[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 84 (Wednesday, May 15, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3734-S3739]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               BORDER ACT

  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, it has been 98 days--almost 100 days--
since Senate Republicans killed the toughest border security bill, the 
toughest bipartisan border security bill that has been before the 
Senate in nearly a generation.
  We are proud that our Nation is a nation with a robust history of 
immigration. We know that our future involves inviting people to come 
to this country to seek a better life, to be part of our growing 
economy, to start their own businesses, and to flee violence or terror 
or torture. We are proud of our history of immigration. We know that 
America only thrives in the future by committing ourselves to a future 
of robust immigration.
  But what has been happening at the border over the past several years 
is unsustainable. We want people to come to this country, but we cannot 
handle 5-, 6-, 7-, 8-, 9-, 10,000 people arriving on a daily basis.
  Our system of legal immigration is broken. People come to the United 
States; they apply for asylum; and they often don't get their chance to 
make their case for 10 years. That is not fair to those individuals, 
but it is also not fair to others who have been waiting outside of the 
United States to apply to come here.
  Our immigration system is outdated. It is in need of reform. Our 
border is underresourced, with statutes that are equally outdated.
  Right now, there is only one party--the Democratic Party--that is 
serious about adding resources to the border, about updating our 
outdated laws because it has been 98 days since a bipartisan border 
security bill--negotiated by Senate Republicans, including Senate 
Republican leadership, and Senate Democrats--came to this floor and was 
defeated because Republicans would not vote for it.
  Republicans would not vote for the bipartisan border security bill 
not because it was an ineffective bill--in fact, it is quite the 
opposite. Senate Republicans defeated the bill because it would be 
effective.
  Now, that doesn't make sense, right? Why would that be? Why would 
Senate Republicans vote against a bipartisan border security bill that 
would have been effective at bringing order to the southwest border?
  The reason is this: Republicans have decided that they don't want to 
solve the problem at the border. Republicans have decided that they 
want this issue to be outstanding. They want the border to be chaotic. 
They want the border to be a mess because it helps their political 
purposes. It helps win an election. If the border was under control, if 
there were less people presented, if it was more orderly, that would be 
good for the country, but that might not be good for electoral 
prospects.
  Therein lies the reason that we have not had action on the bipartisan 
border bill--because Democrats want to get something done; Republicans 
want to keep this issue open. They want to keep the border a mess for 
political purposes.
  You don't have to listen to me. Senator McConnell said it out loud. 
Senator Lankford said it out loud. The reason that this bill was 
defeated 98 days ago was because Donald Trump told Republicans that it 
is better for Republicans to keep this issue alive and to not change 
the law to secure the country.
  Tomorrow, I am going to reintroduce the bipartisan border bill. My 
hope is that we will bring that bill to the floor for a vote to give my 
Republican colleagues another chance to do the right thing, another 
chance to choose the safety and security of this country over the 
political prospects of their candidate for President.
  Americans want us to come together to pass border and immigration 
reform. They support compromise between the two parties. That is 
exactly what the bipartisan border bill represented.
  Senator Lankford and I do not share views on the border. Senator 
McConnell and Senator Schumer do not share views on the border. But we 
all sat in a room for 4\1/2\ months, along with Senator Sinema, in 
order to find a compromise that would better secure our border and 
create a more humane, more efficient mechanism to bring people into 
this country legally.
  Let me just briefly talk about what this bill does. This will make 
sense to Americans when you hear it. There is nothing radical in this 
bill. These are commonsense changes to our laws.
  First, it gives the President new authority to better control the 
border. Listen, we can't handle 10,000 people crossing a day. So what 
this bill does is it says that at periods of time when there are 
unusually high numbers of people crossing the southwest border, the 
President can close portions of the border, stop accepting asylum 
applications until the numbers are reduced to the point where our 
resources at the border meet the number of people who are arriving.
  This is a bold new power, a bold new authority for President Biden, 
but it is necessary because there are simply some times, some days, 
some weeks when the numbers are too high.
  The second thing this bill does is significantly reform our asylum 
application system. As I mentioned, you come to the southwest border; 
you present an application for asylum; and we are so backed up in that 
system that it often takes people 5 to 10 years before their claim is 
heard. That is not right for that individual or for the country at 
large. So this bill shortens that timeframe with new laws and new 
resources so that instead of it taking 10 years for a migrant to have 
their asylum claim heard, it could now take 10 days or a few months. 
That is the right thing to do.
  But it also has the effect of dramatically changing the calculus for 
people who are thinking about paying a trafficker $5,000, $10,000 to 
come to the United States. If they know that they have an illegitimate 
claim and it is

