[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 197 (Thursday, November 30, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5683-S5684]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. President, now, on another matter, a good way to size up leaders 
at home and abroad is to look at how they treat borders.
  Good leaders recognize sovereignty as the bedrock of national 
security. As a result, peaceful nations both respect the inviolability 
of other nations' borders as well as vigorously defend their own.
  The world is awash in examples of this fundamental reality. Putin has 
spent years trampling the sovereignty of his European neighbors. But 
the people of Ukraine are enduring occupation and torture and giving 
their lives to restore their homeland's lawful borders.
  Iran's network of proxies violates the sovereignty of Israel and its 
Arab neighbors with horrific terrorist bloodlust. But the people of 
Israel respond with unwavering resolve to restore security.
  President Xi is pouring unprecedented investments into Chinese 
military power with the express purpose of shattering a sovereign 
democracy and undermining regional order, but Taiwan and America's 
other Asian partners are steeling themselves to deter aggression.
  The United States has a direct interest in helping our friends 
maintain their sovereignty--from Europe to the Middle East and the 
Indo-Pacific. According to a survey published just today by the Reagan 
Institute, that is exactly how overwhelming majorities in this country 
see it.
  By this latest account, 65 percent of Americans support U.S. 
assistance to Taiwan, 67 percent support assistance to Ukraine, and 71 
percent support assistance to Israel. In other words, a full two-thirds 
of the country recognizes the scope of America's interests and 
responsibilities as a global superpower.
  At the same time, vast majorities continue to affirm that national 
security begins at home. Recent polling shows that even a majority of 
Democrats say that they are at least very concerned about the state of 
American border security on President Biden's watch.
  Over 9,000 illegal aliens arrive at our Nation's southern border 
every day. And thanks to a profoundly broken system of asylum and 
parole, they know that the vast majority will be waved on through to 
settle in the interior. The consequences of this crisis touch every 
corner of our country. The overwhelming task facing Border Patrol 
personnel is drawing Federal law enforcement personnel off of other 
important missions to help contend with the surging arrivals at ports 
of entry.
  As the senior Senator from Missouri revealed yesterday, some officers 
charged with protecting Federal buildings are being sent instead to 
ferry illegal aliens to and from the hospital. The vast stretches of 
border in between are seeing massive flows of lethal drugs like 
fentanyl on their way to poisoning Americans in States across the 
interior.
  Across the country, even progressive mayors of self-described 
``sanctuary cities'' are at wit's end contending with the human wave 
heading north.
  The Biden administration's failure to secure our southern border is 
an embarrassing and dangerous policy failure. Here in the Senate, 
Democrats are making an embarrassing misjudgment of their own. The 
Democratic leader would like us to believe that the defense of 
sovereign borders is an urgent and noble cause when it takes place 
overseas but an ``extraneous'' distraction here at home. Some of our 
colleagues apparently think America can profess to stand for the rule 
of law without enforcing it on our own soil.

  The Senate has 2 weeks--2 weeks--to pass supplemental legislation to 
meet urgent national security priorities. That means time is running 
out for our Democratic colleagues to recognize that national security 
begins here at home.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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