[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 190 (Wednesday, December 7, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7020-S7022]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, yesterday, President Biden traveled to 
Phoenix, AZ, to visit the site of a new semiconductor manufacturing 
plant.
  I am a proud proponent of domestic semiconductor manufacturing 
because it has become a matter of economic and national security, and 
it enjoys broad bipartisan support here in the Senate through the CHIPS 
and Science Act.
  It is exciting to see the sort of announcements that we were seeing 
in Arizona and these new chipmaking investments on American soil. But 
it is hardly the most pressing or most urgent matter on the minds of 
Arizonans or Texans or any other border State communities as well as 
folks across the country.
  It is only about 150 miles from Phoenix to the United States-Mexico 
border, which has been willfully neglected by the Biden administration.
  Under President Biden's administration, we have broken one record 
after another when it comes to illegal immigration at the southern 
border, and the system is now near its breaking point with the 
expiration of title 42, which is the public health title which has 
given the Border Patrol the authority to repel people coming across the 
border--some of them, at least--using that tool. But when that goes 
away, Border Patrol, absent any change in administration policy, will 
not be able to return those individuals--mainly adult males--back 
across the border for illegally entering the United States.
  So despite the President getting on Air Force One at Andrews Air 
Force Base, flying to Phoenix, AZ, a border State, the President's trip 
did not include a short trip and visit to the border. After all, the 
President has pretty good transportation. He has got Air Force One. Can 
you imagine? It would just take a quick hop to the border to give the 
President the opportunity to learn because he has not visited the 
border once since he took office.
  He could have done what I have done and what other Members of the 
Senate have done when we visited the border. He could have asked the 
Border Patrol agents to share their challenges, ask what he could do to 
help.
  He could have asked what can the Federal Government do to make your 
job easier in order to address this crisis.
  He could have talked to Customs and Border Protection Office of Field 
Operation officers about their efforts to interdict the drugs that took 
the life of 108,000 Americans last year alone, virtually all of which 
comes across the southern border.
  He could have just simply said thank you, thank you for your service 
to the countless men and women who are on the frontlines of this crisis 
each and every day.
  Unfortunately, President Biden couldn't be bothered to make that 
trip.
  As he was leaving Washington yesterday, a reporter asked the 
President why he would visit Arizona, a border State, and not go to the 
border.
  The President responded:

       Because there are more important things going on.

  Talk about a slap in the face to every single person who is troubled 
by what is happening at the southern border.
  Every day, migrants are being exploited by people who care nothing 
about their welfare but view them simply as a commodity to make money. 
The stories of the abuse of migrants who take the long and dangerous 
trip from their home across the southern border are legion. The 
President could have learned more about that and expressed concern and 
say: You know, what can we do to discourage people from making that 
long and dangerous trip into the United States and being subjected to 
sexual assault and other forms of abuse?
  He could have asked about the fentanyl, the synthetic opioids, and 
other dangerous drugs that are coming into our country and killing 
innocent people in our communities. We have had a number of teenage 
children, schoolchildren, killed when they consumed a pill that they 
thought was maybe a prescription drug like Xanax or Percocet, which was 
contaminated with fentanyl. It just takes a pencil lead portion of 
fentanyl to kill you. Unfortunately, that has been happening because of 
the border crisis and the drugs flowing across the southern border.
  The cartels and criminal organizations are getting rich off the trail 
of death and destruction that they have created. But let it be known: 
President Joe Biden thinks there are more important things to do.
  That is more outrageous than disappointing, but it is really both. It 
is outrageous and disappointing to hear the President of the United 
States admit this outright. But as dangerous, outrageous, and 
disappointing as it is to hear him say it, we really shouldn't be 
surprised by his inaction when it comes to addressing this crisis.
  For nearly 2 years, President Biden and his administration have 
ignored the crisis at the border so he refuses to visit. You know, he 
might just learn something. He might find out that this is not about 
root causes, which is what Secretary Blinken and others, Vice President 
Harris, have said. They think illegal immigration is a result of root 
causes.
  Well, there is a component of that--people experiencing violence or 
poverty in their home country who want to come to the United States--
but it is also about drug smugglers. It is also about criminals who 
have been deported for endangering Americans, and yet they come back 
across the border to do it again and again.
  So the President might have actually learned something if he had just 
taken a few minutes to talk to the people who work and live on the 
border.
  So he refuses to visit; he avoids talking about it; he acts like 
there is nothing wrong when, in fact, we are experiencing an 
unprecedented humanitarian and security crisis.
  Since President Biden took office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection 
has encountered more than 4 million--4 million--migrants at the 
southern border. During the full 8 years of the Obama administration, 
Customs and Border Protection didn't see that many migrants. In 2 
years, we have seen more than they saw in 8 years during the Obama 
administration.
  President Biden's policies have not only tolerated this situation, it 
has actually made it worse and encouraged more migrants to make the 
trip to our

