[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 4 (Tuesday, January 9, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S37-S42]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Unanimous Consent Request--S. Res. 169
Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, my colleagues and I stand here today to
demand accountability on behalf of the American people for the worst
border crisis we have ever seen.
For the past 3 years, Americans have witnessed the negligence and
gross mismanagement at our southern border unfold, each day worse than
the day before. The consequences of this crisis have been fatal,
killing 300 Americans a day, 300,000 Americans over the last 3 years
due to drugs trafficked into our homeland. It has been costly, putting
an undue burden on American taxpayers to the tune of $500 billion per
year. It is becoming more dangerous by the day as terrorists, Chinese
nationalists, and over 1.7 million ``got-aways'' exploit our border at
a rate higher than we have ever seen before.
The Biden administration has for all practical purposes erased our
southern border and embraced a structure of complete lawlessness,
letting our national security hang in the balance.
[[Page S38]]
Enough is enough. Americans deserve better.
I think everyone understands that when you are running a business,
you look at the numbers, you look at the goals, and when those aren't
being met, you find the problem and you address it, which brings me to
why my colleagues and I are here today.
I rise today in support of a resolution expressing the sense of the
Senate that the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, Alejandro
Mayorkas, no longer holds the confidence of the Senate and, more
importantly, the confidence of the American people to carry out the
duties of his office faithfully.
Secretary Mayorkas is derelict in his duty and has failed to uphold
his oath. Over the past 3 years, Secretary Mayorkas has refused to
enforce immigration law as passed by Congress, fueling the invasion at
our border. He ended effective border policies like catch and release,
``Remain in Mexico,'' title 42, and exploited parole and asylum
loopholes that have allowed over 6 million migrants to live in the
interior of our country without being vetted and with a court date
nearly a decade away.
With over 10 million illegal migrants entering our country under this
administration's watch, not to mention the 1.7 million known ``got-
aways,'' the crisis at our border is dire. Yet Mayorkas continues to
lie to the American people and even under oath to Congress when he said
he has operational control of our borders.
Defined in the Secure Fence Act of 2006, ``operational control''
clearly means the prevention of all unlawful entries into the United
States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens,
instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband. That is the
Secure Fence Act of 2006. To claim that he has any control, better yet
operational control as required by law, is not only disingenuous and
insulting to the American people, who are concerned for their safety
and security, it is also illegal. That is why Congress must step in and
do the job that Joe Biden will not.
Secretary Mayorkas has no control of the border. How can you when,
again, you have fentanyl poisoning killing 300,000 Americans on his
watch? We have had 33 months of more than 150,000 illegal border
crossings and 19 months with more than 200,000 illegal border
crossings, including a new 1-month record of over 300,000 this past
December--a month that historically sees a decreased number of
crossers. According to his own DHS, they have admitted they have no way
to determine if these individuals have a criminal history.
Sadly, the story that isn't being told enough is that right now,
Secretary Mayorkas has misplaced approximately 100,000 migrant children
here in our country.
I am honored, I am proud that so many of my colleagues could join me
here today as we outline the many reasons why there is no time to waste
when it comes to firing Secretary Mayorkas.
Next, I would like to recognize the Senator from the great State of
Missouri.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Missouri.
Mr. SCHMITT. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you, Senator.
Secretary Mayorkas has utterly failed to secure the border, and we
are less safe because of it. Every State is now a border State, and
crime and deadly drugs are flowing into our communities. There is a
humanitarian crisis at the border, there is a fentanyl crisis at the
border, there is a national security crisis at the border, all because
Secretary Mayorkas has refused to enforce the law, refused to build a
border wall, and has abused the parole process illegally.
I am joining my colleagues on the floor today to express the very
sincere sense of the Senate that Secretary of Homeland Security
Mayorkas does not have the confidence of the Senate and, more
importantly, does not have the confidence of the American people to
faithfully carry out his duties.
I am sure we have all heard the statistics, but I will reiterate a
few just to illustrate how horrible the situation is right now at our
southern border.
