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Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, in the United States, we justly pride ourselves on being a nation of laws. This is one of the things that makes our country different from the rest of the world. Economists have written about the fact that, while there are many entrepreneurial or innovation societies and economies, it is the rule of law, the predictability, the enforcement of contracts, and the fundamental guarantees of rights that make us successful where other countries fail.

Unfortunately, we have seen the undermining of the rule of law, in the last 4 years, by President Biden's refusal to simply enforce our immigration laws. And my prediction is we will be paying the price not just in weeks and months but in years and decades for what has come to be known as the ``Biden border disaster.''

President Biden's policies betrayed the American people because of the lack of leadership in the face of a historic crisis--here, again, of his own making--at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Yesterday, I chaired a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary hearing entitled ``Biden's Border Betrayal: Criminal Aliens in America.'' At that hearing, we examined some of the false narratives that the mainstream media have peddled about President Trump's enforcement of our immigration laws.

We were honored to be joined by two Angel moms whose children were murdered by criminal aliens who never should have been in the United States in the first place.

Marie Vega joined us. Marie is the mother of Javier Vega, Jr., who went by the name ``Harvey.'' Harvey was a Border Patrol agent who was murdered by illegal aliens nearly 11 years ago. I am grateful to her for sharing her story, as painful as I know it must have been for her, and talking about the trauma that she, her grandchildren, and her entire family have experienced over her son's murder.

Our second guest was Tammy Nobles. Tammy was the mother of Kayla Hamilton, who was murdered by an illegal alien who was also a member of the MS-13 gang--one of the most violent gangs in the world. Kayla's murderer entered our country as an unaccompanied minor and was later released into the custody of an unvetted sponsor.

Mrs. Nobles' passion for ensuring this horrific tragedy won't happen again to more families was evident throughout the hearing. I am grateful to her, again, for sharing what had to be a very painful experience but one she did in honor of her daughter's memory.

Our third guest was Victor Avila, a former ICE Homeland Security Investigations agent who, along with his partner, was shot in the line of duty by Los Zetas. Los Zetas is a cartel operating in Mexico and in the United States occasionally.

Victor was seriously wounded that day, and his partner was killed. I have known Victor a long time, and he is a steadfast advocate of the rule of law and understands what is required if we are going to keep Americans safe.

These families and victims would never have had to suffer such devastating loss were it not for the criminal aliens who never should have been here in the United States in the first place.

It was a curious matter to me that our Democratic colleagues claim to be the party of compassion when it comes to immigration, but they would rather society and the media and Congress turn a blind eye to these victims of criminals who entered the country as a result of open border policies. That is not compassion. Some of the individuals ICE-- Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is what the initials stand for, of course--some of the individuals ICE has apprehended recently include murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and sex traffickers.

Our fourth guest was Sheriff Roy Boyd of Goliad, TX, a small, South Texas county. He described the horrifying details of human trafficking and criminal activities carried out by the transnational criminal organizations--this is organized crime--the cartels he has witnessed in recent years. He said during his testimony:

The border has always been a location for criminal activity, however, I never witnessed such an increase in blatantly open criminal activity as I did between 2021 and 2024.

It is truly shocking to think about the sheer number of illegal criminal aliens who are currently roaming free in the United States.

Now, you would think, listening to some of my Democratic colleagues, that ICE is arresting gardeners, cooks, housekeepers--people who are basically just trying to earn a living. But the truth is, there are 291,000--291,000--criminal aliens in the United States who are under final orders of removal. That means they have exhausted all potential legal remedies to be able to stay here, and they have been found not qualified to stay, and they have been ordered removed, but they simply ignored that order by a court.

For this fiscal year alone, 213,000 criminal aliens with final orders of removal have criminal convictions, while another 78,000 have pending criminal charges against them. Even more disturbing is the fact that 282,000 of these criminal aliens are still roaming free, not being held in ICE custody.

I know Tom Homan, who is the border czar who is heading up these efforts, is working to chip away at this list of criminal aliens who are still present in the United States who are under final orders of deportation. But, again, to listen to the news or listen to some of the political rhetoric, you would think, again, that Tom Homan and ICE are detaining gardeners and cooks and housekeepers, when 282,000 of these criminal aliens with final orders of deportation are still roaming free.

Most aliens with final orders of removal have been in the immigration system for almost a decade. They have been litigating their claims in immigration courts, some for almost a decade, and many, if not all, were given the opportunity to have their day in court. Many of them just neglected to show up. They were given a notice to appear in an immigration court and if they had a bona fide claim to asylum, to present that to an immigration judge. But many of these individuals simply did not show up, forfeiting any right they had to claim they could legally stay in the United States. But all of this doesn't stop our colleagues from across the aisle from claiming that illegal aliens detained by ICE are not being given ``due process.''

We are blessed to live in America, no doubt, and I think sometimes we take for granted all the privileges we are afforded and all the rights we have as citizens. So it is worth asking the question: What sort of process are these illegal aliens actually due?

While the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution and the Bill of Rights apply to all individuals in the United States, illegal aliens are not entitled to the same range of due process as U.S. citizens, especially when they neglect or refuse to show up in the first place when the notice to appear has been given, but they simply reject it.

The idea that someone could break our laws, enter our country illegally, and then be entitled to all the rights and privileges of an American citizen is awfully far-fetched, and it is not the law. Let me be clear about what the law actually says: Aliens who already have final orders of deportation, who are being detained for the purpose of removal, have already had their due process.

I would encourage my colleagues on the left to reflect on this before continuing to use the buzzwords ``due process'' to mislead the American people as they discuss cases that appear sympathetic but where the process these aliens were entitled to has simply been exhausted, and they lost or they refused to show up in the first place.

The American people know what Democrats fail to admit: Deterrence-- deterrence--is a critical part of immigration enforcement and preventing the flow of aliens into the United States in the first place. In other words, if you know that it is likely that if you pay a coyote or a human smuggler $10,000 to smuggle you into the United States but you are unlikely to be able to stay, then you are probably not going to make the decision to make that dangerous trip in the hands of a criminal organization to come to the United States. That is part of what we talk about when we are discussing deterrence--the likelihood you would be unsuccessful, so you don't try in the first place.

I have been impressed by the way the State of Florida has stepped up to the plate by helping the administration open a detention facility known in the press as Alligator Alcatraz--well, whatever is necessary to provide detention facilities for people who have no legal right to remain in the United States because they have exhausted all of their legal remedies.

We have just provided significant additional resources in the One Big Beautiful Bill to the Department of Homeland Security and ICE to build those detention facilities like the one in Florida, as needed, in order to detain people before they are repatriated or removed from the United States.

I am hopeful other States will step up in a similar way, and I am strongly supportive of creating those necessary detention facilities in places like Texas.

The American people voted overwhelmingly on November 5 for a President who promised to enforce our immigration laws, so it is only right that our States would work together with the Federal Government to facilitate the enforcement of those laws, that the American people voted for. I know they are thankful to President Trump for keeping his promises, and I look forward to continuing to work with him and Governor Abbott to ensure that this work continues in my home State of Texas. Together, we are making our communities safer.

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