[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 96 (Wednesday, June 5, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3968-S3969]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. President, let me turn to another crisis, and that is the one on 
our southern border. Since President Biden took office, U.S. Customs 
and Border Protection has recorded 7.8 million illegal crossings at the 
southern border--7.8 million souls.
  Now, just to provide some context, in over 3 years, we have logged 
twice as many illegal border crossings as we did during the full 8 
years of the Obama administration. President Biden has been there about 
3\1/2\ years; President Obama was there 8 years, but President Biden 
has racked up double the number of illegal crossings in 3\1/2\ years 
that occurred during President Obama's term in office.
  President Biden has neglected the border for so long, it is now much 
more than just a question about our immigration system; it is a serious 
national security threat. The southern border has become an open 
gateway for drug traffickers, terrorists, and criminals of all stripes 
to enter the United States and disperse through our communities, all 
across this great land.
  And there is no question that this crisis was able to grow and expand 
because of the conscious policies of the Biden administration. In other 
words, this isn't an accident. This is not the result of negligence. 
This is intentional.
  In his first 100 days in office, President Biden issued more than 94 
Executive actions related to immigration, many of which were designed 
to overturn each one of President Trump's effective border policies, 
and we all see how that turned out.
  In the 3 years since, the Biden administration has taken hundreds of 
other Executive actions that have made it easier--not harder--easier 
for people to cross the border illegally and remain in the United 
States.
  Now, with election day 5 months away, President Biden has taken a 
look at the polls and realized that the American people aren't happy 
with his open border policies. His poll numbers are in the tank.
  So the President did what I presume any politician would do is launch 
a last-ditch effort to show that, no, that is not where I am; that is 
not what I believe; that is not what we should do.
  But the fact is, nobody is going to be fooled by the actions the 
President took yesterday. It is a ploy. It is an election-year stunt. 
It is a shell game. You pick your metaphor.
  Yesterday, President Biden issued a proclamation that would shut off 
access to the asylum system if the daily number of illegal border 
crossings reaches an average of 2,500. Well, if that makes sense, why 
wouldn't you do it with the first person coming across the border? Why 
would you say 2,500 a day are welcome to come into the country no 
questions asked?
  But there are a few points the American people need to understand: 
One, as I said, the President is effectively saying it is OK for 2,499 
border crossings per day. That is OK; you got the green light on that. 
The green light is not just to the migrants; it is also to the criminal 
organizations that smuggle these people for millions and millions or 
rather billions and billions of dollars.

  And that 2,499 that are being waved across the border, that amounts 
to more than 900,000 per year. Now, 2,499 may not seem like a big 
number, but 900,000 per year seems like a lot, and it is. For some 
reason, the 2,500th person to cross the border is a bridge too far for 
this administration now, 5 months before the general election.
  In my view, one illegal border crossing is one too many. Now, don't 
get me wrong. I believe legal immigration has been essential to America 
and remains so--legal, humane, and orderly immigration policy. Very few 
of us and our forebearers were born here. Most came from somewhere else 
in hope of a better life and became Americans and embraced our values 
and our way of life. But President Biden has outsourced his immigration 
policy to criminal cartels. It is madness.
  Secondly, the Biden administration won't likely be able to enforce 
these caps anyway. In other words, they are just artificial. In order 
to waive migrants back to Mexico or return them to their home 
countries, those countries have to be willing to accept them. That is 
what President Trump negotiated with his ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. 
What did President Biden do? He basically wiped it off the books.
  Now, it is no guarantee Mexico is going to be willing to accept these 
folks. What happens if Mexico says, ``We are at capacity''?
  My guess is, those individuals will be released into the United 
States, which is what has happened to this point, and many will never 
be heard from again, unless they have the bad judgment and misfortune 
to commit some crime and happen to be encountering U.S. law 
enforcement.
  The final point I want to make is this: The administration had been 
claiming for years that it doesn't have the authority to restrict 
illegal border crossings. Well, apparently President Biden woke up 
yesterday and realized he did.

[[Page S3969]]

  In fact, the President has consistently blamed Republicans or anybody 
else, for that fact, for lack of progress on the border issue. But by 
issuing this Executive action, President Biden has acknowledged that he 
does have authority to address this crisis on its own, even though this 
proclamation looks like a piece of Swiss cheese.
  So he could have taken action at any point in the last 3\1/2\ years 
with no further action required by the Congress. There has not been a 
single month during the Biden administration where we saw an average of 
less than 2,500 illegal crossings per day. We have seen some, as many 
as 13,000 a day. And where I come from in Texas, we are the front door 
through which these migrants enter, 1,200 miles of border with Mexico. 
Some go to Arizona, some go to California, but most of them come 
through Texas.
  During the slowest month, which was the President's first full month 
in office, we saw an average of 3,500 illegal crossings a day. 
President Biden could have stopped the wave of illegal immigration at 
any point in the last 3\1/2\ years, but he simply ignored the crisis 
until 5 months before an election. It sounds like an election-eve 
conversion to me.
  The President's latest proclamation is not an honest or serious 
attempt to address the border crisis. It is nothing more than a last-
ditch effort to deceive voters into thinking he has gotten religion; 
that he is serious about it this time. It is just not credible.
  The American people have seen how President Biden has handled the 
crisis for more than 3 years, and they won't be fooled by this 
eleventh-hour gambit.