Border Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, the American people are counting on Congress to act on some of the biggest issues facing our country.

For starters, there is a border crisis. Since January, more than 630,000 migrants have come to our southern border, including more than 65,000 unaccompanied children. In May, Customs and Border Protection had their busiest month in 21 years, with more than 180,000 encounters in May alone, and we are on track to see some of the highest numbers in yearly border crossings in decades.

Well, the alarm bells are sounding, but amid this crisis, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing this morning on a partisan bill that has nothing to do with the extant border crisis.

Make no mistake, I believe Congress should absolutely take action to allow current DACA, or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, recipients to remain in the United States, but a partisan bill that would provide a pathway to citizenship for 4.4 million adults and other unrelated issues has simply no chance of passing in the Senate.

Now, Senator Durbin, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who has long been an advocate for the Dreamers, if he really were serious about that issue, he now has the authority, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to put a bill before the committee to allow Senators to offer and vote on amendments and to mark up a bill. And if he were able to get a majority of the committee to vote for a bill, he could then ask majority Leader Schumer to put the bill on the floor. But, so far, most of our discussions on immigration have been just that, all talk and no action.

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