[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 36 (Wednesday, February 28, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1025-S1028]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President:

       I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and 
     defend the Constitution of the United States against all 
     enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith 
     and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation 
     freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; 
     and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of 
     the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.

  That is the oath that we all take once we become Senators of the 
United States.
  Just imagine that you are Allyson and John Phillips. Last Thursday 
afternoon, you get a phone call from law enforcement in Athens, GA. The 
voice on the other end of the phone says that your daughter has been 
murdered by an illegal immigrant. I cannot imagine what that feels 
like. I cannot even begin to understand the shock and sadness and 
anger.
  Laken Riley was a nursing student at Augusta, GA, this past year. On 
Wednesday morning, she went out for a jog on the campus of the 
University of Georgia. She never came back. Police found her body in 
the woods a few hours later around noontime. She was covered with blood 
and injuries from head to toe.
  An autopsy found that she died of blunt force trauma to the head. The 
charging documents in this case say that her skull was disfigured. This 
was a brutal murder of an innocent young woman.
  Laken Riley was just 22 years old. She had her whole life ahead of 
her. She had a bright future. Now that future will never be realized.
  You know, I spent 40 years of my life on college campuses. I have 
dedicated my life to coaching young adults, but I wasn't just a coach; 
I was also a mentor. There is nothing more heartbreaking than losing a 
promising young person like Laken Riley, and I want to offer my 
condolences to the Riley family.
  Our No. 1 commodity in this country is our young people. Laken's 
death is even more heartbreaking because it could have been prevented 
and should have been prevented. On Friday night, police arrested and 
charged Jose Antonio Ibarra with malice murder, felony murder, 
aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, 
and hindering a 911 call.
  Jose Ibarra is an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. In other words, 
he should never have been in this country in the first place. This 
brutal and horrific murder would have been prevented

[[Page S1026]]

if Joe Biden and Democrats had done their job by enforcing the law.
  Jose Ibarra crossed the southern border in El Paso in September of 
2022, a year and a half ago. He was paroled into our country, and I 
will talk about parole here in just a minute. His social media accounts 
show that he went from El Paso to New York City. New York is a 
sanctuary State and city. That means that illegals who commit crimes 
will not be turned over to the immigration police when their jail time 
is up.
  This is an open invitation by New York City to criminals. We have a 
lot of these sanctuary cities in our country today. According to ICE 
immigration police, he was arrested just 5 months ago in New York, 
charged with acting in a manner to injure a child and for driving 
without a license. Specifically, he was arrested for allegedly 
endangering a 5-year-old child, 5 months ago.
  Athens police called the murder of Laken Riley a crime of 
opportunity. In other words, this was, essentially, a random act of 
violence. It could have been anyone's daughter. She did absolutely 
nothing wrong.
  So my question is: Where are Georgia's Senators today? What are 
Georgia Senators doing to secure the border, to protect more people 
like Laken Riley? Where is their outrage? Soon, the Senate will hold a 
trial on articles of impeachment against Secretary of Homeland Security 
Mayorkas, the guy that is in charge of our border.
  Georgia Senators, how are they going to vote when the trial comes up? 
Are they going to vote for Secretary Mayorkas since he has been 
impeached in the House? Because he is the one that let this killer in.
  Are Senators from border States like California and Arizona going to 
save Mayorkas' job, the job that he has refused to do for the last 3\1/
2\ years? We will find out and find out soon.
  In the House, every single Democrat fell in line and voted--and voted 
to save Mayorkas' job just a few weeks ago, every single Democrat--and 
the guy hasn't done his job in 3\1/2\ years.
  Every single House Democrat endorsed the job that Secretary Mayorkas 
is doing; that includes five Democrats from the State of Georgia where 
Laken Riley was killed.
  In a separate vote, 150 House Democrats voted against deporting 
illegals who had been convicted of drunk driving.
  Mr. President, 150, all Democrats, voted against deporting illegals 
if they got caught drunk driving. That includes all five of Georgia's 
Democrats in the House.
  This is today's Democrat Party, and I go back to the oath that we all 
took to protect domestic and foreign, to protect.
  Are Senate Democrats going to put their political careers on the line 
by continuing to support the least popular President in modern history, 
who has not done his job at the border? We will soon find out.
  Or are they going to stand beside somebody who has broken the law? If 
Laken Riley were my daughter--if Laken Riley were my daughter, 
Secretary Mayorkas would have a lot more to worry about than a pending 
impeachment trial. He would need to go into hiding. It is embarrassing 
to this country of how these people are holding people accountable 
under the law.

