Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act--Motion to Proceed--

Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, 7,633,650, that is the number of migrant encounters at our southern border since President Biden took office-- 7,633,650. The situation at our southern border is out of control. We have had three--three now--successive years of recordbreaking illegal immigration under President Biden, and we are on track for a fourth.

There have been more than 1.3 million migrant encounters at our southern border since October 1 of last year, which was the start of this fiscal year. That is 1.3 million, just since October 1 of last year. And that number just refers to individuals who are actually apprehended. There have been almost 150,000 known ``got-aways'' so far this fiscal year, and those are individuals the Border Patrol saw but were unable to apprehend. Often, we see migrants turning themselves in to authorities, so it is especially concerning to know that so many individuals have purposely evaded interdiction. And of course, we don't know how many unknown ``got-aways'' there have been.

U.S. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens, in a March interview with CBS News, said the number of known ``got-aways'' is keeping him up at night. That is ``a national security threat,'' he noted. That is a quote. ``Border security is a big piece of national security,'' he goes on to say. ``And if we don't know who is coming into our country, and we don't know what their intent is, that is a threat and they're exploiting a vulnerability that's on our border right now.''

That, again, from Jason Owens, U.S. Border Patrol Chief.

Well, the situation at our southern border right now is a national security threat. There is no question that the kinds of numbers we are seeing smooth the way for dangerous individuals to enter our country. During fiscal year 2023, 169 individuals on the Terrorist Watchlist were apprehended trying to cross our southern border--more, I might add, than the previous 6 years combined--and that is just the individuals, again, who were actually apprehended. With somewhere around 1.8 million known ``got-aways'' since President Biden took office and an untold number of unknown ``got-aways,'' I think we can safely assume that there are plenty of dangerous individuals making their way into our country without being stopped.

While there are always various factors that affect the flow of illegal immigration, we are on track for a fourth recordbreaking year of illegal immigration under the Biden administration because of the actions that President Biden has taken or failed to take. From the day he took office, when he rescinded the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border, President Biden made it clear that border security was at the bottom of his priority list. And over the 3 years since, he has turned our southern border into a magnet for illegal migration from repealing effective border security policies of the Trump administration to abusing our asylum and parole systems, which are now providing temporary amnesty to hundreds of thousands of individuals here illegally, which brings me, Mr. President, to today.

In just a few minutes, the Senate will be sworn in to consider the Articles of Impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, one of the chief architects of the Biden administration's lax border security regime. And we expect that the Democrat leader will move almost immediately to dismiss the charges. At most, we expect a few hours of process with no examination of the evidence the House has collected and essentially no consideration of the serious charges before us.

Whether or not Senators ultimately decide that Secretary Mayorkas's actions warrant a conviction, they should be given the time to actually examine the charges. In a courtroom, a case is not dismissed without the court taking the time to examine the facts, and the Senate, sitting as a Court of Impeachment, should be no different. The Senate should be having a full trial and taking the time to examine the evidence that the House has collected, and then Senators should be able to vote guilty or not guilty. Instead, the Senate leader is set to sweep these charges under the rug. It is just more evidence of the fundamental unseriousness Democrats have shown when it comes to the raging-- raging--national security crisis at our southern border.

By the end of the day, the Democrat leader may well have effectively made these charges disappear, but there is nothing that the Democrat leader can do to obscure the failures of Secretary Mayorkas and President Biden. Thanks to their refusal to secure the border, we have experienced three now successive years of recordbreaking illegal immigration, and, unfortunately, there is no end in sight.

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