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Floor Speech
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Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I will be making a unanimous consent request here in a second, and Senator Britt will be joining me in that endeavor.
We are going to have a vote at 2 o'clock about a bipartisan bill. I applaud the effort to change our immigration laws and get control of an out-of-control situation. Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what law is on the books, if the administration is not going to enforce the ones that already exist.
We had a vote in February on this bill. One of the problems I had the entire time is that parole is being abused by this administration. Since February until now, April, 77,800 people have been paroled in the United States, and I believe that is an abuse of the statute that is on the books. There were 1.3 million in fiscal year 2023. Over 1.2 million were paroled by the CBP alone.
Now let's talk about the parole statute, if we have that. If we don't, well, let me tell you what the law says.
It basically says you can be paroled for two reasons: a unique humanitarian need or a special benefit to the country. The statute that they are using to parole all of these people has limitations as to how it can be used. On average, the statute in question during the Obama- Trump years was used--about 6,000 people, on average, were paroled in the United States using the statute that the Biden administration has been abusing. In fiscal year 2019, it was 7,525; in fiscal year 2018, 6,466; in fiscal year 2015, during the Obama years, 4,598; in fiscal year 2019, again, 7,500. In fiscal year 2022, the Biden administration paroled 795,561 and, in fiscal year 2023, 1.2 million plus.
Why are they doing parole differently than Obama and Trump? They are abusing the statute. Why are they just waiving so many people into the country? That is for the voters to decide. I think they are just basically abusing the statute because they don't want to turn anybody around and send them back. So they just let people come into the country in violation of the law.
Again, the parole statute in question is limited to two circumstances: a unique benefit to the country or a special benefit to the country. A unique humanitarian situation is that your mother is dying. A special need to the country is you are a witness in a trial, and we need to get you in for a limited situation. Parole is not permanent status.
As for Laken Riley--and we will ask unanimous consent to vote on the bill authored by Senator Britt--the man accused of murdering her and who was indicted in Georgia, Mr. Ibarra, in September 2022, was apprehended by the Border Patrol. He was released through parole. And it took me forever to find this out, the reason for parole: The subject was paroled due to detention capacity at the central processing center in El Paso, TX. The reason for parole: The subject was paroled due to detention capacity at the central processing center in El Paso, TX. They had no room for the guy, and he is now being charged with murdering this young woman in Georgia. He was arrested in 2024.
Senator Britt will tell us what her bill does here in a moment. She is trying to find a way to make sure this never happens again. The two crimes he was charged with should result in an immediate expulsion from the country. That is what her bill does. But I want the country to know that the man accused of killing this young lady in Georgia was released into our country by the DHS--illegally, in my view. They violated the statute. They gave him parole for a reason that doesn't exist in the statute.
And you wonder why we don't want to pass another bill. The reason we don't want to pass another bill is we don't trust you, the Biden administration. Why create a new law that isn't going to be any more effective than the current law?
From the time we had this debate until the end of April, did things get better? No. There have been 77,800 people paroled from the original debate until now. So, clearly, they haven't changed their idea or policies regarding the abuse of parole. The average for Obama-Trump was around 6,000 for the entire year using the parole statute in question. This is 77,800 since February. So why are we skeptical? Because of the way they do business in the Biden administration.
Secretary Mayorkas has all the power he needs to stop this. You will never convince me that 77,800 people were individually screened. They have a program to waive people through based on country, not individual status. They promised me that an individual analysis was done on each parolee. I asked him that, and he said yes. Well, we found one parolee accused of murdering a young lady in Georgia who was not individually analyzed and released based on the criteria of the statute. He was released because they had no place to put him. So what we want to do today is try to find a way to deal with the situation that led to the murder of this young lady.
The law has a loophole in it, I guess, for lack of a better word. I am going to recognize Senator Britt now to tell us what her bill does, because what do we know about the Georgia case? We know the man charged with the murder of Ms. Riley was released into the United States under parole, not based on statutory requirements but just because we were full. If I were the Riley family, I would be pretty upset. They might want to think about suing.
