding from other DHS accounts to respond to increased 
activity at the border, while the administration--his administration--
is asking for $614 million in cuts.
  Other parts of the Department, like the Coast Guard, the 
Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency 
Management Agency, could have their operational funding diverted to 
process paperwork for illegal immigrants at the border.
  The human tragedy unfolding on our border is due, in large part, to 
the policies of this administration, a massive turnaround that occurred 
on day 1 and hasn't stopped since.
  We need that act--and they need to act on border security effectively 
and restore order to our immigration process.
  It is long past time for the administration people to be honest with 
the American people about the crisis it has created and to do something 
about it.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Mr. HOEVEN. Madam President, I rise today, again, regarding the need 
to secure our southern border. Right now there is a caravan of migrants 
making its way to Mexico through the southern border.
  Media reports that it could be the largest caravan ever, growing to 
15,000 migrants by the time it reaches the U.S. border. The 
unprecedented and growing crisis at the southern border is due to the 
Biden administration's misguided immigration policies.
  This includes the lack of enforcement of key tools, including the 
``Remain in Mexico'' policy, the safe third country agreements, and the 
title 42 public health order.
  U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that in April of this 
year, over 234,000 individuals were encountered attempting to illegally 
cross the southern border--234,000 in the month of April.
  This is an increase of 31 percent from April of 2021, last year, and 
a staggering 1,268-percent increase from April of 2020, 2 years ago. 
There are 234,000 individuals attempting to cross the border illegally 
in just 1 month--just 1 month.
  I was recently in Del Rio and Eagle Pass, TX, to draw attention to 
the challenges at the border and to meet with the North Dakota Army 
National Guard soldiers. Our Guard members are providing support to 
Customs and Border Protection in light of the immigration crisis.
  Our dedicated CBP officers and agents are working tirelessly to try 
to fulfill their mission of securing the border, with the added 
pressure and stress of addressing the humanitarian crisis occurring 
with the continuing surge of migrants seeking to cross the border 
illegally.
  While they do everything they can, they face an impossible task that 
the Biden administration's actions are exacerbating. As I mentioned 
earlier, the current crisis at the southern border is the result of the 
Biden administration's policies.
  Notably, the Biden administration is now attempting to end the use of 
public health order 42--just last month. Those efforts failed when a 
Federal judge correctly issued an injunction preventing the Biden 
administration from ending title 42.

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  The Federal injunction noted that rescinding title 42 will result in 
a significant increase in illegal immigration at the southern border. 
This includes an anticipated tripling of illegal border crossings at 
the border, increasing from 7,000 per day to 18,000 per day, should 
public health order 42 end.
  At the same time, the ongoing crisis at the southern border is 
creating significant challenges for northern border operations and the 
security of our northern border. Northern border personnel and 
resources continue to be depleted because of the surge at the southern 
border. That is unacceptable.
  We need to address the ongoing crisis at the southern border and 
ensure that we have the resources we need at our northern border as 
well.
  Border security is vital to national security, and we need to secure 
them both. President Biden's actions have incentivized migrants to take 
the dangerous journey to the U.S. border. We need to change those 
policies to get the border crisis under control.
  That means we need to do three things to ensure that we have a secure 
border. We need to make sure that we continue the border wall, along 
with personnel and technology to make sure that we secure the border; 
we need to reinstate key immigration policies like I talked about; and 
we need to move toward a merit-based immigration system.
  Again, we need to enforce our Nation's immigration laws, resume 
construction of the border wall, and ensure that we have in place the 
infrastructure, the personnel, and the technology to adequately secure 
the border. The Biden administration needs to take these steps, and 
they need to do it now.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, one of the dangers of having a weak 
President is that our enemies will be able to test the boundaries that 
used to keep them in check. They want to see just how far they can push 
it before we start pushing back. Indeed, we have seen that in action 
during this Presidency.
  The threat of violence, crime, and of the dangerous influence of 
those who do not wish us well has crept into the American consciousness 
and made an already stressful time in our history even worse.
  Now, last week's news about what could be the largest migrant caravan 
yet hasn't helped the situation. We are all hearing about it. At least 
6,000 people, probably 10,000 people, have set out from the Guatemala-
Mexico border because Joe Biden invited them to come or so they think. 
That is what they heard. That is how they interpreted his actions.
  This is not up for debate. You can look at the reports on TV. Now, 
this is very shocking to so many of the Tennesseans I am talking to 
every single day.
  First, they say this is a massive national security and safety 
concern. It makes common sense that you would try to stop this, but 
more importantly because they know that this President isn't just 
abandoning the border; he is intentionally giving control of that 
border to international criminals, to cartels, to gangs, to people who 
do not wish us well.
