[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 88 (Tuesday, May 21, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3800-S3802]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               BORDER ACT

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, so far this year, 1,624,790 people have 
illegally crossed our southwest border--1,624,790 so far. We have at 
least 1.6

[[Page S3801]]

million people who have also been designated ``got-aways'' in the last 
3 years; that is, they crossed our southwest border, and the Border 
Patrol could see them, but they couldn't get to them.
  Let me give you some context on that. As this body knows well, 
because we have talked about it over and over and over again, in the 
first 3 years of this administration, we have had more illegal 
crossings on our southwest border than in the previous 12 years 
combined--more in the last 3 years than we had in the previous 12 years 
combined.
  If you want to just drill down, 1 year under President Biden has as 
many illegal crossings as we had under 4 years of President Trump. 
Yesterday, we had more than 5,000 people illegally cross our southwest 
border--yesterday. That has been true every day, I believe, but 3, in 
the last 3 months, that we have had more than 5,000 people a day.
  Now, the national news media has looked away from the southwest 
border, but those who live on the southwest border can't look away. 
They are still facing it every single day. And in cities and 
communities across the entire country, it is still happening every 
single day, day after day, as this President has looked away from what 
is happening on our southern border.
  As I have said to this Department of Homeland Security multiple 
times, if they would enforce the border the same as President Obama 
enforced the border, we would be in a very different place. But they 
don't enforce the border like President Trump did, and they don't 
enforce it like President Obama did. They just fail to enforce it.
  The same law--the same law--existed under President Obama, when we 
had less than half a million people cross illegally in a year, that 
exists under President Biden, where we have had 1.6 million people so 
far this year, with still quite a few months to go--the same law, the 
same capacity to be able to enforce the border. But this President has 
said over and over again that he has nothing that he can do until 
something is passed.
  I have been very clear with this body, and I have been very honest 
with my own party and with my friends on the other side of the aisle: 
Congress has a job to do. We need to clarify what asylum means. We need 
to add the funds that are needed. We need to speed up the process. We 
need to take away the forever appeals that are built into it that 
incentivize people coming and gaming the system. That is Congress's 
job. We should do that.
  And I have worked with everyone who is willing to work on that to get 
us to a place where we can get to 60 votes in this body to pass 
something to do our job. One party cannot resolve this issue. This has 
to be both parties sitting down and working on it together. That is the 
rule of 60 in this body.
  But the President also has things that he could do that he has chosen 
not to do. In fact, this President has taken 94 Executive orders to 
weaken border security. He has created new parole authorities no 
President has ever used before to facilitate faster movement into the 
country. So instead of actually slowing the process down, he has 
actually sped it up. And they have done so intentionally.
  In the past few weeks, the Department of Homeland Security has 
released a new memo and a new regulatory action that they are getting 
feedback for that they have admitted to me that will increase screening 
for, in their words, a handful of additional people--a handful when, 
yesterday, we had 5,000 people illegally cross.
  But, currently, as right now Homeland Security is saying that they 
don't have enough money to hire more agents, they are spending millions 
of dollars rebranding Homeland Security Investigation, or HSI. They are 
rebranding them and changing some of their focus on it. Now, we have 
yet to be able to find out how much they are spending on it, but we do 
understand it is in the millions. At the same time, they are saying 
they don't have enough money to be able to handle greater enforcement.