[[Page S3735]]

going to be judged as illegitimate within weeks, they won't pay the 
$5,000 to come to the United States. Today, they might be willing to 
pay it because even if they have an illegitimate claim, they may get to 
stay in the United States for 5 or 10 years. This fundamentally changes 
the calculus and decreases the amount of risk that people are willing 
to take.
  This bill also understands that we should have more legal pathways to 
come to the United States, and when people come to the United States 
and are waiting to have their claims heard, they shouldn't be living in 
the shadows. So this bill also increases the number of work and family 
visas by 250,000 over the course of 5 years to allow more legal, 
planned pathways for people to come to the United States.
  The bill also allows for individuals who arrive at the border to get 
immediate work authorizations in most cases so that while their 
application is pending, they can work so that you don't have a 
situation we have today, where people are being warehoused in homeless 
shelters and in hotels without the ability to work while they are 
waiting for their claim to be processed.
  And this bill does create some pathways for individuals who are here 
today to become citizens. In particular, our Afghan partners who fought 
with us, who stood with us in Afghanistan, under this bill, get the 
opportunity to become American citizens. And the children of high-tech 
workers who are here on temporary visas who might have been born 
outside of the United States but were raised here in the United States, 
they get a chance to stay here as well.
  That is just a handful of the changes in the bill that enhance 
protections and benefits for individuals who are awaiting for the 
determination of their claim to be processed.
  But the combination of these changes--the new authorities at the 
border, the emergency authority, the new asylum system, combined with 
some new protections for individuals who are coming to the United 
States--it represents a true compromise between Republicans and 
Democrats, between right and left. It is exactly what the American 
people want.
  My hope is that our Republican colleagues have had the chance to 
rethink their vote from several months ago. My hope is that Republicans 
will decide to do the right thing for the country, the right thing for 
the border.
  We negotiated this bill at the request of Republicans. The chief 
Republican negotiator, Senator Lankford, was chosen by the Republican 
conference. Senator McConnell and his staff were in the room for all of 
those negotiations. The Republicans voted against it--with the 
exception of four of our colleagues--for one reason and one reason 
only: President Trump said it would be better for Republicans to keep 
this issue open, to keep the border a mess, better for Republican 
Presidential and congressional campaign prospects.
  So, tomorrow, I will reintroduce this legislation. I don't expect it 
will get every single Democratic vote because it is a true compromise, 
but I expect it will get enough Democratic votes that if half of the 
Senate Republican caucus votes for it, it will pass, and we will be a 
step closer to doing what America wants: continuing our tradition of 
robust legal immigration, building upon our tradition as a country 
founded upon immigration but doing it in a legal way and creating a 
much more orderly system at the border. That is what America wants: 
Keep our system of legal immigration; get the border under control. The 
bipartisan border bill does both of those things, and my hope is that 
we can come together and Republicans will choose this country and 
border security over the political prospects of their Presidential 
candidate, Donald Trump.

  I am glad to be joined on the floor by a number of my Democratic 
colleagues today to talk about the importance of this measure, the 
chance the Senate has to act in a bipartisan way on border security.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The majority leader.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, I thank my colleagues. I will be brief.
  I want to thank my friend Senator Murphy for bringing us to the floor 
this evening to talk about the need to fix our southern border with 
bipartisan--bipartisan--action.
  Senator Murphy did outstanding work earlier this year, along with 
Senators Sinema and Lankford and others, by doing what many thought 
impossible: producing a real, necessary, and bipartisan border bill.
  When our bill was first released, a lot of our Republican colleagues 
were surprised with how strong it was. But then, as we all know, Donald 
Trump came barging in and told his MAGA supporters to kill the bill.
  Democrats have not walked away from this issue. We believe, if you 
are going to call something an emergency, then we cannot wait to act. 
We hope, despite Republicans' opposition a few months ago, that our 
colleagues are willing to join us to secure the border, as they said 
they wanted to do. After all, how many times have we heard from our 
Republican colleagues through speeches, press conferences, letters that 
fixing the border cannot wait? They said it cannot wait. Well, we don't 
want to wait any longer.
  Just listen to the words from the other side going back years about 
the need to act.

