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Floor Speech

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Mr. MENENDEZ. Madam President, as our allies and democracies around the world face compounding life-and-death geopolitical challenges, the world is watching what we do or fail to do here in the U.S. Senate, and the stakes could not be any higher.

Ukraine is rapidly running out of arms to defend itself against Russia's illegal invasion and the many war crimes it has been perpetrating against the Ukrainian people. Israel is in the midst of an existential war against Hamas--a barbaric terrorist organization funded and propped up by Iran's brutal regime with one singular mission: to wipe out Israel and every Jew on the face of the Earth.

Moreover, our allies in the Indo-Pacific, like Taiwan, remain on high alert as China aggressively flexes its military and economic might there and around the globe while, at the same time, taking careful notes on how democracies around the world respond when one nation violates the sovereignty of another by attempting to take its territory by force.

Now is the time for the U.S. Senate to come together in defense of America's allies in their hour of need. We have a strategic security, economic, and moral imperative to meet the moment, and that is exactly what Democrats in the Senate are ready to do.

Right now, Democrats are prepared to take up and pass the National Security and Border Act of 2024, a comprehensive package that provides aid to Israel, Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific, and Taiwan as well as addresses ongoing challenges at our southern border, including the flow of migration and fentanyl into the United States.

Democrats are willing to put politics aside and defend our allies and our values with real dollars, real military aid, and real solutions. We are ready to secure our southern border against the most dire threats we face, especially the relentless flow of deadly fentanyl fueling our Nation's opioid epidemic.

Now, to be crystal clear, some aspects of this supplemental package, which closely mirrors the supplemental request President Biden sent to Congress, raise serious concerns for me and for others.

For example, I am worried about funding to add another 1,300 Border Patrol agents to work at the border. The U.S. Border Patrol is already the largest Federal law enforcement Agency, and its alarming track record of the abuse and mistreatment of migrants gives me pause about expanding its force further.

I also have serious hesitations about funding to expand our detention capacity by over 45,000 beds. Detaining migrants en masse, including entire families, is never the most humane or effective solution to managing our border.

Supporting a supplemental package that includes these items would not be an easy vote for me and several of my colleagues. It would be quite difficult because these funds come with concerning policy consequences. However, in the name of getting a reasonable, thoughtful package across the finish line for our allies in need, without gutting our asylum and humanitarian parole laws, I certainly am willing to consider it.

But where are Republicans? Americans might ask. Where are our colleagues across the aisle who, for so many years, have posited themselves as the champions of defending democracy and freedom around the world? Where is the party of Reagan--the party of self-proclaimed defense hawks who supposedly never bat an eye when it comes to supporting our allies?

In an incomprehensible turn of events, Republicans have decided they are going to hold hostage vital aid to our closest allies in a life- and-death struggle over completely unrelated, hyperpartisan demands on immigration and border policy, and they are insisting on these changes without any actual, deliberative process or willingness to compromise.

No, you didn't hear that incorrectly.

Senate Republicans have declared they are ready to tank this national security package--one that would help our allies defend themselves so that we don't have to send America's sons and daughters into harm's way and take the battle themselves when the next set of NATO countries is invaded by countries like Russia. I would rather have the Ukrainians fight for their freedom and provide them the resources to do so instead of sending America's sons and daughters abroad.

Now, why are they doing this? Because they are using the immigration issue, in my view, to hide behind the embarrassing fact that a significant number of Republicans in both Chambers doesn't want to vote for aid to Ukraine and because Democrats refuse to accede to far-right and far-reaching immigration policy demands that have absolutely nothing to do with the existential crises threatening our allies.

It is the height of irresponsibility and partisan politics for Republicans to claim that the price for assisting our international allies is to gut our asylum and humanitarian parole laws, which, I would add, as someone who has been on this issue for almost a quarter of a century, will do nothing to mitigate the flow of migration and deadly drugs into our country.

Think about the dangerous signal that sends: The United States cannot temporarily put aside its domestic political disputes to confront the collective challenges facing democracies and freedom around the world. Such a signal would be crippling to those who look to the United States for our leadership when confronted with the evils of tyranny and terrorism. Such a signal would amount to a shameful retreat from America's singular place on the world stage and would leave us with fewer allies willing to stand with us. Who is going to stand with you if you are going to cut and run?

What makes this all so much worse is that Republicans are willing to gamble our national security interests--indeed, our ability to conduct foreign policy--over half-baked, failed ideas that do nothing to solve the problems they claim to solve.

Let's just take a look at a few of the demands the Republicans are making on immigration and asylum policies.

I heard one of our colleagues speak before that we only just want to have the asylum crisis be dealt with quicker. Well, that is not the case. Republicans say, for example, that they want to heighten the initial ``credible fear'' standard asylum seekers must pass and have been passing for decades in order to make it to the next stage of the asylum process.

Well, news flash: No matter how much the ``credible fear'' standard is heightened, it will do nothing to address the root problems causing asylum seekers to flee their home countries in the first place. If I am in one of these countries and my choice is to stay or die or see my daughter raped by a gang or be forcibly put into a gang, I am going to flee. That is why we have 20 million people in the Southern Hemisphere who are refugees and asylees displaced presently in other countries in the Western Hemisphere.

