[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 178 (Thursday, November 17, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6755-S6760]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE SESSION

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senate will now resume legislative 
session.
  Mr. TESTER. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                            Border Security

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, since the real President, President Biden, 
was elected to office, the southern border--my State shares a 1,200-
mile common border with Mexico--has been absolutely overwhelmed by the 
number of migrants entering the United States.
  The United States is the most generous country in the world when it 
comes to legal immigration. We naturalize almost a million people a 
year, which is, I think, part of the secret to our economic success. We 
see the best and the brightest from all around the world who want to 
come to America, who want to enjoy the kind of prosperity that 
Americans enjoy and the freedom and opportunity to pursue their dreams. 
Legal immigration, I think, has been part of the secret sauce that has 
helped to make our country great, and we need to protect that.
  Illegal immigration is a disaster. What is happening now on the 
border and what has happened in the last 2 years under the Biden 
administration has been nothing short of a humanitarian and public 
safety crisis.
  It is a little bit of a disappointment--it is more than a little bit 
of a disappointment--when President Biden campaigned on the promise of 
policies that were sure to lead to this exact situation. On the one 
hand, he said: I want to be a uniter. I want to work together to solve 
our Nation's problems.
  But then to see him completely abdicate the Federal Government's 
responsibility to control uncontrolled migration across the border is 
inexcusable. Once President Biden took office, his administration 
continued to send a clear message to the cartels, to the human 
smugglers, and to the migrants that our border was open. Oh, and don't 
forget the drug cartels, who depend on an open border to sell their 
poison all across our country, taking the lives, last year, of 108,000 
Americans alone.
  Some people have said: Well, apparently, every State is now a border 
State.
  I think that is true, particularly when you see the epidemic of 
fentanyl being so pervasive in all of our communities. We are losing 
students in our high schools on a regular basis who think they are 
taking something like, let's say, Xanax or Percocet or something else, 
but it is laced with fentanyl, and it kills them because only a very 
small piece of fentanyl can take your life. It is that powerful.
  Unfortunately, the administration is now trying to play catchup to 
its failures and abdication to provide security across our southern 
border. In the last fiscal year, for the first time on record, annual 
border encounters reached nearly 2.4 million. When I say border 
encounters, that does not count the so-called getaways, which is what 
the Border Patrol calls them--the hundreds and thousands of people who 
don't turn themselves in and claim asylum. These are people who want to 
evade law enforcement. They are very likely involved in either criminal 
activity or have a criminal record themselves or, perhaps, they are 
just smuggling drugs into the United States. Those are the getaways. So 
the 2.4 million is a low number for the number of people to have come 
across the border in the last 2 years, and there is no indication that 
things are slowing down.
  I know Vice President Harris--named the border czar for President 
Biden's administration--when she talks about immigration, she says: 
Well, we need to get back to the root causes.
  She talks to the President of Guatemala or Honduras or El Salvador 
and says, well, we need to make life better for people there so they 
don't come here, which is totally ignoring the scope and the gravity of 
the human smuggling networks that operate internationally.
  I mentioned this morning, in the Judiciary Committee, where the 
Presiding Officer was, too, that the Border Patrol regularly encounters 
people from as many as 150 different countries. So the fact is the 
criminal organizations that make money on human smuggling will smuggle 
you from anywhere in the world, including from countries of particular 
concern to us when it comes to terrorism, for a price. So, where coming 
from Central America or Mexico may cost you $5,000 or $10,000, if you 
are coming from Pakistan, Iraq, or Iran, it may cost you $15,000, and 
it goes on and on and on and on.

  So Vice President Harris, apparently, doesn't understand what we are 
up against when she talks about root causes. People want to come here, 
and they will pay to come here and to evade a lawful system of 
controlled legal immigration, which, as I said, has been a good thing 
for our country, in favor of transnational criminal organizations 
getting richer by the day by

[[Page S6756]]