       This crisis requires swift, serious, and substantive 
     action.

  That was what my colleague from Wyoming said recently.
  How about this:

       [T]he time to act on it is yesterday.

  That is what Speaker   Mike Johnson said, standing at the border at 
the beginning of this year.
  How about the words of Donald Trump:

       Tonight, I am asking you to defend our very dangerous 
     southern border out of love and devotion to our fellow 
     citizens and to our country.

  That is what Donald Trump said in his 2019 State of the Union 
Address.
  And, you know what, Democrats agree Congress should act. We believe 
the status quo cannot continue. But here is the thing: The only real, 
long-term solution to the southern border is bipartisan legislation. 
That is the only way you get things done around here--bipartisan--
bipartisan legislation like the bill we had here in the Senate 3 months 
ago, bipartisan legislation like the one we wrote to hire thousands 
more border agents and thousands more asylum officers and invest 
billions to stop the flow of fentanyl and other drugs.
  The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board--hardly a friend 
of this side of the aisle--here is what they said:

       A Border . . . Bill Worth Passing.

  The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called it ``a commonsense 
measure.''
  Maybe most importantly, the president of the National Border Patrol 
Council--a union, extremely conservative, very close with President 
Trump--called it ``far better than the status quo.''
  I ask my Republican colleagues: If a border security bill was good 
enough to win the support of actual border agents, shouldn't it have 
been good enough to win the support of the Republican Senate?
  If we want to fix asylum and stop fentanyl and hire more agents, 
shouldn't we pass a bill that actually fixes asylum, stops fentanyl, 
and hires more agents? That is precisely what our border bill would 
have done. That is precisely why we made such a strong push to pass it 
in the Senate 3 months ago. And that is precisely the bill that Donald 
Trump killed in a vain attempt to gain an edge on the campaign trail. 
He was clear about what he did. He said, ``Please, blame it on me,'' as 
if it were all a game to Donald Trump.
  I am used to Donald Trump saying it. Speaker Pelosi and I were at the 
White House when he was thinking about shutting down the government, 
and he said: Blame it on me. It didn't work out so well for him. It is 
not going to work out so well for him this time either.
  The American people do not have the luxury of playing partisan blame 
games. They want bipartisan action to secure our border. Democrats 
stand ready to work with Republicans to pass bipartisan border 
security. We hope our Republican colleagues stand ready to take action 
too.
  Madam President, I want to thank my colleagues for being here. 
Democrats are going to continue to pursue this issue. We believe the 
public agrees with us.

[[Page S3736]]

