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Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, President Zelenskyy visited Washington, DC, last week to ask for the United States' continued support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia.

As someone who strongly believes that it is in our national security interest to aid Ukraine as well as our allies Israel and Taiwan, I am disappointed that we have not already passed the aid Ukraine needs. But let's be very clear: The reason the Senate has not already passed a national security supplemental is that Democrats, so far, have chosen to prioritize an open border over aid for our allies.

Democrats have known for months that border security was going to be a part of the national security supplemental. After all, the President himself requested border funding in his supplemental request. Republicans have had a border security proposal on the table literally since the beginning of November, but Democrats wasted weeks, refusing to engage in substantive negotiations even though they were well aware that border security was going to be a requirement for getting this supplemental through both Houses of Congress. Now the supplemental will be pushed to January because Democrats have run out the clock to the point where getting a substantive border security deal passed before Christmas is impossible.

Last week, President Biden said that failing to pass the national security supplemental before the holidays would be a Christmas gift to Putin. Well, I would like to point out, once again, that the only reason we haven't passed the national security supplemental already is because of the Democrats and President Biden. Only one of the two parties has been dragging its feet on negotiations, and it has not been the Republicans. A lot of us Republicans are eager to get Ukraine the aid that it needs, but we cannot--and I say we cannot--tend to our national security interests abroad while ignoring the national security crisis right here on our doorstep.

President Biden wants to talk about a gift to Putin? Well, let's talk about the gift the President has been giving to terrorists and criminals and cartels for 3 years now with the chaos we have at our southern border. We have had three successive, record-breaking years of illegal immigration at our southern border on President Biden's watch; and the President is no closer to getting this crisis under control than when it first started.

During October, the latest month for which we have data, U.S. Customs and Border Protection encountered 240,988 migrants at our southern border, which is the highest October number ever recorded. I might add that among those numbers in October, there were almost 1,600 convicted criminals, 50 gang members, 90 people who have warrants out for their arrests, and 12 people on the Terrorist Watchlist. That was just in the month of October. The past 24 hours alone saw a record-breaking 12,000-plus migrant encounters at the southern border and, I would say, the highest--highest--daily total ever recorded. And those numbers don't count the ``got-aways,'' the individuals the Border Patrol saw but was unable to apprehend.

Let's be very clear: While many of these individuals may simply have headed to the United States in search of a better life, there is no question that there are dangerous individuals who are trying to make their way into our country.

During fiscal year 2023, the Border Patrol arrested 169 individuals on the Terrorist Watchlist at the southern border--169. That was a substantial increase over fiscal year 2022, which was itself a substantial increase over fiscal year 2021. Needless to say, that is not a good trajectory. Again, these numbers only refer to individuals the Border Patrol has actually apprehended. There were 670,000 known ``got-aways'' during fiscal year 2023.

How many of them were terrorists, criminals, or other dangerous individuals?

Well, the answer is, we really don't know. We really don't know.

One thing we do know is that the chaotic southern border and the chaos that we have experienced there cannot continue. Our country cannot be secure while we have 10,000 people a day pouring across our southern border and hundreds of thousands of unknown individuals taking up residence in our country. Think about it. With the record that we had yesterday--as I mentioned, well over 12,000, which is the single highest--single highest--day that we have ever had on record in terms of people being apprehended illegally at the southern border, if you analyze that number, you are talking about more than 4.5 million people a year--4.5 million a year. That is way more people than the majority of the States in this country, in the entire United States of America.

The Federal Government is charged with the responsibility for our Nation's security, and we owe the American people nothing less than a secure border. So while I believe it is essential that we get aid to our allies, any supplemental must include measures to address our national security here at home at the border as well as our national security interests abroad.

I want to thank Senator Lankford for his patience and tenacity in working to bring Democrats to the table. After weeks of Democrat intransigence, it is encouraging that the White House is finally--and I say ``finally'' because, as I said, we had a proposal on the table at the beginning of November, and the White House finally engaged last Tuesday--finally has stepped up to take on a role in the negotiations. It is just too bad that they didn't do it weeks ago.

But I hope that the President and Democrats understand that the only acceptable outcome of negotiations is a solution that meets the challenge at our southern border. Cosmetic measures and superficial tweaks are not going to cut it. So the ball is in the Democrats' court.

We need to get aid to allies like Ukraine, but we cannot pass legislation to do that without addressing the situation at our southern border. I would like to think that Democrats would see the necessity of addressing our border crisis irrespective of what is needed to get this bill through Congress, but at the very least, I hope that Democrats' concern for our national security interests abroad will lead them to finally--and again I say ``finally''--get serious about working with Republicans to address the national security crisis here at home.

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