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Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, as we all are painfully aware, at home and around the world, America is facing a vast array of security threats. There is war in the Middle East, war in Europe, growing instability and threats of conflict in the Indo-Pacific, and, of course, there is the unprecedented security crisis at our own southern border.

Unlike threats in other parts of the world, the border crisis wasn't caused by our adversaries. It wasn't caused by the actions of an authoritarian leader or events beyond our control. The border crisis is an unforced error. It is a result of intentional decisions and policy positions taken by the Biden administration.

For nearly 3 years, President Biden and leaders in his administration have sent a signal to people around the world that America's southern border is open. All you need to do is show up. Clearly, their message came through loud and clear, much to the delight of the criminal organizations that transport people--human smuggling--and the drug dealers who have exploited this vulnerability. Clearly, they got the message, too, and they are getting richer every day.

Since President Biden took office, we have logged nearly 6.3 million illegal border crossings, plus at least 1.7 million known ``got- aways.'' Now, the Border Patrol calls a ``got-away'' somebody who has been detected on a camera or on a radar screen, but when they show up to try to detain them, they simply have vanished. Those are the ``got- aways,'' and there were 1.7 million known ``got-aways'' in just 3 years. So that is, all told, roughly 8 million people crossing our border during the Biden administration.

People from every part of the globe are showing up at our border. In a single year, migrants from 174 different countries crossed our southern border. What they have learned to do is to claim asylum, and then they know they will be released to await a potential future court date that may be as long as 10 years in the future. In the meantime, they get on with their lives. They marry. They have children who are American citizens. And the simple truth is, they are not going anywhere. We know that if they did show up for their immigration court hearing, only about 15 percent would legally qualify for asylum under the current law.

So word has gotten out that under the Biden administration, our southern border is open, and if you show up, you will be released into the interior. That has provided an enormous magnet or, in the nomenclature of the Border Patrol, they call that a pull factor. It is a huge pull factor or magnet for people around the world, saying: All have you to do is show up, and the Biden administration will release you into the interior of the United States.

So it should be no surprise that migrants are pouring across the border in record numbers. So is fentanyl, which took the lives of 71,000 Americans last year alone.

We also know there are people on the Terrorist Watchlist who are showing up at the border, but what I really worry about are those on the Terrorist Watchlist who were part of the 1.7 million ``got-aways.'' In other words, we don't know how many people on the Terrorist Watchlist have made their way into the interior of the United States as a result of the Biden border crisis.

So what do we do? Well, the Biden administration thinks that all we need to do is spend more money on the current system. We know that tends to be a common response around here--just throw more money at a problem. They tried to solve the inflation problem by spending hundreds of billions of dollars on things like EV tax credits and a supersized IRS. That gave us a 40-year high inflation rate that still hasn't abated yet. Then they tried to address the student loan crisis by shifting the debt from the people who owed it and who borrowed it and who are legally responsible for it to taxpayers--another massive fail. Now they claim they can solve the border crisis by writing another big check. Needless to say, we should all be skeptical.

To be clear, funding is important, but funding for the right things is even more important. In order for anything to change at the border, we need real, substantive policy changes.

Last month, the White House issued a supplemental funding request to respond to major national security threats we are facing today, including the border, but, as I and others have pointed out, the border portion of President Biden's funding request is completely inadequate. His request would actually worsen the border crisis--such as a request for more noncustodial housing options for migrants in expedited removal proceedings. This would allow migrants who are on the verge of being deported to be released into the United States--the opposite of what we should be doing. It would constitute yet another pull factor for anyone considering a journey to the border.

On the whole, the Biden administration's request demonstrates exactly how nonserious they are about solving this crisis. One example is their request for more detention beds. Now, to be clear, more detention beds are needed, but I think it would be helpful for President Biden and some of our colleagues to review the math here. Border Patrol has roughly 20,000 detention beds now, which are strictly for short- term detention. ICE, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has another 20,000 beds for migrants in expedited removal. Now, those may sound like big numbers, but the beds fill up quickly. In September, nearly 270,000 migrants crossed the southern border. That is an average of 9,000 a day. If we were to start with a clean slate, all the Border Patrol beds would be filled in 2 days.