Since Joe Biden took office, there have been over 7.5 million
encounters nationwide and 6.2 million encounters at the southern
border, in addition to 1.7 million ``got-aways.'' To put that in
perspective, and it is hard to put those numbers in perspective--I am a
St. Louis Cardinals fan--that is 160 Busch Stadiums. So for the folks
who watched the national championship game last night, with a capacity
of over 70,000, that is 116 of those stadiums.
In fiscal year 2023, 169 individuals whose names appear on the
Terrorist Watchlist were stopped trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border
ports of entry.
In fiscal year 2023, CBP arrested over 35,000 aliens with criminal
convictions or outstanding warrants nationwide, including 598 known
gang members, 178 of those being MS-13 members. Those are the people we
know of.
In fiscal year 2023, the air and marine operations seized over 27,000
pounds of fentanyl coming across the southern border, enough to kill
more than 6 billion--billion--people.
What gets lost in the numbers, however, is that Mayorkas hasn't just
presided over the worst crisis at our southern border in our history,
he is directly responsible for it.
First, Secretary Mayorkas has refused to enforce real immigration
laws, the ones that we have right now--not proposed language, the stuff
that we have right now. He rescinded the migrant protection protocols,
``Remain in Mexico,'' which would require illegal immigrants to wait
out their asylum claims in Mexico.
This policy was working. When I was attorney general--my previous
job--we took the Biden administration to court over this, and we won,
just to keep that policy in place. It was a temporary injunction. We
sued the administration, obtained that injunction to reinstate the
program, which was upheld at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the
U.S. Supreme Court. But because of the lawlessness of this
administration, we actually had to go back to the district court to
force them to abide by the law they were ordered to abide by.
Two, Secretary Mayorkas has similarly refused to build the border
wall. Again, I sued the Biden administration and Mayorkas to force them
to build the wall, as the money had already been appropriated for that
purpose. While that case was still pending at the district court level,
Secretary Mayorkas and the Biden administration refused to do it and at
the same time were selling the very materials to build that wall that
were already bought. This should tell you all you need to know about
how seriously they take the crisis and about their willingness to
follow the law.
Secretary Mayorkas and Joe Biden have illegally paroled thousands of
illegal immigrants into the interior of the United States. Parole
authority requires that the Federal Government give immigrants parole
on a case-by-case basis, but Secretary Mayorkas and this President have
mass-paroled thousands and thousands of illegal immigrants in groups
from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Nicaragua. That is illegal. Right
now--existing law--to do that is illegal, but they don't care. They
would rather break the law than enforce it.
While Secretary Mayorkas is refusing to enforce the law and build the
wall, he is outright lying to Congress in the process and thumbing his
nose at those who would dare to suggest there is actually a crisis at
the southern border.
In an April 2022 House Judiciary Committee hearing, Secretary
Mayorkas testified that the country had operational control of the
border. That is a lie.
In November of 2022, in a House Homeland Security hearing, Secretary
Mayorkas testified that the border is secure. That is a lie.
Secretary Mayorkas's record as DHS Secretary has been shameful. In
his refusal to build a wall despite being directed to do so and enforce
the law of the land, he alone, in his duty, where he had the
responsibility to do so, has created a crisis at the southern border
and proves he is not fit for the job he currently has.
He has been derelict in his duty to secure our southern border and to
protect our citizens--the people we represent, the people in this
country--and has completely lost the faith of the U.S. Senate and the
American people.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Markey). The Senator from Florida.
Mr. SCOTT of Florida. Mr. President, I am sick and tired of Joe Biden
and
[[Page S39]]
his administration pointing fingers at everyone but themselves for the
crisis they created, and so are the American people.
I visited the border five times and have seen it for myself. The
crisis at our border is a direct cause of Biden's dangerous and
intentional policies. I have heard it from our Border Patrol agents.
They are overwhelmed, and Biden has clearly abandoned them. It is
sickening.
President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas swore an oath to uphold the
law and protect our homeland. That means securing our border. Do they
do any of that? Absolutely not. That is a fact, and anyone who says it
is not true is lying to you.