  Passing a bipartisan bill is a lot better than making a lot of 
speeches, doing a lot of finger-pointing, and getting nothing done on 
the border.
  I again thank my colleagues. I thank Senator Murphy for his great 
leadership. We have a number of our colleagues here tonight. I thank 
them for coming. It shows the importance we give to this issue.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.
  Mr. KELLY. Madam President, as my colleague from Connecticut said, it 
has been nearly 100 days since my Republican colleagues walked away 
from a bipartisan border security agreement. That is nearly 100 days 
that my State of Arizona and other border States have had to live with 
the consequences of that failure.
  We could have been on our way to hiring more than 1,000 additional 
Border Patrol agents and paying them better. We could have new 
technology to detect fentanyl and more personnel to seize those drugs, 
keeping them from getting into our communities and killing people. We 
could have new authorities to prevent the border from being 
overwhelmed--authorities that the President committed to using. That 
includes an updated asylum system with more officers to quickly screen 
claims. All of these things are things that my Republican colleagues 
have wanted for years. Arizona, today, has none of it, and I think the 
Presiding Officer knows why.
  The Federal Government has failed Arizona on the border for decades. 
Sadly, it is almost expected at this point. But no past failure is as 
baffling and as cynical as this one because for once we all agreed that 
the business-as-usual approach wasn't working; that our immigration 
process and infrastructure can't handle the new realities at the 
border--because for once there was a real plan, worked on and agreed to 
by Republicans and Democrats, ready to be signed into law by the 
President.
  We had an opportunity to defy the low expectations that the American 
people have for Congress and actually do something in a bipartisan way 
to start fixing the border, but that is not what happened. Senate 
Republicans walked away. Well, actually, they ran away from this 
agreement because too many politicians would just prefer to keep 
talking about a problem than actually solve it.
  This failure isn't theoretical in my State. Over the past 3 months, 
the Tucson Sector has remained the busiest for illegal crossings in the 
country. Our communities and nonprofits have been stretched to the 
breaking point to prevent mass releases of migrants onto the streets. 
Border Patrol and local law enforcement--they are strained. So are 
ports of entry, where long wait times impact families and businesses.
  Did I mention that we could have had 1,000 more Border Patrol 
agents--1,000?
  It is a difficult situation that would be more manageable if the 
Senate had done its job 3 months ago. That is not just me saying this. 
That is what you will hear from anyone who lives or works on the 
border, including the Border Patrol union. It is what I assume my 
colleagues are hearing from mayors and law enforcement when they do 
their factfinding missions, tours, and field hearings on the border.
  So why don't we just listen to the folks who are most affected by the 
crisis at the border and actually do something about it. Let's pass 
this bipartisan border agreement. The only thing that has changed from 
3 months ago is that we have wasted more time. The problem still 
exists. The solutions are the same ones we negotiated together.
  If you aren't convinced by every piece of it, let's debate it. If you 
think it needs something added or taken away, let's vote on amendments. 
We just need some--some--of our Republican colleagues to join us, and 
we can open up the debate on this legislation. Think about it. We can 
be the Senate that finally breaks through the gridlock and does 
something meaningful on the border.
  Madam President, let's defy those low expectations the American 
people have for us. That is what they deserve from us.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
  Ms. STABENOW. Madam President, what a wonderful thought the Senator 
from Arizona said: Defy expectations, and actually get something done.
  You know, we have attempted so many times to do immigration reform 
and border security reform, and somehow it has always gotten stuck, 
unfortunately, over politics.
  And this is the moment. I was so excited when Senator Murphy and 
Senator Sinema and Senator Lankford came together and everyone was 
focused on actually negotiating a strong, bipartisan bill. 
Unfortunately, because of politics again, it has not yet happened.
  On April 2, Donald Trump came to Grand Rapids, MI, lamenting what is 
happening at the border and using the tragic death of a young woman, 
who was a domestic violence victim, to politicize what has happened. 
While he lied and said he met with the woman's family--and the family 
indicated he did not--he was more willing to exploit her death for his 
own politics than to support the passage of our strong, bipartisan 
border bill.
  As we know, Republicans like to portray themselves as being the party 
of national security. If you want your family to be safe, then 
Republicans say you should vote for Republicans. Well, 98 days ago, 
they had a chance to boost our national security by voting for a strong 
border security bill written by Republicans and Democrats together, and 
98 days ago, they killed the bill. And we all know why.
  Unfortunately and, honestly, amazingly to me, after all that 
incredible work to get this done, they end up voting no. They killed 
the bill because Donald Trump told them to. As he was calling around, 
he shockingly said just tell them--``Please, blame it on me.'' Well, in 
fact, we are blaming it on him at his request because he is the one who 
stepped in because of politics and said: No, I don't want to solve 
this. I don't want to solve this. I want chaos at the border. I don't 
want to solve this. This will help the President or will help somebody 
else other than him. And he convinced Republicans to vote no.

