The Crisis At the Border

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRIFFITH. Madam Speaker, ``Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.''

John Adams made that statement almost 250 years ago. I recall his words when House Speaker Pelosi, in arguing against more funding for security at the southern border, claimed that President Trump was ``manufacturing a crisis.''

The facts on the border establish that a crisis exists. According to the Department of Homeland Security data, 161,000 family units arrived in fiscal year 2018, an increase of 50 percent, and 60,000 unaccompanied children arrived in the same time period, an increase of 25 percent. Asylum claims have surged an astounding 2,000 percent in the past 5 years, although most of these claims will be found invalid later, after judicial review.

These surging numbers are overwhelming our resources on the border and creating a humanitarian, security, and legal crisis.

The Mexican side of the border is often controlled by Mexican criminal cartels or gangs. They charge a fee to assist border crossings. To get here, many illegal immigrants put themselves in the hands of these vicious smuggling gangs, which are looking for profit and are uninterested in basic human dignity.

On the dangerous journey to the border, 7 out of 10 migrants suffer from violence, and 31 percent of women and 17 percent of men are sexually assaulted. Too often, the fees these gangs charge are indentured servitude in the sex trade. Porous borders only encourage more business for the criminal gangs who commit these abuses.

Further, more than people are being brought across the border, as you have heard. Increased amounts of illicit substances are entering as well. Meth, trafficked across the border by these cartels into places across the country, including my district in southwest Virginia, increased by 38 percent from fiscal year 2017 to fiscal year 2018. That same period saw a 22 percent increase in heroin and an astonishing 73 percent increase in fentanyl.

Even when current security measures intercept people crossing the border illegally, there isn't enough room in facilities to detain these individuals until a judicial hearing can be held. Accordingly, most illegal immigrants are released with notice to appear at a hearing in the future. By the time of the hearing, they have either disappeared back into the clutches of the cartels or into the underground economy.

In my opinion, these facts classify the situation on the southern border as a crisis.

President Trump has asked for $5.7 billion to build a barrier on the southern border, and additional funding for personnel. What is more, he is willing to negotiate with the Democrats in the House and in the Senate. Congressional Republicans are also ready to compromise.

In contrast, Democrat leaders refuse to budge. They say they will give no money for a wall. Speaker Pelosi even called a wall immoral.

Her views on a barrier's immorality may come as a surprise to many on her side of the aisle. When Congress voted on the Secure Fence Act, which provided for 700 miles of fencing in 2006, it received the support of 64 Democrats in the House and 26 in the Senate, including Chuck Schumer, now the Senate Democrat leader, and then-Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Instead, she appears afraid to get to yes on a deal with the President. Speaker Pelosi appears to be afraid to get to that deal.

Another objection she has raised to the wall is that illegal drugs and other smuggled goods also come through our legal ports of entry rather than across the border. President Trump responded by including an additional $675 million to combat smuggling at the ports of entry.

Further, Democrats say the government should be reopened before they can come to the table. But when debating immigration last summer, the House Democrats never offered a compromise on a wall. When debating spending bills this fall, House Democrats never offered to compromise on a wall.

For 30 years, the American people have been promised a barrier on the southern border. Particularly for the last 4 months when the government was, in fact, open, the last 4 months of 2018, House Democrats didn't offer a solution. Why should anyone believe now that, if the government is reopened, they will suddenly find a way to compromise?

Reaching a compromise is difficult when one side doesn't admit there is a problem. A porous border has caused a crisis.

I urge Speaker Pelosi to come to the table. Let's talk about ways to secure the border, protect the American people, end the humanitarian crisis, and reopen the government.

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