People whom we don't know, including a shocking number of single,
military-age men from all over the world, are illegally crossing the
border. Countless amounts of drugs are being smuggled into our country
and killing Americans. And the administration says the border is
secure. It is pathetic. Think about that. Possible terrorists,
murderers, and deadly drugs are coming to our country every single day
while the President of the United States and the Secretary of Homeland
Security tell us the border is secure. Have they lost their minds? Do
they think the American people are dumb and don't see it on their local
news each and every day?
I am from an immigration state. Florida is a beautiful melting pot
with people and cultures from all over the world. We love legal
immigration. What we don't want is an insecure and unsecure border that
allows criminals, drugs, and dangerous individuals to come into our
country unchecked.
More than 8 million migrants have been encountered nationwide under
Joe Biden's watch--more than 8 million. Joe Biden lets them in, and
then we have no idea where they are.
Secretary Mayorkas is a pawn in Joe Biden's illegal immigration
agenda, but he is just as guilty because he has not done his job, and
he is doing it at the express direction of President Biden.
Millions of people are illegally crossing our border unvetted and
with no information provided to State and local officials about who is
entering their cities and States. They don't tell Governors, they don't
tell law enforcement, they don't tell mayors where they are sending all
these migrants.
When you see leaders like Texas Governor Greg Abbott doing what it
takes to stop illegal immigration in his State, the Biden
administration sues to stop him from enforcing the law. You can't make
this stuff up.
Secretary Mayorkas has abolished border security and interior
enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security, but he has replaced
it. He has replaced it with the largest illegal alien resettlement
program in the history of our country. It is purposeful. It is
intentional. This is what the Biden administration and Democrats want.
We are dealing with a lawless--a lawless--administration that is
empowered by the Members of their party in the House and the Senate to
continue the carnage.
Fentanyl is killing more than 70,000 Americans a year. But until the
border is secure, this battle is not going to stop; it is going to
continue. That is 70,000--70,000--families being torn apart because our
border is not secure. Why would anybody do this?
Our priority must be protecting American families. We have all had
enough. It is time for Biden to ditch his failed policies of open
borders and amnesty and secure the border now. It is also time for
Secretary Mayorkas to be impeached and removed from office, and I think
Joe Biden needs to be held accountable too. I am working on that, and
we will have more to say on that soon.
I don't have any confidence in Secretary Mayorkas to carry out his
duties as Secretary of Homeland Security and to protect our borders.
That is why I joined this Senate resolution with many of my fellow
colleagues, and I want to thank the Senator from Kansas for starting
this. We cannot allow this lawless administration to keep doing this
without consequences. The American people deserve better.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah.
Mr. LEE. Mr. President, I come to the floor to talk about the fitness
for office of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. My remarks are not directed
at Mr. Mayorkas's character--I don't know him other than in the context
of the Secretary of Homeland Security--nor do I direct my comments
toward any other aspect of his life: his status as a husband, father,
brother, son, neighbor, or anything else. But in this context, we have
to evaluate the job that he is doing, and Secretary Mayorkas does not
have the confidence of the U.S. Senate or those we represent to
continue to defend our border integrity and protect our country. It is
the very job he is called to do.
We have to remember that we have three branches within our Federal
Government: one that makes the law; one that enforces the laws, or is
supposed to; and a third that interprets them where people disagree as
to the law's meaning.
His role is narrowly focused on interpreting a narrow category of
laws, including and especially those designed to protect our border
security. He has simply refused to enforce the laws he is charged with
administering.
Under his watch, we have had at least 8 million people come into this
country illegally. Over 8 million unauthorized individuals are among
those who we know came in unlawfully, and the numbers keep going up. We
have been breaking all kinds of records--the exact wrong records to
break. We broke a record just last month when we had 302,000 encounters
with illegal immigrants just in December alone. Those are just the ones
whom we saw, whom we are aware of. That is the highest number we have
ever seen in recorded history.