[[Page S7021]]

border and successfully get into the interior of the United States.
  Whether or not President Biden wants to admit it or not, there is a 
crisis at the southern border. Everybody who takes 30 seconds to learn 
about it understands it. And the truth is, this crisis, as bad as it 
is, is getting worse because of the President's open border policies.
  From day 1, the Biden administration decided they needed to dismantle 
all of the policies of the previous administration that deterred 
illegal immigration. It is not just about catching people who come into 
the country illegally; it is also about discouraging people from making 
that trip in the first place. And the Biden administration's policies 
create the impression that anybody who can make it to the border can 
make it into the interior.
  The administration has rolled out a steady parade of rhetoric, 
policies, and guidance that sent a clear message: Cross the southern 
border and you will be able to successfully make your way into the 
United States.
  So it is no surprise that this message that has been sent by open 
border policies and a lack of enforcement, it is no surprise we have 
seen these unprecedented numbers.
  For the first time on record, Customs and Border Protection logged 
more than 2 million border crossings in a single year. They encountered 
nearly 2.4 million migrants in fiscal year 2022.
  In October, we logged the highest number of migrant encounters on 
record. This is 230,000 in a single month.
  If this happened in any one of the States represented by my 
colleagues that are not border States, I wonder what their reaction 
would be. When Governor Abbott or Governor Ducey or Governor DeSantis 
had put some of these migrants on a bus and sent them to Washington or 
Chicago or New York, Mayor Adams said: This is a crisis. Mayor Bowser 
in Washington, DC, said: We need the National Guard to come out when 
just a few thousand migrants make their way into the interior. But when 
230,000 show up on the border of Texas in a single month, they could 
care less.
  As shocking as these statistics are, they don't tell the full story. 
Whether we are talking about migrant encounters, drug seizures, 
terrorist arrests, you have to remember, these are just the ones we 
know about.
  When Border Patrol agents are asked to process and care for thousands 
of migrants a day, that means they are not on the frontlines securing 
our border. They can't stop the drug smugglers if they are filling out 
paperwork or providing formula to an unaccompanied child.
  New reporting from FOX News shed light on how many individuals evaded 
Border Patrol just last month. Law enforcement refers to these as the 
``got-aways.'' But they don't pull that number out of thin air.
  The United States-Mexico border includes an extensive network of 
physical and technological barriers. Some sections have 30-foot steel 
walls, others have vehicle barriers, others include sensors, cameras, 
and other surveillance equipment.
  Known got-aways are those who are spotted by some form of 
surveillance but not apprehended by the Border Patrol, and last month, 
Border Patrol logged more than 73,000 got-aways.
  Let's see, in October, we logged the highest number of migrant 
encounters on record, more than 230,000 in a single month. And during 
that same month, 73,000 more migrants were got-aways. These are 73,000 
people who did not want to encounter Border Patrol. They weren't 
seeking asylum; they were trying to evade law enforcement and probably 
for a very good reason.
  Of course, even that data doesn't tell the full story. These are just 
the known got-aways for a single month. There is no way of knowing how 
many actually evaded detection entirely, especially over the course of 
the last 2 years.
  It is not just the people we are concerned about. It is dangerous 
drugs like fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, as well as illicit 
weapons and drug money.
  The criminal organizations and cartels that take advantage of and 
exploit the administration's open border policies are, in two words, 
commodity agnostic. In other words, they will deal in drugs, weapons, 
or people as long as it makes them money--commodity agnostic.
  President Biden and his policies are the best thing that ever 
happened to their dirty business.
  It is making them rich while trading on human misery and death. I 
disagreed with President Biden's assessment that there are more 
important things than what is going on at the border. That is easy for 
him to say, sitting in the White House in Washington, DC.
  The people I represent, who live and work along the border, are 
overwhelmed. And this is a Federal responsibility. This shouldn't be up 
to the States because this is an international border. By definition, 
it is a Federal responsibility.
  This state of chaos is also hurting the migrants who are sold lies by 
the cartels and traffickers and are duped into paying thousands of 
dollars a head to come to the United States. And, you know what, you go 
to Houston, TX, and some of those same migrants are held hostage, 
working in prostitution or forced labor by the people who say they will 
turn them in to the authorities and reveal the fact that they are 
illegally in the United States unless they continue in that forced 
labor or that prostitution.
  As I said, this is hurting our border communities, which are now 
apparently expected to carry the weight of feeding, caring for, and 
transporting thousands upon thousands of migrants. And it is weighing 
on the men and women in our law enforcement community who put their 
lives on the line to secure the border and to protect the American 
people.
  I wonder if President Biden knows that last month three Border Patrol 
agents took their own lives--two from Texas and one from New Mexico. It 
is absolutely heartbreaking to see the toll this crisis is taking on 
these brave men and women who have been begging the administration for 
support for nearly 2 years. This isn't asking them to do something over 
and above what is required because all they are asking is for the 
administration to enforce the law, to let them enforce the law, and to 
relieve them of the burden of this abdication of responsibility.
  So if President Biden had taken a few minutes to hop down to the 
border in Air Force One when he was in Phoenix yesterday, he might have 
learned some of this. Over the years, I have had the pleasure of 
learning from and working with the men and women who live and work 
along Texas's 1,200-mile border with Mexico. We are talking about law 
enforcement officials, local officials like the county judges, the 
mayors, the private property owners, the small business owners, and 
folks who run nonprofits. They have provided an unvarnished view of how 
decisions in Washington impact their communities, the economy, and our 
national security.
  And President Biden could have learned this--Vice President Harris, 
too. I have taken the opportunity, along with my colleague Senator 
Cruz, to introduce dozens of our Senate colleagues to these people on 
the border that I am talking about so they could gain a better 
understanding of the challenges that they are up against and the things 
that we could do that would make their life and the conditions on the 
border better.
  And I will just issue an open invitation, Madam President. I am happy 
to invite President Biden to come to Texas, to the border, and I would 
be delighted to introduce him to these people that I have talked 
about--law enforcement, small businesses, local elected officials, 
private property owners--that are being absolutely overwhelmed by this 
border crisis created by President Biden's open-border policies. If he 
would take the time to actually listen to their experiences, there is 
no way he would continue to believe that there are more important 
things going on.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mrs. CAPITO. Madam President, I ask that the vote begin now.

[[Page S7022]]

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.