[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 206 (Thursday, December 14, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H6975-H6978]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CRISIS AT THE BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 9, 2023, the Chair recognizes the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. 
Ciscomani) for 30 minutes.


                             General Leave

  Mr. CISCOMANI. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Arizona?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. CISCOMANI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address something that I 
keep hearing from my constituents, and quite frankly, is the top issue 
on people's minds all across the entire country: The situation at the 
border.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have several Members join me for this 
Special Order hour to speak about this issue.
  Mr. Speaker, whatever angle you look at this, this is something that 
is considered a crisis.
  Whether you are looking at the national security implications; 
whether you are looking at the lack of order at the actual border; 
whether you are looking at what our agents in our offices are going 
through; whether you look at the disrespect for the rule of law and the 
abuse in the asylum system; whether you look also at the humanitarian 
crisis and what women and children are going through as they are 
getting trafficked--as we all know, the report of missing children 
within the care of the State, over 85,000--there is no upside to this 
crisis. There doesn't seem to be a turnaround of this situation either.
  Mr. Speaker, I will be addressing my colleagues in the House today 
quite extensively about this issue because it is, again, something that 
has been top of mind for us.
  It is not a new subject. It is not a new issue. It is something that 
we have seen continue to get worse and worse as the months and the 
weeks, and actually the years, have gone by. This administration has 
lost complete control, if at any point they had any, of the border.
  This wasn't the case just 2\1/2\, 3 years ago. So when we talk about 
the policies that can actually work, we are not talking about in 
theory. We are not imagining that this could work. We actually can 
point to successes that we had as a country in controlling the 
situation at the border.
  Now, I will be talking about this in a little bit as well, but I am 
an immigrant myself. I have gone through the process, and I will be 
digging a little deeper on that. I can tell you, having gone through 
this process, I understand how broke the system is and how much 
improvement it needs in a lot of areas.
  However, abusing the system the way it has been abused is not good 
for anyone. It is not good for our country, not good for the order of 
our country, and not good for the migrants themselves either.
  It is also not good for those that have been waiting in line to have 
their turn at this shot of the American Dream that I have enjoyed. I 
want many others to do so as well, as they follow the system that we 
have put in place that--I will repeat--needs fixing and improving.
  However, the numbers that we are seeing at the border, the data on 
the crime and the crossings, are unprecedented, as the chief of the 
Tucson sector, which is now the busiest sector in terms of encounters 
in the entire country, described it not too long ago.
  He said: Before I called it unprecedented. Now I don't have an 
adjective to describe what the situation is now.
  Mr. Speaker, just about 10 days ago when the week closed, it was 
reported that 17,500 encounters had happened in the Tucson sector 
alone. Before a couple thousand a week was an alarming number, and even 
borderline crisis, now we are looking at 3,000 or so a day on some 
days.
  These are unsustainable numbers, and it is not trending in the right 
direction.
  Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to have some of my colleagues join me in 
addressing this topic on today's Special Order.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Rutherford), 
a former sheriff that has experience in battling crime and fighting for 
law and order.
  Mr. RUTHERFORD. Mr. Speaker, I thank my good friend from Arizona for 
yielding.
  As very well stated, Mr. Speaker, a little over 2\1/2\ years ago, the 
Republicans in this body were talking about a crisis at the southern 
border. The illegal immigrants that were pouring into this country had 
created a crisis.
  Finally now, 3 years later almost, the Democrats across the aisle 
finally want to admit that there is a crisis, but they blame it on 
funding. We need more funding.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, I am here to tell you, it is not a funding issue, 
it is a policy issue. We need to change our policy.
  In May, House Republicans passed H.R. 2, the Secure the Border Act. 
In 2023, we passed that bill. This robust border bill will require the 
Biden administration to complete the Trump-era border wall, increase 
the number of Border Patrol agents, reinstate the remain in Mexico 
policy, and remove all the incentives that are encouraging people to 
cross our border illegally.
  Senator Schumer must bring H.R. 2 to the Senate floor for a vote. We 
need them to do their job over in the Senate. We need relief from this 
crisis.
  Mr. Speaker, for the last 7\1/2\ months, that bill has been sitting, 
languishing in the Senate, with Democrats refusing to even negotiate 
the issues.
  It is very clear now, 7 months after House Republicans passed that 
bill, that now the Democrats own the border crisis and the Democrats 
own the national disasters that will flow from this crisis.
  In 7 months' time, over 1 million illegal immigrants have been 
encountered at our southern border. Make no mistake, the United States 
has been and will continue to be a nation of immigrants that welcomes 
people from around this world who love this land.
  I have seen firsthand the death, destruction, disorder, and diseases 
that have been brought into our communities by the unvetted migration 
coming over our porous southern border.
  Mr. Speaker, 2 years ago, a 24-year-old man, who HHS left 
unidentified, posed as a minor, was flown to my district, where he 
killed one of my constituents.
  The Democrats own that. He was not the first criminal to enter as a 
criminal, and he won't be the last.

