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Floor Speech

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Mr. BOOZMAN. Mr. President, we have a true crisis at our southern border. Those in Washington who refuse to use the word ``crisis'' to describe the humanitarian and security challenges must accept the disastrous consequences of an open-border policy.

Just look at the numbers from the Department of Homeland Security. More than 2 million illegal immigrants were caught attempting to cross the border last year, and if the Biden administration doesn't get serious about securing the border, we are on pace to repeat or exceed this troubling figure in 2022. In December, 178,840 illegal immigrants were apprehended attempting to cross along this stretch of the border, making it the highest total for that month in Department of Homeland Security history.

I have been here before describing this chaos, but the reality is, it continues to escalate while the administration refuses to take action to stop illegal immigration.

Unsurprisingly, we are seeing the tensions between the Biden administration and Border Patrol officials boil over. These men and women have answered the call to protect and serve. They put their lives at risk to enforce the law and arrest people illegally crossing the border, only to have the administration approve the release of the very criminals the officers locked up. This betrayal by the administration is creating low morale, with some Border Patrol officers choosing to leave the job rather than support this lawlessness and insanity.

Instead of preventing illegal drugs from entering our country, border agents are spending time processing paperwork for illegal immigrants.

Do you know who else is seeing this paperwork? TSA agents. The Department of Homeland Security is allowing these lawbreakers to board airplanes using their Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest warrants as identification at TSA checkpoints. This is totally absurd. It is a reckless policy that threatens the safety of air travelers and all citizens. The administration must end this practice.

The message coming from the White House is: Our southern borders are open. All are welcome.

This has been a green light for immigrants since day one. It started with migrant numbers increasing along the southern border as they awaited Biden's immigration action, and now we see the result. We have experienced record border crossings, overflowing detention centers, and the release of single adult migrants into the United States, among many other many problems. That is how it is going.

It is not just citizens from Central America and Mexico who are taking advantage of this foolish generosity; people from Syria, Turkey, Russia, Pakistan, Cuba, Haiti, and India are illegally entering the United States along the southern border.

I have been here before on the Senate floor sounding the alarm about the threat this dangerous and indefensible approach to immigration and border security is having on our country. It is threatening our sovereignty and undermining the rule of law.

Instead of implementing commonsense steps to secure the border, the administration has prioritized ``border czar'' Vice President Harris's mission to discover the ``root causes'' of this crisis while the number of illegal immigrants entering our country is reaching historic levels.

The reality is, this truly is a crisis of the Biden administration's own making. The President reversed policies that were curbing illegal immigration, like the construction of a border wall and the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy.

We must provide Border Patrol agents with the tools and resources to successfully accomplish their job. That involves enforcing the laws and holding illegal immigrants accountable for their unlawful actions, not helping them board airplanes to travel around the country.

This is a matter of national security. My GOP colleagues and I are ready to get back to the effective strategies we had for controlling the border under President Trump, and it is time President Biden gets on board.

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