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Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Madam President, today I want to speak to the issue of our southern border because I think it is a really important and relevant issue with respect to the national security package that we are considering or that we will be, I think, at some point, considering here in the Senate that deals with many of the national security crises we face around the world.

And as I think about this issue, I am always reminded that as a one- generation-removed-from-immigrant individual in this country--my grandfather came here back in 1906--I am reminded that we are a nation of immigrants.

We have had, throughout our history, a welcoming culture in this country. We are a country that is made up of people from all over the world, and I am representative of that, as I said, one generation removed.

It is also important to remember that we are a nation of laws, first and foremost. Ronald Reagan once said:

A nation without borders is not a nation.

I have heard it paraphrased that a nation that can't control its borders can't control its destiny. And I believe that to be true.

I think what we have right now at our southern border is a situation that has just run amok. It really has. You cannot defend what is happening at our southern border if you believe we are a nation of laws or, for that matter, if you believe we are a nation of immigrants because you have to have a legal way to get into this country. All countries do that, and the United States, as I said, is a very welcoming nation. If you look at the number of people who come here every year as refugees, the number of people coming to this country, you add up all the other countries around the world and the number of people they allow into their countries, the United States exceeds that, and that, to me, is a remarkable testament to the welcoming nature of this country.

But it is welcoming in the sense that it is done within the context of the rule of law, and that, first and foremost, has to be front and center as we think about this issue.

What we have right now at our southern border is essentially a huge welcome sign, a huge green light to come across our southern border and to do it illegally. That is in direct contradiction and violation of everything that our Nation is about as a nation of laws.

And so as I talk about this issue, and we talk about it in the context of national security, it has become a national security issue because, once again, there has been another record set when it comes to the border and not the good kind, I should say, of record. This administration now has, during the month of October, seen 240,988 individuals be apprehended attempting to illegally cross our southern border. That is the worst October on record, and that is on top of the three previous months which were historic records; the month of September, 270,000 people apprehended at our southern border trying to come into the country illegally.

So the highest October number ever recorded, and those are just the individuals--I would remind people--who were apprehended. The month of October saw an average of 1,000 ``got-aways'' per day, individuals whom the Border Patrol saw but were unable to apprehend. That is another 30,000 people, unidentified individuals, entering our country in just 1 month, and there is no telling how many unknown ``got-aways'' there were during that same period. It suggests a situation at our southern border that is completely and totally out of control.

The closing of the fiscal year in September marked the third successive, recordbreaking year of illegal immigration at our southern border under the Biden administration. As the October numbers point out, the end of this crisis is nowhere in sight.

If you think about it, the problems here are really too many to count. The men and women of the Border Patrol are under incredible strain and have been for pretty much the entirety of the Biden administration. Border cities are struggling to deal with the ceaseless influx of migrants, and major cities in other areas of the country are now discovering what border cities have been going through.

Just as a point of fact, big cities, the city of New York, the mayor of New York announced that he will be freezing the hiring of police officers in New York, closing libraries, and cutting education funding--this is in New York City--to deal with the migrant crisis, absent an infusion of Federal dollars coming in from Washington, DC.

So this is creating not problems just on our southern border but for communities all across this country, including the largest communities in the United States of America. The situation we currently have in front of us is encouraging migrants to undertake the dangerous journey to our southern border, sometimes with tragic results.

So I say that our national security is in jeopardy because a border security problem is a national security problem. This isn't a matter of speculation. We know, for a fact, that dangerous individuals are attempting to make their way across our southern border every month.

During fiscal year 2023, 169 individuals on the Terrorist Watchlist were apprehended attempting to illegally cross our southern border. This is 2023, fiscal year 2023, 169 people on the Terrorist Watchlist trying to come across our southern border--18 in the month of September, another 13 in the month of October.

Those are the people who are apprehended at the southern border. That doesn't count the ``got-aways.'' My assumption is, if they are on the Terrorist Watchlist, they are going to be pretty good at evading the authorities, meaning that there are people trying to come into this country on a daily basis who are on the Terrorist Watchlist.

On top of that, you have thousands of what they call special interest aliens--and those are individuals who may pose a threat to the United States who have been apprehended at our southern border over the past 2 years--thousands of special interest aliens. Again, the numbers we have refer only to those who have been apprehended.

As I said, last month alone, 30,000 identified individuals made their way illegally into our country--I should say unidentified individuals; in other words, the ``got-aways,'' the unknowns. Many of them may simply have been seeking a better life. That is entirely possible, but it is not only possible, but I would say likely, that some of them were dangerous individuals who should not be entering our country.

This work period, we expect to take up supplemental spending legislation to address national security priorities, notably, support for our allies like Israel and Ukraine. And one national security priority this legislation must address is border security.

As the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel reminds us, national security requires constant vigilance, and our Nation is simply not secure as long as we are dealing with a massive flow of illegal immigration at our southern border. We must get this crisis under control.

Senators Graham, Lankford, and Cotton have been working to craft a set of border security measures for inclusion in the national security supplemental focused on the two areas in obvious need of reform: parole and asylum.

Under our current asylum system, a large percentage of individuals claiming asylum are released into the interior of the country after initial screening with court dates up to a decade later. The Associated Press reported that in March, 77 percent of individuals claiming asylum passed the initial screening.

In practice, this means that thousands of individuals who have entered our country illegally end up taking residence in our country, possibly, for a number of years, given our immigration court backlog. That is a problem.

Our parole system is in trouble as well. In fiscal year 2022, the Biden administration granted parole to 417,326 individuals. And that is because the Biden Department of Homeland Security has instituted an overly permissive application of parole, which means that, again, tens of thousands who have not been granted legal status and who may not have a case for remaining in the United States have been taking up residence in our country with instructions to report back a year or more into the future for further review of their status.

Now, given the backlog and overwhelmed nature of our parole system, this ends up being de facto permanent residence. Needless to say, this invites abuse, and individuals are availing themselves of these flawed policies to gain entry to our Nation. Any supplemental legislation must not only deal with border security generally but with our asylum and parole system specifically, if we want to get the crisis at our southern border under control.

Our porous southern border is a massive national security vulnerability. Republicans know it, and while they may not always admit it, I think my Democrat colleagues know it as well.

It is time for them to act on that knowledge and join Republicans to pass real border security measures as part of the national security supplemental.

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