                              {time}  1300

  Even the leaders in New York, California, and other blue States are 
calling out for support as they deal with the influx of migrants into 
their cities. The Democrats own that.
  Among the 2.4 million people that CBP encountered in FY 2023, 15,000 
of them had criminal records, and 169 of them were on the terrorist 
watch list. Again, these are just the ones that we know about. The 
Democrats own that.
  This humanitarian national crisis has stretched our immigration 
system to a breaking point. A nation without borders is not a nation.
  Every day that President Biden and Senator Schumer ignore this 
crisis, our country becomes less safe. While the Senate has refused to 
negotiate and accept the major tenets of H.R. 2, CBP has intercepted 
8,400 pounds of fentanyl at the southwest border.
  The fentanyl pouring in over this border is killing our neighbors, 
friends, and families at an alarming rate. In just 2022, over 70,000 
people died of fentanyl poisoning. The Democrats own that, too.
  If we can't prove who is coming across the border, the default 
policy, according to Secretary Mayorkas, is to let them in. Don't know 
who they are, but come on in. That has to stop. The Democrats own that, 
too.
  I implore Senator Schumer to bring H.R. 2 to the floor for a vote. 
The Democrats own this border crisis and the death and destruction it 
has and will cause in our country. The Democrats own that, too.
  Mr. CISCOMANI. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate my friend being here and 
speaking so passionately and also from experience on this, both 
personally and professionally, as we just heard.
  This is exactly what the issue here is. It is the need for 
partnership and bipartisanship on this issue. This is not a

[[Page H6976]]

