[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 16 (Wednesday, January 25, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Page S86]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BORDER SECURITY
Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I would thank my colleague, the senior
Senator from Texas, for his comments and his perspective and his
insight, as a Senator serving from a border State, on what they are
facing every single day. I would say to my colleague that Nebraska has
become a border State. I know Colorado has become a border State. Every
State in this country now is feeling the effects of the chaos that we
see at our southern border, so my thanks to the senior Senator from
Texas for offering his perspective on that.
I would say that on January 13 in Nebraska, we had two Nebraska State
Patrol officers who pulled over two separate vehicles that were hours
away from each other. One car contained 50,000 suspected fentanyl
pills. The other contained a suspected fentanyl-cocaine mixture. Both
cars were driven up from the border. These are only the latest
instances of synthetic opioid trafficking in my State of Nebraska. In
2022, the Nebraska State Patrol confiscated 66 pounds of fentanyl, and
that is up from 25 pounds the year before and 10 pounds in 2020.
In Nebraska and throughout this Nation, the numbers of drug seizures
are staggering. At the southwest border, there was a 55-percent
increase in fentanyl seizures from just November to December. Heroin
seizures increased by 52 percent the month before. Methamphetamine
seizures increased as well.
We know what is driving these drug trafficking numbers: We have a
crisis at our southern border. The effects of that crisis are rippling
across the country, felt by communities in Nebraska and beyond.
When we cannot control who is entering the United States, what they
are bringing in, or where they are going, that is a serious national
security risk.
Let's go over the numbers. Customs and Border Protection encountered
2.3 million migrants at the southern border this past fiscal year--more
encounters than any other year in our history. Migrant encounters in
December reached the highest monthly level ever recorded, with over
250,000 encounters in 1 month. That number had tripled in just 2 years.
And it gets even worse. Border Patrol agents have stopped individuals
on the government's terror watch list 38 times so far since October.
Suspected terrorist encounters will hit record levels if this trend
continues through 2023. Gang-affiliated encounters skyrocketed last
year as well, from 348 to 751.
These historic statistics should concern anyone who cares about our
country's security and the safety of our communities and the safety of
American families. But this administration doesn't consider what is
going on at the border to be a crisis. In fact, our President hardly
seems to consider what is going on at the border at all. Despite his
recent trip south for what I thought was a photo op, his administration
has exacerbated the border crisis.
In case anybody has forgotten, let me refresh your memories. With
simple strokes of his pen, President Biden ended the national emergency
declaration at the border. He halted construction on the border wall,
and he scaled back ICE enforcement in the first few months of his
Presidency.
No amount of photo ops can change what we all know: This
administration has not only failed to prioritize the safety and
security of our border, it has put forward policies over the past 2
years that have worsened this crisis.
Only a month ago, President Biden himself insisted that ``there are
more important things going on.'' I happen to think the national
security threat posed by an influx of suspected terrorists across the
border is important. I think that human trafficking overrunning our
border is important. I think the massive increase in overdoses due to
drug smuggling across the border is important. Across the country,
fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 49.
Between 2019 and 2021, Nebraska's largest county saw an appalling 400-
percent increase in fentanyl overdose deaths.
Complacency is not an acceptable response to this atrocious uptick in
loss of life. My Republican colleagues and I have real, commonsense
solutions to the problems that our border is facing. We need to invest
more in new border security measures and resources for the men and
women who serve us honorably as Border Patrol agents. We need to end
the lenient policies like catch-and-release and increase penalties for
people who don't show up for their immigration court hearings. We need
the Department of Homeland Security to create a serious, comprehensive
strategy to address those issues.
Simply throwing more tax dollars toward a smartphone app that offers
migrants appointments to cross our border--well, that is what the Biden
administration has proposed. It is not the right response to the mayhem
we are seeing. Their policies do nothing to secure the border and to
reinforce our Nation's security.
Until President Biden and my Democratic colleagues seriously work
with us to fix this border chaos once and for all, we can expect to see
more drugs brought into our country, more women and children facing a
life of sex trafficking, and more threats to the security of our
Nation.
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.
Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the
order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, 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 (Ms. Cortez Masto). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
____________________