Under the watch of Secretary Mayorkas, this administration has
incentivized parents--parents across the globe--to send their young
children, their young sons and their young daughters, on a dangerous
journey to the United States, where they end up in the hands of
traffickers, where many of them end up as indentured servants and many
of them subjected to the sex trade. A substantial portion of them--a
majority of them, according to some estimates--are subjected to sexual
abuse, to rape and other atrocities. More than 430,000 unaccompanied
children have come into the United States illegally under his watch.
Now, in the meantime, he has tried to paper over those, to make
lawful entries out of those who have entered unlawfully. He has created
13 separate illegal parole programs designed to increase the flow into
the country by the hundreds of thousands, trying to make illegal
immigration look legal when it is not, using this parole authority--
parole authority that is there for a specific purpose. It is there to
serve a humanitarian or a public-need purpose, and it has always been
understood to be something that is there only on a case-by-case basis,
not categorical.
In other words, if we are aware of somebody with a
humanitarian purpose--somebody's grandmother has died and they need to
attend the funeral in the United States--they may come in for a short
period of time and then leave. If they need a certain type of medical
treatment that is available only here, they can be paroled in for a
short period of time, and then they are expected to leave.
The public purpose is also individualized. Somebody speaks an obscure
language. Somebody is on trial, and we need an interpreter who can't be
found inside this country. We bring someone in for a short period of
time, and then they leave.
It is always on an individualized basis and always on a temporary
basis. He has run afoul of those by creating at least 13 of these
illegal parole programs.
So with these kinds of numbers, how on Earth can he claim to have the
border under operational control? He can't. He can't. Yet, somehow, he
does so. To do so, he has to accept this made-up definition of
``operational control''--a definition without any connection to actual
statutory or operational requirements.
On his watch, CBP has decreased its vetting procedures--those
designed specifically to deal with people coming from China, including
military-age Chinese males, who are crossing our southern border in
unprecedented, alarming numbers.
Under his watch, we have seen a dramatic increase in known terrorists
who
[[Page S40]]
have entered through our southern border. Mr. President, 279, in fact,
have been caught at our southern border since Biden took office.
Now, by election day of 2024, we will have seen at least 10 million
illegal immigrants that will have crossed over our southern border.
Under his watch, the amount of deadly fentanyl coming into this
country has increased--increased dramatically. In fact, a report out in
October of 2023, just a couple of months ago, indicates that there were
6 billion--with a ``b''--6 billion lethal doses of fentanyl that
entered our borders across our southern boundary. That means that you
could kill three-fourths of the entire population of the world; you
could kill every American 54 times with that. This is poisoning. This
is a weaponized tool that could kill Americans and is killing Americans
in droves. This is not free. This is not a victimless crime. There are
victims littered all over the Western Hemisphere, all over the world,
but especially here in America.
Under his watch, the administration willfully ended the carefully
negotiated and very effective ``Remain in Mexico'' program put in place
by the previous administration, which required those seeking asylum,
crossing on land through our southern border, to wait in Mexico, to
await final disposition of their asylum claims during the adjudication
of those claims here in the United States. They just ended it, then
they litigated it, then they were told by a court to reinstitute it,
and then they have been drawing that out in a rope-a-dope fashion.
Under his watch, the administration has decreased willfully its
ability to detain those required by statute to be detained even though
illegal entries have increased dramatically.
A recent CBS poll found that 75 percent of Americans say that the
situation across the southern border is a crisis or at least very
serious.
The House Judiciary Committee report stated that between January 20,
2021--the day Biden took office--and March 31 of last year, the Biden
administration removed from the United States only 5,993 illegal aliens
who were placed in removal proceedings before an immigration judge
during that time.
In other words, let's think about what this means. Of the at least
2.1 million aliens released into the United States since January 20,
2021, the Biden administration has failed to remove through immigration
court removal proceedings 99.7 percent of those illegal aliens.
It is a new day. It is 2024. Secretary Mayorkas, just as he has had
all along, still has the legal authority to enforce the border, but he
still refuses to do so.
