[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 194 (Wednesday, December 14, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H9742-H9743]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          SOUTHERN BORDER MESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. LaMalfa) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, I have had a chance on several occasions 
to visit our southern border between the U.S. and Mexico. Of course, I 
wish our people in the White House would take the time. It is a very 
important thing. There are not more important things for the President 
and the Vice President to do than to see firsthand the mess we have 
among our four border States, but truly the effect it has, as every 
State is a border State because they flow so far into our country.
  What are we looking at here? Four million encounters with illegal 
immigrants crossing our southern border in the last 2 years; an amazing 
amount.
  Under President Trump, we had the most secure border we had in years. 
It wasn't perfect, but strides were being made with the many, many 
miles of fence that had been put up.

[[Page H9743]]

  Since the Biden administration kicked in, the effort to continue to 
build the fence was frozen. We have stacks and stacks of materials 
lying there, many millions of dollars' worth of materials just laying 
there in the various spots across the border staged to be completed.
  When I visited the Arizona portion, you could see where there were 
maybe 50 or 100 feet of fence, and there would be an area that would be 
contained where it would be much, much easier for the Border Patrol to 
do their jobs and keep whatever problems there are funneled in fewer 
areas, making their task much simpler to keep track.
  Instead, with the deluge of immigrants, really an invasion that is 
happening, their job is much, much more difficult and less about 
patrolling the border and more about processing.
  Indeed, when I was there, they have vans to go pick people up and 
bring them even faster to the processing center and then turn them 
loose in our country.

                              {time}  1145

  This is a really backwards policy, and it makes me really wonder 
whose side is this administration on.
  The needs of the American people, or some kind of political gain by 
having a wide-open border?
  I do not understand it. The numbers are huge.
  Of course, it is the numbers of people coming across as well as the 
illegal drugs; the fentanyl. You have heard time and time and time 
again the stories. I guess the press doesn't really want to report a 
lot of that; we hear it here and there. But the amount of people being 
harmed by the fentanyl getting to everything is amazing. Yet, the 
border remains porous.
  The only State doing something about it is Texas. All those States 
don't really have the rights to do Federal border patrol or closure. 
They are at least making an effort down there to stem the tide.
  We are in a state of crisis along the border. Millions cross every 
year with no consequence. We expect them maybe to come back for a 
hearing, if indeed they are eligible for an asylum hearing, but that is 
really naive.
  So there are plenty of tools already in the law to stop it. We don't 
really need reform on immigration. We need to enforce the rules we 
have.
  Yet, what is the direction we are going?
  We are going to see title 42, which is able to make limitations due 
to the healthcare crisis because of COVID. They want to let that go to 
the sidelines now, getting rid of title 42.
  We already have a crisis. We already have a giant wave coming in. 
This is just going to exacerbate it. We already have gigantic problems 
that will be added to by letting title 42 expire.
  Every country that is a country has borders and laws on that. Why is 
the U.S. different now under the Biden administration and under 
Democrat rule that we are not allowed to enforce our borders?
  And indeed, the issue, as you squish the balloon, now we are seeing 
an effect on the Canadian border, something that hasn't been talked 
about a lot.
  Mexican nationals are finding that it is easier with the backlog we 
have on the southern border to be able to take a flight up into Canada, 
because they have lifted most of their restrictions on entry and exit, 
and come through from Canada into the United States. Those numbers are 
increasing dramatically.
  The data reflects a 91 percent increase from the prior fiscal year, 
and going higher. So if it is easier to come as a Mexican national 
through Canada, then that is just going to continue to be a larger 
problem. But we already have enough to deal with on the southern 
border; if we would just do the job.
  As President Biden said last spring, let's fill the gaps that we 
have. At least fill just the gaps, if you don't want to make miles and 
miles of fence. It will make the Border Patrol job much easier. But 
truly, we need to do the whole job because we are not a sovereign 
nation if we don't have a border, if we don't enforce it.
  Now, we will get called racist. We will get called hateful. Because 
those are just the standard arguments these days for just about 
anything.
  It is not that. We have a right and an obligation to enforce that and 
bring people over that want to come legally, with visas. That is the 
way to do things, not just a wide-open, porous border.

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