[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 49 (Wednesday, March 20, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2452-S2453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, here we go again. I cannot believe I 
am here today on the Senate floor talking about Americans dying at the 
hands of illegal aliens.
  I said I would do this every week and give an update on the young 
people and people of our country who are dying at the hands of illegal 
aliens--specifically young people. Our kids are dying because of Joe 
Biden's immigration policies.
  I was on the floor last week talking about the death of Laken Riley, 
a young woman who was running around the University of Georgia, minding 
her own business, when she was abducted and brutally beaten--
unrecognizable--by an illegal alien from Venezuela.
  Just a week ago, I came to the floor to talk about the death of 
Washington State Trooper Chris Gadd. He was on duty at a DUI checkpoint 
when Raul Benitez Santana, an illegal alien from Mexico, drunk behind 
the wheel, crashed into Trooper Gadd's police cruiser. Trooper Gadd was 
27 years old.
  There are so many other young people who need and deserve to be 
recognized and remembered, so many sad examples of the deadly impact 
this administration's open border policies have had in this country. It 
is a shame.
  In December, Travis Wolfe, a 12-year-old boy from Missouri, was 
riding with his parents when their car was struck head-on by another 
vehicle driving down the wrong side of the road, 70 miles per hour--the 
wrong side of the road, 70 miles per hour. Court documents reveal that 
the driver of the other car that crashed into Travis Wolfe was an 
illegal alien from Venezuela.
  Twelve-year-old Travis spent the last 3 months on life support. He 
died on March 6. His family hasn't received an apology from Joe Biden. 
They are not going to get an apology from Secretary Mayorkas. They just 
buried their 12-year-old son. Do my colleagues care? Do they care?
  Last August in Ohio, a minivan driven by Hermanio Joseph, an illegal 
alien from Haiti, collided with a bus that was carrying 52 kids and was 
headed to school for the very first day. Although he was from Haiti, 
Joseph illegally entered the country through the southern border. 
Twenty-six kids were hospitalized--26.
  One child, 11-year-old Aiden Clark, was ejected from the bus and 
pronounced dead at the scene. In Aiden's obituary, his family wrote 
that he loved daily vegetable gardening with his dad, trampoline 
jumping with his sister, and snuggling with his mom. Eleven years old.
  Aiden's life was taken far too soon. Travis Wolfe will not get to 
grow up. Trooper Gadd had a wife and a 2-year-old daughter. His 
daughter will never see her father again. Laken Riley will never become 
a nurse. She will never hang out with her friends again or celebrate a 
victory at the University of Georgia with friends and family.

[[Page S2453]]

  Losing a child is a parent's worst nightmare. We can't possibly 
imagine what their families are going through, but we can work to 
prevent more deaths from occurring. We know what needs to be done. 
People in this body know what needs to be done. People on the other end 
of the building in the House know what needs to be done. People in the 
White House know what needs to be done to protect these lives.
  President Biden can use the authorities given to him by Congress to 
secure the border. He can do that. He doesn't need more laws; he can 
use the laws that have already been written.
  He can finish the border wall, which he stopped and now is selling 
all the materials that are at the border to build this wall, that the 
American taxpayers have paid for--they are selling it for 10 cents on 
the dollar. You can't make this up.
  He can stop exploiting the Department of Homeland Security's parole 
authority by letting in millions of people without screening or 
processing.
  President Biden can stop supporting sanctuary cities where law 
enforcement officers are blocked from working with Federal officers to 
get criminal aliens off the streets and out of our communities.
  President Biden can bring back order to our country. We are losing it 
daily. He can do all these things right now. He doesn't need another 
law. The laws are there--just go for the laws.
  He himself suspended the border wall. He authorized Homeland Security 
to continue paroling people without consequences. He and his blue State 
supporters set up shelters in the middle of cities and suburbs to house 
illegal aliens indefinitely, costing you, the American citizens and 
taxpayers, billions of dollars, when we have homeless and veterans on 
the streets not being taken care of.
  Hospitals, schools, and other community resources have been 
depleted--depleted--by being forced to provide for both U.S. citizens 
and the millions of illegal aliens crossing the border. U.S. citizens 
are paying for all of this, not the Biden administration--the U.S. 
citizens. It is their right.
  It is embarrassing. Our country's leadership must be reminded of 
their greatest responsibility: the safety and security of Americans. 
No. 1 responsibility. This administration could care less.
  Let's look at a recent example of a country's prioritizing safety for 
its citizens. What has the Dominican Republic been doing in response to 
gang violence and unrest in Haiti because Haitians are coming to the 
Dominican Republic? What are they doing? They secured their border.
  The Biden administration established a parole program specifically 
for Haitians. Our immigration policy priorities are completely 
misaligned and totally opposite of what they are doing in the Dominican 
Republic. With our duty to support and defend the Constitution against 
all enemies, foreign and domestic, they are letting our guard down.
  So States are taking matters into their own hands. Yesterday, the 
Supreme Court ruled that a new Texas law, which allows State and local 
law enforcement to arrest and detain and deport illegal aliens, could 
go into effect while under review at the lower court level, but late 
last night, the Fifth Circuit Court again blocked enforcement of the 
new Texas law ahead of oral arguments. This is a crime. The Supreme 
Court has spoken. While the Biden administration won't arrest, detain, 
or deport illegal aliens, Texas would have been doing so. It is 
shameful that a State had to take matters into their own hands like 
this.
  It is embarrassing that President Biden's Department of Homeland 
Security sued Texas for implementing immigration laws which they should 
have been implementing themselves. But they have a different agenda. 
They want more people in this country to vote for this administration.
  Americans are being killed by illegal aliens, and the President 
simply cannot be bothered. The blood of Laken Riley, Trooper Gadd, 
Travis Wolfe, Aiden Clark, and so many other Americans is on his 
hands--the blood of Laken Riley, Trooper Gadd, Travis Wolfe, and so 
many others. They won't be forgotten.
  Democrats say their open border policies are motivated by compassion: 
We have compassion for people coming into this country.
  Whose compassion? Democrats have plenty of compassion for illegals. 
What about American citizens? taxpayers? the young people in this 
country who are dying at the hands of these illegal aliens that should 
not be here but only are here because of this administration?
  They don't seem to have compassion for victims of crime.
  Joe Biden, last week, apologized that he called an illegal alien 
``illegal'' in the State of the Union Address. That sets the scene for 
everything. They couldn't care less about the American citizen. They 
care more about people from other countries.
  This is madness. This madness must end. We can't wait until an 
election. We can't let 4 or 5 million more people in. We can't let 
hundreds of people die at the hands of these illegal aliens. Our 
children's lives are at stake, and our country is at stake.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.