smuggling people from all around the world, along with the drugs that I 
mentioned earlier that took the lives of 108,000 Americans last year 
alone.
  In fiscal year 2018, we saw an average of 43,000 migrants at the 
border every month. That was in 2018, 4 years ago, 43,000. In fiscal 
year 2022--fast-forward 4 years--the monthly total has skyrocketed from 
43,000 to 198,000 a month. We are seeing 4\1/2\ times more people 
coming every single month, and, not surprisingly, the Border Patrol 
can't keep up.
  This is part of the strategy of these transnational criminal 
organizations. They will send children unaccompanied to the border, 
knowing that the Border Patrol--as they should--is going to try to take 
care of these children as they process them through the asylum system. 
What that means is that they are not on the border when they are back, 
filling out paperwork or changing diapers, and that is when the drug 
cartels come through.
  It is like a four-lane highway into the United States, and it doesn't 
stop in Texas. It goes to New Jersey. It goes to Illinois. It goes all 
across our country, not to mention that the Border Patrol doesn't have 
the space to house this many people. So they simply let them go, in 
many instances, with a notice to appear for a future court hearing if 
somebody invokes asylum laws. But they don't have the personnel to 
control this humanitarian crisis, this flood of humanity, coming across 
the border.
  As I said, the people coming across are a hodgepodge. Some are 
economic migrants. We can understand people fleeing poverty or 
violence--we are human beings too. We understand--but it also creates 
an opportunity for criminals and drug smuggling and other nefarious 
actors to come across because we don't know who is coming across. 
Because there are so many of them, they have overwhelmed our capacity 
to monitor, and hundreds of thousands of them, simply, are the 
gotaways.
  We don't have enough people to do the job of patrolling the 
frontlines and arresting the people who need to be arrested and 
interdicting the drugs that need to be interdicted. I know Chairman 
Durbin, our friend and colleague from Illinois, mentioned this morning 
in the Judiciary Committee hearing the fact that Customs and Border 
Protection has interdicted tons of drugs. That is a good thing, but 
nobody is under any illusion that they have gotten anywhere near all, 
much less the majority, of the drugs that have come across the border. 
They haven't. So this is, unfortunately, another manifestation of the 
broken policies of the Biden administration and the Biden border 
crisis.
  We don't have enough immigration courts to keep up with the backlog 
as people are released by the millions into the United States and told 
to appear for a court hearing. The last figures I saw showed that about 
half of the people didn't show up for their court hearings, but there 
has been no effort made to follow up by Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement to repatriate those people who don't comply with their 
notice to appear.
  Honestly, there are millions of cases in the backlog, and the cartels 
know that, too, and this is another way for them to game the system, 
and this is another incentive for people to come. You know, the Border 
Patrol talks about the push factors--violence, poverty, things that 
cause people to want to leave their homes to go somewhere else--but 
they also talk about the pull factors, which is the perception that the 
border is open, and there is no impediment to people coming here 
outside of our legal immigration system. That is another reason the 
numbers are so huge--because there is simply no deterrence.
  As I said, this isn't just a problem in Texas and other border 
States. My border communities don't have the resources to help each and 
every migrant who arrives penniless, malnourished, and, maybe, without 
any place to really go. The truth is the entire system is buckling 
under the weight of this border crisis, but if you think things are bad 
now, they are about to get worse.
  Earlier this week, a D.C. district court judge vacated the Centers 
for Disease Control title 42 order. You will remember, title 42 is a 
public safety order which empowered the Border Patrol to turn back 
people coming across the border into the United States because 
infectious diseases can spread when people who haven't been vaccinated, 
who aren't tested, are released into the interior of the United States. 
So this is a public health order that enabled the Border Patrol at 
least to use that tool to try to modulate the flow of humanity coming 
across the border, but a district judge here has vacated title 42 now.
  The judge has granted a 5-week stay, giving the Department of 
Homeland Security until midnight on December 21 to come up with a new 
plan. But this isn't a time to start scrambling and come up with a 
plan; it should have been happening years ago.
  I still remember meeting with the Border Patrol leadership and 
Customs and Border Protection. They said when title 42 goes away, if we 
are denied that tool to be able to control the flow of illegal 
immigration, we will lose control. There will be no disincentive for 
people not to come across the border into the United States illegally.
  Title 42 has been one of the few remaining tools that have been used 
to prevent even greater chaos than what I have described, and now, with 
it potentially likely going away, even that tool will be lost. But, of 
course, the administration has jettisoned almost every policy we had in 
place to secure the border and discourage migrants from undertaking the 
dangerous journey to our southern border.
  Title 42 has given the Department of Homeland Security the ability to 
quickly expel some migrants--usually adult males--and to prevent our 
border facilities and local communities from becoming even more 
overwhelmed than they already are. Once this authority goes out the 
window--and that appears to be imminent--the situation is going to get 
much, much worse.
  Of the more than 230,000 encounters at the southern border last 
month, more than 78,000 were removed under title 42--230,000 
encounters; 78,000 removed using title 42. But if title 42 goes away, 
that is 78,000 more people each month who are likely, then, to make 
their way into the United States.
  Title 42 also provided some means to control the need to process, 
house, and feed migrants coming across the border, but now, with all of 
the restraints of title 42 off, it is going to get much, much worse, 
and the consequences will be dire indeed.
  As I said, the Biden border crisis is entirely predictable, and it is 
a result of the Biden administration dismantling what few tools that 
were available to Border Patrol and to the U.S. Government to control 
unrestricted access to the United States.
  It seems to me that the only consistent policy of the Biden 
administration has been that whatever the previous administration did, 
whether it is build infrastructure, provide more technology, more boots 
on the ground, whatever the policy of the previous administration was, 
we are going to do the opposite--not because it makes sense; just 
because the previous administration did it, they are going to undo it.
  Of course, those people who do claim asylum are met with a 2 million-
case backlog. On average, it takes about 2 years for the case to be 
adjudicated. But migrants know this. They plan on this. This is part of 
the sales pitch of the human smugglers. They say: Just go to the border 
and claim asylum, and then you will be put in a queue of 2 million 
people, and you have to wait for your case to be called.
  Of course, more than half of the people don't show up. That is part 
of the plan. And those who do show up, we know that 90 percent of those 
cases failed to meet the legal standard for asylum. In the meantime, 
those migrants, if they had had their case adjudicated, would have 
found they had no legal basis to the stay in the United States. They 
are able to live and work here for years in the meantime.
  I mentioned the notice that many migrants are given to appear for a 
court date, but because of the volume of people coming across, at one 
point, the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection didn't even 
issue those notices to appear for a date certain for a court setting, 
and they gave migrants a notice to report. These are people who have 
evaded the legal process to make their way into the United States, and 
we give them a slip of