The crisis at our southern border, make no mistake, is not the
consequence of inadequate statutory text. It is not for want of
legislative authority. He has that authority, just as the previous
President did, but, unlike the previous administration, this
administration refuses willfully to enforce it. I find it ironic and
counterproductive that the U.S. Senate continues to negotiate with
Secretary Mayorkas on border security issues even as he refuses--as he
has done from the very beginning--to enforce the border, creating this
humanitarian crisis and even as he is facing, as a result of that,
impeachment proceedings in the House of Representatives even as we
speak.
We found him not to be capable of negotiating in good faith on this.
Why? Because he refuses to enforce existing law which, if he did
enforce it, would bring this crisis to an end abruptly.
The crisis at our southern border--and it is a crisis--is
unacceptable. Americans are demanding accountability. We must fire
Secretary Mayorkas.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
Mr. BRAUN. Mr. President, the laws that govern who could enter this
country are some of our most important. Those laws, from the time
President Biden got elected, have been completely ignored. And as point
person, Secretary Mayorkas has been the leading individual saying one
thing and doing another.
You have heard the statistics--8 million illegal immigrants, ``got-
aways''--not even a term a few years ago--up to around 60,000 per
month. And in that crowd, these are not people that are wanting to
greet someone at the border. They pay the big fees to the cartels. They
want to come into the country, and they are doing so with some type of
a record that they don't want to be discussing once they get here. Who
knows where that ends up.
I was down there in 2021--I think April--and it was not currently
where most of the traffic is coming from. Eagle Pass was down a little
bit east of there. And those numbers, 50 to 60,000 per month, are now
dwarfed by 200 to 300,000 monthly, plus the ``got-aways,'' again, that
come in here not wanting to greet the Border Patrol.
It is not secure. Back then, Border Patrol said their job is,
basically, triage. They are so overwhelmed.
We should, today, pass this no-confidence measure because there has
been plenty of time to adjust your policies; and when you only do it
because you are paying the political consequences that will be meted
out here next November, I don't think that counts. That means you are
doing it thinking that you can maneuver beyond it politically when you
have caused all that grief in the meantime.
The leader of the band is President Biden. He is the conductor.
Mayorkas has just been in the orchestra, but it has clearly been
orchestrated, where we are at. When you put up the welcome sign to come
into our country with no consequences, sooner or later it adds up that
there will be consequences. Even our northern border has got more
illegal crossings than we have ever had before.
Down there a couple years ago, 50 different nationalities were
crossing. Now it is up to over 150. And 170 on the Terror Watchlist
have been confronted. How many others were not?
This is a dire national security threat. Those who are ignoring the
problem for political reasons should bear that in mind. And, most
importantly, the American public should bear that in mind when they go
to the ballot box next November.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, I want to thank Senator Marshall for
the work that he has done on this resolution, and I come to the floor
today to support this resolution for a very simple reason. When you
look at the job performance of Secretary Mayorkas, you have to say: He,
indeed, has failed. He is a Secretary of Homeland Security who clearly
does not believe in securing the homeland, because the border policy
for the Biden administration which he is implementing is for an open
border.
You can see it for yourself. You can look at the news reports. People
are streaming across that open border between the ports of entry.
They are coming into this country illegally. And this administration,
this Secretary of Homeland Security, they keep trying to be creative
and find ways to make illegal legal. That is wrong.
So the Secretary has failed in his duty to secure that border. And as
he has failed in those duties, he has also failed our Border Patrol
agents. When you go to the border, as many of us have, what you hear
from Border Patrol agents, what you see on the ground, is Border Patrol
agents who are struggling to combat what is a crisis at our southern
border. And it is all because of this administration's policies.
In addition, Secretary Mayorkas has failed the communities across
this country, because they are suffering with record fentanyl
overdoses, with drug trafficking, human trafficking, sex trafficking;
and it is our local law enforcement that is having to address these
issues. The Secretary has failed them because he failed in his job, and
he has failed the American people who trusted him to go in and secure
the homeland. But, no, that is not what has happened.
So House Republicans are going to proceed with their impeachment
against the Secretary; and, hopefully, that is going to be the first
step towards ending this record of failure which is really costing the
American people greatly.
You have heard much about the numbers today. And, yes, indeed, you
have got 8.5 million illegal entrants into this country. Now, 1.7
million of those are what we call known ``got-aways.'' That means they
can see them on surveillance; they can't get to them.
