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Floor Speech

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Mr. MARSHALL. Madam President, ``border, border, border''--I just had lunch with Speaker Mike Johnson. He is a great friend and a classmate. We came in together. That is what he said. He said he wishes he could get all of us a T-shirt that said ``border, border, border.''

In my office, this week, no matter what the question is, the answer is ``Secure the border.'' In fact, I think Speaker Johnson has been talking to some of the same people I have been talking to.

I had the great time of my life these past 7, 10 days back home in Kansas. I got to spend time with my grandchildren, teaching them how to hunt and fish and sled in a very welcome 10-inch snow. I got to see a lot of friends and family members and share what is going on in their lives and get caught up. But no matter where I went, the No. 1 worry people had was about the concern for the safety and security of their own family.

In Kansas--the heartland, the middle of the country, the middle State--people are concerned about their own safety and security, and why wouldn't they be?

Since Joe Biden was sworn into office, over 10 million immigrants have come into our border, and over 1.5 million ``got-aways'' have occurred--10 million people crossing our border illegally, 1.5 million ``got-aways.''

This crisis at our Nation's border is the No. 1 most immediate threat to our safety and security. This is a true, clear, and present danger to our Nation.

Just think about these numbers. Fentanyl is now the No. 1 killer of young adults in America. It kills a Kansan every day. Nearly 300 young Americans are dying every day from fentanyl poisoning, not to mention what is going on with human trafficking, the growth of the cartel, and the violence. As my dad the police officer taught me, the violence always follows the drug trafficking.

But it seems like these numbers are falling on deaf ears at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Just look at September, October, and November. These look like they are all going to be record-setting months for the number of people crossing our border illegally in these months. But yet, for some unknown reason, the White House wants to take border security off the table in the supplemental bill.

Why? That is what people are asking me back home. Why? That is the question Americans want to know.

They point out the facts that we know well up here. Under this administration, we have seen 279 known terrorists try to cross our border, more than 24,000 Chinese nationals, not to mention some 80,000 aliens of interest from countries like Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria who have breached our border. This is indeed an invasion of our border, and every American is now paying for it.

As a matter of fact, it is now costing Americans nearly $500 billion a year--let me say that again, $500 billion a year--to house and take care of these illegal immigrants. Can you imagine how many Border Patrol officers, how much technology, how many drug dogs, and, yes, how much fence we could build for half a trillion dollars a year?

Again, that is what Americans are asking me back home.

It is time for this Chamber to step up to the plate and do what is right for the American people. For such a time as this, we need leadership. I am grateful, I am proud, and the American people are glad to hear that the leadership on this side of the aisle are saying we will deny cloture on this supplemental bill if there is not meaningful border security.

This concept of a supplemental bill without taking care of our national security, of sending over $100 billion to foreign lands without addressing our own national sovereignty, well, it actually reminds me of what Abraham Lincoln once said:

You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.

Let my message today be clear. Let's bring on the hard work, late nights, and weekends. That is what Kansans do. We work hard. We have those values of a hard work ethic. I am certainly willing to do just that, to work hard to get to border security.

Look, on this side of the aisle, we are not going to waver. We are not going to quit. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to secure our border and to get this right for once.

I urge every Republican to vote down cloture of this outrageous supplemental package unless we see true, meaningful border security included.

We have got solutions that this body can send to the President's desk today that wouldn't cost a dime. Changing the asylum policy alone can result in as many as 75 percent less people entering our Nation illegally--75 percent. If we just turn off the siren of asylum, we can cut back on those crossing our borders some 75 percent. That would free up the Border Patrol officers to do the job that they were hired to do: catching the bad guys, stopping the fentanyl, stopping the human trafficking, rather than playing a nursemaid to nearly 10,000 illegal people every day.

And also from a policy standpoint, we have to limit the President's abuse of his parole powers, which has enabled over 1.5 million immigrant parolees to enter our Nation under his watch.

Our insistence that these measures be included in the supplemental bill are not partisan. They are not hard-right distractions, as has been alleged. But it is an attempt to protect the lives and well-being of the Americans who elected us and their families and to ensure the sovereignty of this great Nation.

This is a national security issue, not an immigration issue. It is imperative. It is a must that any supplemental bill include provisions to address these border issues. Any package agreed upon by all or some of the Senate Republican conference must actually be effective at controlling our borders.

A measure that is advertised as stopping the torrent of illegal migration but does not in practice would be a devastating blow to the credibility of Republican Senators on this issue, over the long term, and unacceptable to the people we represent. This is why I urge every Republican in this body to vote no on cloture on any bill that does not, at a minimum, include policy changes that meaningfully address the flood of illegal immigration at our southern border.

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