  Madam President, Democrats want to address the challenges at the 
border. We know they are real. We know they are serious. We want to do 
the things that will make a difference. We want to give the Biden 
administration additional tools to solve them. And that is exactly what 
this legislation does.
  I want to, again, say this was legislation--strongly bipartisan--
negotiated by Senator Murphy and Senator Lankford and Senator Sinema 
and a group of our colleagues coming together on both sides of the 
aisle in good faith for months--months--of work. And it is clear that 
this legislation would significantly improve our Nation's security in a 
number of important ways.
  It would fix the broken asylum system we keep hearing about. It needs 
to be fixed. It would stop the flow of deadly fentanyl. And as I know 
the Presiding Officer knows, this is serious. It is not just at the 
southern border. It is in New Hampshire; it is in Michigan; it is 
across the country. This bill is an effective tool providing resources 
and technology to protect our kids, to protect people from fentanyl 
overdoses.
  It gives the President tools to manage the border. It invests in 
border agents and security. The border security unions, Border Patrol 
unions, said: Yes, this will make a difference. Please support this 
bill. And this union supported former President Trump, but they said: 
We want to fix the border. We support this bill.
  It is incredibly important that the tools be put in place for the 
President and the resources be put in place to address the issues. It 
is also important to know that this importantly expands legal pathways 
to citizenship and increases access to work authorizations. And those 
immigrants who serve in our military would gain quicker access to 
citizenship, something I think we can all agree that they have earned. 
It is important that this get done.
  I would just emphasize again, it is not just about the southern 
border. As a northern border State in Michigan, this bill would provide 
up to $100 million in grants to my State, to northern States, to local 
and Tribal law enforcement Agencies to secure our country's northern 
border.
  And there is so much more in here that solves a series of problems 
while treating people with dignity and creating opportunity. We stand 
ready to

[[Page S3737]]