[[Page S41]]
There is a category of unknown ``got-aways'' that they find after the
fact.
We do not know who is entering this country. But what we do know is:
This population of illegal entry into this country is more than the
population of 38 of our States.
There are hundreds of individuals on the Terror Watchlist who have
been caught at our southern border. They walked in illegally and tried
to claim asylum. So far this fiscal year, which began on October 1, we
have had 30--30--terrorists come to our border.
Why is it that they are doing this?
They are doing it because they think they can get away with it. They
think we are not going to do anything to them; that we are going to let
them sashay right on into this country and welcome them, give them a
plane ticket to where they want to go, give them a cell phone, give
them food, give them housing. That is what they are expecting because
of this failed border policy.
Now, sometimes you hear some of my colleagues across the aisle say:
Well, the border has been broken for years.
It hasn't been this bad. You didn't have 302,000 people in a month.
You didn't even have that in a year. You also didn't have terrorists by
the hundreds.
If you go back and look at how many terrorists tried to come to our
border between 2017 and 2020, there were 11. So far, this fiscal year,
we have had 30. You just heard my colleague give you the statistic of
279 since Joe Biden raised his hand and took the oath of office. This
is the reason that our FBI Director Christopher Wray says everywhere he
looks--not just some places, but everywhere he looks--is he seeing
peace and calm? No. He says he sees red lights flashing. Think about
that--red lights flashing.
Dozens of terrorists, hundreds of people from countries of interest,
thousands of gang members and criminals, are walking into this country.
They are not coming here for a job. They are coming here because crime
is what they know. This is the reason that Alejandro Mayorkas has
failed in his job.
Now, we talked a little bit about fentanyl. Since Joe Biden took
office, we have had 50,000 pounds of fentanyl that has come into this
country being seized at that border between the ports of entry--50,000
pounds. Fentanyl death is now the leading cause of death for Americans
between the ages 18 and 45. You know, we could do something about this
if there was the political will in Congress to do something about it.
When you look at the fact that our Federal agents tell us they think
they are only catching 5 to 10 percent of the drugs that are coming
into this country and we lost over 100,000 Americans last year to drug
overdoses--about 70 percent of that was fentanyl; some of it was
opioids--we need to do something about this. Securing that border would
go a long way.
Supporting our Border Patrol instead of blaming them, that would go a
long way.
I thank the gentleman from Kansas for bringing forward this
resolution. It is time that Alejandro Mayorkas be removed from his
position as the Secretary of Homeland Security.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kansas.
Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, I would like to thank my colleagues for
joining me tonight to help me prosecute this case against Secretary
Mayorkas.
As we introduce this historic measure, I want to close with this: You
have nothing--you have nothing--if you don't have your word. As a
physician, I took an oath to, above all else, do no harm. In the
military, I took an oath to support and defend our Constitution. In the
Senate, I reaffirmed my military oath to uphold the Constitution of the
United States. Each one of these oaths I honored with integrity and
exercised to the best of my ability.
On February 2, 2021, Secretary Mayorkas swore an oath to ``well and
faithfully discharge the duties of the office of which I am about to
enter and to protect our country from enemies, domestic and foreign.''
With that oath, he promised the American people that he would defend
our homeland and uphold our Constitution.
Tonight, my colleagues and I have outlined numerous ways Secretary
Mayorkas is derelict in his duty as Secretary and failed to uphold this
oath. We are here today because we take our oath seriously and will not
stand by idly while Secretary Mayorkas threatens our national security
and our democracy.
For the sake of America's safety and security, we need to impeach
Secretary Mayorkas now and send a clear message to Joe Biden that in
300 days, we will fire him, too.
Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent
that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be
discharged from further consideration and the Senate now proceed to S.
Res. 169; I further ask that the resolution be agreed to; that the
Marshall amendment to the preamble, which is at the desk, be agreed to;
that the preamble, as amended, be agreed to; and that the motions to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
The Senator from Delaware.
