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Floor Speech

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Mr. RICKETTS. Madam President, the fundamental purpose of our Federal Government is to protect Americans, to keep Americans safe. What we have seen happen on our southern border has put Americans at risk. It is a national security crisis, a drug trafficking crisis--child trafficking, sex trafficking. It is putting Americans at risk. And the people responsible for this open border policy are Joe Biden and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas.

Since the Biden administration has been in power, we have seen a flood of drugs coming across our border. The cartels are making billions. Fentanyl and other illegal drugs are the leading killer of young Americans in this country. If you are in the age of between 18 and 45, the most likely cause of your death is drug overdose, and the majority of that is fentanyl--70,000 young people a year dying because of fentanyl.

When I was Governor, we saw the amount of drugs coming into my State under Joe Biden go up dramatically. We saw twice as much methamphetamine, three times as much fentanyl, ten times as much cocaine.

We have seen the number of people on the Terrorist Watchlist skyrocket as well. Under the Trump administration, a total of 11 people on the FBI Terrorist Watchlist were caught trying to cross the border during 4 years of President Trump. In the last fiscal year, 169 people on the FBI Terrorist Watchlist were trying to cross the border illegally.

In all, since the Biden administration has been in place, 9.2 million people have either tried to get into this country illegally or have succeeded in getting into this country illegally, and Secretary Mayorkas has willfully refused to support our immigration laws at the direction of this administration. He is culpable in what is going on at our southern border.

If you ask Americans, ``Who do you think is responsible?'' 57 percent say there has been a willful unenforcement of our laws. Our laws are not being enforced. That includes 61 percent of Independents and a third of Democrats.

And if you wonder who is responsible for this, you need to look no further than a memorandum--a guideline--that was issued in 2021 from Secretary Mayorkas. According to news accounts, Secretary Mayorkas issued a memorandum to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials saying:

The fact an individual is a removable noncitizen therefore should not alone be the basis of an enforcement action against them.

Think about that. What he is saying is that, just because somebody broke the law, it doesn't mean you have to enforce the law against them--in fact, that you shouldn't enforce the law against them. That is not what the law is about. This is absolutely stunning.

When you are in the private sector and somebody is not doing their job, you hold them accountable. We need to hold accountable the people who have opened our southern border.

Madam President, 57 percent believe that there has been a willful disregard. And not only do those people in our country believe that, but the U.S. House of Representatives has passed an impeachment resolution condemning Secretary Mayorkas, for ``willful and systematic refusal to comply with [current U.S. immigration] law'' and for ``breach of public trust.''

Impeachment is serious, and these allegations are serious. We in the U.S. Senate need to treat them with that level of seriousness.

We have seen an open border policy from this administration. Secretary Mayorkas is responsible for carrying out the policy. It is now our duty, as a U.S. Senate, to have the trial to determine guilt or innocence. This is a constitutional responsibility. However, it appears that our leader and the Democrats are determined to table this, to set it aside in a manner that is unprecedented. It has never happened that the U.S. Senate has refused to take up the charges.

Folks, we don't need to be breaking more norms in the U.S. Senate. We are abdicating our constitutional responsibility if we do not hold this trial.

The people responsible need to be held accountable. We need to hear the evidence. So why don't the Democrats want to hold this trial? Well, perhaps because they are afraid of the American public hearing again how bad the situation at the southern border is, the 9.2 million people coming in here. Or perhaps they don't want to know how this administration and Secretary Mayorkas is abusing the parole function.

Parole is a function that allows the executive branch to bring in foreigners. It is supposed to be done, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Act, on a case-by-case basis, only in instances of extreme humanitarian need or in the best interest of the country. Under the Obama and Trump administrations, it happened about 5,600 times a year--5,600 times a year. Last year alone, this Biden administration paroled into the country 1.2 million people. We are doing whole classes of people. It is a clear abuse of power.

This administration is also abusing the asylum system, and Secretary Mayorkas is overseeing the Department of Homeland Security with both this new policy in parole and what is going on in asylum.

And think about this: Say you are somebody who comes across that border, and you were granted parole to get to this country, like Jose Ibarra, the Venezuelan accused of killing Laken Riley, and you get into this country. What is the first thing you are doing? You are contacting folks back home to tell them what happened to you.

This creates more incentive for people to come here illegally. It is part of why we have this problem. We need to explore topics like this.

Or perhaps the Democrats know how bad this is and don't want to defend the catastrophe that is going on at the southern border. They don't want to have to defend this administration's policy, what Secretary Mayorkas has been doing with regard to parole. Maybe they think it is bad, too, and don't want to have to defend it.

But whatever the reason, if our leader does not have a trial, it will be the first time this has happened. It will be unprecedented, and we will be breaking, again, another norm for the U.S. Senate.

Impeachment is serious. These charges are serious. The American people deserve an answer. We need to have a trial. I call on my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to insist upon a trial and uphold our constitutional authority. Let's have a trial so that we can hear and determine the guilt and innocence. That is what the American people deserve.

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