partisan issue. I think that we can all see that. Some have tried to 
make it a partisan issue, and it is really not.
  What Mr. Rutherford just explained is exactly the nature of the 
problem. Both sides should be equally concerned about this issue, both 
sides of the aisle.
  I know that is for sure the case at home. At home, you don't see 
partisan division around this issue. I hear from mayors that are 
Democrats and mayors that are Republicans. I hear from county 
supervisors that are Republicans and county supervisors that are 
Democrats. They are both equally concerned with the situation because 
we are dealing with it on the ground.
  That is exactly why, in my district in Arizona's Sixth Congressional 
District, we get it. We know what the solutions are. That is an 
enforcement of the current laws, and as was described, the measures in 
H.R. 2 that need to be adopted.
  These are the kind of policy changes that we need. It is not just all 
about resources. Resources are definitely a part of the solution, but 
resources without the proper policy changes and the proper policy 
enforcement will be an incomplete solution to the problem.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao).
  Mr. VALADAO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona for 
yielding.
  What we are seeing at our southern border is a humanitarian and 
national security crisis. Earlier this year, I was at the border with 
my colleague from Arizona to see the situation on the ground firsthand.
  Our Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed by the surge of migrants 
from around the world, and we need to give them more support.
  Unfortunately, the Biden administration has sent a clear message that 
our southern border is open for business for drug smuggling and human 
trafficking. The flow of illegal drugs, guns, and human traffickers has 
a direct impact on the people from the Central Valley.
  I just held a teletownhall this week, and one of the issues that came 
up the most was the situation at our border and concerns with fentanyl.
  We must take action to combat the loss of life from illegal drugs, 
like fentanyl, which are flowing across our open border at an alarming 
rate. The House has passed legislation this year to increase the number 
of Border Patrol agents, deploy new drone and surveillance 
technologies, and restore construction of the border wall. These are 
commonsense measures that would go a long way to ensure our Border 
Patrol agents have the tools they need to deal with the crisis.
  For too long, extremes on both sides of the aisle have discouraged 
real and meaningful discussion regarding border security and 
immigration reform. We need to secure the border and make reforms to 
our broken immigration system. We won't be able to make these reforms 
or find compromise with the current humanitarian and national security 
crisis we have at the border today.
  I will continue working with my colleagues to find common ground for 
reforming our broken immigration system and to secure our border.
  Mr. CISCOMANI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Valadao for his 
words.
  Obviously, California is a border State as well, but we heard from 
Florida and Arizona. This is a top issue. As I was mentioning at the 
beginning of my remarks, this is the number one issue of our 
constituents and it should be. This is something that is impacting us 
every day, and it is something that has been getting worse and worse.
  It is not just in my district. My district, the Sixth Congressional 
District, is a border district, and we know that is obviously impacted. 
There are other border areas, even outside of my district, where 
migrants are being released on a daily basis, up in the hundreds. This 
is something that alarms the community and is something that needs to 
be fixed.
  Let's understand something. Arizona, like Texas and California, have 
clearly experienced living and breathing and existing and collaborating 
and prospering with our neighbors to the south. This is something that 
is part of our culture, part of who we are.
  Although the border has never been perfect, and no one is claiming 
that it has been, it has never been as open as it is today and has 
never been described as a crisis at the level that it is now.

  That is why it is concerning to all of us living there, because we 
have seen it deteriorate and get worse by the day. In the last 2 years, 
we have seen examples of records broken that we never thought would be 
broken in terms of apprehensions and also the amount of drugs coming 
in, specifically through our ports of entry.
  When the Biden administration has gotten involved, like they did 
about 10 days ago, it was to close a port of entry. Well, the results 
of closing that port of entry have been nonpositive ones, given that 
the legal traffic has stopped while the illegal traffic continues to 
not only happen but increase while people are no longer able to cross 
for legal purposes. That is a problem, and that is another sign of the 
administration missing the mark on this.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs), my 
colleague and neighbor up north, someone who has been fighting for 
these issues longer than most, even in Arizona, in public office.
  Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I 
appreciate him holding this Special Order to discuss this most 
existential of issues.
  Talk about nihilism for a second. Nihilism is where you actually are 
fostering programs and activities to ensure your demise. I can tell 
you, what is happening on the border is unbelievable.
  When my colleague, Mr. Ciscomani, starts talking about Lukeville, he 
is talking about the Lukeville port of entry. Thirty-five people live 
in Lukeville. This is a port of entry people from Phoenix and southern 
Arizona use to transport down to Rocky Point on the Sea of Cortez and 
vice versa and our friends from Mexico come up and go shopping in 
Arizona. It is a very synergistic type of relationship.
  What happened, more than 10 days ago, that resulted in the closure 10 
days ago of that port of entry, is that there were so many illegal 
aliens coming there and entering our country that the Border Patrol 
couldn't process them. We couldn't keep enough people there to process 
legal traffic and deal with the influx of over 1,000 a day. Wow. Now, 
we have that port of entry closed, and you still have 1,000 to 1,600 
people a day coming there from all over the world.
  That is one of the distinctions from my friends in Texas. Eagle Pass, 
which is also being inundated right now in the Del Rio sector, most of 
those folks coming across there speak Spanish, because they are coming 
from Central American and South American states.
  What happens is, when you have these people coming in from Mali, 
Mauritania, Madagascar, West Africa, Somalia, Syria, or the Middle 
Eastern countries that are coming through Lukeville, we don't even have 
translators for them. Our port agents down there can't even communicate 
with these folks.
  That is just one port of entry. I am going to give you one more 
example. Yuma is a town of about 80,000, 85,000 people, sits right on 
the border across from San Luis, Mexico. They have got one hospital in 
Yuma.
  By the way, what is Yuma? You need to understand what it is. Almost 
every piece of lettuce that you eat, or other green leafy vegetable, in 
the wintertime, for about 6 months out of the year, comes from Yuma, 
Arizona. It is an agricultural community. They work well together. 
During planting and harvesting, 7,000 to 10,000, sometimes 12,000, 
people a day come across legally to help the farmers in Yuma.
  What happens now? What happens now is if you are a lady and you are 
going to give birth to a baby, many times you can't even get into the 
maternity ward at the Yuma Regional hospital. Why is that? Because of 
the influx of people from across the border, who are in the country 
illegally, and the women are going to have babies right there at Yuma 
Regional. Every maternity bed is taken up with someone who doesn't live 
in this country. Where do they go? They drive 3 to 3\1/2\ hours up to 
Phoenix or 3 to 3\1/2\ hours over to San Diego.
  We have known people who have had heart attacks and other really 
serious emergencies who could not even get into the emergency room in 
Yuma. They had to be transported by helicopter, Air Evac, up to 
Phoenix.

