Border Security

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, for the past several months, the Biden administration and their officials have devoted their time to one of two things: They have blamed Republicans for problems that they, the Democrats, created, or denying those problems exist at all.

As my colleague from Texas said: Don't believe what you are seeing.

That seems to be a common refrain.

Just last week, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain retweeted the former Chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers when he dismissed rising inflation and collapsing supply chains as ``high class problems.''

Apparently, he thinks those sky-high prices at the grocery store only affect the rich. How wrong they are.

On this same day Ron was scrolling through Twitter, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki insisted that the American people just started paying attention to their finances this year. Never before this year have they looked at their finances. She stood in front of the entire press pool, dismissed serious economic pain as a passing concern, and tried to spin the memory of the prepandemic, pre-Biden economy out of everyone's memory.

Last week, I saw firsthand the consequences of this policy of deflection. Let me tell you, if you want to see what it looks like when our government undermines and abandons entire communities, you need look no further than our Nation's southern border.

What I saw during my recent trip to south Texas was a humanitarian crisis, a healthcare crisis, and a national security crisis. And make no mistake, nothing that is happening down there is the result of some unfortunate accident.

This is no everyday failure of leadership. If our so-called border czar cared at all about doing her job, she would know that every single Border Patrol agent needs to hear from her. Law enforcement officers, they want to hear from her. And property owners in the area believe with absolute certainty that this issue on the southern border--this is a fixable issue. It is fixable.

Our Border Patrol agents want to do their job, but they are undermined every step of the way by the official policies of an administration that has spent billions of dollars canceling construction of the border wall.

That is correct. They are spending your money--your taxpayer dollars, your hard-earned money--canceling contracts, canceling contracts, canceling construction of the border wall.

And they have stripped resources that the Border Patrol needs, pulling back resources like surveillance technology, pulling back funding that could help pay overtime for Border Patrol officers.

They have pulled all of that back from the Department of Homeland Security, doing it even as the number of migrants who are surging the border is increasing, even as the apprehensions at the border are increasing. They are reducing the resources that the Border Patrol agents have.

During conversations with these agents, we all came to the conclusion that most Americans have no idea how truly serious this problem is, which is the logical conclusion of another Biden administration policy of blocking press access to key areas of the border.

They do not want you to see or hear about what is going on. They don't want you to see the chaos they have created. And they surely don't want us to see the trail of destruction left by this flood of illegal immigration. So they don't the press down there. They don't want them to get the message out about what is happening, how our southern border is being overrun and our Border Patrol overworked.

At this point, not only me, but many of my colleagues--and there are some on both sides of this aisle--have documented for the record the horrific journey migrants undertake from Central America to the United States. And, yes, migrants are coming from 150 different countries through Central America and Mexico to our southern border. We know that the cartels are in complete control of that border on the Mexico side.

And do you know what? The cartels, you have to pay them--got to pay them--in order for them to get you here. You get to the river, you got to pay the river tax to a coyote who works for the cartel in order to cross the river. The cartel controls who gets into the United States of America. Yes, it is illegal entry, but think about this: The cartels are in control.

In South Texas, there are three cartels that are working that border--different parts of that border. It is big business for these cartels. And, yes, we know about drugs and weapons and sex trafficking and gangs and human trafficking. In South Texas, they have caught members from 88 different gangs--88--who are moving their people into this country. They are not coming here for a better life and a job. They are coming here because, gangs, they carry out crimes.

But what many Americans haven't seen and witnessed is the impact all this has on your average border community. When I was in Texas, I had the privilege of speaking to ranchers and other property owners dealing with the nightmare of regularly discovering the remains of dead adult migrants, sometimes discovering children.

Traffickers abandon these individuals while they are crossing some of the ranchers' and the property owners' property, just abandoned, abandoning these people right there on the property.

These property owners are also forced to spend time and energy repairing damage that is inflicted to their property by the trespassers who are trying to avoid the checkpoints that are north of the border.

We are talking about an emotional and a practical toll that has crept outward from the border, away from those remote ranches and outposts, and into communities all across this country.

Administration officials started all this with their open border rhetoric, but they could also put a stop to it.

How? By holding themselves accountable to the people who are stuck trying to control this chaos--people like Hector and Chris and their fellow Border Patrol agents, who risk their lives every day to keep us safe.

They said: You know, it is like doing your job with one hand tied behind your back.

