Making Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, if I may, I hold the floor, if I am not mistaken. I just have a couple concluding comments and then I will turn it back over.

What we need to do is learn the lesson that we learned in 2005 and 2006. In talking with Secretary Johnson, he understands this problem very well. I know the Senator from Arizona remembers this. In 2005, we saw a surge of what were at the time called OTMs, immigrants from countries other than Mexico. Strangely enough, we saw a surge of 30,000 Brazilians who were detained at our southwestern border.

What Secretary Chertoff came to learn is that a loophole they were exporting was the so-called catch and release at the time. They did not have detention facilities. What would be done is they would be released, essentially based on their own recognizance, and we would never hear from them again. They would escape into the great American landscape.

Well, the same phenomenon is happening now with these unaccompanied children because of that 2008 law that needs to be addressed so that they will remain in protective custody pending any court hearing, which we would give on an expedited basis. If they have a legal claim to stay, an asylum claim, a victim of human trafficking and the like, then the judge would determine that. And those who do not would have to be returned to their home country. I think I heard the President say as much today. I certainly have heard Secretary Johnson and others say the same thing.

That is what my amendment would do. I am sorry the distinguished Senator from Maryland has seen fit to object to it. I think this virtually guarantees that we will leave here today without having solved the problem, and that is a tragic circumstance.

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, here is the conundrum I think we find ourselves in. The President has made a request for the money. The Secretary of Homeland Security has said he needs more authority in order to deal with the problem, and what my proposal would do is to give him that authority necessary to solve the problem.

The Senator from Maryland has always been very kind and gracious, and I appreciate her response, and I know of her compassion, given her background, particularly in social work, that she has great compassion for these children, as we all do. But we have a problem and we need to solve the problem.

What is so confusing to me is, when the House was considering a proposal which would combine both policy changes together with some money to deal with them, the White House issued a notice the President would veto it if it were passed. So it seems to me that--well, it is confusing, to say the least. I am not sure how we get out of this place we are in.

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