  Now, what it appears to be is that for many of my Democratic 
colleagues and for this administration, this action of intentionally 
leaving the border open is there to keep the radical left happy.
  This is what they want, an open border policy. But that open border 
policy for terrorist organizations, fugitives, cartel mules, this is to 
them all about exploiting Joe Biden's terrible choices and making the 
chaos work in their favor.
  They will continue to push until they are stopped. And right now they 
are using this to turn these cartels into international organizations. 
Last year, 160 different countries came to that border.
  The drug dealers, they are all very happy with the way it is 
operating. In April, Customs and Border Protection intercepted more 
than 50,000 pounds of drugs--37 percent more than in March.
  Now, think about that, 1 month, a 37-percent increase. Keep in mind, 
this data only reflects what the CBP found.
  We know for a fact that every month the got-aways make it into the 
country undetected. And we have no clue what they have brought with 
them. Law enforcement officials in Tennessee have told me that around 
80 percent of the drugs they seize contain fentanyl--fentanyl. That is 
what they are finding. It is coming right over the border and coming to 
a community near you, courtesy of the Biden administration.
  We also know that business is booming for the human smugglers, and 
this caravan is about to provide them some excellent cover.
  Over the course of 48 hours this week, Border Patrol agents in the 
Rio Grande Valley sector interrupted four separate human smuggling 
attempts, and that included 156 different people. That is right, 156 
people in 48 hours.
  Now, that is just one example that we chose to pull out and share. I 
have heard a great many advocates on the left accuse Republicans of 
blowing the scope of these smuggling operations out of proportion, but 
here is what I will say. I say that just one person falling into the 
hands of the cartels is a problem. That is one person too many who is 
being subjected to drug trafficking, human trafficking, sex 
trafficking, being forced into a gang, being put on a bracelet that is 
going to track them until they pay their debt to the cartel.
  The people locking these migrants into shipping containers and stash 
houses without food or water--these are not people on a humanitarian 
mission. A good outcome is not guaranteed, and, indeed, it is quite the 
opposite. If the cartels guaranteed good outcomes, no one would be left 
for dead in the desert or die of heatstroke in an overcrowded truck. No 
one would have to work off their debt as a prostitute or a drug runner 
after they got here. But the cartels are after money. They are not 
providing humanitarian aid. So what do they do? They look at the 
``welcome'' mat, and they see it as a way to cash in.
  In 2020, the National Human Trafficking Hotline reported more than 
10,000 unique cases of potential human trafficking in the United 
States. Only 6 percent of those victims reported themselves as being 
U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. That is correct--10,000 
cases and only 6 percent were citizens or legal residents. About 60 
percent of those victims were female. More than 72 percent of them 
revealed that they had been forced into prostitution or some other form 
of sex work. Eighty-four percent of those sex trafficking victims were 
female.
  This problem doesn't begin and end at the border. End Slavery 
Tennessee reported that they just helped 207 potential trafficking 
victims in 2021. Now, that is one organization in Middle Tennessee--
one. Two hundred and seven trafficking victims in Middle Tennessee.
  You know, every town is a border town, every State is a border State, 
and every U.S. citizen deserves to know why this barbarity has gone 
unanswered by this administration.
  Remember what I said at the beginning of my remarks: Our enemies are 
watching. They are paying attention. They are looking for loopholes. 
They are looking for ways to exploit. They want to see how far they can 
push Joe Biden, how far they can push this administration, and so far, 
they have not found his limit.
  As the President and Democrat allies here on Capitol Hill contemplate 
how long they are willing to be pawns in this game our enemies are 
playing, I would advise them to just take a look at the data--at the 
data. Look at the reports from our own Federal and State Agencies. Go 
talk to the human trafficking organizations in your State. Look at the 
number of known terrorists whom our Federal Agencies have apprehended. 
Look at the drugs that are being seized at the borders, at the ports, 
and back in your hometowns. Look at the number of people Border Patrol 
has had to save from smugglers. And remember that you are not the 
victims here. You have the power to fix this. You could do something 
about this. You do not have to choose to let the cartels run unabated 
at the southern border, bringing thousands upon thousands of people to 
our border. You might be pretending that this situation on the border 
isn't getting worse by the day, but people can see with their very own 
eyes exactly what is going on. Tennesseans are watching. I think the 
American people are watching, and when it gets worse, and it will, they

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will never forget that you sided with drug dealers and with sex 
traffickers over your own citizens.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.