  This administration is focused on the things that don't make a 
difference when we need them to focus on the things that do. This body 
is also focused on the things that are not making a difference on this.
  Several of us sat down for months to be able to hash out in a 
bipartisan way: How do we solve this? We felt we had a solution that 
could pass. We did not.
  Now, that same option that everyone in this whole body knows won't 
pass is now coming back to this body again, exactly as it was. And many 
of us--including myself, who actually worked on the original language--
are saying: Why? This is not about trying to pass something. This is 
about a show vote in this body to show: Look, we tried to vote on 
something, and those mean Republicans blocked it.
  Well, I hate to tell you, this vote, when it comes up on Thursday--
because that is when I understand it is coming--I will be interested in 
how many Democrats vote for this as well because I have already heard 
quite a few Democrats say: I am not sure I really want to vote for it 
if it doesn't have Ukraine, if it doesn't have Israel funding in it--
because, originally, it was border security, Ukraine-Israel funding. 
And so some of my Democratic colleagues were voting for it. But now 
that it has none of those things, several have said to me: I am not 
sure I want to vote for that without the other portions of it in there.
  Several Republicans are saying the same thing they said before: Hey, 
I wanted even more in that bill. I know there were a lot of good things 
in it, but I wanted even more in it.
  So they are not willing to vote for it until it has even more.
  So what would be the logical thing that should be done in this body? 
The logical thing would be to say: That vote failed; so what would 
pass?
  You see, we can play the same game because Democrats have blocked the 
bill from Senator Scott that would fund border security and enforcement 
of immigration laws at a different level. Democrats blocked that vote.
  When Marco Rubio and Senator Graham brought bills to enforce the 
``Remain in Mexico'' program that President Biden walked away from, 
Democrats blocked that vote.
  When Senator Cotton brought up a vote to stop aid for sanctuary 
cities that incentivize more people coming into the country and 
disappearing, Democrats blocked that vote.
  When Senator Grassley brought up a bill to deport criminal illegal 
aliens, Democrats blocked that bill.
  When Senator Hagerty brought up a bill to deal with increasing 
funding for ICE and to deport more criminal aliens that have already 
been designated criminal aliens in the United States, Democrats blocked 
that bill.
  When I brought up a bill to be able to implement and fund the title 
42 authority and to extend that, Democrats blocked that bill.
  When Senator Marshall brought a bill to bring up H.R. 2 and Senator 
Cruz brought up the bill for H.R. 2--the House bill that has a broad 
spectrum for border enforcement--Democrats blocked that bill.
  When Senator Hagerty again brought up a bill to ban Federal funds 
from being used to fly illegal aliens from other countries to be able 
to give them parole authority into our country, Democrats blocked that 
bill.
  When Republicans--Senator Budd--bring up the Laken Riley Act, 
Democrats blocked that bill.
  When I brought up a bill dealing with special interest aliens, those 
the Department of Homeland Security designated as a potential national 
security risk--when I brought up a bill to say all those folks could 
not be released into the country, they had to be detained if they were 
declared a national security risk--Democrats blocked that bill.
  We can play this game all day long. Somehow, this belief that if we 
bring up a bill that has failed before that is somehow a strong 
movement to be able to solve the issue doesn't. It plays a political 
game, and we all know it.
  So what should we do? Actually be grownups, sit down, and actually 
try to figure out what we can pass rather than bringing things up that 
we all know won't.
  Now, I don't know if there is a belief that somehow, on Memorial Day 
week, Americans across the country can't wait for the Senate to vote 
again on a bill that has already failed before that could come up 
again, as if something is going to be different. I have a message to 
all of my colleagues: The people of America are not, on Memorial Day 
week, focused on what the Senate is doing this week. They are just not.

[[Page S3802]]

They are thinking about their family member that was lost defending the 
country, or they are thinking about a sale at an appliance store. They 
are not thinking about this and this drama.
  We should take seriously, though, the national security risk that all 
of us know about and do something about it.
  Just as a side note that all of us know full well, the number of 
people designated by this administration as special interest aliens, 
those that are a national security risk by definition, who are coming 
across our border and being released into the country, is in the 
thousands.
  We all know it. We should take that seriously. If we want to just 
deal with the people who are on the higher list, who are on the Terror 
Watchlist, if I go back to, let's say, 2017, there were two people who 
were apprehended on the Terror Watchlist in 2017. There were six people 
apprehended in 2018. There were three people in 2019. But if I take 
that to this past year, 2023, there were 172. We have people crossing 
our border who we know are a national security risk while we are 
playing political messaging games here.
  Let's sit down and solve this. Let's not just vote on things that we 
know are going to fail. Let's not just do political messaging. Let's 
actually sit down and solve this.
  Over the past 2 years, something has shifted on our southern border. 
It is not just people from the Western Hemisphere who are crossing 
illegally; it is people from all over the world. We went from having a 
handful of Chinese citizens who crossed the border to last year and 
this year--tens of thousands of Chinese nationals crossing our border.
  I asked DHS: Are any of these Chinese nationals being deported?
  They responded to me: Yes, we have started deporting Chinese 
nationals who are here illegally.
  I said: Terrific. How many?
  Their response: Fourteen so far.
  Fourteen of the tens of thousands who have crossed in the last 2 
years. We have deported 14 Chinese nationals.
  Can I tell you, in Oklahoma, there are thousands of Chinese nationals 
who have come into my State who are working in illegal marijuana 
operations. Our Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics has done a tremendous job 
of trying to be able to shut down all these illegal grow operations, 
but they continue to spring up. Over and over again, when they do a 
bust, it is Chinese nationals working, individuals who were trafficked 
over our southern border and individuals who are in our country 
illegally--over and over and over.
  We know this is going on. We know we have a terror risk. We all see 
it. We know there are individuals by the thousands being released who 
are declared by this administration as special-interest aliens. We 
understand full well criminal activities that are happening. And we are 
doing messaging bills that everyone knows will fail.
  Why don't we sit down and actually talk about it and work it out? Why 
don't we figure out how to solve this? That is what the American people 
expect us to do.
  My friends in Oklahoma look at me and say ``You guys go figure this 
out'' because they feel the problem is there, and what they feel is 
correct. So let's sit down and figure this out.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.

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