pass this legislation. We are committed to border security. This is no 
joke. This is something that we all should come together about. And we 
want to keep our communities safe. That is what this monthslong process 
was all about--the serious negotiations, people working hard to come 
together on really tough issues. And they did. We did.
  And just before we were going to vote--just before we were going to 
vote--Donald Trump appeared and said: Wait, stop, stop. You are not 
seriously going to solve this, are you? No, no, no. I want the pictures 
of chaos at the border. I don't want you actually governing and solving 
the problem. I don't want people coming together, Republicans and 
Democrats, and actually getting something done.
  But that is what we were poised to do. And 98 days ago--98 days ago--
Republican colleagues killed the toughest border security bill in 
decades. We are not done. We are not giving up. We are not giving up. 
This is so important. We are not giving up. Our message is: It is time 
to stop the politics. It is time to put the earplugs on when it comes 
to Donald Trump and focus on what really needs to get done, what is the 
right thing to do. It is time to fix the problems at the border. And we 
remain ready, willing, and able to get this done.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. BLUMENTHAL. Madam President, I am honored to follow my colleagues 
who have spoken so powerfully on this issue and grateful to my 
colleague from Connecticut for his leadership, as well to Leader 
Schumer.
  We are a Nation of immigrants, proudly and gratefully. Immigrants 
have made this Nation the greatest in the world, and yet we have a 
broken immigration system.
  Fortunately for our Nation, people want to come here. Every week, I 
try to go to the immigration and naturalization ceremonies in my State 
of Connecticut. They are held in the courthouses. And I tell new 
citizens on those occasions that they are to be thanked for wanting to 
become United States citizens. They will never take it for granted. 
They pass the test that most Americans couldn't pass, and they smile or 
laugh because they know it is true. They have already contributed to 
their communities. Some have served in uniform.
  I look at them, and I say: This is what America looks like. This is 
what my dad looked like in 1935 when he came to this country speaking 
no English, knowing no one, having not much more than the shirt on his 
back.
  My immigrant story is not unlike many in this Chamber--certainly in 
this Nation. And this broken immigration system is unworthy of our 
great Nation. We need to fix it. We tried with comprehensive 
immigration reform in 2013. I was part of that effort and helped to 
write the bill that was passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. Senate on a 
bipartisan basis with support on both sides of the aisle and never was 
given a vote in the House.
  We can do bipartisan immigration reform. And we know how to do it. In 
fact, Democrats and Republicans came together about 100 days ago and 
arrived at some solutions that put us on a path to fixing our broken 
border. It is not the 2013 bill because it is not comprehensive. That 
bill provided a path to earn citizenship for undocumented people in 
this country--millions of them. It provided a path for Dreamers. It 
provided for border security--literally, tens of millions of dollars--
and for more visas.
  The bill that was negotiated 100 days ago and that should have passed 
100 days ago would have begun the painstaking, laborious, difficult, 
complex task of immigration reform. We often hear Republicans talk 
about the need to secure the border. At almost every Judiciary 
Committee meeting that I attend, Republicans talk about the border. And 
they want to talk about the border so much that they actually sent us 
contrived Articles of Impeachment against a Cabinet Secretary for the 
first time in 150 years, knowing that it would go nowhere.
  They are making border security a political weapon. Really, it is a 
political stunt. And that is why they refused to vote for the 
negotiated compromise that will be before us beginning tomorrow again 
and next week.
  The conversation on the floor tonight is a prelude to the battle that 
we will have again tomorrow and, I hope, next week when we will all be 
given a chance to go on record. All we are asking of our Republican 
colleagues is that they put their votes where their mouths are.
  America is angry--and America should be angry--about the lack of 
border security and about the lack of serious purpose on the part of my 
Republican colleagues and on their failing to do their job simply 
because of the political directive of one Donald Trump. It is another 
example of how the cult of Donald Trump has infected our political 
process to the grave damage and detriment of all America.
  Democrats spent months negotiating with Republicans and developed 
that compromised border bill, the strongest bill in a generation, 
endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council, and the union of Border 
Patrol agents. And it would have reformed our asylum system, as you 
have heard, and empowered the President to help manage challenges at 
the border. But it also would have expanded work opportunities and some 
legal pathways to enter the United States, including Afghan nationals 
who assisted our Armed Forces and our diplomats, stood by them at grave 
risk to themselves. It was a tough compromise. And it limited asylum 
claims in ways that many Democrats and I were wary of, because it was a 
compromise.
  As soon as the bill was released and after it was agreed to by 
Republicans' chosen negotiator, the Republicans torpedoed it. And they 
torpedoed it for one reason: Because they wanted it as a political 
issue. They killed the bill because Donald Trump demanded it. As we 
have heard tonight, Donald Trump said: ``Please, blame it on me.'' And 
we are here tonight to do it, because the blame is well-deserved.
  So Trump and his allies have repeatedly shown that they prefer talk 
over action, that they prefer political gamesmanship over the hard work 
of bipartisanship on this issue. But we are not giving up. We are not 
going away. We are not abandoning this effort. It will continue to be 
our work, my life's work as the son of an immigrant, dedicated to 
sensible and responsible immigration reform--comprehensive reform.
  This bill is not the last word, but it is a start. And we will pursue 
bipartisan action over political gamesmanship. Republicans need to 
decide if they want to take action or just continue to talk.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, I want to join the Senator from 
Connecticut in thanking Senator Murphy for his leadership, not only in 
bringing this group together today but also of this very important bill 
and effort to take on the issues on the border.
  As we face global and domestic threats, including a surge at the 
border, securing our borders and points of entry could not be more 
important. We had this opportunity to move forward in a bipartisan 
manner on a broad reform bill that Senators Murphy, Lankford, and 
Sinema spent months negotiating. For those of us who had bills that 
were part of that effort, including the Afghan Adjustment Act, I saw 
firsthand the detailed work they did, the work that they did--that hard 
work of coming together for what is best for our country.
  We have seen these efforts before with immigration every time we have 
gotten so close. When I first got to the Senate, Senator Graham and 
Senator Kennedy invited me to be in the group that negotiated 
legislation supported by President Bush.
  We came so close to getting that done in comprehensive reform which, 
of course, included funding for order at the border.
  After that failed, we moved into President Obama's time. Again, this 
time, it was the Senate Judiciary Committee, on which I served, that 
came together with Senator Grassley's support and Senator Leahy's, and 
reached an agreement, passed it through the Senate, and then it failed 
over in the House of Representatives.
  Time three was when Senator Rounds, Senator Kaine, and many of us 
came together. I remember Senator Collins' office was the place of the 
meeting. I believe the Presiding Officer

[[Page S3738]]