[[Page S6757]]

paper that says: Oh, when you get to where you are going--whether it is 
Chicago or New York or Washington, DC--go turn yourself in to 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE.
  I just don't know how stupid the Biden administration thinks the 
American people are because the American people are not stupid. They 
understand that this notice to report is another means for people to 
make their way illegally into the United States and to stay here, and 
it is an incentive for more and more people to come.
  Law enforcement is not just enforcing the law; it is actually sending 
a message of deterrence: Don't do that. We have lost all message of 
deterrence because migrants who make their way into the United States, 
they call back home, and they say: I made it. They watch TV. They see 
the migrants flowing across the border unrestricted. They say: Well, I 
guess if they can do it, I can do it too.
  Given the massive influx of people coming across the border every 
day, the Border Patrol's facilities are completely underwater. Rather 
than stand up new facilities or hire more personnel to make the 
expedited removal process function properly, the Biden administration 
has just continued to release more and more people into the interior of 
the country. In many cases, these people are released without any real 
information about who they are, where they are going, and what they are 
going to do when they get there.
  Senator Lankford and I have asked the Government Accountability 
Office to evaluate the impact of these practices, and the results are 
pretty shocking. The GAO reported that some of the migrants had their 
appointment with ICE scheduled for August 2024, nearly 2 years from 
now. That was just the appointment to receive the notice to appear, 
which begins--begins--the proceedings in immigration court. Tack on the 
average of a 2-year process for a single case to be adjudicated by an 
immigration judge, and you are looking at a 4-year-plus waiting period.