Unless we deal with that root cause challenge and help those countries assimilate those people, those are 20 million feet that are going to come knocking. Worse yet, constricting access to asylum would only encourage more illegal attempts to make it into the United States through other avenues that will, ultimately, enrich human smuggling networks.

Our asylum system encourages order. In fiscal year 2023, 99.5 percent of asylum seekers appeared--appeared--99.5 percent of asylum seekers appeared for their hearings before an immigration judge. So only about five-tenths of a percent were in absentia. The vast majority of those asylum claims was, ultimately, denied. Then, at that point, they no longer have a right to be present.

Pushing migrants outside of the asylum system is not in the interest of anyone who wants an orderly immigration system or who professes to care about reducing the numbers of migrants that are encountered throughout the border.

Republicans say, for example, they want to dramatically limit the President's statutory authority to grant individuals humanitarian parole into the United States in response to major crises such as wars and invasions.

Well, here is another news flash: Dramatically shrinking humanitarian parole risks dramatically increasing irregular flows of migration to our borders.

Think about what would have happened in the wake of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan or in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine if the United States did not have a robust humanitarian parole system screening tens of thousands of Afghans and Ukrainians for refuge through an orderly process. It would have been utter chaos with unknown numbers of unscreened, unvetted individuals from these countries potentially seeking entry at our borders.

Humanitarian parole allows the United States to be in the driver's view to determine which individuals can obtain protection in the United States and which cannot.

It also serves our national security interests by sending a clear message: If you stand with us, if you fight for freedom and there comes a life-and-death moment, we will provide you with refuge.

So this shouldn't be about sticking it to President Biden and the Democrats. The reality is that there will one day be another Democratic or Republican administration that will need to rely on our humanitarian parole laws to respond to moments of crisis like in Afghanistan and Ukraine. By fundamentally eroding these laws, Republicans would only hamper the ability of any future administration to respond to such crises. Gutting humanitarian parole only invites the very chaos at our borders that Republicans claim they want to mitigate.

What these and other demands reflect is the now-dominant and dangerous strain of Republican thinking that believes that our asylum, humanitarian parole, and refugee systems are largely fraudulent, allowing undeserving individuals to enter into our country.

Years of anti-immigrant fearmongering by former President Trump appear to have clouded the Republicans' ability to talk about our immigration system based on the facts--the type of conversations we had when we passed comprehensive immigration reform in this Chamber with a gang of Senators--Republicans and Democrats--of which I was a part, with an overwhelming vote. That was a level-headed discussion. As a result, their policy ideas now are driven more by Stephen Miller's demagoguery than by any deliberative assessment of reality.

Here are some facts worth reminding my Republican friends about: Immigrants wield nearly $1.3 trillion--trillion--in spending power in the United States, and they contribute tens of billions of dollars in taxes every year. A recent study found that a 25-percent reduction in the number of asylum seekers in the United States would cause an economic loss of over $20 billion over 5 years.

Immigrants disproportionately make up our essential workforce by taking care of our sick, putting food on our tables, and taking care of our workplaces. They were the ones, when we were all home, sheltering, who were out taking the risks of their lives in order that the rest of us could be sheltered.

Immigrants are 80 percent more likely to become entrepreneurs than native-born Americans. Indeed, nearly 45 percent of Fortune 500 companies--45 percent of Fortune 500 companies--which employ tens of millions of Americans, were founded by immigrants or their children.

These migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees have not just enriched our economy, they have changed and shaped our Nation and the world more broadly.

Ever hear of Albert Einstein, a refugee who changed our understanding of science forever; Sergey Brin, the cofounder of Google, a refugee who changed technology forever; Gloria Estefan, a refugee who fled the Cuban revolution with her family and helped shaped our musical landscape; or how about former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright--does that name ring a bell?--a refugee from Czechoslovakia who helped shaped the modern world as the first woman to ever serve as U.S. Secretary of State. The list goes on and on and on.

The hard, undeniable reality is this: Our Nation's prosperity, power, and greatness are inextricably intertwined with our identity as a nation of striving, hard-working immigrants. So it is no wonder that our asylum, refugee, and humanitarian parole systems have received overwhelming bipartisan support over the decades. They are an essential source of our strength.

And let's be perfectly clear about something else. Welcoming asylum seekers, parolees, and refugees into the country is far from just an act of compassion. These systems directly support our national security and strategic economic interest at home and abroad.

Imagine a world where the United States and other countries did not have systems to provide refuge to dissidents, journalists, lawyers, and others taking on tyrants and defending liberties in their countries. Would they have the same level of courage to enact change in their countries if they did not think they could protect themselves and their families if they faced life-and-death persecution?

So to my Republican friends, I say this: It is time to free yourselves from the Trumpian demagoguery that informs your current worldview on immigration. Join us in good faith to deliver inclusive, humane, and orderly immigration reform that will secure our borders, provide relief to the undocumented community, and strengthen our strategic posture in the world.

However, attempting to force this conversation here and now, when our allies have their backs against the wall, when they are fighting on the frontlines to protect U.S. interests, and when innocent people's lives hang in the balance is the height of recklessness and irresponsibility.

We can continue serving as the world's last, best defender of freedom and democracy without sacrificing one of our greatest strengths: our identity as a nation of immigrants.

We are the United States of America. Let's start acting like it.

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