Border Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, earlier this week, one of President Biden's nominees for a very important office testified before the Finance Committee. Actually, I was a little surprised. It is the nominee for Customs and Border Protection, but, apparently, according to the arcane rules of the Senate, rather than the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee or the Judiciary Committee, it was the Finance Committee that conducted that hearing. Perhaps there will be sequential referrals, but that surprised me a little bit.

But I met, at least over the phone, Chris Magnus, who is currently the police chief in Tucson, AZ, who had been nominated to lead--who has been nominated to lead U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the Agency responsible for managing security and trade and commerce at the border, among other places.

Suffice it to say the Customs and Border Protection are overwhelmed, given the current numbers of migrants making their way to the southwestern border. In the last year, CBP has encountered more than 1.7 million migrants along the southern border, the highest number on record.

To be clear, this is not the fault of the dedicated law enforcement officials who are putting their lives on the line to protect our children and our country from the influx of illegal drugs but to also enforce our immigration laws. By the way, these are not policies that they make, these are policies that Congress makes.

These men and women make incredible sacrifices to secure our border and try to keep our communities safe, and we owe them our gratitude. But we also owe them responsible policies and other support to give them a fighting chance to succeed at the difficult job we have asked them to do.

Unfortunately, the current crisis is a direct result of Biden administration words and actions and outright refusal to fix the policies that are being manipulated by the transnational criminal organizations that smuggle people and drugs into our country.

We have seen a steady parade of messages and policies and inactions and some actions in some cases, all of which crystalize into a clear message to migrants that if you come to the southwestern border and enter the country illegally, you will be likely able to stay.

I am reminded of the widespread shoplifting issues that we have seen in San Francisco. Under State law, which has recently changed, if someone is caught stealing merchandise for $950 or less, it is only a misdemeanor, and rarely are those cases prosecuted.

But--surprise--people paid attention, and there is no shortage of videos online showing individuals committing criminal offenses, filling garbage bags full of items and walking right out the front door. This is what happens if you send the message that you can violate the law with impunity.

This problem in San Francisco became so expensive that a number of businesses, including Walgreens, for example, started closing stores in the city because they just couldn't afford the loss due to these thefts.

The message is that if leaders send a message that says the law won't be enforced, more people will break the law because there are no repercussions, and that is exactly what is happening today at the southern border.

The administration has essentially given the playbook to the migrants and the cartels--the transnational criminal organizations that smuggle people and drugs into the United States. It boils down to this: Cross the border, surrender to Border Patrol, repeat these specific lines, and you will be released to the interior of the country with virtually no supervision.

And it doesn't surprise anybody that a huge percentage of those individuals never show up for their future court hearing.

Earlier this week, I asked Mr. Magnus if he agreed that the administration's stated policy of nonenforcement is a pull factor, encouraging more illegal immigration.

We talked about the push factors: violence, crime, a desire for a better life, maybe the smugglers whispering in your ear, ``For a few bucks you can go stay with your family in the interior of the United States.'' But he agreed that the nonenforcement policy of the Department of Homeland Security was a pull factor that actually encouraged more illegal immigration.

I was surprised but honestly grateful to hear the President's nominee admit the truth. It is obvious. But it is still somehow a taboo statement--taboo statement for the Biden administration officials to make.

It is undeniable that the administration's actions have encouraged the surge of illegal immigration and the humanitarian crisis that exists on our border.

One example is the process by which migrants undergo--the process they undergo before they are returned or released. Before the Biden administration existed, there was a clear process for migrants who crossed the border to claim asylum.

The individual would be processed by Border Patrol and undergo a credible fear assessment. That is to see if they qualify for the statutory definition of asylum, which essentially determines, at least in a preliminary fashion, whether they qualify.

If the asylum officer determines the applicant had a credible fear of persecution, that person would then be issued a notice to appear for a future court hearing. That is a critical document that formally commences immigration court proceedings because if they don't show up, a default order of deportation will issue.

Well, I have heard concerns from a number of folks in my State about the fact that huge numbers of migrants are now being released without a notice to appear. Thousands of migrants have been released with what is called a notice to report. This is a document that says when you get where you are going, turn yourself in to the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement office to start your removal proceedings.

These migrants haven't undergone a credible fear screening. We have no information on the validity of their asylum claims, and it is unclear whether the administration has given any teeth to the warning that failure to contact the local ICE office may result in your arrest.

So the Biden administration has made it easier for migrants to disappear and melt into the great American landscape.

Last month, Secretary Mayorkas, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, made things worse. He issued a directive, new guidance, at the end of September that strongly discourages Immigration and Customs Enforcement removal proceedings officers from carrying out their duties unless a migrant meets specific criteria.

You can read it yourself. It talks about mitigating factors and aggravating factors, and somehow an ICE officer, a Border Patrol agent, is supposed to make an individualized determination whether this individual migrant qualifies or does not qualify to be admitted into the United States.