[[Page H6977]]

  Why is that? Because we are inundated at the southern border. This is 
a crisis of our own making. Not ours, but this administration's making.
  People say to me: Why do they do this? It is inexplicable. It is not 
incompetence. Surely, if you are incompetent, at some point you would 
say: Hey, almost 10 million illegal aliens in the country in 3 years, 
we have got a problem; we probably ought to change our policies.
  They don't want to change their policies. They do not want to enforce 
the law. There are laws on the books that would help slow this down 
immediately, if they would enforce them. You know what the first one 
would be? You actually take the 1.5 million people who are in this 
country illegally, who have received due process and have removal 
orders to leave the country but who refuse to leave the country, you 
would actually find those people and remove them.

  You know what happens when you are removing people? Then folks say it 
is probably not worth spending every dime that I have, every dime my 
family has, getting in debt to the cartels, and going across all of 
that hardship to get into the country. That is what they would say. How 
do we know that works? Because when President Trump said we are going 
to start removing people by their orders, it slowed it down.
  By the way, let's go back to Yuma for a second, Yuma, Arizona, where 
I was talking about the hospital. During President Trump's last year, 
the entire year, 8,600 people who were illegally entering the country 
were apprehended in the Yuma sector. It is like 120 miles long. They do 
that in a week now. That is about a week's worth of illegal aliens 
crossing. Trump had that for an entire year. You couldn't do that by 
accident or incompetence. It almost has to be by design.
  How do you stop it? You start enforcing the law. How do you get this 
administration to enforce the law? You tell them we are going to fund 
only certain aspects of the government, like the military, like the 
border patrol, like ICE, like air traffic controllers, and like the 
TSA. Let's make sure the country is safe, but we are not going to give 
Mr. Biden any more money than that.
  For all of the bureaucracy and the crazy programs that he has out 
there--by the way, they churn out 40,000 pages of laws on a regular 
basis from those bureaucracies--we are going to slow that down until 
they do something with measurable metrics that shows us that they are 
actually bringing down the number of illegal border crossings and bring 
it under control. That is how you settle this.

