[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 63 (Monday, April 17, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1125-S1126]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. President, it is not just financial problems that need to be 
addressed, there are also big security issues on our plate. In the 
coming months, we need to pass an annual defense authorization bill to 
strengthen our military and our security around the world and, 
hopefully, to maintain the peace.
  But we also have big security issues here at home that need to be 
addressed. As the Presiding Officer has heard me say many times from 
this position, the border crisis is still raging. Thousands of migrants 
are crossing the border every single day and completely overwhelming 
our capacity to respond. It is honestly not a question of capacity, it 
is really a matter of will, and so far the Biden administration has 
demonstrated no will to deal with this border crisis of its own making.
  Law enforcement, border communities, nonprofits, and local businesses 
along the border region are feeling the strain. Our immigration system 
is now so backlogged that some migrants have to wait as long as 10 
years before they can even begin immigration court proceedings.
  And then we know from the track record of successful claims for 
asylum that only--let's say generously--85 percent of those cases will 
not be acknowledged. Only 15 percent will be granted because only 15 
percent of that huge backlog of cases that ultimately end up in front 
of an immigration judge qualify for the very high legal standard for 
asylum.
  Well, over the last couple of years, the administration has shattered 
every record when it comes to border crossings because there is a 
welcome mat out and a green light on for anybody and everybody who 
wants to come to the United States from literally anywhere around the 
world.
  But as bad as the crisis has been the last 2 years, I am afraid the 
administration is about to break their own very bad record. Title 42, 
which is a public health law which says we can limit immigration to the 
United States in the interest of protecting our population against a 
public health crisis like COVID-19--that title is going to end in less 
than a month, and the Border Patrol will lose its authority to quickly 
expel migrants who simply have no legal basis to remain in the United 
States.

[[Page S1126]]

  In February alone, more than 72,000 migrants were removed under title 
42. Admittedly, it is a small number, but it is a significant number 
when you consider what happens when title 42 goes away because once it 
disappears, we will have to process, house, and care for every single 
one of those individuals.
  When we inevitably run out of space, which will happen quickly, I 
expect the administration will start releasing migrants into the 
interior of the country at an unprecedented pace, and once that 
happens, even more migration will follow. This is simply one of the 
pull factors or the message that is sent; that if you violate our 
immigration laws, as long as you make it to the border--because the 
cartels, the transnational criminal organizations, have figured out if 
they can overwhelm our border patrols, they can make more money, and 
more and more people will be able to illegally migrate into the United 
States.
  The transnational criminal organizations that continue to get rich 
because of the Biden border policies know that frontline officers and 
agents are busy processing and caring for migrants and in many cases 
unaccompanied children, which creates a golden opportunity for the 
cartels to move dangerous drugs into the country. They are moving drugs 
like fentanyl, synthetic opioids, heroin, and other dangerous drugs 
across the border and into communities all across the country, from 
Maine to Texas, to California, to New York--all across the country.
  We lost about 70,000 Americans last year alone to fentanyl, and the 
U.S.-Mexico border is the primary gateway for fentanyl and these other 
illicit drugs. Securing the border is the key to stopping this overdose 
epidemic, and restoring some sense of order when it comes to migration. 
This needs to be a top priority here in the Senate, and, as I said a 
moment ago, with the expiration of title 42, a bad situation is getting 
ready to get worse.
  These are just a few of the major tasks on the Senate's to-do list, 
and unfortunately this Chamber has wasted a lot of time. But since the 
beginning of this year, the majority leader hasn't allowed the Senate 
to actually spend much time legislating. We have confirmed a number of 
nominees and passed a few resolutions to nullify outlandish rules that 
were rolled out by the Biden administration. We unanimously passed a 
resolution designating January as ``National Trafficking and Modern 
Slavery Prevention Month.'' The Senate passed a bill to repeal the Iraq 
war authorization, as if President Biden can be expected to use that 
authorization to declare some sort of military conflict or war 
someplace in the Middle East or elsewhere--something I doubt he would 
do.
  Given Congress's long to-do list and the fact that we are 3\1/2\ 
months into the year, what I just recounted is a very slim list of 
accomplishments. I hoped this work period would prompt a change and we 
could start working on important, time-sensitive tasks that need to be 
completed. Unfortunately, here again, we are not off to a great start.
  Rather than bringing up legislation to address the debt ceiling or 
the border crisis or any one of a number of other problems facing 
American families, Senator Schumer has announced that this week, we 
will vote on a partisan resolution. The majority leader tried to frame 
this resolution as a way to defend the rule of law, but it is a 
nonbinding resolution. It fails to do anything other than send a 
political message.
  The majority leader has been a fierce critic of similar resolutions 
in the past. During the summer of 2020, our colleague from Arkansas, 
Senator Cotton, authored a straightforward resolution to clarify that 
the Senate called for justice for George Floyd and opposed efforts to 
defund the police--both simple and straightforward points of, I would 
think, nearly unanimous agreement. But unfortunately the resolution 
didn't pass because it was--guess what--blocked by Senator Schumer. At 
the time, he said:

       The resolution by my friend will do nothing. Nothing. It is 
     rhetoric.

  Well, that was Senator Schumer less than 3 years ago when he blocked 
a nonbinding resolution that denounced efforts to defund the police. 
Now that he has the power to set the schedule in the Senate, Senator 
Schumer could bring any bill to the floor that he wanted. That is the 
prerogative of the majority leader. He could schedule votes on actual 
bills. We could actually have votes on amendments to those bills and a 
fulsome debate, and we could take real action to support our law 
enforcement officers and defend the rule of law. But he refuses to 
bring that sort of bill to the floor--instead, just an empty statement 
or political message.
  If the majority leader wants to issue statements on his own time, 
that is his prerogative, but he shouldn't continue to waste valuable 
floor time on purely partisan messaging that does absolutely nothing. 
The American people sent us here to work on their behalf, and it is 
high time the majority leader decided to take that responsibility 
seriously and bring important legislation that will solve real problems 
to the floor of the United States Senate.
  As our friend Lamar Alexander, the former Senator from Tennessee, 
liked to say: It is not easy to get here, and it is not easy to stay 
here--because we have elections every 6 years--but while you are here, 
you might as well do something important. You might as well make a 
difference.
  I fear we are not doing that by the sort of agenda setting and 
political messaging that the majority leader is endorsing, but it is 
something I daresay the vast majority of Senators would relish--doing 
exactly that kind of work and solving real problems for the American 
people.
  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.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.