was part of that, too, and we reached an agreement. We had enough 
votes. And then, unfortunately, President Trump gut punched the people 
in his own party and came out against the bill--again, significant 
funding for order at the border, significant work that would have been 
done to allow people to seek citizenship who had been here for years, 
many of whom know no other country, like the Dreamers.
  This bill that was negotiated came with incredible headwinds that 
they were up against. It would have fixed the asylum system. It would 
have given the President emergency powers to shut the border down when 
needed. It also would have invested in hiring more Border Patrol agents 
and immigration judges, while giving law enforcement the tools and 
technology they need to secure our borders.
  As the Presiding Officer knows, strengthening our border security 
means investing in both our southern and our northern borders, and I 
note that Senator Stabenow of Michigan also touched on this very 
important issue.
  America shares the longest border in the world with the country of 
Canada. It stretches over 5,500 miles, and more than 400,000 people and 
$2 billion in goods and services cross it every day. A strong northern 
border is critical for maintaining our trade relationships with Canada 
and the world.
  As I like to say, in Minnesota, we can see Canada from our porch, and 
they are our closest trading partner. I just met with a number of 
leaders from the Canadian Parliament today. But that border is also 
critical for our national security.
  We know that more people on the Terrorist Screening Database attempt 
to enter the United States from Canada than through Mexico, and we have 
witnessed terrible instances of drug smuggling and human trafficking 
across this border.
  Like so many others, I was horrified and heartbroken when a family of 
four froze to death in a blizzard at the Minnesota-Canada border, just 
2 years ago, in an incident related to human smuggling. That is why we 
must ensure that Federal, State, and local officials have the 
information and resources they need to protect our northern border.
  And when there are issues at the southern border, they often rely on 
Customs, as the Presiding Officer knows, and others to come down from 
northern border offices, and that creates its own set of issues.
  That is why these negotiations that Senators Murphy and Lankford and 
Senator Sinema, with strong support from Senator Schumer, engaged in 
and this product of a bill were so important, and that is why I 
supported it.
  Beyond addressing the situations at both the northern and southern 
border, the Border Act would expand legal pathways by including 250,000 
new family and employment visas over the next 5 years. These visas 
would go a long way toward filling worker shortages in my State--and I 
know in the Presiding Officer's State--that are impacting businesses in 
my home State, impacting farmers, hospitality, hospitals, clinics, and 
the like.
  This bill also included the Afghan Adjustment Act, with some changes 
that had been suggested by a number of Republican Senators, which we 
included. That bill would have been a savior. There are 80,000 Afghans 
here, so many of whom helped our troops--a major priority for the 
American Legion, a major priority for the VFW--and they now have a 
trapdoor under them. They don't know whenever they could be sent back 
to the Taliban. Yet these are people we made a covenant to. And just 
like after the Vietnam war, we kept that covenant--we kept that 
covenant with those that stood with us--we must keep that covenant 
again.
  That is why Senators like Senator Graham was the lead sponsor of that 
bill with me, along with Senator Moran, the ranking member of Veterans' 
Affairs. Senator Risch is on the bill from Foreign Relations. We have 
support from Senator Mullin on that bill. Senator Wicker is on that 
bill. It is an incredible group of Republican and Democratic 
cosponsors, and I thank Senator Murphy, Senator Lankford, and Senator 
Sinema for their work to incorporate it into the bill. It is strongly 
supported by the Chamber of Commerce as well.
  So the bill not only included the work that I just mentioned on the 
border and on some of these other very important issues; the bill also 
would have made a major effort in taking on fentanyl by strengthening 
our borders.
  We did make progress on border security legislation that was signed 
into law last month as part of the national security package, the FEND 
Off Fentanyl Act. This critical legislation, championed by our 
colleagues Senators Sherrod Brown and Tim Scott, declares fentanyl 
trafficking a national emergency and imposes tough new sanctions on 
fentanyl traffickers, from the chemical suppliers in China to the 
Mexican cartels that traffic the drugs into our country.
  We also recently provided funding for Customs and Border Protection 
to detect and seize fentanyl and other narcotics at our ports of entry.
  These are important steps in the right direction, but there is so 
much more to do. Law enforcement officers across my State and our 
country must be very concerned about this every day. One seizure, 
actually, of fentanyl was enough to kill every single person in 
Hennepin County, our most populous county.
  In Minnesota alone, fentanyl is involved in 92 percent of opioid 
deaths. Just last month, police in my husband's hometown of Mankato 
arrested six suspected drug dealers and seized almost 6,000 pills laced 
with fentanyl. And earlier this year, Minnesota's U.S. attorney, Andy 
Luger, announced that law enforcement busted a Twin Cities drug ring 
and seized over 30,000 grams of fentanyl pills. That is enough to kill 
everyone in our State with over 5 million people more than two times 
over.
  These aren't just numbers. Each of those pills could kill one of our 
friends and neighbors, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters.
  I am thinking about Devin Norring from Hastings, MN. Devin was 
struggling with dental pain and migraines. So he bought what he thought 
was Percocet over Snapchat to deal with the pain. But it wasn't really 
Percocet. It was laced with fentanyl, and it immediately killed him. He 
was only 19. One pill can kill, and every pill we keep out of our 
country represents a potential life saved.