  If the administration doesn't come up with a plan to fix these 
problems before title 42 is lifted, we will be looking at a pull factor 
to end all pull factors. Here is why.
  Earlier this year, Secretary Mayorkas said that Customs and Border 
Protection detention facilities could hold approximately 18,000 people. 
Now, that sounds like a big number, but those beds fill up quickly. 
Once title 42 goes away, every single person who crosses the border 
will have to be processed by the Border Patrol.
  The administration previously said we could see as many as 18,000 
migrants every day if title 42 was lifted. That is a day, so all 18,000 
of those beds could fill up as a result of a single day's migration. 
Then the question comes, what do we do with the rest when the only 
detention facilities we have are full?
  When these facilities are filled to capacity, agents are left with no 
other choice. The migrants are released, which is, again, part of the 
business model of the human smugglers and transnational criminal 
organizations that operate these illegal smuggling networks. They 
realize that they have overwhelmed the capacity of the Border Patrol 
and U.S. policy to keep people who should not come into the country 
out. They may be given a notice to appear, but that is a document that 
tells asylum seekers when and where to present their claims in court, 
or they may be paroled into the country and enrolled in the so-called 
alternatives to detention program. Years are likely to pass before that 
long-awaited court date arrives. When it does, maybe the person will 
show up; maybe they won't. But either way, one thing is certain: When 
word gets out, as it always does, that migrants are being released from 
custody, more illegal immigration will follow.
  This creates a huge public safety risk, not because of the migrants 
themselves but because of the chaos that mass migration creates. When 
thousands of people are crossing the border every day, it completely 
overwhelms the Border Patrol, as I said. If agents are caring for 
unaccompanied children, they can't patrol the frontlines. If they are 
knee deep in paperwork, they can't stop dangerous criminals, people 
with criminal records, from slipping across the border.
  The chaos at our southern border provides an excellent disguise for 
dangerous individuals. Gangs, cartels, criminal organizations are 
paying close attention to the state of our border. They see the gaps, 
and they know how to exploit them. Every day, cartel and gang members 
attempt to sneak across the border. The dedicated men and women of the 
Border Patrol arrest a number of them. Last fiscal year, agents 
apprehended more than 750 gang members, but, as we know, law 
enforcement is overwhelmed, and that means countless others have been 
undetected and slip through the cracks.
  No one is suggesting that title 42 is a permanent solution or a 
partial solution to our border security problems--far from it--but the 
administration should have been planning years ago for the day that 
title 42 would be lifted because once title 42 is lifted, unless other 
policies are put in place for expedited removal of people who cannot 
legally enter the country, for example, we are going to lose control of 
the border entirely.
  But the administration has shown zero interest in working with 
Congress to craft real change. That needs to change. Before title 42 
goes away, the administration must implement a serious plan quickly and 
efficiently--and, yes, fairly--to enforce our immigration laws at the 
border and deter further illegal immigration. They need to ensure the 
Border Patrol facilities are equipped with the resources and the 
personnel needed to manage the massive influx of migrants.
  But the fact of the matter is, those overwhelmed Border Patrol 
agents, those overwhelmed facilities, those overwhelmed border 
communities need policies that can only be passed by Congress and 
signed into law by the President of the United States, but so far, our 
Democratic colleagues have shown zero interest, turned a blind eye, 
really, to any of these concerns about an unrestricted flow of humanity 
across our border--again, of course, with the drugs that the cartels 
sell here in the United States. But the administration needs to change 
their approach.
  I saw the forced resignation of the head of Customs and Border 
Protection--the former police chief, I believe, in Arizona--but this is 
just scapegoating. They are firing him, hoping people won't realize 
that what is really failing is not the officials heading up these 
government Agencies; it is the administration; it is the policies of 
the Biden administration itself and the failure of our Democratic 
colleagues to work with us to try to come up with solutions.
  And I am not just here complaining. I am here offering constructive 
proposals. More than a year ago, Senator Sinema, who happens to 
represent a border State of Arizona, a Democrat; Henry Cuellar from 
Laredo, TX, a Texas Democrat; and Tony Gonzales, a Republican 
Congressman, we came up with the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, 
something that would not solve all the problems but would be a modest 
first step in the right direction.
  But what we are told by our Democratic colleagues is they are not 
interested in that or, at least, they are not interested in any 
solutions until and unless you provide a pathway to citizenship for 
millions of people here in the country without proper documentation, in 
other words, illegal migrants, people who have broken our laws. They 
want a mass amnesty.
  And they still don't want to change the policies that are creating 
this influx of humanity across the border. Our Democratic colleagues 
have had the White House. They have had majorities in the House and the 
Senate. They have Democratic colleagues who are chairing the committees 
in the House and the Senate who could actually mark up and pass 
legislation to deal with this crisis. And maybe you can't do it all in 
one piece of legislation. Maybe you can just do it one step at a time. 
But they have done none of that--zero, zip, nada.
  And the only conclusion you can reach in the face of this failure to 
respond to this acknowledged crisis is that they don't care. Well, I 
can guarantee you, the American people care. The parents who lose 
children as a result of fentanyl overdoses because of the unrestricted 
flow of illegal drugs across the border, they care.
  Our major cities and rural areas of the country that have experienced 
a spike in the prevalence of drug distribution and violent crime, they 
care,

[[Page S6758]]

