[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1022-S1024]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Border Security
Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, tomorrow President Biden will do something
he has done only once before in his term as President of the United
States, he will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border to Brownsville, TX, in
an attempt to address his biggest political liability. Since the
President took office 3 years ago, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
has logged more than 7.2 million migrant encounters at the southern
border. By that, we mean people who have shown up at the border and, by
and large, have simply been released into the interior based on an
initial claim of asylum which has yet to be put in front of an
immigration judge. And it may be as long as, in places like New York,
10 years in the future before they ever get in front of an immigration
judge; or, as we have seen tragically here most recently, these
migrants will be paroled or simply released into the interior of the
country--even without a claim of asylum--given a work permit, and stay
here indefinitely.
Mr. President, 7.2 million is higher than the total number of
migrants who came across the southern border under President Obama, who
served 8 years, and President Trump, who served 4 years. So the Biden
administration has done in 3 years what it took 12 years for the two
previous administrations to accomplish. We have experienced more
illegal immigration in the last 3 years than in the last 12.
The American people have become increasingly concerned at the
southern border because they see with their own eyes that this is a
humanitarian crisis, and it is a public safety crisis. And they
overwhelmingly--and quite appropriately--blame Biden administration
policies and the President himself. They see that his policies and his
rhetoric, rather than deter illegal immigration, have actually
encouraged it.
Let me say that again: They understand that the policies of this
administration and the rhetoric that has been used are the driving
force behind America's most serious border crisis in history.
But, as usual, the President refuses to accept any responsibility. He
has tried to blame everybody but himself. He has blamed congressional
dysfunction. He has blamed MAGA Republicans. He has blamed anybody and
everybody that he can possibly think of, rather than accept
responsibility himself. Not only that, he has, at different times,
claimed that he lacks the tools to fix this crisis. At different times,
he has claimed that his hands are tied unless Congress passes new laws.
The problem with that storyline, that narrative, is the facts simply
don't support it. For one, the suggestion that only Congress can fix
the crisis implies that Congress created the crisis. I would point out
the same laws that were in effect during President Trump's
administration are still in effect during President Biden's
administration with far different outcomes.
As each of our colleagues knows, Congress has struggled to pass any
immigration laws in recent years; and, certainly, it has not passed any
that would cause the dramatic surge in immigration that began the day
that President Biden took office. The President was dealt exactly the
same hand as his recent predecessors. The only difference is he used
these authorities entirely differently and sent an entirely different
message.
As I have spoken before on the floor, the Border Patrol, which are
the experts on border security, tell me that there are two main drivers
of illegal immigration: One is push factors, they call it--poverty,
violence, a desire for a better life. And we understand that. America
is a nation of immigrants, of legal immigrants.
But there is also the pull factors, like a magnet encouraging people
to make the dangerous journey to our border, even in the form of
unaccompanied children designed to exploit gaps in Biden administration
policies and permanently reside in the United States.
Earlier this week, I was surprised by a New York Times article that
acknowledged the fundamental hypocrisy behind President Biden's efforts
to shift the blame once again. This is a quote from February 26, 2024,
the New York Times. David Leonhardt is the columnist. He said, in part:
Biden is the president, after all, and a president has
significant authority to shape immigration policy even
without new legislation. Biden himself has been aggressive
about using this authority--albeit to loosen immigration
policy rather than tighten it.
So the current phenomenon, this crisis--humanitarian and public
safety crisis--is as a result of President
[[Page S1023]]
Biden's own policies. It is not the laws that are broken or inadequate;
it is his will to actually enforce the law and his active encouragement
for people to come to the border because they know they will
successfully be able to stay in the United States.
I have mentioned before about a trip that several of us colleagues on
a bipartisan basis went to Yuma, AZ, a little sleepy agricultural
community in southwest Arizona right across the border from Mexico. The
Border Patrol Chief said: Welcome to the Yuma sector. Last year we
welcomed people from 140-plus countries--not Mexico, not Central
America, but from 140-plus countries that speak more than 200
languages.
Senator Kelly, our colleague from Arizona, pointed out that there was
an airport in northern Mexico, in Mexicali--which is a fairly large
city in northern Mexico--and, apparently, what happens is people fly
into Mexicali and literally Uber over to the Border Patrol and declare
amnesty--well, declare ``asylum'' is the right word.
