Executive Session
Floor Speech
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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, it is no secret that our economy has broken some pretty amazing records lately. Last week's job report surpassed all estimates and expectations, with a whopping 263,000 jobs created in April alone. The first quarter saw 3.2 percent growth, which is the best in 4 years.
I still recall, back during the previous administration, when we were told that 2 percent growth was the new normal and that we could never grow our economy the way we have seen in recent months. Obviously, 2 percent growth is not the new normal for the American economy. We all ought to be relieved and comforted by that fact.
The unemployment rate has dropped to 3.6 percent--the lowest level in nearly half a century. Everybody who is able-bodied and willing to work and willing to be trained for jobs that pay well I believe has an opportunity to do so these days. There is no doubt that this is an incredible time for our economy, and I am confident that the pro-growth policies that we have brought to the table during this administration and during a Republican majority in the House and the Senate will continue to bring real benefits to families across the country. But we have also broken another record, one that has a much more negative impact, and that is especially in my State of Texas.
S. 1303
In March, Customs and Border Protection encountered more than 103,000 migrants along the southwestern border--the highest number since 2007. Unlike previous times when we saw numbers on that scale, these are people who simply show up at the border and turn themselves in to the Border Patrol and claim asylum--mainly families and unaccompanied children, if you could believe that. To put this figure into perspective, it is more than double that of the same period last year and more than six times that in 2017. So something is clearly afoot.
Our country is simply not equipped to manage this sort of massive influx, and folks in my State are bearing the brunt of the humanitarian crisis.
Again, I would remind those listening that the first person who called this a humanitarian crisis, in 2014, was President Barack Obama. He called it a humanitarian and security crisis. It has gotten worse since then, not better. Many of our cities along the border and nongovernmental organizations--faith-based organizations that take it as part of their mission to deal with the needs of migrants along the border--are struggling to manage the growing need for humanitarian relief, as well as businesses and manufacturers that feel the tight squeeze of backed-up border crossings.
Most folks here inside the beltway probably couldn't comprehend the cross-border traffic and how interdependent our economy really is. There are 14,000 to 16,000 truck trips a day across the U.S.-Mexico border at Laredo. As the already understaffed Customs and Border Protection has tried to manage the flow of family units and unaccompanied children entering our country, Customs agents had been pulled off of that duty--their ordinary duties--causing lanes to be closed and wait times to skyrocket. I was told by some American-based car manufacturers that they simply have had to hire charter aircraft to fly from the Mexican side of the border to the U.S. side of the border in order to meet their just-in-time inventory needs because, otherwise, trucks bringing those same parts across the border that ordinarily would have taken an hour to get across now are taking 14 hours or more, simply disrupting their supply chain and threatening to put many people in the interior of the United States out of work if this situation continues or gets worse.
The aerial footage of the border looks more like a parking lot than a port of entry. Cargo trucks and personal vehicles sit at a complete standstill, backed up for miles. People are supplying drivers with water. Can you imagine being stuck in your car for hours on end with no preparation for food or water--or fuel, for that matter--based on the amount of time sitting idly in line?
With nearly $1.7 billion in products crossing our border every day, as I have said, these delays have had a serious impact on manufacturers and retailers in industries ranging from automobiles to medical devices to just simply the produce that we take for granted in our grocery stores.
A report released last week by the Texas-based Perryman Group estimated that these slowdowns could cost the U.S. economy $69 billion--$69 billion--over a 3-month period. Nearly half of that--an estimated $32 billion--would be a direct hit on the Texas economy.
Last week, I heard from the Chamber of Commerce in San Antonio and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce about these wait times. Their members are facing delayed orders and increased shipping costs because of these wait times, and they want us to do something about it. That is not an unreasonable desire or request.
Unlike a lot of folks inside the beltway here in Washington, they have to manage this crisis. They have to deal with it. They can't ignore it or turn their eyes in another direction. They don't care about talking points or winning a messaging war. They want a solution to their problem. So, now, in addition to the humanitarian and security crisis that President Obama talked about in 2014, we have the beginning of a full-blown economic crisis as well.
It is an understatement to say that there is a lot of disagreement on what the solution might look like, but anyone who has taken an elementary school class can tell you that, for it to pass a Republican- led Senate and a Democratic-controlled House, this must be bipartisan. I should say that anybody who has happened to see ``Schoolhouse Rock!'' should know that it is going to have to be bipartisan and bicameral and that the President has to sign it in order for it to pass.
Over the years, I have worked closely with my friend and fellow Texan Henry Cuellar on legislation to strengthen both border security and customs operations along our State's border with Mexico. Henry is a Democrat from Laredo, TX. I, obviously, am not, but that doesn't mean we can't find common background. That is actually what I believe our constituents sent us here to do--not to sacrifice principles but, when there is a problem to be solved, to work together in a bipartisan way to try to solve it. So last week, we introduced a bill that could bring those recordbreaking border numbers back down and finally provide some relief for law enforcement, for our cities, for our NGOs, and for our businesses struggling to manage.
I have spent a lot of time with the officers and agents who defend our borders every day, and I always ask them: What can I do to help you? What do you need from Congress in order to succeed at the job we have asked you to do?
There are two common answers I hear. One is to close the loopholes that serve as a magnet or a pull factor on this massive wave of humanity from places like Central America into the United States, with people claiming asylum because they know they can exploit the loopholes that exist in the law and be successfully placed in the United States, never to be heard from again as they blend into this great American landscape. In other words, they know they can successfully make it from here into the United States unless these loopholes are filled. That is what the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection have implored us to do, along with the Department of Homeland Security--to close these loopholes.