because the distribution network for the drugs that come across the 
border is all across the United States, mainly operated by criminal 
gangs who are responsible for a lot of other criminal conduct and a lot 
of the gun violence and deaths you see every weekend, for example, in 
cities like Chicago. Those are criminal gangs fueled by the broken 
border and the Biden border crisis.
  Something has got to change, Mr. President. I don't know what it is. 
I don't know what it is going to take for the Democratic leadership at 
the White House or the Senate or the House to say: Enough is enough.
  Ultimately, I know that power lies with the American people. They can 
change, or they can change their elected representatives in the next 
election. So something is going to give. The status quo is not 
sustainable. The country, the border, is on fire. People are dying, and 
we are straining the whole legal system that is designed to expedite 
the entry of people through a legal process and turning the reins over 
to the transnational criminal organizations and international drug 
networks that profit hugely by the failure of Congress and the failure 
of the White House to act.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schatz). The majority whip.
  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I listened to the statement of my 
colleague and friend from Texas Senator Cornyn on the issue of 
immigration. It would seem that we are miles apart, Democrats and 
Republicans, on this issue.
  Let me state from my own personal point of view, speaking just for 
myself, what I think we are facing and what we should do to address it. 
Here are the basics as far as I am concerned: We need an orderly 
process for immigration in America, both at the border and off the 
border. That means laws and rules, numbers that work for both the 
immigrants as well as the economy of America.
  No. 2, we should never knowingly allow anyone dangerous to come into 
this country; or, if they are here in immigrant status and pose a 
danger to our country, they have no right to stay, as far as I am 
concerned.
  No. 3, it is a great compliment that so many people all over the 
world are desperate to come to our country. If the opposite were true 
and people were flowing out of the United States, it would be a sad 
commentary. But America has always been a magnet of opportunity, and so 
the fact that so many people want to come here is a compliment, in a 
way.
  But the reality is this: We cannot absorb everyone who wants to come 
into America from all over the world in a limited period of time. It 
can only be considered, in an orderly fashion, over a longer period of 
time.
  No. 4, we haven't touched this immigration set of laws in 30 years. 
So to blame Joe Biden for this is to ignore the obvious. There wasn't 
much, if anything, done under the Trump administration that was helpful 
and, going back years and years before, very little, if anything, to 
show for it.
  The only time we finally did a bipartisan bill and brought it to the 
floor of the U.S. Senate, I was part of the Gang of 8, and we brought 
it to the floor. We debated it at length in the committee and on the 
floor, and it passed with a vote, I believe, of 65 here in the U.S. 
Senate, a bipartisan vote.
  We sent it over to the House of Representatives, which was under 
Republican control with Speaker Ryan. They never raised the issue. They 
never brought it to the floor. They never discussed it in committee. So 
that was the end of the effort.
  So to argue that we haven't tried--we have. On various individual 
bills, like the DREAM Act, which I introduced 21 years ago--I brought 
it to the floor of the Senate five times and got a majority vote all 
five times. But that is not enough in the Senate. It didn't get 60 
votes. So we lost the bill to a filibuster each and every time.
  So to argue that the effort has not been undertaken is not quite 
accurate.
  The question is: Where do we go from here? Title 42 was basically a 
public health announcement that we could deny access to the United 
States to people based on public health considerations. This week, a DC 
judge, Federal judge, concluded that whatever our initial rationale was 
for title 42, it no longer applied. If it was for COVID-19 or public 
health, he found reason to question whether or not, in today's 
circumstances, it still applied.

  Why is this important? Because 40 to 50 percent of those who come to 
the border are turned away under title 42; so the Border Patrol is 
saying to us: What is going to happen when this expires? We will have 
even more people seeking entry into the United States and no basis for 
turning them away.
  So it is a situation which is a real and challenging situation, and I 
think it argues more than ever that we have to do something and do it 
soon so that the situation at the border does not get worse.
  Why is it so bad? Well, there are a variety of circumstances that 
have given rise to this situation, not the least of which is the 
countries that are sending the most people to the United States include 
Venezuela--where millions have fled Venezuela and the dictator that is 
running that country to neighboring countries--and they are now coming 
to the United States.
  Venezuela does not have a government that we are in regular 
communication with, and so it is not a matter of working out our 
differences to slow down this flow of immigration. Our State Department 
notifies American citizens not to travel to Venezuela because it is too 
dangerous. So when Venezuelans come to our border and say: We are 
fleeing persecution and danger in our country, we have recognized that 
as a fact through the State Department directives. It is a dangerous 
country. I have been to it. I have a general feeling about how 
dangerous it is.
  So the situation is not easily resolved. Let me say to the Senator 
from Texas--he said he is ready to sit down. I am too. We need to sit 
down--he, a Republican; myself as a Democrat--and find some common 
ground.
  There are some things which we can come to an agreement on. First, 
when it comes to fentanyl and drugs, overwhelmingly, by a margin of 6 
to 1, drugs are flowing into the United States under regular ports of 
entry. It isn't a matter of some young person with a backpack full of 
heroin or fentanyl coming across the border in the middle of the night 
so much as it is truckloads coming through that escape detection.
  That is inexcusable. Do you want to vote for more security, more 
technology, stopping the drugs coming in from the border? Count me in. 
It is not just a Republican platform. It is a Democratic platform as 
well. We are suffering from a drug crisis in my State of Illinois just 
as much as in the State of Texas--maybe more, in some circumstances. So 
count me in for more security.
  Do you believe it is too long between a person arriving in the United 
States and being given a court date before they finally do appear? I am 
for changing that too. We need more immigration courts. We need more 
judges in those courts. I will vote for the money to see that happen.
  What are we going to do in terms of people who come into this 
country? Are they needed? Well, they are desperately needed. Just 
recently, the Governors of Texas, Arizona, and Florida decided to pull 
a political stunt--I call it a stunt--of sending people who had just 
crossed the border on buses to communities around the United States. 
These people got on the buses believing that, at the end of the path, 
at the end of their trip, they would be taken care of: jobs, houses, 
and all sorts of things were promised to them. None of it was true. 
They were misled into getting on those buses.
  How do I know that? Because I sat down with them in Chicago--4,000 or 
more have already arrived--and I heard their stories. And when you 
listen to their stories, you understand the fundamentals of this 
decision.
  Carlos came with his wife and his 5-year-old daughter and his little 
baby infant. His wife was nursing. He left Venezuela on May 5. It took 
him 5 months to finally make it to our border. And when he got there, 
he was in a circumstance where everything had happened to him. He had 
been robbed, beaten, had his cell phone taken away, and he thought he 
was going to die under the circumstances. He was so desperate to come 
to the United States and escape Venezuela, he trucked on, carrying both 
babies at one point because his wife had hurt her leg.
  That kind of determination belies the argument that these people are 
trying