  I would do everything in my power to ensure he never forgot her name 
and that his inaction led to her death. Blood is on his hands.
  I cannot possibly understand what this family is going through today. 
But for open borders--all the open-border crowd--she is just collateral 
damage, just somebody else that has been murdered. It won't be talked 
about again. Don't worry about it. All we care about is votes. All we 
care about is power.
  To Democrats in this administration, Laken Riley is just another 
sacrifice on the altar of woke ideology. The blame for this crime lies 
with this administration and with the Democratic Senate majority. 
Democrats run Washington right now. The buck stops with them. They 
uphold the laws.
  Democrats could have stopped this if they would have secured the 
border, if they had done their job. But they have utterly refused for 
the last 3\1/2\ years.
  In fact, this administration has done exactly the opposite. This is 
globalism. This is putting the interest of other countries ahead of our 
own country, our own people, our own citizens.
  Joe Biden has effectively erased our southern border--we don't have a 
border--and has invited the world in with no oversight or plan to 
figure out who is here and why.
  I have been talking about this issue since I was elected to office 3 
years ago. Nearly every American--excuse me. Nearly every Republican 
has been talking about it in both the House and the Senate.
  I haven't seen Georgia Senators down here on the floor sounding the 
alarm on the southern border, not one time in the last 3\1/2\ years. I 
haven't seen California Senators giving speeches about the border and 
why is it open, because they are being overrun. I haven't seen Arizona 
Senators down here giving speeches on the border: You have got to help 
us. Let's close the border.
  I haven't seen that. I am not sure I have seen one Democratic Senator 
on this floor in the last 3\1/2\ years talking about the open borders 
that we have--not one.
  This is the biggest problem facing our country by far. President 
Biden says it is climate change. You have got to be kidding me.
  Democrats don't want to talk about this. Republicans have tried to 
fix the problem.
  I introduced the Border Safety and Security Act, which would close 
the border until the Federal Government regained control of operations 
along the southern border. I have sponsored legislation like H.R. 2, 
which is the best border security bill that we have had. I have offered 
more than 50 border amendments to the recently passed national security 
supplemental bill--any one of them which would have helped fix the 
border crisis.
  Democrats have blocked me and the Republicans at every turn. They are 
the majority of the Senate, and they control the floor. I understand 
that.
  A few week ago, we almost took up a so-called border bill from 
Senator Schumer and Senator Murphy. They worked on it for months. For 
months, they worked on it--embarrassing. It was more of a border 
giveaway--a border giveaway--than a border bill.
  This would have not stopped the deaths of these young people. It 
would not have stopped and prevented the death of Laken Riley.
  Unbelievably, the senior Senator from California actually opposed it 
for being too conservative. The people of California are suffering 
because of a wide-open border, just like all the people across our 
country.
  I will just mention a few, starting in California. Last May, an 
illegal alien named Carlos Dominguez stabbed three people in Davis, CA. 
Two of them died, David Breaux and a student named Karim Najm. A third 
person was stabbed but survived, named Kimberlee Guillory. The alleged 
attacker in this case, Carlos Dominguez, came here in 2009 as an 
unaccompanied minor. He just had his first preliminary hearing in court 
this past week. Where is the outrage from the California Senators about 
the death and the stabbings of these people?
  Let's talk about Arizona. Last year a young man named Harly Sellers 
was killed by a drunk driver in Fountain Hills, AZ. The alleged drunk 
driver who killed him is named Hilario Ortiz Cruz. He is an illegal 
alien who had previously been deported in 2013.
  It is a felony to reenter this country after being deported. A lot of 
people don't realize that, but it is. We don't go by many laws anyway.
  Harly Sellers was 29 years old. He was engaged to be married in just 
2 months. That wedding will never happen. Harly Sellers left behind two 
young children, including a 1-year-old baby named Carter. Carter will 
never know his dad.
  This was a crime that could have and should have been prevented. 
Where are the Senators from Arizona? Where is their outrage? The 
silence is deafening.