Right now, I would like to yield to Senator Britt from Alabama, who has tried to find a solution to this problem.
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Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I will be making the unanimous consent request in just a minute, as I am just about to wrap up.
I sent a letter yesterday to Secretary Mayorkas, wanting to know about the two people who tried to get into the Marine base, Quantico. Apparently, both of them were illegal, claiming to be Amazon contractors but were not. There is a lot of mystery around this, and I want a response to my letter.
Who are these people? What do we know about them? Have they any affiliation with terrorist groups? What were they up to?
I think we need to know as a nation what went on, because I find it very odd that two fighting-age illegal immigrants joined together to try to falsely get into a Marine base. That sends shivers up my spine.
Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Washington, DC.
Dear Secretary Mayorkas: I am writing today to seek information from your agency regarding the reported arrest of two Jordanian nationals posing as delivery drivers while attempting to infiltrate Marine Corps Base Quantico on May 3, 2024.
As soon as possible, please inform me and the committee on the status of these two individuals. Please explain how they came to the United States. Were they here illegally? Are either of them on any terrorist watchlist?
Please provide the committee with the answers to these questions and any other information relevant to their background and intent, including copies of the complete and most current alien files for each individual. This will allow us to make an informed decision about how to address the recurring threat posed to our national security by this kind of incident, which is not isolated.
I would hope for and expect an immediate reply. Sincerely, Lindsey O. Graham, Ranking Member, Senate Judiciary Committee.
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Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S. 3933 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, to my colleague from Illinois, Senator Durbin, we do a lot of things together. I enjoy working with you. But, here, we have a fundamental disagreement.
No. 1, you are entitled to your opinion but not your facts. There were 77,800 people paroled in the U.S. since February who came from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. That doesn't count the people from Ukraine. They all showed up at the border. They were paroled in. There is no way that two statutory requirements were applied to 77,800 people.
Why did they just wave them through? All I can tell you is that parole has been abused. The average was 6,000 per year for Trump and Biden during their Presidency. From April to now, it is 77,800--nothing to do with Ukraine.
As to the people from Ukraine, I want to help them, but we have a refugee law where you can apply for refugee status if you are in a war zone or things are bad where you live. They are taking the parole statute and just granting to anybody and everybody they choose to grant. The bottom line is we are either a rule-of-law nation or we are not.
This has nothing to do with ICE funding. We were not talking about funding ICE here. This is a decision by the executive branch to abuse the law on the books.
The tools available apparently are not being used by anybody.
Why does Senator Britt offer legislation? Because we have a real- world example where the system failed. Let's make it stronger.
Why did this bill pass overwhelmingly in the House? Because it makes sense.
If you learned nothing from the Laken Riley case, learn the following: She is a victim. Her family is a victim of a broken immigration system. Her family is a victim of willful disregard of the law by the Biden administration.
The man accused of murdering this young lady was allowed to come into the country on parole based on ``we have no place to put you,'' not the statutory requirements to get paroled.
This is a big issue. We should learn from the death of this young lady. We should change our parole system. We are not. That is why we are not going to add a new law that won't be enforced.
Until you prove to me you are serious about following the law as written, you are going to have a problem with us on this side of the aisle and, hopefully, a few Democrats.
We should learn from the Laken Riley case and do what Senator Britt encourages us to do, which is to change the law, to address the situation so we have no other Laken Riley cases.
Apparently, the death of this young lady has taught us nothing as a body. We have learned nothing from this case. We are doing nothing different, and it breaks my heart.
It looks like the murder of this young lady should be a wake-up call to a parole system broken and to fix this never-ending catch-and- release--you are caught for crimes, and you are released before the Sun goes down to commit more crimes. It needs to come to an end.
We will have a chance, as a democratic people, to vote in November. If you think the system is working the way it is intended to work, and you are OK with what is going on, vote for Biden. You are going to get more of the same. If you think this is broken, it needs to change, you ought to think about voting for somebody else.
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