Border Security
Floor Speech
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, in the 4 months since the Democrats took control of the U.S. Government, they have not once indicated they understand the severity of the crisis playing out along our southern border.
It is hard to believe they get the same reports from Customs and Border Protection as I do, so just in case they haven't seen this month's update yet, I am going to go ahead and run through the numbers.
In April, CBP apprehended more than 178,000 people trying to illegally cross our border.
Almost 14,000 of them were unaccompanied children or single minors.
Drug seizures were up 6 percent from March. We have already seized more fentanyl this year than we did all last year.
On top of all that we are still catching smugglers trying to pass off counterfeit face masks, prohibited COVID test kits, and banned pharmaceuticals.
It is important to understand that all of this, from the human trafficking to the drug smuggling to the bootleg PPE operations, are symptoms of a much bigger problem.
We are dealing with a systemic humanitarian, health and safety, and national security crisis that gets worse every time the Biden administration doubles down on open borders rhetoric.
What is worse, they are treating the chaos like a logistics issue. Instead of trying to reduce the flow of migrants coming to the southern border, the Biden administration is trying to speed the flow.
They are actively trying to move as many migrants into our country as possible.
Last week, we received reports that the Department of Health and Human Services is using Chattanooga, TN, as a rally point for unaccompanied minors on their way to meet up with their sponsors or move on to area shelters and homes.
We saw video of the children getting off of planes at Wilson Air Center and boarding buses to continue on their journey. At least four planes full of unaccompanied minors landed in Chattanooga last week.
It is important to realize that all this was happening in the dead of night, without the knowledge of any Tennessee elected officials or community leaders.
No transparency, no coordination, no notice whatsoever.
This is cause for concern not only because HHS circumvented State authorities but because this Agency has a history of operating under a veil of secrecy when it concerns their handling of migrant children.
Back in 2014, HHS blocked congressional oversight of their migrant housing facilities. Our attempts to tour one such facility, which at the time housed more than 1,000 children, were met with delays, denials and refusals.
Fast-forward to today, and HHS is being just as secretive about how they are managing care for these children. Fortunately, eyewitnesses have come forward to confirm the scope and secrecy of this operation.
One source said: ``They have intentionally not shared a lot of information with us. They don't want this to get out.''
He went on: ``They had, to my understanding, a field full of buses with more buses and more buses running all of these routes. Now, they're flying the kids because the buses were easier to videotape going down the highway. They've changed their strategy from buses to flying . . . In Chattanooga and other cities, motorcoach companies are waiting on planes to land and continuing their trek further north, dropping kids off along the way.''
Now, let's be clear about one thing: The children in those buses are victims--victims of irresponsible rhetoric, of bad policy, and of manipulation and abuse by traffickers.
I would implore my colleagues to listen to these stories and to accept that the tragedy is compounded by the knowledge that none of these children should have been on those buses in the first place.
Moving children through Border Patrol custody, into HHS custody, and then delivering them to sponsors throughout the country is not a solution to the problem. It only makes the problem worse.
If Democrats want to embrace a ``humane'' approach to immigration reform, they should stop worrying about those talking points and secure the border. Treat this like the crisis it is.
Restore the Migrant Protection Protocols. I have introduced a bill that would make that happen; all we need is a few votes and a signature.
Fully embrace our title 42 authority to turn away adults and children who attempt to enter the country illegally. Close the loophole that has tempted so many parents to send their children to the border alone.
Resume construction of the border wall, and invest in the infrastructure, technology, and manpower it will take to truly secure those points of entry.
But above all else, stop making promises you can't keep.
This is the most important piece of advice I can give to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and to the administration.
I know that you believe opening the border is compassionate policy, but the cartels are exploiting your version of compassion and using it to manipulate desperate families.
For some inexplicable reason, the Biden administration has made it official policy to finish the cartels' work for them and take these children to their new life, which could be as part of an MS-13 gang, or a labor work crew, or a sex trafficking ring. It could be with drug runners.
If you believe all these children are headed to their families, you're living in fantasyland.
Last week, Senator Hagerty, Congressman Fleischman, and I sent a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and OHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking for an explanation. We are still waiting for a satisfactory response.
But I will tell you, you cannot fix this crisis with a talking point. You cannot fix it by staying silent, as Secretaries Becerra and Mayorkas have chosen to be.
Parents are sending their children 1,000 miles across the continent in the custody of drug mules and sex traffickers because the administration has given them hope that if they take this one, unthinkable risk, the door will be open, and they will be able to follow their children into the country.
We have the power to stop this.
It is time to abandon talking points, address the root cause of the crisis, and secure our southern border before it is too late. Because if we have learned anything about how the cartels operate, the children who passed through Chattanooga last week, the ones who made it here, are the lucky ones.
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