                              {time}  1315

  We have to settle this. It is going to change this country.
  We can talk more about fentanyl. When my colleagues across the aisle 
say that 95 percent of fentanyl is seized at the ports of entry, why do 
you suppose that is? It is because, at the ports of entry, you actually 
have people waiting there, investigating and inspecting vehicles and 
individuals crossing. There are machines where they can look into a 
truck and see what is in there. They can see if there is something 
disorderly in there and then inspect it.
  Between the ports of entry is where we know that 1.75 million people 
have come across during the Biden administration. They are wearing camo 
and carpet shoes so they won't be detected. Our BuckEye cameras and 
field cameras pick them up, but we just can't get to them.
  Where Mr. Ciscomani and I live in the Tucson sector, the terrain is 
so rough and rugged that we might see somebody there, but it will take 
you 2\1/2\ to 3 hours to get your vehicle there, get out of your 
vehicle, and hike to where they are.
  They will then pop up south of Phoenix. They will go through the 
Tohono O'odham Reservation. They will pop up through Pinal County. When 
they come out, they are 40 miles, as the crow flies, from Phoenix, 
which is a major hub for transporting illegal drugs and human 
trafficking. That is what is going on between the ports of entry.
  Every hearing that we have held in the last 3 years where this has 
been brought up, the Democrats have said we interdict 95 percent of 
that at the ports of entry. No. You interdict 95 percent of the overall 
interdiction at the ports of entry, but you don't know what you are not 
interdicting.
  What we do know is that 1.97 million people carrying backpacks come 
into our country. What is in those backpacks? It used to be bales of 
marijuana. It isn't bales of marijuana now. It is small backpacks to 
bring in fentanyl pills. That is what is going on.
  I beg this administration to wake up. I beg my colleagues to join us. 
Let's entice this administration to do what is right and enforce our 
border laws.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for having this Special Order 
today. Let's join hands and defeat this wide-open border that is 
forever going to adjust our country.
  Mr. CISCOMANI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Biggs for his words and his 
work on this.
  As we close today's session, I will reemphasize something that I said 
at the beginning. This crisis, as much as we talk about this, and it is 
absolutely true on the national security side, on the risk, and all the 
issues that I mentioned, I absolutely believe that the Biden 
administration has utterly failed. We square up the responsibility for 
failing at the border on the President and his team, for sure.
  This is also something that is a humanitarian crisis. We have 
children who are being trafficked. In a lot of cases, as described, 
they are recycled through when they cross. They get sent back and then 
keep getting recycled through.
  They are abusing the laws that protect adults and treat them 
differently when they are carrying with them children, minors, 
specifically tender age children, which would be 12 and under.
  These issues are real. The New York Times published a story where 
they reported that there were over 85,000 minors missing in our country 
who had been smuggled into the United States. There was no way to track 
them. The Federal Government had lost track of them.
  Mr. Speaker, I am a dad of six. I am an immigrant myself. When I look 
at that, it angers me. As a father, it angers me. As an immigrant, it 
angers me. There is no reason that our government should have lost 
track of these children. This crisis affects kids and women and 
everyone being trafficked, as well.
  Mr. Speaker, I will take this opportunity to thank our Border Patrol 
agents who have continually put their lives on the line--the different 
organizations and, obviously, the rank and file, those men and women 
who are on the front line, the officers and everyone involved in this 
job. It is a thankless job.
  They are seeing the worst impact ever with the least support that 
they have ever had. We need to make sure that we have their backs. I 
want them to know that we have their backs.
  One of the last things that I want to say is that this is not going 
to be a complaining session. This is not a session where we highlight 
and add light to the failures of the administration and complain about 
that. That is something that we need to be stronger on and to voice.
  I have been offering solutions. We have been offering solutions. We 
have been writing letters to the Secretary, demanding answers for the 
closure of the port of entry, working on a bipartisan basis, and 
calling the National Guard to the border so they can be activated by 
this administration. We have also offered different bills that would 
address the criminal aspect of what is happening at the border.
  I believe we need to secure our border now. The time is now to do 
that. I also agree that immigration reform is needed. Asylum process 
updating is needed, as well. All this can be done and should be done. 
This should be the number one priority that we have.
  Mr. Speaker, I am committed to making that happen in my time here in 
Congress. In my first year, this continues to be my issue.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for listening. I thank my 
colleagues for participating. I thank my colleagues for a partnership 
to protect the border, protect our communities, and make sure that 
everyone has a shot at the American Dream, the way that our system has 
been created for people to do so.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

[[Page H6978]]

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks 
to the Chair.

                          ____________________