The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Border Security (Executive Session)” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security was published in the in the Senate section section on pages S3325-S3326 on July 18.
The Department was built out of more than 20 agencies in 2002. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lower taxes and boosting federal efficiency, argued the Department is burdened with "unneeded bureaucracy" which could be handled by other departments or standalone operations.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Border Security
Madam President, on another matter, last week, Senator Cruz, my junior Senator and friend, and I took five Members of our Republican conference to McAllen, TX, which is in the Rio Grande Valley, which is the epicenter of a massive humanitarian and immigration crisis that has been going on for at least the last year and a half.
McAllen is in the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley Sector, it is called, and one of the busiest portions of the U.S.-Mexico border when it comes to illegal migration. For example, between October and May, Rio Grande Valley Sector agents logged more than 333,000 border crossings--more than any of the other 20 Border Patrol sectors.
During the visit, our colleagues were able to see and learn what, frankly, as Texas Senators, Senator Cruz and I learned long ago about the traumatic, heart-wrenching consequences of this unabated crisis: groups of migrants with toddlers, who were lying asleep on the dirt road, practically ill from the heat and exhaustion.
By the way, the temperature is routinely in excess of 100 degrees at this time of year.
One mother and her 7-year-old child, the mom in tears and heartbroken, having left another 10-year-old child behind in Guatemala, were encountered. Unaccompanied children of 7 years of age, with nothing more than the clothes on their back, a birth certificate, and family contact information on a piece of paper--these were the sorts of things that my Senate colleagues had a chance to experience, which, unfortunately, I have seen all too many times before. These aren't heart-wrenching scenes from a war-torn country halfway around the world. This is happening on our front doorstep. This is happening in Texas every day.
My colleagues and I also spoke with some of the folks whose homes and properties sit along the U.S.-Texas border with Mexico. They shared with us stories about what it is like to live along one of the hot spots for illegal border crossings.
One resident told us last year the Brooks County Sheriff's Department recovered the bodies of 119 dead migrants. So far this year, the county has recovered 64.
Just by way of explanation, the coyotes or the smugglers will bring the migrants across the border, put them in a stash house, and then, when they believe the coast is clear, put them in a truck and transport them north. They will have to go through a border checkpoint--or an interior checkpoint in Falfurrias, for example, which is where Brooks County is located, but what happens is, the smugglers will tell the migrants: Get out of the vehicle and walk around the checkpoint, and we will pick you up on the north side.
The problem is, this is very tough terrain and over 100-degree-plus temperature. Frankly, when some of the migrants become ill or injured, they are simply left behind to die, and that is why so many bodies have been recovered, for example, in Brooks County on a regular basis.
It is tough to imagine the toll this sort of discovery takes on a farmer or rancher, and then multiply that shock by more than 100.
Then we heard about the losses to property suffered because of this crisis--stolen vehicles, broken fences, damaged crops, vandalism, people who are afraid to let their own family members live and work on their own property because they are worried about the drugs, and they are worried about the potential violence. They talked about the safety concerns for their families and employees because drug traffickers and human smugglers go right through their backyards.
These men and women are understandably angry. They said to us: This is the United States of America, and I can't let my daughter or wife or children live and play or work on our own property? They are frustrated beyond belief because their families and employees, their homes and livelihoods are in jeopardy due to the Biden administration's failed border policies.
In case there are any doubts, I want to emphasize that what is happening on the border right now does not benefit anyone.
Border Patrol agents are stretched thin. They are frustrated. They are overwhelmed by everything they are expected to shoulder. They have been told they cannot do the job that they took an oath to perform under policies by the Department of Homeland Security, which can only be described as nonenforcement policies.
Landowners are saddled with safety concerns and financial losses.
Nongovernmental organizations, which are doing their best to help people in need, are carrying the weight of this humanitarian crisis with no end in sight. Brave Texas Department of Public Safety officers and National Guardsmen are making serious sacrifices as a result of the administration's failure to secure the border. These guardsmen and the Department of Homeland Security should not have to do a job that is the responsibility of the Federal Government, but when the Federal Government won't do its job, the State of Texas has no choice. One guardsman actually drowned while trying to save two migrants struggling to swim across the Rio Grande River. And the migrants themselves are routinely abused, exploited, even raped and sometimes left for dead in the middle of unforgiving terrain.
The only people really winning in this crisis are the criminal organizations and the human smugglers that are getting richer by the day. These cartels are transnational criminal organizations. They will traffic in anything that makes them a buck. They are what one person has called commodity agnostic. They don't care what that commodity is; their goal is simply to maximize their profit by whatever means necessary. And there is no question that the Biden administration's policies have helped enrich the cartels and resulted in too many migrants having lost their lives.
Throughout my time in the Senate, I have had the privilege of working with countless men and women who live and work along the southern border. Their experiences and input have shed light on the scope and scale of this crisis, and I am glad to be able to welcome some of our Senate colleagues to join us for an informative trip to the Rio Grande Valley. And I appreciate our colleagues taking the time to come visit the US-Mexico border for an update on the border crisis. Of course, most of them don't come from border States, but in the memorable words of one of our colleagues now, every State is a border State because the consequences of this huge migration and humanitarian crisis--not to mention the drugs that are smuggled across the border--affect every community and every State in our Nation.
I also want to thank my constituents, my fellow Texans, who took the time out of their busy schedules to educate our colleagues: the officers, the agents, the landowners, the National Guardsmen, the Texas Department of Public Safety officials, the local sheriffs, and others.
What is so shocking to me is, despite the complete security breakdown and, really, the lack of any dispute about what exactly is happening on the border, we just can't seem to get the Biden administration's attention. Landowners can tell them what it was like to discover the dead bodies of migrants who were abandoned by human smugglers, and those who do the Lord's work at nongovernmental organizations can tell the tale of migrants who were violently assaulted and raped on the way to our country, some of whom arrived pregnant. If President Biden would take a moment to sit down with these folks who live and work along the border, he may begin to learn more and view this situation for what it really is: a humanitarian and security crisis precipitated by his administration's unwillingness to secure our border.
President Biden has an open invitation to visit the Texas border, and I hope he will take us up on that. If he would, we might finally be able to get something done on a bipartisan basis to abate this crisis and to secure our open borders.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.