According to Secretary Mayorkas, recent border crossers should be a priority, but it is only if they have been apprehended for some other reason. He has basically said if your only crime is illegally entering into the United States, we are not going to detain you. We are not going to deport you.

The Secretary's guidance says that individuals convicted of serious criminal conduct should be a priority for removal, but it is unclear what crimes meet the criteria.

For example, is distributing or receiving child pornography considered a serious criminal conduct? What about crimes like wire fraud, racketeering, embezzlement, a whole host of other crimes that you or I might think of?

It defies common sense to ask these law enforcement officers, charged with enforcing our laws, to turn a blind eye when they encounter individuals who have come here illegally and committed other crimes because those crimes just aren't serious enough in the opinion of the bureaucracy at the Department of Homeland Security or in the Biden administration.

I am reminded of the controversial directive issued by another one of President Biden's nominees to enforce our Nation's laws.

Rachael Rollins has been nominated to serve as the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts and is currently the district attorney for Suffolk County, Boston.

Shortly after taking her job as DA in Suffolk County, she released a memo outlining a dozen crimes that should be ignored by law enforcement. According to Ms. Rollins--this is a district attorney-- according to Ms. Rollins, individuals who commit offenses like trespassing, shoplifting, larceny--which is essentially stealing-- wanton or malicious destruction of property or even possession with intent to distribute drugs should not be prosecuted in Suffolk County.

Now, I have no issue with law enforcement using limited resources to prioritize the threats to the community. But they can't exempt wholesale classes of crimes from enforcement, and they certainly should not tip their hat to the criminals as to what crimes can be committed free of any consequence.

But under the Biden administration, unfortunately, we are seeing similar action.

We are also seeing a record low number of deportations. In April, as border crossings hit the highest level in 2 years--excuse me--two decades, ICE removed the lowest number of illegal immigrants on record. So not only are more people coming at historic numbers, but historic numbers of people are--low numbers of people are being deported.

This, again, is part of an overall message that sends an unequivocal message to the world that if you come to the United States illegally, you are likely to be able to get away with it. There is a good chance migrants will be released with a flimsy notice to report, and once that happens, they won't be removed unless they are caught committing another crime.

The Department of Homeland Security is charged with safeguarding the American people and enforcing our laws. But its employees are largely handcuffed because of the Department's own leadership and the guidance they have handed down.

Again, there is no problem in my book with prioritizing the removal of dangerous criminals who are in the United States illegally. But it is another thing to send a message that if you break some of our laws, we are going to enforce them; if you break other laws, we won't enforce them--and thus encourage more and more people to come to the United States illegally.

It isn't clear that enforcement and removal operations officers will truly retain the discretion they need to remove illegal immigrants who don't fall under some of the categories laid out by the Secretary and his guidance that he issued in late September.

Considering everything we have heard from our friends across the aisle when it comes to immigration enforcement, this radical action by the administration is not completely surprising.

Vice President Harris, who was appointed by the President to deal with the crisis at the border, once compared ICE to the Ku Klux Klan. And a number of our colleagues have sided with radical activists who want to defund the police.

With violent crime and murder rates on the rise across the country, it is no surprise that the American people overwhelmingly disagree with this idea of defunding the police.

I was gratified to see after this defund movement hit--had its heyday, that a year later, most of the jurisdictions around the country had restored the funding because of the disastrous consequences of defunding the police. But it is harder to resurrect a police department to recruit new people and train them than it is to defund them and shrink the size of the department.

But now we have gone from defunding law enforcement to defanging law enforcement. Slowly, we have seen the tools law enforcement needs to keep our communities safe being taken away from them, and our law enforcement officers are being told: You cannot do your job.

Liberal activists can throw out their ``Abolish ICE'' posters because the administration is effectively nullifying the policy from the inside.

The reality of the situation, however inconvenient it may seem, is that by entering the United States illegally, migrants are violating U.S. law. Again, it is not something that is dictated by the Department of Homeland Security or by Border Patrol; these are laws that Congress has passed and previous Presidents have signed into law.

As I said at the beginning, we are fortunate to have the hard-working men and women of ICE and CBP who are committed to enforcing our laws and safeguarding the American people, but this policy of nonenforcement and of providing additional pull factors to encourage people to illegally enter the United States has to be demoralizing to the very people we are depending upon to keep our country safe.

Make no mistake, the President bears full responsibility for this crisis. He is the one who could make the difference. He could change it with the stroke of a pen.

January was the only full month this year that President Biden was not President of the United States. It is also no coincidence that it was the only month in which fewer than 100,000 migrants crossed our southern border. The Biden administration has made nonenforcement the de facto response to the border crisis, and as a result, annual apprehensions have hit an alltime high. Until the Biden administration changes the playbook, migrants will continue to flood the zone using the very plays that the administration has laid out for them.

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