[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 107 (Thursday, June 23, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S3103]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Madam President, on another matter, in 2021, on President Biden's 
watch, each monthly total for illegal migrant apprehensions was higher 
than the same month's number the previous year. The same thing is 
happening in 2022. Every month has topped the total from 12 months 
prior. In fact, this past May didn't just eclipse May of 2021; it set a 
new alltime record. Border Patrol officers conducted nearly 240,000 
apprehensions in May, and 25 percent of them--an ``unusually high'' 
rate--involved migrants they had apprehended before in just the past 
     year.
  These jaw-dropping numbers are a clear and direct symptom of failed 
leadership. The Biden administration is making a conscious decision--a 
conscious decision--to fumble the ball.
  Last spring, right after apprehensions hit a 20-year high, President 
Biden claimed:

       It's way down . . . We've now gotten control.

  Look, no reasonable person could have looked at the facts and 
concluded that things were under control, but that is exactly what 
President Biden and his team insisted. Apparently, a functionally open 
border is how they define success. A functionally open border is how, 
apparently, they define success.
  Senate Democrats rubberstamped the Biden nominees who are presiding 
over this failure. The Biden DHS swiftly issued internal guidance 
encouraging ICE and CBP personnel to use more politically correct 
terminology when referring to the border crisis. They were quicker to 
police employees' language than to actually police the border.
  Vice President Harris spent her time as the administration's supposed 
border czar, staying as far away as possible from the border itself.
  Just this spring President Biden submitted a budget request that 
would cut funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention. He 
also promised to cut out the emergency authorities that border 
officials were relying on--in the absence of a coherent strategy from 
his administration--to turn away thousands of illegal migrants every 
single day.
  Their response to a functional open border is just to hit the gas 
pedal.
  Stable prices, public safety, and secure borders are three of the 
most fundamental duties of any government. Sadly, for our country, the 
Biden administration has swung and missed three times.