[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.

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