Mr. CARPER. Mr. President, in reserving the right to object, I want
to thank my colleague, who has joined me here on the floor this
evening, for his service to our country.
Like him, I was just a pup. I was 17 years old when I raised my right
hand and took an oath to defend our country and Constitution as a
midshipman in the Navy; and there were lots of midshipmen at the height
of the Vietnam war. I went on to repeat that oath, gosh, a dozen or
more times in Active Duty and in Reserve duty through the heart of the
Cold War and right up to today. I took the same oath here not too many
years ago. It is an oath I take seriously, and I know my colleagues do
as well.
I have had the opportunity to travel to the borders of our country
south of us and to any number of countries south of Mexico, all the way
down to Colombia. And I have a pretty good idea why people, especially
from that part of the world, have come here or have sought to come to
this country in enormous numbers. Among the reasons they come here is
that we are addicted to drugs--drugs that are, in many cases,
trafficked to countries to the south of us. People end up living lives
of misery because of our addiction to drugs, illegal drugs. The folks
who live down there want to live in a place where they can have their
children get an education and have access to healthcare and freedom
from crime and corruption. That is what they are interested in, and
because of our addiction to drugs, we have helped to make the situation
worse for them.
On top of that, the poverty that is facing a bunch of places down in
Central America, especially, is made worse because of drought--drought
which has been caused, as our Presiding Officer knows, because of the
reliance in this country on greenhouse gases, on creating greenhouse
gases, which have put so many other places, including countries south
of us, in harm's way.
But the challenges at our border today are the results of any number
of things: the global pandemic, increased violence, corruption,
authoritarian government rule, and on and on. These are issues that we
have sought to help address for as long as I can remember.
Under numerous Secretaries of Homeland Security and administrations
of both parties, I have had the privilege of serving on the Committee
on Homeland Security for the 22 years that I have been in this Senate.
I have had the privilege of leading the committee as chairman of the
committee for a number of years, and I have led congressional
delegations, bipartisan congressional delegations, to the areas south
of us. This illegal immigration that we are seeing in the south of our
country is unacceptable and unsustainable. And anyone who says it is
otherwise, I think, is mistaken. The question is, What do we do about
it?
I have known Ali Mayorkas for the better part of a dozen years. He is
a good and decent man with a wonderful family--a wife, children--and is
someone who deserves our thanks, not the back of our hand. None of us
are perfect; God knows I am not. And, certainly, he has made mistakes,
but if you talk to the people who are actually involved in the
negotiations, the bipartisan negotiations, they are trying to find a
solution with respect to the border as part of the supplemental
appropriations legislation. If you talk to the
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people who are involved--to the Democrats and Republicans who are
involved--and ask them about how helpful or harmful has been the
involvement of Ali Mayorkas, he has been very much involved in those
conversations. What I have heard off the record from our colleagues,
Democrats and Republicans, is that he has actually played a
constructive role and a helpful role, and I hope that he will continue
to do that.
If I had a magic wand, with one fell swoop, I would do one thing to
help address illegal immigration: I would enact full comprehensive
immigration reform. Next Monday, I will be one of the speakers at the
annual State of Delaware Chamber of Commerce dinner. It is something I
have done for, gosh, dozens of years now. But when I make customer
calls, when I visit customers on calls to businesses large and small
around our country, I always ask them three questions: How are you
doing; how are we doing--this is as to the congressional delegation
with Senator Coons, Congresswoman Blunt Rochester, and myself--how are
we doing; and what can we do to help?
Do you know what most people say and what most businesses say? Our
real challenge is just getting people to come to work. That is what I
hear from all kinds of businesses, large and small. We just need people
to come to work, people who have a work ethic and people who are
trainable and we can count on to show up every day.
There are a lot of people who like to come to this country and work.
They don't necessarily want to stay here and live here and become
citizens here. They just want to have the opportunity to provide a
better life for their folks and make a contribution to this country.
So rather than simply laying all of these problems that we have at
the border at the foot of one person--is the Secretary responsible for
some of it? Sure. So are we. One of the things that we could do is to
adopt comprehensive immigration reform, which the business community in
my State has asked us to do for years; and across the country, they
have asked us to do that for years. If we did just that one thing, that
would make a difference.
