[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 20, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4833-S4835]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Order of Business

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the vote 
scheduled for 2:30 p.m. occur at 2:15 p.m.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Padilla). The Republican whip.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, last Friday, President Biden said the 
following during his speech:

       And we have a process in place to manage migrants at the 
     border. We're working to make sure it's safe and orderly and 
     humane.

  ``[S]afe and orderly and humane.''

[[Page S4834]]

  I have to ask, has the President visited the border lately? Oh, that 
is right, he hasn't. In fact, other than a driveby by the border when 
he was a candidate for Vice President--and by ``driveby,'' I mean his 
motorcade literally drove by--the President has never visited the 
border. Never. Although I have to say that even reading the news should 
be enough to make it clear to the President the situation at the border 
is neither safe, nor orderly, nor humane.
  In case the President isn't clear about what is happening at the 
border, let me just read from one news story from last week. This one 
was from NBC News:

       A new surge of migrants . . . is overwhelming the Border 
     Patrol and shelters in El Paso, Texas, where nearly 1,000 
     have been released near bus stations over the past week in 
     hope that they will find their own way to their next 
     destinations in the U.S.

  Here is the title of another grim news article from last week: 
``Texas border town requests refrigerators to store migrant bodies 
after drownings overwhelm mortuaries.''
  ``Texas border town requests refrigerators to store migrant bodies 
after drownings overwhelm mortuaries.''
  Yet another news outlet reported:

       El Paso County Sheriff sounds alarm over Border Patrol 
     overwhelmed due to migrants.

  That article goes on to say:

       Sheriff Richard Wiles stated Thursday, ``This incident 
     raises a law enforcement concern because Border Patrol is so 
     overwhelmed, undocumented immigrants may be released into 
     communities with minimal or no screening.''

  Does any of this--any of this--make the situation at the border sound 
safe or orderly or humane? I don't think so.
  The Biden administration has been characterized by recordbreaking 
waves of illegal immigration across our southern border, and I mean 
``recordbreaking'' quite literally.
  In fiscal year 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehended 
more than 1.7 million individuals attempting to cross our southern 
border illegally--the highest number of apprehensions ever recorded. As 
for fiscal year 2022, well, we exceeded last year's recordbreaking 
number of apprehensions in June. The final count of apprehensions for 
fiscal year 2022 will be well over 2 million. Those numbers only count 
migrants who were actually apprehended. CBS News reports that there 
were ``an estimated 660,000 successful unlawful border entries that did 
not end in an arrest in fiscal year 2021, according to unpublished 
[Department of Homeland Security] figures''--660,000.
  I don't have to tell anyone except maybe congressional Democrats and 
the White House that these kinds of numbers have resulted in scenes of 
near chaos at the southern border. Shelters have been overwhelmed. 
Border facilities have been overwhelmed. The Border Patrol has been 
overwhelmed. Who can forget the scene of 10,000 migrants camped under 
the bridge in Del Rio, TX, last September?
  Just in case anyone is thinking things at the border have 
substantially calmed down, here is yet another headline from this 
month, this one from the Dallas Morning News: ``Overcrowded processing 
center has Border Patrol releasing more migrants on El Paso streets: 
Migrants are being released from facility filled at 3 times its 
capacity.''
  That is from the Dallas Morning News--``3 times its capacity.''
  Over the past few months, the Governors of Texas and Arizona have 
been sending some illegal immigrants to places like New York City and 
Washington, DC, and there has been a predictable outcry. But what is so 
striking about this situation is how upset these places seem to have 
become when dealing with just a tiny fraction of the situation that 
border communities and border States have to deal with on a daily 
basis. Washington, DC, declared a state of emergency. The New York City 
mayor was outraged.
  While I am in no way dismissing the challenges of dealing with 
thousands of illegal immigrants, let me just put this situation in 
perspective for a minute. Washington, DC, a city of around 700,000 
people, has received somewhere around 9,400 migrants over a span of 5 
months. New York City, a city of around 8.4 million people, hasn't even 
received as many as Washington, DC. Compare that with the situation in 
Eagle Pass, TX, a town with a population of just 29,000, which sees 
10,000 migrants a week--a week.
  For a party that likes to pride itself on compassion, the lack of 
compassion Democrats and the White House display on this issue is 
really astounding. Even after catching a tiny glimpse of what it is 
like to deal with an influx of illegal immigration, Democrats have 
apparently zero compassion for the border communities in States that 
have to somehow manage the arrival of thousands of illegal immigrants 
on a daily basis, along with all the logistical and security challenges 
that involves.
  There are real security challenges. Certainly, many of the migrants 
crossing our southern border illegally are simply looking for a better 
life--even if they are trying to circumvent legal pathways to enter--
but there are also a lot of potentially dangerous individuals coming 
across our border and passing through border communities: gang members, 
drug traffickers, human smugglers, and other criminals. In 1 recent 
week, Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector along the 
southern border arrested 21 gang members, 2 sex offenders, and 3 
migrants with prior convictions for various crimes.
  The White House and Democrats don't just display a lack of compassion 
for border communities; they also display a real lack of compassion for 
the individuals attempting to enter our country illegally. There is 
nothing compassionate about an immigration policy that encourages 
individuals to come here illegally, with all of the risks that entails.
  Earlier, I mentioned a border town that was seeking increased morgue 
facilities because it was dealing with the bodies of so many 
individuals who had drowned while attempting to enter this country. 
Deaths at the southern border have surged under the Biden 
administration, undoubtedly because the administration's lax 
immigration policies and obvious lack of concern about securing the 
border have encouraged individuals to attempt to come here illegally.
  According to Department of Homeland Security numbers that have been 
reported, 748 migrants have died at our southern border so far this 
fiscal year. That is a lot of lives lost, Mr. President--a lot of 
lives. Mr. President, one illegal immigrant speaking to a news outlet 
this month said of the border:

       It's open, not closed. The border is open. . . . Everybody 
     believes that the border is open. It's open because we enter, 
     we come in, free. No problem.

  That is the message that President Biden's immigration policies have 
conveyed, and the longer that he continues with his de facto open-
border policies, the more individuals who are going to be encouraged to 
attempt the dangerous journey across our southern border.
  Mr. President, the massive spending package, the so-called Inflation 
Reduction Act, the Democrats shoved through the Senate last month 
contained hundreds of billions for Democrats' Green New Deal 
priorities, like tax credits for wealthy Americans to buy electric cars 
and more than $80 billion for environmental justice priorities. There 
was also, of course, an $80 billion funding infusion for the IRS, a 
majority of it allocated for more IRS audits and increased enforcement, 
including the hiring of additional IRS agents. Nowhere in that bill 
were there any resources for addressing the crisis that has been raging 
for more than a year now at our southern border.
  During debate on the bill, Republicans gave Democrats five 
opportunities to vote for amendments aimed at providing resources to 
secure the border. Democrats rejected all of them. Apparently, 
Democrats are willing to spend a lot of time and effort and government 
money on their Green New Deal and finding new ways to collect taxpayer 
dollars to help fund their Big Government spending plans, but when it 
comes to protecting Americans and ensuring a humane situation at our 
southern border, Democrats just can't be bothered.
  I heard the Democratic whip down here, just now, talking about that 
there just needs to be a comprehensive immigration bipartisan approach 
to this and blaming Republicans for them not being able to do anything 
to address this issue. And I just have to say that, one, the Democrats 
control all of government in Washington. They have

[[Page S4835]]

the House, the Senate, and the White House, and, to my knowledge, they 
have not attempted to bring an immigration reform bill to the floor of 
the U.S. Senate. Furthermore, the President reversed all of the 
policies from the previous administration that affected the border when 
he took office.
  Now we have got a situation at our southern border that is just 
nothing short of appalling, and if the President really had any 
interest in making the process at the border ``safe, orderly, and 
humane,'' as he said the other day, he would make securing our southern 
border a priority, and it is not. Unfortunately, given his record so 
far, I think it is more likely that we will see the scenes of chaos and 
human suffering continue.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from West Virginia.
  Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for up 
to 15 minutes prior to the scheduled rollcall vote.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.