Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act--

Floor Speech

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Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. President, I spent last weekend along our southern border, again, as I have done many weekends, to be able to get down to the border in different areas. Last weekend, I went down to the San Diego-Tijuana border area.

In that area, there are 1.3 million people living in San Diego. That city bumps right up against our border with Tijuana. Tijuana, Mexico, has over 2 million people living in that town.

There is a 30-foot fence that actually separates the two there. That is a double-section fence. It is incredibly important to be able to manage that border, not only for the crossing of traffic illegally but also for the crossing of legal traffic. One of the largest ports and traffic movement of people and cargo in the world is right there, and it is an incredibly important location for us.

I went there to be able to see the implementation of the new authorities and the things that the President is actually implementing there that have so precipitously dropped the movement of illegal immigration and have dramatically increased the number of interdiction of drugs that are moving through that area. That literally benefits the entire country.

What I found when I visited with the folks from CBP was that morale was up and the chaos is down. I found folks who are there that are law enforcement professionals actually doing law enforcement. When I visited with some of those same folks before, during the Biden administration, they were being treated like hotel check-in staff that were being asked to actually just move people into the country as fast as possible. Now, they are actually able to do their jobs, to actually enforce the law, and to do what they signed up to do. And they are eager to be able to protect the Nation and know full well the threats that we are facing.

In that area in San Diego, we have had more of what are called special-interest aliens move through that area of our border than any other area of our entire 2,000-mile-long border with Mexico. People from Russia, China, from Central Africa, from Uzbekistan, and from multiple other places fly into Tijuana and then literally drive up to the gap in the fence and walk across, right into the United States.

At least, that is how it used to be. That is not what is happening anymore.

So I wanted to be able to talk through with this body a few of the things that I saw there and the work that is still undone.

One, that section of the gap in the fence is right there at Tijuana, on the eastern side of San Diego. That gap is still there, but something has changed. Construction is beginning to be able to close that gap, and it is incredibly important. It is one of the first places that CBP and Border Patrol took me to and pointed out to say: We need this gap closed. It is very important that we actually get this gap secured because it is in a very remote area, difficult to traverse, and it is dangerous for our Border Patrol folks to have to be able to chase someone through that area.

In fact, while I was in that area, around that gap, I literally watched one of the Lakota helicopters come in and to be able to identify someone who was literally cutting through that area and smuggling right through that zone. The good news is things are different now, and that person was caught because we have the manpower in place to be able to catch them.

And that person will be deported immediately. That is also a big change that has actually occurred.

So things are different in what is actually happening there, and I am grateful to be able to see the chaos going down and the morale and the enforcement going significantly up. That gap in the fence will be closed in the days ahead. And as one of many requests the Border Patrol has: just help us have a deterrent in this area so that we can better patrol and be able to chase folks down that are violating American law.

They need additional personnel as well. I will talk a little bit about that in a moment. They need additional resources to be able to do their tasks, and they need additional authorities to be able to make sure they can fully execute the law that is put in front of them.

Something that was interesting--the multiple times I have been to the border the last several years--often the Border Patrol would tell me they can't put checkpoints up anymore. They used to have checkpoints on the major highways as they were headed north away from the border, and they would check vehicles for people being smuggled and drugs being smuggled into the country and other contraband. They weren't able to do that because they were asked to actually go to the border to facilitate people coming in, and so they could no longer do those checkpoints.

Guess what. Those checkpoints are back up again. They are actually stopping people on the highways now to be able to check and see if there are drugs there that have found their way across the border and are moving north, and they are interdicting narcotics again there.

They are able to actually process a lot faster turning people around, to have the people at the checkpoints, and to be able to do the enforcement because the numbers are so precipitously lower than what they used to be.

What does that mean side by side? A year ago, we had some days we had 12,000 people a day illegally crossing our southern border--12,000 people a day.

Last week, most days were around 200. In fact, for the first time that I can remember in a very long time, when I checked in at the Border Patrol station and was talking with them about where things were going and how things were going and what has changed, as we walked past the area they would typically check in unaccompanied minors, that room was empty. I can't remember the last time I walked past, and there were zero unaccompanied minors that were there.

The border is being enforced. It is bringing some sanity to our southern border. It is an enormous help and change. But there are a couple areas for cartels that are obviously moneymaking organizations-- they are very focused on what they are going to do next.

Literally, right there at the port of entry, they discovered a tunnel being dug directly under the port of entry to be able to smuggle drugs and people in.

Now, our teams were able to find it, identify it, and they are going to shut it down, but the cartels continue to be able to move and to be able to find other ways. We should make no mistake, just across the border from San Diego, there are three active criminal cartels that are ruthlessly killing each other. They are ruthlessly killing anyone that would try to cross the border without paying their fee, and they are determined to bring violence to Northern Mexico and chaos to the Southern United States and push as much drugs as they possibly can into our country. We should make no mistake about that.

They are determined to be able to do that, and we should do whatever we can to be able to stop that violence and that chaos.

