[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 37 (Monday, February 27, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H884]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   YOUNG CHILDREN CROSSING THE BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I would address the same article that one 
of my Democrat colleagues mentioned earlier today about an article that 
was published in The New York Times over the weekend addressing what is 
going on with a segment of some of the people who have come across the 
border inappropriately over the last few years.
  Now, things have changed with the parole policy. We don't know how 
that is going to shake out. We have multiplied by 11 or 12 times the 
number of people coming to this country illegally since President Biden 
took office. We have gone from about 20,000 people a month to just 
short of 240,000 people a month.
  Mr. Speaker, I will address a subset of that population, and that is 
the young children. Approximately 9,000 to 10,000 unaccompanied minors 
are coming across our border every month without either parent.
  What becomes of these 10,000 children every month who don't have 
either parent with them?
  Well, The New York Times found out what happens to some of them. They 
wind up working in very dangerous working conditions. That is what 
happens when you let people cross the border without their parents 
being able to look out for them.
  Mr. Speaker, 10,000 children left to cross the border unaccompanied.
  Others, like the little girl referenced in the article in The New 
York Times, came here with a relative she didn't even know before 
this--if he really was a relative. This is something that bothers the 
Border Patrol.
  Mr. Speaker, I really wish some of the Democrats would come down to 
the border and find out what is really going on down there. The Border 
Patrol and Republicans have been complaining repeatedly about all these 
unaccompanied minors. In the past when we had to separate parents from 
their kids for 2 weeks, for a month--and I believe there was only a 
total of about 4,000 kids there--the Democrats were screaming bloody 
murder.
  How dare you separate these people from their parents for even a 
couple weeks.

                              {time}  1245

  Now we have children, over 120,000 last year, separated from their 
parents, perhaps permanently, and that is at least 120,000.
  The Border Patrol feels that sometimes when people are bringing 
children across the border, they are only pretending to be their 
parents.
  Sometimes the Border Patrol does DNA checks, and they find still more 
children who are being separated from their parents.
  We wish they had the time and the money to do DNA tests on all the 
parents because I am sure The New York Times number is actually greater 
than that.
  Then they are spread around the country. We would not allow that for 
our children, right? If somebody from this country--and what they do, 
so you understand, is the children show up at the southern border with 
an address--maybe it is written on their shirt or something--I want to 
go to 123 Elm Street, Portland, Oregon. Our U.S. Government will 
deliver them to 123 Elm Street, Portland, Oregon, even though neither 
parent is there, even though we haven't done thorough checks on the 
people who are there.
  We have no idea--we do, we have some idea, but not enough of an idea, 
who these young kids are being told they have to live with.
  Interestingly, The New York Times and my colleague on the other side 
of the aisle, they are concerned about the working conditions, but they 
mention nothing at all about the fact that these children are separated 
from their parents--neither parent. Isn't that something that should be 
a concern?
  I realize you are the party of Black Lives Matter, Black Lives 
Matter, we condemn the nuclear family, da, da, da, da, da.
  I assure you: A child is better off with its parents, better off with 
both its parents, and this idea that apparently it is okay to let 
children cross the southern border if only they have a nice job when 
they are 16 years old is ridiculous. The United States ought not to be 
part of breaking up these families.
  Now, the other thing I would like to point out that The New York 
Times doesn't mention at all: A lot of times kids show up at the 
southern border with a single parent.
  In this country, if there is a divorce, we do what we can to try to 
make sure the child has some experience or contact with both parents.
  I am sure the Central American countries would like it. I am told by 
the Border Patrol the Central American countries do not like the Biden 
policy of having young people come here, because they feel they are 
losing their future. They don't want to have all their young people 
come to this country.
  I realize that Biden is all about, you know, changing America, 
getting apparently as many people here as quickly as possible, from far 
away as possible. We don't care if the parents are separated.
  Believe me--and just a little bit of racism here, maybe--in this 
country, we would not want one parent taking a child without the other 
parent signing off and moving to another country or moving to a 
different part of this country.
  Apparently, when it comes to children from Latin America, the Biden 
administration and The New York Times is okay with that.
  I intend to hold hearings in my subcommittee. Please look out for the 
children at the southern border.

                          ____________________