Well, I know the President will have a hard time with this, his
second drive-by of the American-Mexico border during his term as
President, but, of course, his goal is to try to shift the blame once
again. As this journalist wrote, President Biden is the President. He
wanted to be President. He got elected President. He ought to do the
job that Presidents do, which is to enforce the laws. That is what the
executive branch of government does: Congress passes laws. The judicial
branch decides disputes about those laws as applied to given facts, but
it is the President and the executive branch--the Department of
Justice, Department of Homeland Security--that are responsible under
our constitutional order for actually enforcing the law.
And what has President Biden done with that authority? He has
loosened immigration policy rather than tightened it. This is what I
have been saying for 3 years; and, even now, I can't tell you how
surprised and pleased I am to see this stated in the New York Times.
But President Biden could listen to Mayor Adams, the mayor of New York
City. He has said: This has been a disaster for New York. You hear the
similar complaints from people like the Mayor of Washington, DC, the
mayor of Chicago. These are self-styled sanctuary cities that you think
would welcome these migrants, but they have been overwhelmed.
Well, what about 7.2 million that are showing up on our back doorstep
in Texas? It is hard to have much sympathy for the mayors of New York
and Chicago and Washington, DC, when they have dealt with just a
fraction of the numbers that we have had to deal with in Texas without
any help from the Federal Government.
And the Federal Government has been actively undermining efforts by
the State of Texas to reduce illegal immigration.
During his first few days in office, President Biden signed a raft of
Executive orders related to immigration and border security: He halted
construction of the border wall. He dismantled the agreement we had
with Mexico that migrants could remain in Mexico while they waited for
their asylum claim to be adjudicated. But he ripped that up too. He
ended an asylum agreement with Northern Triangle countries and even
issued a 100-day pause on deportations. So even if you were here
illegally, you knew, at least for 100 days--and very likely for the
rest of your life--that you would not be deported because of President
Biden's policies.
These are just a few examples of the Executive orders President Biden
issued within days of taking office. In the 3 years since, he and other
leaders in the administration have gone to great lengths to roll out
the welcome mat.
One of the most egregious examples is the administration's widespread
use of parole. Parole, in this context, means that is a temporary entry
for foreigners under rare and dire circumstances. It was never meant to
be used categorically or in a blanket fashion as the Biden
administration has done. It is meant to be used on a case-by-case basis
in extreme cases--someone experiencing a medical emergency at a port of
entry; somebody is donating a kidney or serving as a witness in a
trial. It was meant to be used on a case-by-case basis which, by
nature, gives the administration a good amount of discretion. But to
provide some comparison, during the two previous administrations, an
average of 5,600 migrants were paroled into the United States each
year--5,600. Once President Biden took office, that number skyrocketed.
The Biden administration has used parole to facilitate catch-and-
release at the border at an unprecedented pace, but its use of parole
extends beyond illegal crossings at the southern border. The Biden
administration announced a new program which allows individuals from
four countries--Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela--to enter and
remain in the United States, all under the guise of parole. You don't
need to claim asylum. If you can make it to the border, if you pay the
smugglers enough money to get you there, you know you are going to be
able to stay here. This program that the Biden administration set up
intentionally and with great deliberation provides 2 years of legal
status and work authorization to 30,000--30,000--migrants from these
four countries each month. That is 360,000 a year. The Biden
administration: Roll out the welcome mat. Give them a work permit. Say
``You can stay,'' knowing that they probably will be able to stay
indefinitely.
In total, the Biden administration has used its case-by-case parole
authority to grant parole to 1.6 million migrants in less than 2
years--1.6 million. As President Biden has shown repeatedly, if you
give him an inch, he will take a mile.
Another example of gratuitous discretion came from Secretary
Mayorkas, who has been impeached by the House of Representatives.
Secretary Mayorkas issued a final directive for immigration enforcement
priorities in the fall of 2021. This really should be called--instead
of immigration enforcement priorities, this should be immigration
nonenforcement priorities. That would be a more accurate title.
But under this guidance--one headline summed up the contents rather
succinctly. It said the ``U.S. Will No Longer Deport Illegal Immigrants
Based on Undocumented Status Alone.'' We are not going to deport people
who are illegally entering the country? What kind of message does that
send?
But the memo went on to explicitly discourage ICE officers. ICE is
Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Once you get past the border, ICE
is the one responsible for repatriating or returning people who are
here illegally. This memo explicitly discouraged ICE officers from
arresting or removing illegal immigrants unless they have been
convicted of a serious crime.
