[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 4 (Tuesday, January 9, 2024)]
[House]
[Page H8]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1915
                            SOUTHERN BORDER

  (Mr. GROTHMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, during the last few weeks when we were 
back in our district, I had time, along with about 50 other 
Congressmen, to visit the Eagle Pass entryway at our southern border. 
From what I saw down there, that should be the number one issue this 
body tackles in January. It is more important than even our annual 
budget.
  We saw a room in which 300 unaccompanied minors were at one time 
without either parent being allowed in the country. We heard guards 
talk about what it was like to work in December. We believe when the 
final numbers came out, over 300,000 people came here from other 
countries and crossed our southern border. Remember, Mr. Speaker, it 
wasn't that long ago--3 years ago--that that number was more like 
10,000. So we have gone from 10,000 to 300,000.
  I watched and as I heard in this, which is one of only nine sectors 
down there, in the last 33 days prior to that, people came here from 61 
different countries. We have the whole world coming here as the Mexican 
drug cartels charge people $5,000, $10,000, and $12,000. I heard of 
somebody being charged $70,000 to come here from India.
  Mr. Speaker, Congress needs to wake up. The President needs to bring 
that number back down to 5,000 or 6,000 from the 300,000 he is letting 
into America today.

                          ____________________