The main people benefiting from these loopholes in our asylum laws are the human traffickers, the drug traffickers, and the people who get rich moving this massive humanity from Central America into the United States. They charge, $5,000, $6,000, $7,000, or $8,000 a person. Of course, these are also the same criminal organizations that move drugs into the United States, trafficking women and children for sex.
Last year alone, we know that 70,000-plus Americans died of drug overdoses in America. About half of them was from opioids, including heroin--90 percent of which comes from Mexico--along with the synthetic opioid known as fentanyl, which those of us working here know is much more powerful and much more dangerous than heroin, which is dangerous in and of itself. The same people who are trafficking in these migrants are trafficking in the drugs that are killing Americans on a daily basis and taking advantage of the desire of women and children to make their way here to the United States and turning them into virtual sex slaves.
The people who have patiently and properly tried to enter our country legally are frustrated by illegal border crossers who try to game the system and use well-intentioned laws as a literal get-out-of-jail-free card.
One of the most frequently exploited loopholes is known as the Flores Settlement Agreement, which was created to ensure that unaccompanied children aren't spending long periods of time in the custody of the Border Patrol. It was and remains an important protector for the most vulnerable individuals who come across our border and ensures that these unaccompanied children may be processed and released either to relatives or to the Department of Health and Human Services.
A later, misguided ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2016 effectively expanded the time cap for unaccompanied children to families--that is, adults bringing one or more children across the border with them. These smugglers and human traffickers aren't fools. They see this as an opportunity to be exploited, and they know that by posing as a family, these individuals will be released after 20 days and can virtually disappear into the interior of the country. The child traveling with them could have been kidnapped, smuggled, or trafficked--all of which has happened before.
Sadly, this is a common occurrence. The Department of Human Resources announced last week that they have identified more than 1,000 cases of fraudulent families trying to cross the border since October of last year. Clearly, the criminal element is exploiting our laws and hurting innocent children, and by doing nothing, we ourselves are complicit in their bad behavior.
That is why we need to act. That is the one thing we can do. We need to clarify that Flores only applies to unaccompanied children and not to these family units who are gaming the system. First and foremost, this would protect children from being used as an entry ticket by criminals and smugglers, and it would also eliminate a pull factor for those tempted to try to use this method to gain entry.
Of course, we know there are legitimate families who cross our border, and we must take additional steps to confirm these biological relationships and enable them to remain together in custody. No one is advocating for separating these families from their children. The HUMANE Act that Congressman Cuellar and I have introduced requires all children to undergo biometric and DNA screening--something the Department of Homeland Security has recently been testing. This was in order to defeat the fraudulent claim of biological or familial relationship with a minor child in order to gain entry into the United States. I believe we have a responsibility to ensure that children are actual family members and not being used as a pawn by the smugglers.
Our legislation also provides safeguards to prevent children from being placed in the custody of dangerous individuals, such as sex offenders or human traffickers. The last thing we should want to do is welcome these unaccompanied children here to America, only to place them, by action of the Federal Government, in the hands of sex offenders or human traffickers because of our failure to take all necessary caution to prevent it.
Consistent with the recommendations from the bipartisan Department of Homeland Security Homeland Security Advisory Council, the HUMANE Act would require DHS to establish at least four regional processing centers along the southern border to house and process these families. It is important that we provide them humane and compassionate housing while they await their asylum hearing in front of an immigration judge.
By not doing so, by engaging in what has come to be known as catch- and-release, we essentially help facilitate the entry of these individuals into the United States and encourage this pull factor that would only encourage not only 76,000 migrants, like we saw come across the border in February, not 103,000, like we saw come across the border in March, but we are going to see those numbers continue to go up and up and up and up, because, if you think about it, there is simply no reason for them not to come. The smugglers are getting rich, and people who want to come into the United States by falsely claiming grounds for asylum have found a way to exploit our system. When we look in the mirror, the only ones we can blame are ourselves for failing to act.
We know these regional processing centers could serve as a one-stop shop, with DHS personnel, including asylum officers, on site to adjudicate claims and expedite the entire process. We want to make sure that if somebody does have a bona fide claim for asylum, they get to be heard by an immigration judge and they get that immigration benefit to which the law entitles them. But if they are not entitled to asylum, if they can't make their case to an immigration judge, they should not be able to do an end run around the system and enter the country under false pretenses.
These central processing centers would also provide families with better living conditions that can be provided at a CBP detention facility meant to hold strictly single adults.
To prevent this humanitarian crisis from having a deeper impact on legitimate trade and travel, this bill mandates the hiring of additional Homeland Security personnel and upgrades our ports of entry to expedite the legal movement of people and goods.
Just the binational trade with Mexico supports about 5 million jobs in America; with Canada, another 8 million. That is why the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, is so important, and now that it has been supplanted by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement that we will be taking up soon, it is very important for us to keep legitimate commerce and trade flowing between Mexico, Canada, and the United States because 13 million jobs or more in America depend on that binational trade. That is another collateral piece of damage as a result of this humanitarian crisis as well.
This is an opportunity for us to consider a bipartisan and bicameral piece of legislation to solve a real and growing problem, and I hope both of our Chambers will take seriously our responsibility to act and to act soon.
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