[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 118 (Monday, July 18, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3325-S3326]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Madam President, on another matter, last week, Senator Cruz, my 
junior Senator and friend, and I took five Members of our Republican 
conference to McAllen, TX, which is in the Rio Grande Valley, which is 
the epicenter of a massive humanitarian and immigration crisis that has 
been going on for at least the last year and a half.
  McAllen is in the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley Sector, it is 
called, and one of the busiest portions of the U.S.-Mexico border when 
it comes to illegal migration. For example, between October and May, 
Rio Grande Valley Sector agents logged more than 333,000 border 
crossings--more than any of the other 20 Border Patrol sectors.
  During the visit, our colleagues were able to see and learn what, 
frankly, as Texas Senators, Senator Cruz and I learned long ago about 
the traumatic, heart-wrenching consequences of this unabated crisis: 
groups of migrants with toddlers, who were lying asleep on the dirt 
road, practically ill from the heat and exhaustion.
  By the way, the temperature is routinely in excess of 100 degrees at 
this time of year.
  One mother and her 7-year-old child, the mom in tears and 
heartbroken, having left another 10-year-old child behind in Guatemala, 
were encountered. Unaccompanied children of 7 years of age, with 
nothing more than the clothes on their back, a birth certificate, and 
family contact information on a piece of paper--these were the sorts of 
things that my Senate colleagues had a chance to experience, which, 
unfortunately, I have seen all too many times before. These aren't 
heart-wrenching scenes from a war-torn country halfway around the 
world. This is happening on our front doorstep. This is happening in 
Texas every day.
  My colleagues and I also spoke with some of the folks whose homes and 
properties sit along the U.S.-Texas border with Mexico. They shared 
with us stories about what it is like to live along one of the hot 
spots for illegal border crossings.
  One resident told us last year the Brooks County Sheriff's Department 
recovered the bodies of 119 dead migrants. So far this year, the county 
has recovered 64.
  Just by way of explanation, the coyotes or the smugglers will bring 
the migrants across the border, put them in a stash house, and then, 
when they

[[Page S3326]]

believe the coast is clear, put them in a truck and transport them 
north. They will have to go through a border checkpoint--or an interior 
checkpoint in Falfurrias, for example, which is where Brooks County is 
located, but what happens is, the smugglers will tell the migrants: Get 
out of the vehicle and walk around the checkpoint, and we will pick you 
up on the north side.
  The problem is, this is very tough terrain and over 100-degree-plus 
temperature. Frankly, when some of the migrants become ill or injured, 
they are simply left behind to die, and that is why so many bodies have 
been recovered, for example, in Brooks County on a regular basis.
  It is tough to imagine the toll this sort of discovery takes on a 
farmer or rancher, and then multiply that shock by more than 100.
  Then we heard about the losses to property suffered because of this 
crisis--stolen vehicles, broken fences, damaged crops, vandalism, 
people who are afraid to let their own family members live and work on 
their own property because they are worried about the drugs, and they 
are worried about the potential violence. They talked about the safety 
concerns for their families and employees because drug traffickers and 
human smugglers go right through their backyards.
  These men and women are understandably angry. They said to us: This 
is the United States of America, and I can't let my daughter or wife or 
children live and play or work on our own property? They are frustrated 
beyond belief because their families and employees, their homes and 
livelihoods are in jeopardy due to the Biden administration's failed 
border policies.
  In case there are any doubts, I want to emphasize that what is 
happening on the border right now does not benefit anyone.
  Border Patrol agents are stretched thin. They are frustrated. They 
are overwhelmed by everything they are expected to shoulder. They have 
been told they cannot do the job that they took an oath to perform 
under policies by the Department of Homeland Security, which can only 
be described as nonenforcement policies.
  Landowners are saddled with safety concerns and financial losses.
  Nongovernmental organizations, which are doing their best to help 
people in need, are carrying the weight of this humanitarian crisis 
with no end in sight. Brave Texas Department of Public Safety officers 
and National Guardsmen are making serious sacrifices as a result of the 
administration's failure to secure the border. These guardsmen and the 
Department of Homeland Security should not have to do a job that is the 
responsibility of the Federal Government, but when the Federal 
Government won't do its job, the State of Texas has no choice. One 
guardsman actually drowned while trying to save two migrants struggling 
to swim across the Rio Grande River. And the migrants themselves are 
routinely abused, exploited, even raped and sometimes left for dead in 
the middle of unforgiving terrain.

  The only people really winning in this crisis are the criminal 
organizations and the human smugglers that are getting richer by the 
day. These cartels are transnational criminal organizations. They will 
traffic in anything that makes them a buck. They are what one person 
has called commodity agnostic. They don't care what that commodity is; 
their goal is simply to maximize their profit by whatever means 
necessary. And there is no question that the Biden administration's 
policies have helped enrich the cartels and resulted in too many 
migrants having lost their lives.
  Throughout my time in the Senate, I have had the privilege of working 
with countless men and women who live and work along the southern 
border. Their experiences and input have shed light on the scope and 
scale of this crisis, and I am glad to be able to welcome some of our 
Senate colleagues to join us for an informative trip to the Rio Grande 
Valley. And I appreciate our colleagues taking the time to come visit 
the US-Mexico border for an update on the border crisis. Of course, 
most of them don't come from border States, but in the memorable words 
of one of our colleagues now, every State is a border State because the 
consequences of this huge migration and humanitarian crisis--not to 
mention the drugs that are smuggled across the border--affect every 
community and every State in our Nation.
  I also want to thank my constituents, my fellow Texans, who took the 
time out of their busy schedules to educate our colleagues: the 
officers, the agents, the landowners, the National Guardsmen, the Texas 
Department of Public Safety officials, the local sheriffs, and others.
  What is so shocking to me is, despite the complete security breakdown 
and, really, the lack of any dispute about what exactly is happening on 
the border, we just can't seem to get the Biden administration's 
attention. Landowners can tell them what it was like to discover the 
dead bodies of migrants who were abandoned by human smugglers, and 
those who do the Lord's work at nongovernmental organizations can tell 
the tale of migrants who were violently assaulted and raped on the way 
to our country, some of whom arrived pregnant. If President Biden would 
take a moment to sit down with these folks who live and work along the 
border, he may begin to learn more and view this situation for what it 
really is: a humanitarian and security crisis precipitated by his 
administration's unwillingness to secure our border.
  President Biden has an open invitation to visit the Texas border, and 
I hope he will take us up on that. If he would, we might finally be 
able to get something done on a bipartisan basis to abate this crisis 
and to secure our open borders.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.