[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 85 (Thursday, May 16, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3761-S3762]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               BORDER ACT

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, can I just recap for this body. Starting 
in last October, a group of us sat down to have a serious conversation 
about the border.
  We had a Democrat Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy; we had an 
Independent Senator, Kyrsten Sinema, from Arizona; and a conservative 
Senator from Oklahoma.
  We all understood the problem is serious, and there are very real 
threats to our national security, our economy. It was spiraling out of 
control on the border.
  October was the highest month ever in the history of our country. 
November was the highest number ever in the history of our country. 
December was the highest number ever in the history of our country, 
with the largest day of illegal crossings in the history of our 
country, in December, of 12,000 people in a single day. Things were 
spiraling out of control at the border, and they continued.
  So we sat down in a serious conversation and said we had differences 
of how to be able to resolve this, but we all want to be able to fix 
this. So we spent months trying to be able to hammer out a resolution.
  It was a serious dialogue that we hoped to be able to get to a 
conclusion, but we failed to do that. We created a bill that, I felt 
like, was a great bill with common ground in it. It didn't have 
everything that I wanted in it, but it did have the essentials in it to 
be able to change the way we do asylum, to be able to change the 
processing. It literally took it from the very first person that 
crossed the border each day would be detained, quickly screened, and 
then deported--the very first person.
  If we had a caravan of up to 5,000 people across the day, we can't 
control that; so in that situation, instead of detaining, quickly 
screening, and deporting, we would just detain and deport, because 
there was no time to do the screening. We weren't going to release 
people in; we were going to turn people around.
  It changed the structure dramatically from what was happening on the 
border. I felt like this was a good bill to be able to move forward, 
and I moved in good faith to be able to get that done.
  But it is also well-known here that I had disagreements, some within 
my own party--the majority within my own party--that said this is not 
the time to be able to resolve this. It is what it is.
  It is the political nature of what is going on right now. I 
understand that. But the problem is still unresolved.
  Yesterday, we had 5,500 people that illegally crossed the border 
yesterday--yesterday.
  Last month, we had 174,000 people that illegally crossed our border 
last month. That would have been the highest month ever--in fact, it 
would have been the highest month in the past 20 years if it wasn't for 
the last 3 years under the Biden administration. It would have been 
higher than any month under President Obama, under President Bush, 
under President Trump. It would have been higher than any of those 
months, but it doesn't beat even the records that were even set in the 
previous months before under the Biden administration because of their 
dramatic change in policy.
  That 1.5 million people now illegally cross the border this fiscal 
year--1.5 million people. And they continue to be able to come across 
our border with almost no restraint.
  I have said for a long time, this is a serious issue that we need to 
address. My own party has said this was not the time to be able to do 
that.
  Now I am hearing rumors that next week, the folks I was sitting down 
with to be able to have serious dialogue to fix it may bring bills back 
up again and to say: Let's do a political thing on the other side of 
the aisle.
  Listen, if we are going to solve the border issues, it is not going 
to be by doing competing messaging bills. If we are going to solve 
this, let's sit down like adults and let's figure out how we are going 
to actually resolve this together.
  If there is a messaging bill that comes back--even the bill that I 
helped negotiate--next week just to bring it up again to try to be able 
to poke Republicans in the eye for some sort of messaging piece, why 
are we doing this? All the American people see it.
  Everybody sees this is political, but everyone in the country also 
sees: Why don't you guys and ladies fix this instead? Why don't you 
actually resolve it?
  There are a couple of quotes that have come out lately. My Democratic 
colleagues have put out a memo, and this was the memo, saying:

        Tom Suozzi flipped the script on his Republican opponent, 
     successfully painting her as unserious about border security 
     because of her opposition to the bipartisan border bill, and 
     turned what could have been a devastating political liability 
     into an advantage. Democrats should learn a lesson from NY-
     03. Quite simply, we risk losing the 2024 election if we do 
     not seize this opportunity to go on offense on the issue of 
     the border and turn the tables on Republicans on a key fall 
     voting issue.

  Senator Schumer put out a statement or he made this statement saying:

       It's a win if Republicans abandon us at the last minute, 
     because if Democrats could put together a tough, bipartisan 
     border bill on border, it would not take border away as an 
     issue for the Republicans, but it would at least give us a 
     50-50 chance to combat it.

  Listen, I understand the politics of the moment. I do. We are in a 
Presidential election year. Everybody in America is watching what is 
happening on the border and saying something needs to be fixed. And it 
is easy for Republicans to look at the White House and to say there are 
94 executive orders that the White House has proactively done that 
changed how the border was enforced under President Trump and under 
President Obama. OK? A high number--a high number--under President 
Obama was 2,000 people in a day. Yesterday, we had 5,500 people.
  If President Biden would just enforce the border the same way 
President Obama did, much less the same way President Trump did, the 
border would be very different. Everybody sees that.
  Everybody also sees that we need a change in the way we do asylum 
policy. That is a change that has to be done in Congress. That is a 
vote that we would have to be able to take.
  So instead of us pointing at each other and doing political stunts, 
let's solve this. Let's actually sit down and figure out how we are 
going to resolve