And then they say: OK. We are going to try to strap down the other hand a little bit.

That is right. That is what it means when you talk about removing resources, removing surveillance, pulling back money so they can't go do the job that they want to do, that they signed up to do, to keep this country safe.

Everybody in this administration should spend a few minutes talking with property owners like Susan and like Richard and think about what it must feel like to constantly wonder if somebody has died of exposure in your backyard. This is what they are dealing with every day.

The Federal Government is not out there repairing fences that have been torn down. The Federal Government is not out there cleaning up trash. The Federal Government is not there replanting a sugarcane field. No. Ranchers, property owners, they are paying for this out of their pocket because this is happening on their property.

The status quo that this administration has created on this border can't last much longer because it is running people ragged, whether they are working the river, working the border; whether they are trying to work their ranch, their cattle, their crops. This is out of control.

The other thing that I have noticed as I was on the border and then talking to a lot of Tennesseeans, hearing from people: The American people are afraid. The spin doctors in the White House and in the mainstream media would have us believe that fear is due to racism or xenophobia, but those accusations are misstatements. They are inaccurate.

Americans are not afraid of those who seek refuge in our country. Americans are afraid of the documented rise in drug trafficking and gunrunning and sex trafficking. They are infuriated to see their own fellow citizens throwing in their lot with the drug cartels and participating in these trafficking rings. People in their communities are choosing blood money over gainful employment, and they hold these cartels responsible. And they fear the hold the cartels have over some of their neighbors. It terrifies them.

But what terrifies them most of all is the knowledge that President Biden, his Cabinet, and his allies in Congress know this, and they refuse to help. We know the problem is fixable, as the Border Patrol agents told me. This is fixable. There are solutions. We know the administration has the power to do it. It is pretty simple.

And this is what they have said: Enforce the rule of law. There are laws on the books. Enforce them. Illegal entry is illegal. They say: Start by building the wall. Build it; finish it; get it finished. They need it. They have been saying it for 30 years: We need a wall. We need a wall. Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies have been asking for this barrier for a long time. And if you were to go down south, you would see for yourself. Everything you need to build that border is there: the equipment, the panels. It is all there. Build the wall.

Part of it is up, but we need to fill it in so that we secure that border--and additional funding for security and infrastructure and manpower. Build that wall. Get back to work on it.

Next, the administration must stop waging war against President Trump's successful ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. The Border Patrol, law enforcement, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the National Guard--they will all tell you: Yes, get back to building that wall, and while you are at it, go back to ``Remain in Mexico.''

You know what? They want this because it works. It works. Isn't that amazing? It works. So go back to it. We cannot afford to allow the operatives at the helm of the Democratic Party to dictate security policy. We know ``Remain in Mexico'' works, so embrace it. Say: We are doing this because Federal employees, the Border Patrol, are asking us to do this.

We must also eliminate catch-and-release and embrace the removal authority granted under title 42. Those are things that we know work. Those are the things at the top of the list with our local law enforcement, with Texas DPS, with our Border Patrol. Those are the things that they say: These could be done right now. Go back to building that wall; go back to ``Remain in Mexico''; stop this catch-and-release; and abide by title 42.

Today, President Biden, who hasn't been to the border, should go and say: You know what? This Nation is a sovereign nation; we are going to protect this Nation; we are going to protect our citizens; and, therefore, we are going to take these measures because the Border Patrol says this is what works.

The time for treating these policies like political footballs has come to an end. The border crisis doesn't exist in a bubble, and it doesn't just exist at the southern border. What we are seeing along that border is loss of life and loss of livelihoods, and it is happening on a daily basis.

How would you feel? How would you feel if they were running across your crops? How would you feel if they were on your ranch? Think about that one.

It is clear by now that the White House values their ``woke'' talking points, but there is nothing ``woke'' about the death and destruction we are seeing tear through this border. There is nothing ``woke'' about allowing the cartels to overwhelm law enforcement and leave innocent people entrapped by those cartels to die in the desert. There is nothing ``woke'' about allowing a crisis to fester to make the political case for open borders.

Until President Biden and the Democrats prioritize safety and secure the border they abandoned on the day that they took power and control, every town--every town in this country will be a border town, and every State will be a border State; every community will exist under the threat of cartel violence, and every person in America will bear witness to the desperation and loss of life that their President has seen fit to ignore.

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