  Part of the blame for this crime falls on this city, here in 
Washington, DC. This city should be blamed because we make the laws, 
and we push the laws.
  Just a couple of weeks ago in Texas, a 16-year-old girl named Lizbeth 
Medina was killed in her own bedroom--just a couple of weeks ago. A 
grand jury has now charged an illegal alien in the case. He is charged 
with breaking into the home and then beating her to death and stabbing 
her.

[[Page S1027]]

  This is happening all across our border. But it is not just limited 
to the border. Every State in our country now is a border State.
  Just last night, people arrested and charged an illegal alien just a 
few miles from this building--just a few miles. It is about a 30-minute 
drive from the U.S. Senate. Police allege that an illegal alien named 
Nilson Granados-Trejo was among a group of gang members who shot at 
another group of gang members. Police say it was all about a drug 
dispute.
  Caught in the middle of the crossfire was a mom and her 2-year-old 
son. That 2-year-old, Jeremy, has died. He didn't have a say about the 
border.
  Nilson Granados has previously been arrested twice for alleged theft. 
The guy that shot this kid right here, twice has been arrested. He was 
subject to a deportation order from a judge in New Jersey, but he was 
released from custody several times, even though immigration police 
filed a detainer. He was never sent back.
  Nilson Granados should not and should have not been in this country. 
He should have never been here in the first place. He should have been 
deported when he was caught the first and second time. Like the judge 
says, this crime could have and should have been prevented. But it was 
not prevented because of Joe Biden's open border.
  Just this week, an illegal alien was arrested in Louisiana for 
allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl. He also allegedly stabbed someone 
in the face during an armed robbery a few weeks before.
  A month ago, an illegal alien pled guilty in court to stabbing a man 
to death in Bozeman, MT, in 2022.
  Just yesterday, in my home State of Alabama, in Albertville, police 
arrested two illegal aliens for alleged child exploitation. This goes 
on and on and on. I could have been up here all day.
  Americans are dying due to our open borders at the southern and 
northern borders, and they are dying every single day. Who cares? We 
are worried about a budget here. We are worried about sending $60 
billion to Ukraine. We are not worried about the citizens of the United 
States.
  People are going to wake up, and when they do, there is going to be a 
huge change around here, and I hope it happens.
  Americans are dying due to open borders every single day when it 
comes to drugs, and 100,000 Americans die every year because of drug 
overdose. You would think that would be something that people would 
talk about. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. That is 300 Americans a day 
dying from fentanyl--300 a day. That is like a commercial airliner 
crashing every day.
  Nobody cares. This building doesn't care. Everybody is worried about 
their next election, getting reelected. That is our problem here. They 
don't do what is right.
  The DEA tells us drugs that were brought here over our southern 
border are absolutely destroying the young people in this country. So 
Joe Biden, our President, is going to the southern border tomorrow--
hallelujah.
  This will be only--I want you to think about this. This is a guy who 
has been up here for 50 years. Now, I don't know why. I don't know why 
anyone would want to be up here 50 years to watch what goes on here. He 
has been up here 50 years as Senator, Vice President, and President. 
This is only the second time he has been to the border. And he asked 
why we don't have border policies.
  Well, hell, man, you have been here forever. What did you do while 
you were in office?
  He did zero. His first time ever at the border was last January, 
after 50 years in politics. And he is trying to run for reelection 
again. Good luck.
  He went to El Paso. Border Patrol cleared the streets of all illegal 
camps and immigrants. There was nobody there. He didn't talk to any 
illegal immigrants. He didn't go to the Border Patrol station. He just 
took his picture, walked around with his sunglasses on, had a relaxing 
day, not worrying about the border, not worrying about what is coming 
