Border Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today I come to the floor to talk about what is very obvious on television--the crisis at the southern border.

During the past several months, the American people have watched as a full-blown crisis has developed. It has reached a catastrophic phase, and it is not getting any better.

Let me reemphasize that whatever the Biden administration wants to call it, it is a crisis. Simply put, the administration is in denial, and that denial has caused a humanitarian and national crisis. For example, border crossings are at the highest level we have seen in the last 15 years. Last month, Customs and Border Patrol, Border Protection, encountered more than 170,000 people attempting to cross at the southern border. That number includes almost 19,000 unaccompanied children, which is the highest number ever recorded in a single month.

The surge has overwhelmed personnel and prompted the Biden administration to put out--would you believe this?--emergency calls for volunteers. They did that from across the Federal Government. According to news reports based on recent Biden administration emails, the administration is recruiting NASA employees to sit with children at border facilities. Really? That is NASA. The border crisis is so bad that the Biden administration is trying to pull people from NASA and place them at the border.

My fellow Senators, this situation is out of control. This is a humanitarian and national security crisis. Terrorists, smugglers, criminals have seen this as their golden opportunity, and they are surely taking advantage of it.

This can't continue. I have written to the Biden administration. I have visited the border in person. I have seen overwhelmed facilities. I have heard the calls of the cartel members and human traffickers yelling insults from across the Rio Grande, taunting Senators--yes, taunting Senators.

Senator Cornyn and I have written to the chairman of the Judiciary Committee strongly urging him to hold border security hearings. During the Trump administration, while I served as chairman of the full committee and Senator Cornyn served as subcommittee chairman, we held no less than 15 hearings on oversight of the Department of Homeland Security and various aspects of our immigration policy. As chairman of the committee during the first 2 years of the Trump administration, I held hearings on immigration topics of bipartisan interest to all committee members, including Democratic committee members. Those hearings included oversight of family reunification efforts and the Trump administration's decision to end DACA programs.

In that very same way, I am hopeful that Chairman Durbin will be willing to hold hearings on matters of great importance to me and committee members on both sides of the aisle. I am ready to work with him to put together hearings that address these problems productively.

During the Easter recess, I instructed my oversight and investigative staff to get a classified briefing from the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That briefing provided important and time-sensitive information that further solidifies my belief that the Biden administration's border crisis is a national security problem.

Moreover, the Biden administration's denial that there is a border crisis is itself a national security problem. You can't solve a problem if you refuse to admit that there is such a problem existing. This head-in-the-sand attitude will cost lives. That is what is so sad about the situation. It is not making anyone's life any better. In fact, it is putting lives at risk, American lives and immigrant lives. Yet the administration refuses to solve the problem.

Earlier this month, I requested that the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, after briefing my investigative staff, that they brief the full Judiciary Committee, Republicans and Democrats, on a member level. Members need to fully understand the national security problems at the border with respect to terrorists, narcoterrorists, human smugglers, and every one of their criminal counterparts. We must also be fully read in to the methods and means that they use to plan and accomplish their criminal goals.

Yesterday, in response to my request of these Agencies, the committee had that briefing. What we learned is that the crisis at the border is getting worse, and bad actors are expanding their technological edge to become more efficient at accomplishing their criminal goals. Human smuggling networks, cartels, and other bad actors are continuing to take full advantage of the crisis.

As to where we go from here, the Biden administration knows it has a crisis on its hands. It is time to stop the denial and act now to solve this border crisis Information Sharing

Mr. President, on another issue, I would like to address my fellow Senators. This deals with counterfeits and the need for the Federal Government to modernize its approach to information sharing.

Counterfeits pose a danger to the health and safety of consumers. They also infringe on U.S. intellectual property rights and unfairly benefit international criminals.

This will come as no surprise to anyone: The majority of fake goods come from China and Hong Kong. And the United States? Well, we are the biggest loser when it comes to our intellectual property-related crime and activity.

Unfortunately, the problem of counterfeits has gotten worse during the pandemic. Americans have increasingly turned to e-commerce to buy goods like personal protective equipment, household products, as well as household cleaners, children's toys, and a lot of other items I won't list. Criminals use the same e-commerce sites to sell their bogus goods. These sites give criminals an air of legitimacy and make it harder for law enforcement to catch them. E-commerce sites also let criminals create multiple product listings that can trick consumers into purchasing fake goods.

Unfortunately, when there is money to be made, criminals will find out how to profit and do it at the expense of others, even in the event of a global pandemic. However, there is some good news. We have ways of addressing the problem.

Last week, I introduced legislation that will give U.S. Customs and Border Protection more authority to share information with rights holders and other interested parties on suspected counterfeit merchandise. This is an issue I first identified as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee when I investigated counterfeit goods sold online. During this investigation, I discovered that certain U.S. laws prevent Customs and Border Protection from sharing key pieces of information with their private sector partners. As a result, it is harder for Customs and Border Protection and its private sector partners to detect and disrupt counterfeiting networks. If they could work together and the law allowed it, it would be a lot easier to tackle the problems.

To give credit where it is due, Customs and Border Protection has recognized this problem and is taking steps to rectify it through the 21st Century Customs Framework--for short, 21CCF--to improve data- sharing capabilities in real time. However, without statutory authority from Congress, in some ways, Customs and Border Protection has one hand tied behind its back. So my bill will get rid of some of these barriers for the Agency. It is one small but very crucial step toward a more secure supply chain.

Sharing information is a simple solution that often gets overlooked. However, it can be an effective tool in creating comprehensive strategy against counterfeit activity. So I am asking my colleagues to join me in making this legislative fix so that we may create a supply chain that addresses a 21st-century problem.

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