[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 13 (Wednesday, January 24, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S230-S232]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, since President Biden took office 3 years 
ago, Customs and Border Protection has encountered 6.7 million--6.7 
million--migrants at the southern border. Just to give you an idea of 
how that compares to the Obama administration and

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President Trump's administration, this is more than those two 
administrations combined. And that was for a period of 12 years, where 
President Biden has been in office for 3 years.
  The administration still hasn't released the number of illegal border 
crossings for December, but multiple news outlets have reported that 
more than 300,000 migrants have crossed the border last month, which 
would be a new record.
  What I have a hard time comprehending is why President Biden thinks 
that is a good idea. It is his policies that are responsible, because 
they are like a magnet. They attract people from, literally, around the 
world, who show up at our border and either claim asylum, only to be 
put on a docket and wait 10 years before they get heard by an 
immigration judge--and, in the meantime, they get released into the 
interior--or they are simply released into the interior of the country, 
using something called parole.
  Now, I think it is a little confusing because, most of the time, we 
think about parole in the context of criminal law, that if somebody is 
tried and convicted and goes to prison, they can then be paroled out of 
prison. But this simply means that, in the immigration context, people 
come to the border, and they are just released--just released. In other 
words, there is no consequences associated with people entering the 
country illegally.
  So it should be no surprise to any of us that people still come. And 
that is why we are seeing higher and higher levels of people coming to 
the border under President Biden's policies.
  The problem isn't just that more migrants than ever are crossing into 
the United States; it is also that more migrants than ever are being 
released into the United States.
  The Biden administration has gone to great lengths to ensure that 
people who cross the border illegally can remain in the United States, 
regardless of whether they have a legitimate reason to be here or not.
  To do that, the President and his administration have abused an 
authority known as parole to facilitate catch-and-release at an 
unprecedented rate. Parole, in the immigration context, was designed to 
grant temporary entry to foreign nationals in a rare and dire 
circumstance such as someone donating a kidney or being a witness in a 
trial. It was never meant to be categorical or a large-scale 
immigration authority. It was meant to be used on a case-by-case basis.
  The Biden administration has completely abused the parole authority, 
and it is not just at the southern border. The President's 
administration has stood up a program that allows individuals from 
Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter or remain in the United 
States--all under the guise of parole. In other words, these are not 
individual case-by-case determinations; this is categorical. In other 
words, you come from a country; we are going to release you into the 
United States--to the number of 30,000 a month. That is 360,000 a year.
  When the administration does so for these four countries, it provides 
a 2-year legal status and a work authorization. And so, again, it is no 
surprise people continue to come.
  This is also big business for criminal organizations that smuggle 
people into the United States. And it is as a result of overwhelming 
the capacity of the Border Patrol and Federal officials on the border 
that the opportunity to smuggle drugs into the United States becomes so 
relatively easy--thus, again, enriching the cartels that deal in the 
poison that took the lives of 108,000 Americans last year alone.
  The administration is using--or I should say ``abusing''--parole 
authority to try to legalize illegal immigration. And they do that so 
they can cook the books; so they don't have to include these numbers in 
a total tally of illegal border crossings each month. In other words, 
that is not even on the list of the 300,000 because they are exempted 
from that because they are released using--or abusing--this other 
authority.
  This policy allows the administration to roll out the welcome mat for 
tens of thousands of migrants while making it seem like the numbers 
have gone down. It is really a shell game.
  Thanks to the leadership of my friend Senator Graham, from South 
Carolina, the American people now have a much better idea about the 
degree to which parole is being abused by the Biden administration, 
both at the southern border and beyond.
  To provide some comparison, during the two previous administrations--
that was 12 years--an average of 5,600 migrants were paroled into the 
country each year--5,600 each year. When President Biden took office, 
that number skyrocketed.
  For fiscal year 2022 alone, the Biden administration paroled almost 
800,000 migrants. In other words, an average of 5,600 became 800,000 
under President Biden.
  We still don't have full data for fiscal year 2023, but it is already 
clear that the administration has passed the previous year's total. The 
Biden administration has paroled more than 802,000 migrants into the 
United States in only 9 months. In other words, it is going to set a 
new record.
  In total, the administration granted parole to nearly 1.6 million 
migrants in only 21 months. Is it any wonder that people continue to 
come to the border outside the legal process if they know they are 
going to be released, while the human smugglers continue to get richer 
and richer and the drug cartels continue to get richer each day?
  Well, these numbers are hard to get your head around because they are 
so large as to be incomprehensible. But 1.6 million migrants released 
into the country in 21 months?
  When this many migrants are being released into the country, it 
creates serious challenges. Migrants arrived at our border with no 
money and no place to go. They need to be fed. They need clothing. They 
need a safe place to sleep. They need medical care. And none of these 
things are cheap or easy to provide. But they are a feature of illegal 
immigration.
  For more than 3 years, communities along Texas's southern border have 
carried the weight of the President's border crisis. Local governments 
and nongovernmental organizations provide migrants with basic needs 
like shelter, food, and clothing. They deliver lifesaving medical care. 
They provide transportation. In short, they prevent this humanitarian 
crisis from becoming a humanitarian catastrophe.
  It is expensive; it is burdensome; it is extremely time-consuming; 
and these men and women don't receive nearly enough recognition or 
gratitude for the work they do each day.
  The border crisis continues to have a major impact on border 
communities in my State. But the scale of the crisis means the burden 
is now shared by communities across the country.
  Given the unprecedented number of migrants released, every State in 
America is now a border State in terms of the direct impact of the 
Biden border crisis.
  As this crisis has grown and expanded, it has prompted an interesting 
shift in rhetoric among leaders in blue States and cities.
  Liberal enclaves like New York and Chicago are long-time supporters 
of open border policies. They proudly identify themselves as sanctuary 
cities and have criticized commonsense measures to enforce our 
immigration laws.
  Until President Biden took office, these and other liberal cities 
across America could say what they wanted because they didn't have to 
bear any of the burden. With the U.S.-Mexico border a thousand miles or 
more away, immigration levels didn't impact their daily lives.
  Residents did not see hundreds of migrants sleeping on city 
sidewalks. Their children's schools weren't used as emergency shelters. 
Their local ambulances weren't delayed because of a high influx of 
migrants who needed medical care. So it is easy to weigh in on an issue 
that has absolutely zero impact on your daily life.
  But as more and more migrants have poured into blue States and blue 
cities in the past few years, the story has changed. One example is 
Phil Murphy, the Democratic Governor of New Jersey. He campaigned on 
the promise of making his State a safe place for illegal immigrants and 
once vowed to turn New Jersey into a sanctuary State.
  When it became clear that more States needed to help carry the weight 
of this national crisis, he quickly changed his tune. When given the 
opportunity to take care of migrants