[[Page S3762]]

it. We can't do everything. The bill that I worked with Senator Murphy 
and Senator Sinema on, we are not going to be able to pass. So let's 
find the sections on it that we can pass.
  The worst case scenario is doing nothing. That is what we are 
currently doing.
  Now, the House of Representatives passed a bill yesterday saying that 
if someone who is not legally present here in the country attacks a law 
enforcement officer, whether that is State, local, county, Federal, 
Tribal, or whoever it may be, if they attack a law enforcement officer, 
they are going to be deported.
  Well, it bipartisan passed over in the House yesterday. Is that 
coming here to the Senate? Probably not. It probably won't be taken up. 
But in a bipartisan way, it passed the House yesterday.
  We have had two different votes of the House bill that passed called 
H.R. 2 that was a very comprehensive bill dealing with all areas of 
border security. It passed the House. It came to the Senate. It has had 
two votes, and it has failed both times. So Republicans can now say: 
Democrats didn't take our bill.

  And Democrats, it looks like, are going to bring things up and say: 
Well, Republicans wouldn't take the bipartisan bill.
  And we would point at each other, and we are still in the same spot.
  Listen, the American people expect us to actually solve this, not 
just do politics on it.
  So here is my counsel: Stop doing all the political games. Let's stop 
bringing up the messaging bills. This is a national emergency.
  Of the 5,500 people who crossed the border yesterday illegally--I 
haven't seen the number yet, but I would tell you, in all likelihood, 
if it is tracking similar to other days--several dozen of those folks 
were designated by the Department of Homeland Security--this Department 
of Homeland Security--as special interest aliens; that is, they are 
coming from areas of known terrorism. They were designated at the 
border as a potential national security risk, and then they were 
released into the country awaiting a hearing. And by this afternoon, we 
will have no idea where they are. That happens every day now, because 
there is a large percentage of the people who are crossing the border 
every day now who are not from the Western Hemisphere.
  They are from West Africa. They are from all the ``stan'' countries. 
They are from Pakistan. They are from India. They are from China. They 
are from Russia. They are from areas where we know there are active 
terrorist cells, but we just don't know this person. They are not on 
our list. But we do know that clan that they are from and that there 
are people from that clan in their particular tribe or their particular 
location that have been an issue. But because we don't have derogatory 
information, they are being released every day.
  This has been the bell I have been ringing for months now. The 
immigration issue is not the same as what it was 2 years ago. There has 
been a huge shift in who is crossing the border, and we are not taking 
this seriously. This is a national security risk, and we need to be 
attentive to who is crossing our border every single day and take that 
seriously.
  This body knows full well I am not anti-immigration. We are a nation 
that has welcomed people in from all over the world, and we should 
continue to do that. We have a million people a year who legally become 
citizens of our country. But in the last 6 months, we have had 1\1/2\ 
million people illegally--illegally--cross into our country.
  That million that came in that became citizens of our country, they 
were vetted. They went through the process. They are being welcomed and 
integrated.
  That million and a half other folks who crossed illegally, we have no 
idea. Some are coming to join family. Some are coming to be able to 
find a job. But some are, no doubt, also coming for nefarious purposes, 
and we can't tell the difference.
  So my counsel to us is: Let's take this as serious as it actually is. 
Press conferences take one person; passing law takes 60. That means we 
have to sit down together to be able to talk this through. We have to 
be able to figure out how we are going to actually get something done 
and at least make some progress.
  What is DHS currently doing? Well, DHS has just announced they are 
doing a rebranding of Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI. They 
are HSI-ICE. Well, they are going to rebrand them and take away the 
``ICE'' designation. So we are going to have a new logo and a new 
something else, and we are expecting a whole new listing of what they 
are actually going to do.
  At the same time, they are saying: We don't have enough money to be 
able to get more Border Patrol, to be able to detain more people, to be 
able to deport more people. We are spending millions of dollars. We 
haven't seen the amount yet, but we are spending millions of dollars on 
rebranding HSI.
  We should take this moment as serious as it actually is. In the past 
3 years, the price of groceries has gone up 20 percent. The price of 
gasoline has gone up 55 percent. But the price of fentanyl has gone 
down on the streets. We should take this moment as serious as it is.
  We have more drugs coming across our border, based on the porous 
nature of what is going on. Where migrants will come in, Border Patrol 
will engage with them for humanitarian purposes, and then the cartels 
will smuggle drugs 2 miles upriver or through the desert when they know 
that no one is watching that area. So we have a dramatic increase in 
fentanyl coming into our country, directly connected to 5,500 people 
who illegally crossed yesterday, and 174,000 people last month, and 1.5 
million in the last 6 months.
  What are we going to do about that? I hope not just talk about it. I 
hope not just do political messaging. I hope not just saying: We will 
bring up this bill to fail, that we all know is going to fail.
  I hope it is actually to sit down together and say: Let's do the work 
to actually resolve this issue.
  That is what people sent us to do.
  I fully understand it is hard. I have personally experienced it. But 
we were sent here to do hard things. So we should probably start doing 
them. Let's get this solved.
  I yield the floor.

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