It defies all common sense to ask law enforcement officers, who take
an oath to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States--it
makes no sense to tell them at the same time to turn a blind eye when
you encounter people who are here illegally just because the Biden
administration doesn't want to enforce the law.
Secretary Mayorkas went further. He laid out mitigating factors that
should be considered before arresting or removing illegal immigrants,
including their age, how long they have been in the United States, and
the impact the removal would have on their family. Even in the case of
an alien convicted of a very serious offense, like murder, like rape,
receipt and possession of child pornography, ICE would have to consider
these mitigating factors before they could take action and remove that
person.
The reality of the situation, no matter how inconvenient it may be
for our Democratic colleagues, is that by entering the United States
illegally, these migrants are breaking the law.
There is nothing wrong with prioritizing the removal of the most
dangerous criminals. Previous administrations have prioritized certain
categories of illegal immigrants, like those suspected of terrorism or
those who could be a threat to national security or public safety. But
there is a difference between prioritizing certain groups for removal
and exempting entire categories from enforcement.
Given everything we have witnessed over the past 3 years, President
Biden has no right--no right--to claim that
[[Page S1024]]
his hands are tied when it comes to addressing the border crisis by
Executive action.
From day one, President Biden made clear that he was willing to use
Executive action, as David Leonhardt notes here, but he did it to
loosen illegal immigration, make it easier, not harder. He used
Executive action to stop border wall construction, end the ``Remain in
Mexico'' policy, halt deportations, exclude broad classes of migrants
from removal, parole more than 1.6 million migrants into the United
States, and so much more. So this is a crisis of President Biden's
making. This is a manmade disaster, and that man is President of the
United States.
If the President believed that he had this much latitude to loosen
immigration policy, he shouldn't feel constrained by Congress when it
comes to tightening immigration policy. It would be good politics for
him. I pointed out that this is a major political liability for the
President going into an election. He could fix it, just like he broke
it.
Executive actions have been used in the past to address migration
surges--and with a great deal of success.
Back in 2005, then-DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff testified before
the Senate Judiciary Committee that I serve on and spoke about the
Department's response to a surge of migrants from Brazil.
All of a sudden, a bunch of migrants from Brazil showed up at the
border. But what did they do? What did the Bush administration do? They
used their existing authorities to expand the use of expedited removal,
which allows agents to quickly remove migrants who have no legal basis
to remain in the United States. As Secretary Chertoff noted, word
spread fast. After 30 days, the number of Brazilians dropped by more
than 50 percent. After 60 days, it dropped more than 90 percent.
President Biden can do precisely the same thing, but he won't do it.
President Biden has the exact same authority to replicate that effort
today. He could expand expedited removal, send a clear message that our
southern border is no longer an open corridor. But, as Mr. Leonhardt
points out, all the messages he is sending are ``You can come. You can
stay.'' What more powerful magnet, what more powerful pull factor for
illegal immigration can you imagine?
As I pointed out time and time again, it is not just about illegal
immigration; it is about the drugs, because the cartels have figured
out that if you flood the border with people, you can overwhelm the
Border Patrol. Many of them would have to leave the frontlines to
process paperwork, provide transportation, food, shelter, clothing to
migrants in order to treat them humanely while they are here, but they
are not on the border.
Last year alone, 108,000 Americans died from drugs that come across
that border, 71,000 of them from fentanyl, the synthetic opioid pressed
into counterfeit-looking pills that high school-age children are taking
across the country, thinking that they are taking something relatively
innocuous, but, in fact, it kills them. Fentanyl is the leading cause
of death for young people between the ages of 18 and 45. We know where
it comes from. It comes across that border. It is manufactured in
Mexico from precursors shipped in from China. But that is part of the
disaster that the Biden administration's open border policy has
wrought--108,000 dead Americans last year alone.
Well, news reports are that President Biden could announce new
Executive actions on his trip to the border tomorrow. I am eager to see
whether he will reverse course and issue an Executive order that will
actually tighten the border or actually do his duty of securing the
border or whether these are measures more designed to loosen
immigration policy.
Of course, I expect that the American people, being very smart, will
understand why President Biden has chosen this time to take this trip--
the second driveby of the border since he has been President. It is all
about the election in November, and he understands that this is a
gaping political liability, and he is trying to plug that. Not only is
he trying to plug that hole, he is also trying to blame others for his
failure, and that will not work. The American people, being very smart
and perceptive, can see through that smoke screen.
I yield the floor.
Mr. COTTON. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the scheduled
rollcall vote begin immediately.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
Without objection, it is so ordered.