[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 73 (Monday, May 1, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1434-S1435]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Law Enforcement

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, last month, I continued my annual 
95-county tour with a swing through East Tennessee. Over the past few 
years, this area has experienced both economic growth and a population 
boom. So the people who live there have seen firsthand what can happen 
when Tennesseans are allowed to build and nurture a community free from 
the heavy hand of government.
  But they also know how fragile that stability can be, and they are 
just baffled by Joe Biden's determination to ruin what they and 
millions of other Americans have worked so incredibly hard to build. In 
just over 2 years, Joe Biden and the Democrats have sabotaged our 
national defense, our border security, and public safety in the name of 
dangerous woke agenda items that prioritize mandates and intellectual 
conformity over the safety and security of the American people.
  Tennesseans are worried about the rise of the new ``axis of evil.'' 
Joe Biden is allowing Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea to cross one 
line after another, and that is not going over very well. Neither is 
the Biden administration's neglect of a security risk that hits much 
closer to home.
  So far this year, Border Patrol and other law enforcement officials 
have reported almost half a million encounters with migrants trying to 
illegally cross our border. Over the course of this fiscal year--now, 
the numbers I am going to give you are for this fiscal year. They have 
recorded 332 encounters with people who are on the Terrorist Watchlist. 
That is right. Three hundred thirty-two have been apprehended at the 
border. These are people who are terrorists. They are on the watchlist, 
which means, if you catch them, they cannot come into this country.
  They have apprehended 330 dangerous gang members--that is MS-13 and 
that is other of these gangs--who are trying to get into the country, 
and they have seized almost 19,000 pounds of drugs.
  Now, this is what we know, and we can only estimate how many other 
terrorists or gang members or criminals escaped into the country and 
how much deadly contraband did they bring with them because they are 
all in the category of ``got-aways.'' They are the people that you see 
on surveillance, but you cannot get to them. They are ``got-aways'' or 
they are people who, after the fact--you don't see them, but after the 
fact, you find things that they have left along their path as they have 
escaped into this country. So think about those numbers and who might 
be coming in.
  Now, when you look at it, this is a total neglect of our most basic 
line of defense, and it might be easier to comprehend were it not for 
this administration's betrayal of local law enforcement. The President 
has denied that he supports the anti-police movement, but I would 
remind the President and my Democratic colleagues that acting on anti-
police sentiment behind the scenes is still anti-police.
  Making the job of law enforcement harder to do every day is anti-
police; using the bureaucracy to undermine access to grant funding and 
lifesaving resources--that is anti-police; and deliberately leaving our 
border wide open to the drug mules, bringing fentanyl into our 
backyards--that is anti-police. Allowing the cartels and the human 
traffickers to run rampant, turning human trafficking from a $500-
million-a-year business, which it was in 2018, to a $13-billion-a-year 
business--that is anti-police. The damage that this administration has 
done in just under 2\1/2\ years will take a lot longer than that to 
repair.
  But simply answering one sweeping policy change with another won't 
magically reverse the ripple effects of this complete breakdown in 
orderly governance. Yes, we have to reverse policy, but we must also 
pay attention to the problems that have left local leaders, law 
enforcement officials, and families begging for help.
  So let's kind of work through these issues, because they are of 
concern to Tennesseans. Tennesseans feel like this administration is 
seeking to normalize

[[Page S1435]]