[[Page S6759]]

to swindle our system. They are as desperate as many of our parents and 
grandparents to come and find freedom and opportunity. It is a natural 
human instinct.
  It says to me that they are being exploited, I am sure, by smugglers 
and others and coyotes who try to bring them to our border, who charge 
them exorbitant amounts of money, often abandoning them in flight. The 
fact of the matter is, the push factor is dramatic, and we have to deal 
with it.
  Now, what the administration has said is that they are going to allow 
a certain number of Venezuelans to illegally enter the United States as 
long as they have sponsors in our country. Twenty-four thousand is the 
number that they gave. I think that is beginning of talking about the 
legitimate needs of America for workers.
  Many of these people coming off the buses in Chicago are offered jobs 
right on the spot; we have so many vacancies in employment right now. 
But we have to do this in an orderly fashion. That is one of the points 
that I made earlier.
  I would like to say a word about the Dream Act. I see my other 
colleagues on the floor who are seeking recognition.
  Yesterday, we had a rally for people who are protected by DACA. I 
introduced the DREAM Act 21 years ago. We couldn't pass it because of 
the filibuster on the floor of the Senate. I appealed to President 
Obama, who created DACA, which allowed young people brought here as 
children and infants to apply for 2 years of protection so they could 
work--and not be deported--in the United States, called DACA.
  Well, there are 600,000 to 800,000 who have qualified for that. They 
have frozen their numbers over the last several years. But those are 
the ones who were in place at the time. They showed up, a lot of them, 
yesterday. One woman said to me: I am DACA, and I am also 40 years old. 
Senator, is this ever going to be resolved?
  It is a legitimate question. So many of them are teachers and nurses 
and doctors and members of our military who are doing their best at 
essential work occupations. They deserve an opportunity to be in this 
country. And there is a feeling that some court could pull the rug out 
from under them in a matter of hours or days. So we need to act on that 
quickly.
  I am going to submit for the Record the statement that I was going to 
make on the Ukraine situation. But I rose to respond to my friend from 
Texas. I accept his challenge. Let's sit down on a bipartisan basis, on 
a timely bipartisan basis, the Monday we return from Thanksgiving and 
start the conversation.
  I am willing to talk honestly about border security, and I am sure he 
is willing to talk honestly about DACA and Dreamers and the critical 
needs of people who are coming into the United States.