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with nowhere to go, Governor Murphy said the State didn't have any room 
for these migrants.
  We have seen a similar shift--you might even call it a flip-flop--
from leaders in Chicago, which has been a self-proclaimed sanctuary 
city for decades. The city's mayor, Brandon Johnson, was just sworn in 
last May and ran on the promise of embracing migrants who arrived in 
the city. Last spring, he said: Sanctuary means that everyone is 
welcome here--everyone--whether you come legally or illegally.
  When you make that kind of declaration, it is tough to be mad when 
people take you up on it and show up. But that is exactly what he has 
done.
  As migrants have arrived in Chicago via bus and plane, he has lashed 
out at Texas Governor Greg Abbott for providing migrants with the 
transportation to actually take him up on his offer.
  At one point, he even accused the Texas Governor of attacking Chicago 
and other cities that received migrants. Pretty unhinged, if you ask 
me.
  This would be like sending an invitation out to a party that says: 
Everybody is welcome, and then berating the person who actually shows 
up with a carload of people.
  I think there is a lesson there: Don't say everybody is welcome 
unless you mean it.
  President Biden's border crisis has grown to such a magnitude that 
even the sanctuary cities and States are turning off or flipping over 
the welcome sign. The crisis just keeps growing and growing, and the 
pressure on President Biden is mounting.
  And, oh, by the way, he is going to be a candidate for reelection in 
November 2024. That may have something to do with his newfound 
attention and concern about the problem. He didn't care about the 
border crisis when it was just hurting Texas or the communities along 
the border. He didn't flinch when frontline law enforcement pleaded for 
more support. He didn't bat an eye when we broke the record for the 
most border crossings in a single day, month, and year. But now that 
Democratic voters--voters he is going to need to get reelected in 
places like New York and Chicago--are sounding the alarm over the 
border crisis, so it looks like President Biden is finally starting to 
pay attention.
  When asked by a reporter last week if the border was secure, 
President Biden said: No, it is not.
  It is welcome candor.
  But given the magnitude of the crisis, it is sad that that statement 
was actually newsworthy because it marked a much needed change from the 
President to recognize we have a problem on our hand.
  The fact is--and we all know the answer--that the status quo was 
unsustainable. We have reached a breaking point. And the only way to 
restore some sense or order is by addressing the current failed 
policies of the Biden administration--particularly this abuse of 
parole, which is just simply releasing people, giving them a work 
permit, even to those who aren't claiming a credible fear of 
persecution or grounds for asylum.
  Now, we all know several of our colleagues are trying to negotiate an 
agreement on legislation that would create meaningful policy changes to 
address the crisis. And I appreciate their efforts. I sincerely do. But 
so far, all we have seen are statements about what is being negotiated. 
None of us have seen the text of the actual negotiated product. And I, 
for one, am anxious to see that so we can have a real discussion and 
maybe a debate and, hopefully, make some significant progress on what 
has come to be known as the Biden border crisis.

  I yield the floor.