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Floor Speech

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Mr. TILLIS. Madam President, before the Senator from Oklahoma leaves, I was wondering if he would yield for a question.

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Mr. TILLIS. Senator Lankford, you have done an extraordinary job of negotiating what I think is going to be a successful compromise that is going to get support from Republicans and Democrats. But as you were going through this work, in the years that you spent studying this issue as a ranking member and chair in a committee of jurisdiction, I have got to believe you have looked at, let's say, Canada, for example. There are a lot of people who think that Senator Lankford and those of us who are trying to support Senator Lankford are being draconian and being out of step with the Western World.

But, Senator Lankford, could you just briefly describe how what we are trying do compares to, say, our partner to the north, Canada, their laws?

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Mr. TILLIS. Madam President, may I ask one followup?

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Mr. TILLIS. Senator Lankford, isn't it true that tens of thousands of people who cross our borders today--and who may, ultimately, request asylum--have looked past an opportunity to safely relocate in the country they are seeking asylum from, likely transited to another country where they could have declared asylum, and, in some cases, passed through four or five or six different safe jurisdictions before they made the dangerous trip through Mexico, across the Rio Grande border, and present themselves at the border? Is that an accurate assessment of what hundreds of thousands of people have done during the Trump administration?

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Mr. TILLIS. I thank Senator Lankford through the Chair.

Madam President, I want to spend a few minutes on this subject as well.

We are reaching a milestone that I think is critically important. Since President Biden has entered office, the number of encounters at the border, 8 million--8 million--since President Biden entered office--that population exceeds the population of 30 U.S. States--the population of 30 individual U.S. States. That is the number we are talking about here.

And, ladies and gentlemen, a lot of them are the people who we just described. Of course, the United States wants to be a haven for people who are fearing for their lives, suffering from oppression. But the goal of asylum is to get them immediately out of that dangerous situation--not to suddenly decide that I want to go through two or three or four other jurisdictions because what, ultimately, I want to do is get to the United States.

They are demeaning and devaluing the concept of asylum. And the problem is, they are getting those who want to come here--and we should take it as a compliment that they want to come to the United States-- but they are elbowing out and sapping the capacity for the United States to make absolutely certain that people who have a legitimate case for asylum are even being heard. I wonder about how many thousands of people who desperately need to get to the United States--it is their only option--are not getting there because we are focused on this population.

Ladies and gentlemen, we have to do something. This is dangerous. You know, for a time, conservatives were really in the wilderness, being viewed as inhumane, insensitive, saying we have to have an orderly border process. I have been saying that. I am also somebody who thinks we should probably legally immigrate another 250,000 to a half million more than we do already. We immigrate about a million.

Let me tell you the other problem we have here that is inherently unfair. I already talked about people who legitimately should be given asylum--probably not, because we don't know who they are. We are dealing with a flood of 300,000 in the month of December alone. Of course, they are going to be collateral damage in the form of people who want asylum.

But now the American people are waking up to it. There was a time when it was purely a shirts and skins--blue jersey Democrat, red jersey Republican--argument. It is not the case anymore. The American people expect this administration to do something. And I am glad.

I am also glad we have James Lankford at the tip of the spear negotiating on behalf of Republicans. He has negotiated--I am part of the working group; I have seen progress. He has negotiated something that I think is important.

We cannot miss this opportunity. The stakes are too high, and the American people agree. Nearly half of those who responded to this poll--which was an even distribution, ideologically speaking--nearly half of them think we have an emergency at the border. They are right. I have been there several times. They are right. People are dying.

Cartels are making nearly $1 billion a year charging tolls to come across the border. If you try to cross the border without an armband or recognition you paid a cartel, you are likely going to die or you are going to get one more chance before you get beaten up. That happens every day at the border, ladies and gentlemen. I am not exaggerating. I have been there. I have seen it. I have heard the stories.

Fortunately, now we have a majority of Americans that expect this administration to come to the table and negotiate in good faith with conservatives and people like me who have negotiated several bipartisan deals to solve this problem. If any Democrats are concerned with how far the negotiations are going, I don't think that they need to. This is not a political loser for people who are concerned with voting on a bipartisan compromise. In fact, it is politically smart.

At the end of the day, I hope political advisers and everybody that is up for election next year know: You know what, you don't even need political courage to do the right thing here, because the good policy of border security is also good politics for the overwhelming majority of people that need a vote for this bill.

We are going to have 30 or 40 people on this side--not 30 or 40--I think we will probably have 25 or 30 Members in this body that won't vote for it. Some will be because it didn't go too far; the others will be, it didn't go far enough; some of them are closer in cycle. It is very difficult to explain; I get that. But we need about 70 votes coming out of this Chamber to create a momentum to get it done in the House. I am going to be one of those 70 votes.

I also want the American people to not only wake up to the reality that people are abusing our system--they are taking our attention away from people we should desperately find a path to getting to the United States--and they are also jumping line. That is what I will leave with you. How angry do you all get--I love going to a good sporting event or a good comedy show. You get there early sometimes because you want to get a good seat if there is general admission. How angry do you get if you are standing in line for hours and, all of a sudden, somebody jumps in front of you? Well, imagine if you have been waiting years--more than a decade--to legally follow the process to be one of those million people a year that gets citizenship, when you see millions of them coming across the border every year breaking line. These people that are working hard, obeying our laws, respecting it, doing it by the book--they are breaking line, and it is actually elongating the time for them to get into this country. It is unfair at every level, and it is unsafe.

The only people who are loving the stalemate that we have in this Nation today are the cartels who are charging from $5,000 to $50,000 a person to get you across the border. Not everybody has $5,000, though. So you know what they do? They say, well, you don't have to pay. But once you get across the border, you are going to participate in criminal enterprises until we think your debt is done. That is not an exaggeration either. Talk to law enforcement. Talk to people in these communities. These cartels are like a cancer metastasizing through illegally present communities, exploiting them, and causing some people who may not have had a criminal record in the country of their origin to become criminals here.

There are a million different reasons why we need to get this border compromise done. I hope this Congress is the Congress where people set aside politics, do the right thing, make this country safer, and show respect for people trying to come to this country legally by making sure that their place in line is reserved.

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