[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 16 (Wednesday, January 25, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S87-S88]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BORDER SECURITY

  Ms. ERNST. Madam President, I do want to thank my friend and 
colleague Senator Capito of West Virginia for her leadership in 
bringing Senate Republicans to the floor to talk about what is a very 
important issue to all of our constituents--the safety and the security 
of our great Nation.
  Joe Biden created a crisis that has now turned into a complete 
catastrophe--one a mere photo op at a cleaned-up site in Texas won't 
fix. In just 2 years, under President Biden, over 4 million illegal 
immigrants have crossed the southern border--151 who are on the terror 
watch list. To top that off, we know of at least 1.2 million 
individuals who evaded the authorities. Those are the individuals we 
call the ``got-aways.''
  This border catastrophe is so much more than a flood of illegal 
immigrants hoping to jump the legal immigration line to get in the 
door. An open border is an invitation for mischief. It is a drug lord's 
dream.
  In my home State of Iowa, drug overdoses among young people have 
risen 120 percent in the last few years. According to the State's 
Division of

[[Page S88]]

Criminal Investigation, there were four times the amount of fentanyl 
pills disguised as prescription drugs in 2022 as compared to the 
previous year.
  We must act now to counter this deadly fentanyl epidemic. We, as 
lawmakers, should make the distribution of fentanyl resulting in death 
punishable by Federal felony murder charges. It is past time the 
consequences for intentionally inflicting an overdose fits the crime.
  The cartels producing and smuggling this deadly drug into the United 
States are also funneling a significant number of illegal firearms and 
weapons, leading to barbaric violence. Just last week in California, a 
family of six, including a 10-month-old baby girl, was killed in a drug 
cartel execution. Unfortunately, the suspects are still at large.
  Folks, this death and devastation cannot continue. In the coming 
weeks, I am looking forward to leading a bicameral delegation to the 
California-Mexico border. There, we plan to hear directly from Customs 
and Border Protection personnel about fentanyl and their ongoing drug 
interdictions. We will tour the port in San Diego--the epicenter for 
fentanyl trafficking into the United States--and get a firsthand look 
at the dangerous and critical work our Border Patrol agents are doing 
day in and day out.
  I anticipate a common theme in all of our conversations: the need to 
physically secure our border, something my colleagues on the other side 
of the aisle used to support.
  In 2007, then-Senator Joe Biden argued:

       No great country can say it's secure without being able to 
     secure its borders.

  In 2010, Senator Chuck Schumer supported border security and agreed 
the border lacked ``the resources to fully combat the drug smugglers, 
gun runners, human traffickers, money launderers, and organized 
criminals that seek to do harm to innocent Americans along our 
border.''
  Amen, folks. I agree with both of them. But where is that same 
attitude now, when the southern border has become immensely more 
dangerous, more permeable, and more lethal?
  At every single one of my townhalls, over the past 3 weeks, and in 
dozens of interviews with Iowa media, I was asked about the crisis at 
the southern border.
  So, to those on the left who say this is just a Republican stunt, I 
think you had better get out of the beltway and into Middle America, 
hear directly from the people you are supposed to serve, and you will 
quickly find out it is no stunt; it is reality.
  Iowa families want solutions. They want safety, and they want to 
curtail the ever-increasing access to deadly drugs for their children, 
and they are not alone. The American people want a solution. In fact, 
over a majority of Americans--73 percent, according to one Pew Research 
poll--say they believe we need to increase security along the U.S.-
Mexico border.
  It is a great place to start, a place to find common ground.
  In fact, there are left over border materials from the Trump 
administration just lying out in the desert, materials that taxpayers 
have paid for that are just collecting dust. And get this: The Federal 
Government is actually paying--yes, they have hired contractors, and 
they spend our tax dollars to do this--to watch over those materials 
that are lying there in the desert.
  Without a secure border, we cannot have a larger conversation about 
reforming our immigration system.
  So maybe, just maybe, a good place to start is for this 
administration to allow States that want to complete the border barrier 
to do so, instead of taking them to court.
  Besides, doesn't Biden's Justice Department have enough on their 
hands right now?
  So I agree with the Senator from West Virginia that this is an issue 
that needs to be addressed.
  With that, 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. LANKFORD. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Rosen). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

                          ____________________