[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 115 (Wednesday, July 13, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3248-S3250]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Border Security
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, during my time in the Senate, I have spent
a lot of time learning from folks who live and work along our 1,200-
mile border with Mexico about the challenges that region and that
border present. I have worked with local leaders who know the
advantages and the challenges of living along an international border
better than anyone else in the country. Of course, I have spoken with a
number of Border Patrol agents--these, of course, are frontline law
enforcement officers--as well as our local sheriffs and others, who
have come face-to-face with human tragedy, exploitation, and many other
forms of heartbreak and hardship. I have learned a great deal from the
nongovernmental organizations--the so-called NGOs--that go above and
beyond the call of duty to
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care for the migrants who often arrive sick, abused, and malnourished.
When it comes to border security and commonsense immigration policies,
the input of these experts is invaluable. It is irreplaceable.
Later this week, I will be traveling back home to the Rio Grande
Valley along with a number of my Republican colleagues so that they,
too, can learn from the true experts about the border crisis. Senator
Cruz and I are leading a visit to the Rio Grande Valley to receive an
update on the current state of circumstances at the border.
I know, with everything happening here in Washington, DC, and around
the country, it is easy to lose sight of what is happening on the
border, the humanitarian crisis that is occurring at the border, so I
want to remind anybody who is listening about what we have seen over
the last 2 years during--well, actually, it is the first year and a
half of the Biden administration. For a year and a half now, border
communities have been overwhelmed by the sheer number, the volume, of
migrants crossing the border. Since President Biden took office, the
Border Patrol has encountered nearly 3 million--3 million--people along
the southwest border. That is almost an incomprehensible figure, and it
is far from the normal situation.
Let me provide a little historical context. At this point during the
Obama administration, an average of about 46,000 migrants were
apprehended each month along the border--46,000 during the Obama
administration. During the Trump administration, that number was cut in
half to 24,000 migrants every month. But during the Biden
administration, so far, that figure has skyrocketed. On average, more
than 185,000 migrants cross our southern border every month. That is
7\1/2\ times more than we were seeing just a few years ago.
And there is no question--certainly in my mind--and I don't think any
rational review of the facts would lead to another conclusion other
than that President Biden's policies are the driving force for this
crisis. The President ran on the promise of policies that would lead to
this exact result, and we have heard stories from migrants who
explicitly came to the United States because of the signals the Federal
Government is sending that if you can make it to the border, you are
going to be able to make it into the interior of the United States.
But even though the President's policies have encouraged many people
to make this dangerous trip from their homes across the border--
particularly in temperatures like we are encountering in Texas now,
where for the last 33 days we have seen 100-degree-plus temperatures--
these migrants are coming from their home, traversing huge expanses of
land, and showing up at the border--if they do show up--as I said,
sick, dehydrated, suffering from assault.
The fact is, if you visit Brooks County, TX, where Falfurrias is
located, they have a Border Patrol checkpoint. What the coyotes do--
that is the name given to the human smugglers--is they will transport
people from the stash houses on this side of the border, up the
highway, but then, before they get to the border checkpoint where
the Border Patrol is, they will tell all the migrants to get out of the
vehicle and here is a jug of water and maybe a power bar, and we will
see you on the north side. They will have to walk around the checkpoint
and then reconnect with the coyote, with the smuggler, on the north
side. But the fact is that a number of these individuals don't make it;
they die in Brooks County from exposure. Certainly, the coyotes care
nothing about humanity but only about money. If someone is sick or lame
or can't keep up, they get left behind to die.
Well, it is clear, too, that this administration has failed to
prepare for what I think most people could have predicted given the
green light that the Biden administration has posted at the border
welcoming anybody and everybody who wants to come to the United States
from anywhere in the world without complying with our immigration laws.
When thousands of people are crossing the border every day, it
overwhelms the Border Patrol's capabilities. That is part of the plan,
because when thousands of people overwhelm the Border Patrol at the
border, many of them have to go away from the border for paperwork, to
process unaccompanied children and perform other tasks. So they are not
there when--guess what--here come the drugs.
Last year alone, 108,000 Americans died of drug overdoses. Virtually
all of those came across the southern border. The one that we are most
concerned about now--but we are concerned about all of them--is
opioids, synthetic opioids like fentanyl, which are enormously powerful
and have resulted in the death of far too many Americans. Part of that
is because of the border crisis.
Now, the drug cartels make a lot of money doing this. The human
smugglers charge $5-, $10-, $15,000 a head to bring people across the
border. This is a huge moneymaking criminal enterprise. But, in
response, the Biden administration has failed to prepare and failed to
embrace policies that would deter people from making this dangerous
trip in the first place.