                                Ukraine

  Mr. President, nearly 9 months ago, I was sitting in an airport 
departure lounge in Lithuania with Senator Coons when the news broke of 
Russia's reprehensible effort to seize Ukraine by military force. Many 
may have forgotten, but Russian dictator Vladimir Putin actually 
thought Ukrainians would welcome the Russian military with open arms.
  Based on that delusion, he gambled the reputation of his nation and 
the lives of more than 100,000 Russians troops who have died--all for 
one man's selfish pursuit and warped nostalgia for a Soviet dystopia. 
Vladimir Putin's illegal war on Ukraine also has unleashed untold 
horrors on millions of innocent Ukrainians, so many of them children.
  CNN and PBS recently aired a heartbreaking segment by Christiane 
Amanpour about the countless Ukrainian children who are suffering 
terrible emotional turmoil living through the unspeakable terror and 
fear from Putin's war.
  Some of the children are unable to speak, emotionally paralyzed after 
witnessing unimaginable violence against their parents or others. Putin 
and his cowardly enablers must face justice for these war crimes. And 
the United States is committed to seeing that justice done.
  Despite the horrific violence unleashed by Putin, the Ukrainian 
people have prevailed and thrived. Their courage and sacrifices for 
freedom are truly inspiring. Ukraine's defenders not only repelled the 
initial military invasion, they have continued to recapture land 
illegally occupied by Russia in eastern and southern Ukraine.
  A key victory came last week when Ukrainian forces liberated the 
provincial capital of Kherson. Kherson has suffered months of cruel 
Russian occupation. Innocent civilians experienced arbitrary arrest, 
torture, and forced disappearances. Many residents were forced at 
gunpoint to vote in a sham referendum--Russia's attempt to whitewash 
its illegal occupation.
  Even in retreat, Russian forces continued to brutalize Kherson by 
destroying important infrastructure and sabotaging key services.
  And yet Kherson is liberated. And despite all of the destruction and 
the tremendous rebuilding and healing that lies ahead for its people, 
the tears of joy have been palpable.
  Just look at these photos--President Zelenskyy's recent visit to a 
freed Kherson--watching the Ukrainian flag being raised over the city 
once again, citizens hugging and kissing Ukrainian soldiers in an 
outpouring of relief and gratitude.
  There is no doubt where the momentum in this war rests: with the 
Ukrainian people. Ukraine's military has reclaimed hundreds of villages 
and more than a thousand square miles of territory. The world has 
rallied to Ukraine's side, leaving Russia isolated in retreat of 
Putin's folly.
  The nations of the free world understand that Ukraine is the 
frontline in the battle for freedom over autocracy. It is the frontline 
in the struggle for the rule of law over the rule of chaos and brute 
force. And now is not time for the United States and the rest of the 
free world to let up in our support for Ukraine. The unified support 
and military assistance of NATO has been invaluable to the brave 
Ukrainians fighting to protect their nation. And this Congress has been 
largely unified in providing this aid--and the results are both 
stunning and clear.

  Russia is losing the war in Ukraine. Its leaders are now trying to 
break the will of the Ukrainian people with random terror bombings of 
civilian targets and critical infrastructure.
  Make no mistake: Putin and his cronies are watching what we do in 
this Chamber. They are hoping that we and our allies will grow weary in 
our support for Ukraine. That is why it is essential we include in the 
supplemental spending bill that we must pass before the end of this 
year the critical military assistance that will allow Ukraine to 
continue to defend its people and reclaim its territory.
  Let me end with a quote from the retired curator of the Kherson Art 
Museum, Iryna Rodavanova. Russian soldiers had beaten her husband. 
After Kherson was liberated, she said of President Zelenskyy, ``I agree 
with our president . . . better without electricity, without water, and 
without heat if also without the Russians.''
  To Iryna, her husband, and all Ukrainians: You are not without 
friends; the American people and our Congress will be with you until 
Ukraine is again free and at peace.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.


                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 3959

  Mr. HAGERTY. Mr. President, earlier this week, a Federal judge in 
Washington, DC, outlawed the continued use of title 42 pandemic-related 
authority for the expedited removal of aliens who enter our country 
illegally. The judge found that the policy should be updated because 
the COVID-19 pandemic has changed since 2020. I agree. The pandemic is 
over. But the border crisis is not over. In fact, it is worse than 
ever.
  That is why I have introduced legislation that provides a far 
stronger reason for invoking title 42 authority--the deadly drug 
smuggling crisis at our southern border that is killing a record number 
of Americans.
  The Biden administration has dismantled our Nation's most effective 
border security policies. When I led a group of Tennessee sheriffs and 
mayors to the border this past April, Border Patrol agents in Laredo 
told me that the Migrant Protection Protocols, which are also known as 
MPP, or ``Remain in Mexico,'' were a painful illustration of the Biden 
administration's destruction of these border security tools.

[[Page S6760]]

  MPP required that migrants seeking asylum in the United States remain 
in Mexico until it has been determined whether they were actually 
entitled to asylum. The vast majority of those claiming asylum are not 
entitled to it.
  When MPP was implemented in 2019, the agents said it was like 
flipping a switch because people stopped coming when they learned they 
couldn't get in. Once the Biden administration halted this policy, 
illegal immigration catapulted to record numbers.
  In fiscal year 2021, more than 1.7 million known illegal border 
crossings occurred--a new record. That record was short-lived, however, 
because in fiscal year 2022 that just ended in September, nearly 2.4 
million illegal crossings were documented, exceeding the 2021 record by 
37 percent. And that doesn't take into account the got-aways. Last 
month set a new record for October, with more than 230,000 illegal 
aliens. These figures are just the crossings that the agents see and 
document.
  When I traveled to the border in April, Border Patrol agents told me 
that title 42 was the last tool that they had to at least partially 
stem the tide of illegal border crossings. If we allow a DC judge to 
remove title 42 authority, our Border Patrol agents will have no tool 
to stem the massive increase in illegal immigration that is certain to 
follow. And that is why, given this recent court ruling, passing my 
legislation today is imperative.
  To illustrate, Border Patrol currently has capacity to process a 
maximum of roughly 5,000 illegal immigrants per day. Right now, they 
are already overwhelmed, processing nearly 8,000 per day. Predictions 
from agents and former immigration judges are that, without title 42 
authority, this number would likely double to between 15,000 and 18,000 
per day.
  This would overwhelm processing capability, and the border would 
effectively cease to exist. Such a surrender of American security and 
sovereignty is intolerable.
  The Department of Homeland Security itself said in response to this 
week's court decision:

       We will prepare for an orderly transition to new policies 
     at the border. We know that smugglers will lie to try to take 
     advantage of vulnerable migrants, putting lives at risk.

  Yes, it is true that we need policies to replace title 42, and it is 
true that smugglers will use this court ruling to entice thousands more 
migrants per day to cross the border illegally, which will risk lives 
and will magnify the humanitarian crisis at our southern border in a 
variety of ways.
  If swift removal under title 42 is a possibility, would-be border 
crossers may decide not to embark. But without title 42, there is 
nothing left to dissuade them.

  Further, without title 42, the drug cartels send migrants across the 
strategic points to bog down Border Patrol agents with paperwork 
processing. And the paperwork processing timeframe is five times longer 
without title 42. Do the math. Removing title 42 will collapse what is 
left of our Border Patrol's capacity. And with Border Patrol bogged 
down further, the cartels will use the resulting enforcement gaps to 
move their fentanyl, which they produce with the help of the Chinese 
Communist Party, across our southern border. We cannot allow more 
enforcement gaps for deadly drug smuggling.
  That is why I have introduced legislation to add drug smuggling as an 
additional basis for title 42 authority. It is called the Stop Fentanyl 
Border Crossings Act. Overdoses have become an epidemic in America. 
This legislation would allow the Secretary of Health and Human Services 
to use title 42 to combat substantial dangerous drug trafficking across 
the border. This bill would give Border Patrol a necessary tool to 
focus on stopping drug traffickers.
  According to the CDC, drug overdose deaths reached another record 
high last year. Nearly 107,000 Americans died, many from fentanyl and 
other synthetic opioids coming across this southern border. We 
desperately need title 42 to aid in the fight against this drug 
epidemic.
  Without this authority, the recordbreaking border crisis, and the 
deadly drug overdose crisis that it fuels, will become unimaginably 
worse.
  Therefore, Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee 
on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further 
consideration of S. 3959 and the Senate proceed to its immediate 
consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time 
and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and 
laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Washington.
  Mrs. MURRAY. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, let me 
just say at the start, title 42 is a public health tool, and how it is 
used should be guided by public health experts, looking at data, 
looking at science--not politicians looking to score political points.
  And let's be clear, drug trafficking is a serious problem and one we 
do have law enforcement agencies responsible for. We should leave that 
work to them and support their efforts. But instead of proposing real 
legislative solutions to address drug trafficking based on what will 
keep people safe, Republicans want to use title 42 now as the means to 
keep out anyone seeking asylum and create a political talking point.
  And while I welcome the opportunity to work with my Republican 
colleague on serious bipartisan solutions to address drug trafficking, 
I object to this at this time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mr. HAGERTY. Mr. President, my Democratic colleague is objecting to 
legislation that simply gives the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services the authority to limit border crossings when necessary to 
combat substantial, dangerous illicit drug smuggling.
  It doesn't provide authority to stop all asylum claims. It only 
applies where substantial illicit drug smuggling is endangering public 
health. More than 100,000 Americans are dying annually of drug 
overdoses, many of which result from drug smuggling at our southern 
border.
  The legislation isn't a mandate. It is a tool to help save American 
lives whenever that is possible. Everyone acknowledges that an already 
recordbreaking crisis will get far worse without title 42. American 
lives and communities hang in the balance. Yet my colleagues across the 
aisle are categorically opposed to a commonsense policy to address this 
glaring problem. It begs the question: What do Democrats propose that 
we do in response to this title 42 ruling? refuse to deal with the 
problem? hope this crisis won't spiral further out of control? These 
are not acceptable answers.
  More broadly, is any volume of illegal immigration or drug overdose 
deaths adequate to get this administration to secure the border? How 
much longer will we allow our broken border policies to be manipulated 
by a criminal alliance between the Chinese communists and the billion-
dollar Mexican drug cartels that are shipping huge quantities of deadly 
illegal drugs into the United States across our southern border?
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.

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