lawlessness. They feel they are seeking to normalize lawlessness--
because of that open border, because of the sentiments and the actions 
that are anti-law enforcement. They are seeking to normalize 
lawlessness.
  Now, at the border, the immediate solution, of course, is to 
eliminate incentives to illegal immigration, to fund the border patrol, 
and invest heavily in both a physical barrier and enhance technology.
  Now, these are two things that the Border Patrol has been asking for 
about three decades. Give us a barrier of some type; and where you 
can't have a barrier, give us better technology.
  Now, we also need to address the plagues of drug smuggling and human 
trafficking. The Biden administration's refusal to stand up to the 
cartels has turned every town into a border town and every State into a 
border State. Between August of 2021 and August of 2022, the United 
States lost more than 107,000 people to drug overdose. Now, 66 percent 
of these deaths were due to fentanyl. So 107,000 people lost their 
lives to drugs. They are coming primarily over that southern border. 
Talk to any law enforcement officer, they will tell you the majority of 
the drugs they apprehend are coming across that southern border. The 
majority of those drugs is fentanyl.
  Now, I want you to think about this. We all know about World War I, 
the lives that were lost--precious lives; World War II, the lives that 
were lost; the Vietnam War; the Gulf War. Here are some stats for you.
  In World War I, you had 116,516 U.S. citizens who lost their lives. 
In World War II, it was 420,200; in Vietnam, 58,220; the Gulf War, 383. 
So think about that and what we did to protect those lives. And think 
about what is happening with these drugs coming over that border and 
this administration not willing to close that border. And in 1 year--1 
year--1--107,000 lives. Think about that. Why will this administration 
not step up, man up, and work to secure that border?
  Maintaining the title 42 order will help us keep what little control 
we have over the cross-border drug trade. Tens of thousands of migrants 
are waiting for May 11 to roll around so they can flood the border. And 
we are watching that footage right now. I would encourage any of my 
colleagues who are not watching this footage, you need to log on and 
look at how people are coming up. El Paso, I think they have had 15,000 
people over the weekend that have come to that border. The numbers are 
staggering. We are not ready for this.
  Last week, my Tennessee colleague Senator Hagerty and I reintroduced 
the Stop Fentanyl Border Crossing Act, which would preserve the 
continued use of title 42 authority to remove illegal border-crossers 
and interrupt drug smuggling operations along the border.
  The SAVE Girls Act, which is a bipartisan bill I introduced with 
Senator Klobuchar last month, has a similar goal of thwarting human 
trafficking operations.
  Here is another stat for you. These are not my numbers; these are the 
administration's numbers. The State Department estimates that between 
14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States every 
year. Most of these people that are trafficked across that southern 
border--that is what we are talking about here, that is the universe--
and they are looking at between 14,500 and 17,500. Most of them are 
women. And it is upsetting to realize that 90 percent--90 percent--of 
these women and girls become the victims of sexual exploitation.
  The SAVE Girls Act would authorize an additional $50 million in grant 
funding to prevent the trafficking of women and girls and protect 
children who have been smuggled across this border. Why are we doing 
this? Because it is our local law enforcement--they are the ones who 
are on the front lines in this. They are the ones who are conducting 
rescues and pulling these women and girls away from these traffickers, 
away from these pimps, that are rescuing them and getting them to 
safety.

  We all know that no bill, no matter how effective, can stop these 
criminal enterprises entirely, just as no amount of policing or 
community support can eliminate local crime.
  Still, our police departments are in trouble. Tennessee is no 
exception. In April of last year, the Knoxville Police Department was 
10 percent understaffed.
  As of last December, the Nashville Police Department was 193 officers 
short. Morale is a problem, but so is a lack of funding and resources.
  So in March, Senator Ossoff and I introduced the bipartisan Filling 
Public Safety Vacancies Act, to provide a one-time emergency boost in 
funding to help departments hire officers and sheriff's deputies.
  The bill conditions this funding on the implementation of new vetting 
procedures not currently required by Federal law. I have also 
introduced a series of bills that would protect schools from becoming 
key targets for criminals.
  The SAFE Schools Act would establish a $900 million grant program to 
train and hire safety officers and to increase physical security at our 
schools.
  The bipartisan Enhancing K-12 Cybersecurity Act would provide 
resources and information to schools that will help prevent cyber 
attacks and establish a better system for tracking cyber attacks 
nationally.
  I want to emphasize again that many of these bills are bipartisan. We 
could pass them this week, and they would each make a difference right 
away in places like the State of Tennessee. There are things that our 
citizens want to see done.
  There is no good reason to delay these bills. They would help to make 
our communities safer. It would be another tool in the toolbox for our 
local elected officials and citizens who want to see our schools and 
our community safer, who want our law enforcement agencies to be able 
to hire and train more police. They would be pro-law enforcement, pro-
safety, pro-security principals.
  This administration's refusal to govern and their neglect of our most 
basic institutions has left Tennesseans really unsettled. They worked 
so hard to build what they have, and they cannot believe that they are 
looking at an administration that would seek to tear it down. They are 
frightened of how quickly things have become so out of control.
  They deserve better than an uncertain future controlled by a 
President who is asleep at the wheel and a Congress that refuses to put 
politics aside and work in the best interest of the American people.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Hirono). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. TESTER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.