Last fall, I visited the Del Rio Sector with a group of about 30
Border Patrol agents at their muster. That is their meeting right
before they are deployed out into the field. When they were asked to
raise their hand if they would be working out in the field that day
patrolling, not a single hand was raised. These men and women who would
normally be out on the frontlines stopping dangerous people and drugs
from sneaking across the border--they are filling out paperwork, they
are watching unaccompanied children, and they are transporting
migrants.
This is part of the cartel's plan. It looks like, to coin a phrase,
we are playing checkers when they are playing three-dimensional chess.
The cartels have simply adapted their policies to exploit what they see
as weakness at the border. This is a dangerous situation. If Border
Patrol agents are caring for unaccompanied children, obviously they
can't patrol the frontlines. If they are knee-deep in paperwork, they
can't stop criminals and drugs from coming across the border.
The chaos at the border provides an excellent camouflage and disguise
for dangerous people coming across. Gangs, cartels, criminal
organizations are paying close attention. They see the gaps, some of
which they create themselves, and they are taking full advantage. Every
day, criminals attempt to sneak across our border. The dedicated men
and women of the Border Patrol arrest a number of them if they can
locate them. Many of them get away. Since October, agents have
apprehended more than 450 gang members. But, as we know, they are
outnumbered and overwhelmed, meaning that countless others slip through
the cracks.
According to some reports, more than 300,000 migrants evaded Border
Patrol between October and the end of March. That is 300,000 on top of
the 3 million whom I mentioned a moment ago who have been encountered
during the Biden administration. So that is 300,000 additional who have
evaded Border Patrol in just 6 months. These are known as ``got-
aways,'' the ones Border Patrol sees on surveillance cameras. But the
number could well be significantly higher.
The cartels and the human smugglers who help people illegally enter
our country are not fools. They pay close attention to the rhetoric of
the President and politicians here in Washington, and they watch
television from their home country and see that people who show up at
the border can by and large enter the country without any consequences.
They know our immigration laws better than the average American, better
than the average Member of Congress, and they know how to exploit them
to their advantage. They will flood the system in one area to distract
the Border Patrol and take advantage of the security gaps.
This is an important point. These cartels and criminal organizations
are what one Border Patrol agent called commodity agnostic; in other
words, they are in it for the money. If they can make money by
smuggling--by trafficking in young girls or in economic migrants or
drugs, they will do it because that is why they exist: because of the
money they derive from their crimes.
As I suggested, one of the biggest moneymakers is drug trafficking.
Since October, Customs and Border
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Protection has seized more than 7,700 pounds of fentanyl and more than
120,000 pounds of methamphetamine. Add the other drugs--cocaine,
heroin, and other dangerous drugs--that have been seized, you have
440,000 pounds of drugs that came into our country in only 8 months,
and that is just the drugs we were able to locate and confiscate.
These criminal groups also profit off the backs of migrants. Again,
to them, a migrant is not a human being. It is a commodity; it is a
moneymaker, a way to wring a dollar out of somebody else's misery.
And a couple of weeks ago, we received a tragic reminder of how
ruthless these criminals are. Smugglers abandoned a tractor-trailer
packed with migrants in San Antonio, my hometown, leaving the truck to
bake in the Texas heat. Fifty-three migrants died in what has been
described as the deadliest human smuggling incident in U.S. history. It
is a devastating reminder that this isn't about politics. Lives are
actually on the line.
President Biden has talked about the need to treat immigrants
humanely. I agree. This isn't about treating them inhumanely, but 53
migrants dying in the back of a tractor-trailer rig in 100-degree Texas
temperature is not humane either.
Migrants are dying. Drugs are pouring into our country. And all the
while, these criminal organizations are getting richer and richer.
I don't know how President Biden and Vice President Harris look in
the mirror knowing that this is happening on their watch. I do know
that President Biden and Vice President Harris have not been down to
the border and talked to the same experts that I have learned from over
the years. I think they would learn a lot. I would welcome them if they
decided to come.
Instead, the President has sent a signal to the cartels and human
smugglers that they can continue to abuse, rape, and get rich off of
vulnerable migrants. We have even seen some in the administration
villainize the dedicated law enforcement officers who are trying to
keep our communities and our countries safe. And despite the
recordbreaking levels of migration, we know the President still refuses
to visit the border.
He is in the Middle East. He is visiting Muhammad bin Salman and
other officials in Israel and elsewhere, but he won't go to the border
where this crisis is happening, in large part because of his failed
policies.
As I have said, throughout my time in the Senate, I have learned a
lot from these dedicated leaders in border communities who deal with
this crisis firsthand. Their input has been invaluable to my work in
the Senate. And I look forward to seeing some of these folks later this
week and introducing them to a number of our Senate colleagues.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Carolina.
Mr. TILLIS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be allowed
to speak for up to 5 minutes prior to the scheduled votes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Hearing none, without objection.