The other thing that came up over and over again was now that the southern border--the land border--is being shut down, the cartels are not only drilling tunnels now, but they are also putting folks on jet skis and in Panga boats, taking them out into the Pacific and trying to be able to come around the maritime barrier and be able to drop off somewhere around the California coast.

Just this week, we had a smuggler that was smuggling folks in a Panga boat just on that exact route that capsized in the Pacific, and multiple people died. Our Coast Guard went and responded and rescued multiple people as well. Those folks will be processed, and they will be returned right back to Mexico again.

But that is the kind of danger these folks face to be able to come across. The cartels don't care about the people that they are moving. They just care about the dollars. They don't care about America. They just care about pushing drugs on us so that they can make more and more money.

I had the opportunity to be able to do a ride-along with some of the Coast Guard and be able to see firsthand some of the things that they are doing. They need additional resources. This body should pay more attention to the Coast Guard. They are not only important for our national security or foreign threats coming at us but for our port security and rescues that are off coast, but they are also being pushed really hard right now by the cartels trying to be able to smuggle drugs and people into the United States. The Coast Guard needs this body to be able to stand alongside of them so they can do their job.

They are remarkable people that are literally out there every single day, working to be able to help our country, and I was exceptionally grateful to get time with them to be able to see what their day looks like, how things are going, and the important work that they are doing.

As the Border Patrol is seeing fewer coming across the land border, the Coast Guard is seeing more. So we have got to pay attention to all areas of our border.

I did note a couple things that I have read. That was interesting for me to actually go down and to be able to see because I have seen all these media reports, all these different pieces of fake news that are coming up or all these different challenges about what the Trump administration is doing at our border.

I could highlight a bunch of them, but let me highlight a couple of them that came up. I have heard over and over again that the Trump administration is not honoring due process. They are not honoring due process. They are ignoring the Constitution to be able to do that.

Interestingly enough, just last week, President Trump's DHS released an extensive release that they called 100 days of fighting fake news.

One of the items that they listed as the fake news that they are fighting is that aliens don't go through a process. Their statement: They do, according to the Constitution.

Secretary Rubio also made that same statement on ``Meet the Press'' as well, saying everybody goes through due process--everyone has a process.

Illegal aliens do not have rights like American citizens. No one is denying that. That is a fact. But there is a process they are being taken through. The law is being followed. I watched it personally.

When people come across our border illegally, here is what is actually happening along our border. They are arrested. They are being instructed by law enforcement that they violated American law, that they are not legally present, and they are being immediately turned around and sent back to their country. That is the legal process.

For individuals that were coming in from China--and I saw several that were actually being processed through that--they are being detained. Then they are being put on the next plane out.

Special interest aliens aren't being released into the country anymore like they were under the Biden administration by the thousands. They are now being sent back to their countries, as they exactly should be, following the exact legal process that should be done.

And I saw for the first time in a very long time a legal process being done that if you cross our southern border and you have been deported before--which is why we don't just grab them at the border and turn them around. We actually get fingerprints, get information from people in the processing. If you are coming a second or a third time, I watched the prosecution by U.S. attorneys actually prosecuting individuals there through that process, getting them a felony and then putting them on a bus back to Mexico again.

They are following the law. They are going through exactly what the process is doing. They are doing the legal process.

I also heard over and over again this fake news about our military going down and our military taking over our border. I actually got a chance to be able to meet some of our military down there. They are doing pretty remarkable work along our border.

We have got engineering groups that are there that are helping beef up that border wall, finding areas where folks are finding ways to be able to scale a 30-foot wall, finding ways to be able to strengthen that wall to make sure that never happens again.

That is some of our military engineering groups doing that.

I watched that Lakota helicopter that I mentioned before. That Lakota helicopter is actually a military helicopter. Their job is not to arrest. That is Federal law enforcement on the ground who is doing it, but they are able to be an extra set of eyes in the air to be able to identify folks that are getting around those gaps in the wall, smuggling in people and smuggling in drugs so our Border Patrol can focus in on those areas.

I watched members of our military sitting at a workstation with the Coast Guard at the port area, helping monitor the different cameras that are in our port area, looking for those jet skis and those Panga boats that are smuggling in people and drugs.

They are doing a great job. I am grateful those folks are there. But this body needs to have a further conversation about how do we move more Coast Guard folks there so that they can take on that job, allowing our military to go back to doing their first job. How we can actually reinforce some of the resources that are needed so that our military can do their first task, and our DHS folks can do their first task?

So, yes, it is more fake news that our military is there actually being law enforcement. They are not being law enforcement, but they are helping our law enforcement to make our law enforcement even more effective.

I am grateful to be able see the numbers drop so much, allowing our law enforcement to go back.

If I can just make this one last statement: I won't ever forget standing at that port, which is incredibly busy--lots of trucks coming through, lots of Customs screenings and everything, all the things that are happening--and I asked the Customs folks there: What has changed?

They said: We are able to catch a lot more drugs now than we were able to catch because we have got more time to focus in on catching those drugs.

This is going to make a huge difference in America for us to be able to focus on illegal activity coming across our border. When those numbers drop, we are able to go more after what is the worst of the worst coming into our country.

I am grateful to see the work that is happening on our southern border. We all should go see it.

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