across the border. He just went down there to have his picture taken.
  Now, the media says he is going to Brownsville, TX, tomorrow to get 
his picture taken. He is going to Brownsville, TX. Yesterday, 12 
illegals come across at the border there.
  You know we have got another President, former President Trump. He is 
also going to the border tomorrow. He has been down there many times. 
He is going to Eagle Pass, TX. Yesterday, there were over 500 that came 
across the border there. No matter what you think about President 
Trump, he actually cares.
  One of Joe Biden's Executive orders was to let asylum officers give 
out asylum at the border without ever going to a judge.
  In other words, when you come to this country, you are supposed to be 
given a time and a day to go see a judge to see whether you get to stay 
here or not. But, in the last 3\1/2\ years, we have been giving asylum 
at the border, giving a piece of paper which has a destination that you 
are going to; put on an airplane and flown somewhere across the 
country, and finding out what you can do to make a living and where you 
can go.
  I know. I was on a plane not too long ago with a planeload from 
McAllen, TX, of illegals that were put on there, on this plane, going 
to cities all over the country. I was on there with them.
  I am watching them come on. I am thinking: You know, it took me 45 
minutes to go through TSA. I got patted down. All my stuff was scanned 
and didn't have anything on.
  They brought them up straight to the plane, opened up the door, and 
let them get on. It was absolutely amazing.
  Why do we need TSA? That is another point.
  Meanwhile, as we are giving out all this asylum, Joe Biden has taken 
94 Executive actions against immigration enforcement since he has been 
in office. In other words, 94 times he says: OK, we don't need this at 
the border. That is my law. That stands. We don't need this one--94 
times.
  Meanwhile, he said we can't do anything to fix the border.
  If you want to fix the border, Mr. President, just take those 94 
Executive actions and put them back somewhere on the shelf, and let law 
enforcement do their job. One of these Executive actions was the abuse 
of the parole system, and I said I was going to say something about 
this.
  (Ms. CORTEZ MASTO assumed the Chair.)
  That is how Jose Ibarra, who killed Laken Riley, got into this 
country. Joe Biden paroled him into the country, meaning he was 
arrested when he got to the border by Homeland Security and then 
released.
  Federal laws say that parole is supposed to be used only on a case-
by-case basis. Why are you here? Why do you need to come here? Full 
information given by the immigrant and should be on a case-by-case 
basis for urgent humanitarian reasons. That is the reason you are here. 
They just wave him on through.
  That is not what Joe Biden is doing. He is not looking into the 
backgrounds of these people. They are just coming right through the 
front door, laughing at us--we have seen the pictures at the border--
and going on.
  Joe Biden is paroling massive numbers of people into this country. We 
better wake up. This is illegal, but Joe Biden is doing it anyway. And 
now Laken Riley is dead. People will forget about her, except for her 
parents and her friends. I mean, we will go on to some other tragedy 
down the road. But we had better wake up. We had better wake up.
  We need to bring back the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. We have to 
bring it back. We do not need more asylum officers. Joe Biden has just 
turned our Border Patrol and our asylum officers into Walmart greeters 
at the border. Again, I have been down there several times, and these 
people need help.
  He is going to go there tomorrow and say: Oh, we need a lot more help 
down here, more secretaries. We don't need law enforcement.
  We don't need any more Walmart greeters. We need a wall. We need to 
bring back the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy, as I said a few minutes 
ago. We need to go back to the policies of President Trump. President 
Trump's policies worked, and the reason Joe Biden changed them is 
because he wanted to do exactly opposite of what Trump was doing. He 
didn't want to give him any credit. Joe Biden has the exact same laws 
on the books that President Trump had, but the difference is day and 
night.