The Department of Homeland Security has a bunch of missions, some of
them more critical than others. One of those is to protect our Nation
from harm, whether the threat is a natural disaster or an act of
terror. This is a difficult mission under any circumstances, and it is
one that requires strong, principled leadership; and I think we get
that from Ali Mayorkas.
Moreover, our border has seen significant changes in demographics and
in the populations of those seeking asylum. The people coming across
our border who are trying to get into this country look a whole lot
different than in the first delegations I led down there as a U.S.
Senator, as a junior Senator in this body. It has changed a lot, and we
need to change the ways that we are trying to stem it.
I will close with this: I think most of us here--and I know my
colleague who is offering this unanimous consent request--are people of
faith. We are people of faith. We might be Democrats and Republicans,
but we are also people of faith, for the most part. We might be
Protestant; we might Catholic; we might be Jewish, Muslim, Hindu,
whatever, but we are people of faith.
I was raised in Beckley, WV--a little coal mining town. My mom used
to take my sister and me to church, God, every Sunday morning, every
Sunday night, every Wednesday night, and most Thursday nights. She was
interested in two things: one, in making sure we understood the Golden
Rule to treat other people the way we want to be treated and, two, that
we had actually read Matthew 25 and actually internalized it in that it
is our obligation, our moral obligation, to the least of these.
Remember there, in the Scripture, in Matthew 25, it says: When I was
hungry, did you feed me? When I was thirsty, did you give me to drink?
When I was naked, did you clothe me?
It also says this: When I was a stranger in your land, did you
welcome me? Think about that. When I was a stranger in your land, did
you welcome me? We have a moral obligation to welcome a stranger. We
don't have a moral obligation to let millions of people come into our
country without permission and to stay here. That is not part of
Matthew 25. But there is a moral obligation that we need to look out
for the least of these. I hope we will keep that in the back of our
minds as we go forward.
The last thing I would say--and I have said this so many times that
my colleagues are sick of hearing it--is that bipartisan solutions are
lasting solutions. I am a Democrat who was raised by two Republican
parents. I have always believed that the way to get things done is to
work together across the aisle. I am encouraged by the negotiations
that are underway that involve several of our colleagues on the
Democrat and Republican sides in addressing what is going on at the
border. I have talked to both Democrats and Republicans who have been
part of those conversations and negotiations, and I am encouraged that
progress is being made. I think, rather than just pointing fingers at
one another, we should actually build on that progress and hasten the
day that we can actually begin, in a serious way, in a comprehensive
way, resolving this major challenge to our country.
With that, I object.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
The Senator from Kansas.
Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. President, I certainly greatly appreciate the
Senator from Delaware's remarks, and I agree with him on so many things
he talked about. I agree that we are a land of opportunity and that we
should help those in need. You know, personally, I have led
humanitarian medical mission trips around the world. The United States
spends $80 billion a year through the USAID programs, Food for Peace,
and polio vaccinations. We promote economic trade.
I am afraid my friends across the aisle see this as an immigration
issue. If we open up the gates, 158 million people worldwide would like
to come into the country right now, to come into our country--158
million people. That is according to a 2018 Gallup poll. There are 158
million people from around the world who would flood our gates right
now if given the opportunity.
I have always supported legal immigration--legal immigration--but I
see this today totally as a national security issue. That is what I am
afraid of. That is what I am concerned about when the FBI Director says
all the lights are blinking. When we see 100,000 people--Americans,
young Americans mostly--dying from fentanyl poisoning every year; when
we have 1.7 million ``got-aways,'' where we don't know who they are or
where they are--hundreds of known terrorists, aliens of interest, tens
of thousands of aliens of interest--this is a national security issue
to us.
Secretary Mayorkas took an oath. He took an oath to enforce the laws
of the land, to make sure that we had a secure border, and we don't
have that right now. That is why we need to fire Secretary Mayorkas
today, and we need to let the White House know that we are going to
have a new person in there next year as well.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
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