Migrants who are placed in expedited removal and are seeking asylum are supposed to complete a credible fear screening--a process which takes approximately 13 days. If the administration wanted to do things by the book--in other words, if they wanted to follow the law--we would need the capacity to hold every person who crossed the border for 2 weeks just to figure out whether they had a serious claim for asylum and then a longer period to evaluate those claims, and what they have requested clearly will not allow that to happen. Just to reemphasize the point, that is just to figure out if an asylum claim is plausible on its face before an immigration court determines whether it is supported by adequate evidence. That success rate is roughly 15 percent, which means the people who are waiting in line--those 15 percent who have legitimate claims--can't even get their claims heard because of all the people who have no legitimate claims clogging the dockets of the immigration courts.

So, as you can see, at current levels, we would need hundreds of thousands of detention beds. That is because the Biden administration has allowed this crisis to grow to such epic proportions that it can't be fixed by just more officers or a small increase in detention beds. Nine thousand illegal border crossings a day is evidence of a policy problem, not just a funding problem. More funding would actually be useless until we address the pull factors that are bringing these people here.

Last week, a group of Senate Republicans released a proposal that could serve as a starting point for negotiations in the Senate, but, unlike the President's request, it includes real, substantive policy changes to address the pull factors that are drawing people from around the world to our southern border.

In order to restore some control, we need deterrence. We need consequences for people breaking the rules and trying to come in illegally. We need to show people who have no legitimate claim to remain in the United States that if they come, they will not be able to stay. That is what will provide the consequences and deterrence that will prevent massive numbers of additional migrants from attempting the trip to our border.

If they know they are unlikely to be successful, they are unlikely to spend the thousands of dollars they have to spend now to the criminal organizations to transport them to our border. If they don't come, that will alleviate some of the massive influx of humanity which has prevented the Border Patrol from interdicting the drugs that took the lives of 108,000 Americans last year alone. That is where the criminal organizations or cartels are also getting rich--smuggling people, smuggling drugs.

I continue to be dumbfounded by the unwillingness of our Democratic colleagues and the President of the United States to recognize what a disaster this really is. Since President Biden took office, our country has logged more illegal border crossings than it did under the previous two administrations combined.

We know that migrants are placing a massive strain on many of our major American cities, including sanctuary cities like New York and Chicago. At the same time, fentanyl and other dangerous drugs are killing our youth.

Fentanyl or synthetic opioids are now the leading cause of death for 18- to 45-year-olds in America. Do you think that will get somebody's attention here in the Nation's Capital or at the White House? No community has been spared from the devastation of these drugs.

As I said, last fiscal year so far, we have seen about 169 people on the Terrorist Watchlist encountered at the border. Last year, the Border Patrol detained more people on the Terrorist Watchlist than it did in the previous 6 years combined. So our adversaries clearly see this as an opportunity to enter the United States with nobody the wiser. And, of course, as I said, this doesn't account for all the people who came in who were on the Terrorist Watchlist or who do have evil designs on our country who were part of the 1.7 million ``got- aways.''

It is no overstatement to say that a border crisis is a massive security threat to our country. It is putting every community in America at risk. If our Democratic colleagues are willing to help America's friends and allies like Israel and Ukraine, they should be willing to help their own constituents and help defend their own country against this influx of humanity.

Biden's mishandling of the border has created a major national security risk, and the Senate deserves and needs to treat this matter with all seriousness. Republicans are not interested in just throwing money at the current system. Wasteful, inefficient spending is not the solution here. We need to fundamentally shift the dynamics at the southern border, and that will require real, substantial policy changes.

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