[[Page S1028]]

  Laken Riley's death and the death of every other American caused by 
this border crisis rests with President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas. I 
hope they can't sleep at night, because this could have been prevented. 
We need to go back to the policies that work, stop playing these dang 
games, and stop playing politics. Otherwise, this will keep happening.
  We are here, and we took an oath of office to say we are going to 
watch over the citizens of this country. If we don't do something, more 
Americans will die, more Americans like Laken Riley. More parents will 
be forever scarred for what happened last week. We have to do 
something. We can't forget about this.
  Every time we have somebody who has lost their life in this country 
because of an illegal alien, I am coming back up here and I am going to 
rub it in the faces of the Democratic Party, Secretary Mayorkas, 
Senator Schumer, and Joe Biden. It is 100 percent their fault.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, earlier this month, House 
Republicans impeached Secretary Mayorkas because the Homeland Security 
Secretary refuses to carry out his constitutional duty of securing the 
homeland.
  More than 9 million illegal immigrants, including 1.7 million known 
``got-aways,'' have entered our country under the Biden administration. 
Now, this number is larger than the population of 39 States. At the 
same time, hundreds of individuals on the Terrorist Watchlist have been 
caught on the southern border, including 58 since the start of fiscal 
year 2024. Just in January, there were more than 176,000 illegal 
crossings along the southern border. This is the worst January on 
record. Yet, under Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden, Immigration 
and Customs Enforcement deported just 142,000 people in all of 2023. 
That is less than 5 percent of illegal crossings.
  There is no doubt that this administration has abused both our asylum 
and our parole systems, but unlike asylum--you have parole, which is 
granted by DHS for different reasons, and President Biden has abused 
his parole authority to usher in millions of migrants who are unknown 
to us and who receive both public benefits and work authorizations.
  One thing is clear: The parole system is just another way for the 
Biden administration to circumvent congressional authority and make 
illegal immigrants legal.
  Over the course of four Presidents--go back and look at the years 
from 1983 to 2003--the average yearly total for all paroles was no more 
than 150,000, and on average, the Obama and Trump administrations 
paroled just 5,600 migrants per year. There is a contrast here. In 
2022, Joe Biden paroled nearly 800,000 migrants into the country, and 
in fiscal year 2023, the Biden administration paroled approximately 1.2 
million migrants. That is more than 200 times the number that President 
Obama and President Trump paroled into this country. This 
administration is abusing the parole system and that authority.
  This administration's open border agenda is already having tragic 
consequences. Last week, an illegal immigrant in Georgia was arrested 
for allegedly murdering Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, 
while she went for a jog on the University of Georgia's campus. The 
suspect should never have been allowed to set foot in America. Yet the 
Biden administration paroled him. They paroled him into this country 
after he illegally crossed our border in 2022.
  There is no doubt that Secretary Mayorkas has breached the public 
trust by making illegal immigration legal, but according to recent 
reports, Majority Leader Schumer is looking for any way he can to 
prevent a Senate trial when the House transmits the Articles of 
Impeachment on Secretary Mayorkas to this Chamber. By tabling the 
Articles of Impeachment, Democrats would be abandoning our core 
constitutional duty to hold an impeachment trial.
  The American people suffer through this administration's border 
crisis every single day, and they deserve an open debate about whether 
Secretary Mayorkas, who has done so much to cause this national 
security and humanitarian catastrophe, is fit to hold public office. 
Based on everything we have seen over the last 3 years, Secretary 
Mayorkas is not fit for office, and if this Chamber upholds its 
constitutional duty, I will vote to convict him.