  That is why we have to pass this legislation. But I join my 
colleagues and will continue to advocate for the bipartisan Border Act. 
Why? More funding for cutting-edge technology to intercept fentanyl, 
more secured border, more order at the border. We need this at the 
southern border, as well as the northern border.
  Next week, I hope we will have an opportunity to take action on this 
bill. We have worked on this bill for months, making changes from 
multiple Senators from both parties. At this point, there shouldn't be 
any controversy about what is in the bill. People have had plenty of 
time to read it. They have had plenty of time to see the support from 
groups like the conservative union of the border agents at the border. 
They have had plenty of time to see the support that the bill has from 
so many groups across the country.
  They have had plenty of time to hear about the horror stories, like 
the one I just mentioned on fentanyl, and they have had plenty of time 
to get to the place: That is enough about politics, enough about finger 
pointing. Let us pass this bipartisan border bill to make our country 
safer.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Connecticut.
  Mr. MURPHY. Madam President, let me thank my colleagues for coming to 
the floor tonight to reinforce the opportunity that we have. I think we 
have gotten used to immigration being a perpetual political football in 
this country. It almost feels and seems unsolvable--that it is just the 
subject for campaign ads, for cable news shows, for fundraising emails.
  It doesn't have to be that way. We could choose to make progress. We 
could choose to pass legislation that treats migrants a little bit more 
humanely, that gives a pathway for individuals like those Afghan 
partners to be able to become U.S. citizens and gives the President 
updated powers at the border to make sure that we are doing immigration 
at the southwest border in a humane, orderly way.
  That is not impossible. In fact, it is more possible than ever before 
because

[[Page S3739]]

a group of Senators sat in a room for 4 months, in good faith, and 
hashed out a compromise that involves a lot of Republican priorities, a 
lot of Democratic priorities; that is endorsed by the progressive-
leaning immigration lawyers group and the conservative-leaning Border 
Patrol union; that is endorsed by the Washington Post and the Wall 
Street Journal.
  I know we are not used to finding common ground on immigration. It 
seems to happen only once a decade. But we found it. We found it. And I 
am going to be reintroducing this bill because I believe that there is 
a chance Republicans will choose to do the right thing.
  I get it. The border being a mess is good politics for Republicans. I 
get it. Keeping this problem unsolved might provide an advantage for 
Republicans in this next election. But we don't go into this business 
to win elections, to just put our name on the door.
  Senator Lankford said it on this floor. He said every one of us is 
given a pen. Every one of us has a unique ability to make law, to make 
the country better. What is the point, Senator Lankford said, of having 
this job if you are just going to do press conferences, if you are not 
going to actually engage in the hard work of compromise to make this 
country better and safer? That is what we did.
  Senator Lankford, Senator Sinema, myself, Senator Schumer, Senator 
McConnell--we sat in a room for 4\1/2\ months. We forged a compromise 
that unquestionably--unquestionably--will bring order to the southwest 
border. And, because of that, Donald Trump is telling Republicans: 
Ditch it. Vote no. We don't want there to be order at the southwest 
border because that would be bad politics for us.
  What is the point of having this job if you aren't willing to make 
tough compromises that make this country better?
  And so I understand there may be long odds to convincing Republicans 
to change their vote. I understand that, because the bill is a 
compromise, there will be some Democrats who will vote against it.
  But I think this is so important. I take Republicans at their word 
that it is an emergency to make sense of what is happening at the 
border, that it is worth it to bring this bill back before the floor. I 
hope our leadership will decide to schedule a vote on this bill.
  I will introduce the bill imminently, I think, with many of my 
colleagues supporting it. And I am deeply grateful to many of my 
friends in the Democratic caucus for underscoring the importance of 
bringing order to the southwest border, investing in border security, 
and supporting our migrant communities, as the bipartisan border 
security bill does.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. 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. SCHUMER. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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