[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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