9 July 2019, Cornyn discusses immigration as it relates to the US-Mexico border Full title quote: “The vast majority of Americans oppose open borders and already struggle to manage their own bills. They certainly don’t want to be burdened with the costs of people who enter our country illegally and don’t pay taxes.”
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"Mr. President, on another matter, we know that a record number of migrants is continuing to cross our southern border, and the impact on Texas communities--the State I represent--has been overwhelming.
Detention centers are over their capacities. Customs and Border Protection officers and agents are pulling double duty in their being law enforcement officers and caregivers to children, not because that is what they have been trained to do but because that is what they must do in order to take care of this flood of humanity. Nongovernmental and community organizations are unable to keep up with this pace of the thousands of people who have been coming across the border each and every day.
Before the Senate recessed for the Fourth of July week, which was about 10 weeks after the President requested emergency funds, we finally passed a bipartisan bill to send much needed humanitarian relief. It includes additional funding for the departments and agencies that have depleted their resources in trying to manage this crisis, and it makes $30 million available in reimbursement for which impacted communities may apply--charges that should be the Federal Government's responsibility and not the local governments'. As I said, after some hand-wringing and delay, the House passed this bill, and the President signed it. I hope my constituents back in Texas who have been working tirelessly to manage this crisis will soon find some relief.
It is important to remember, though, that depleted funding isn't the reason for the crisis; it is only a symptom of a larger problem. In other words, we are dealing with the effects and not the cause of the basic problem. Without getting to the root cause, we are only setting ourselves up for failure, which means we will be back here in another couple of months and will have to pass another emergency appropriations bill for an additional $4.5 billion to try to deal with the problem we can fix but have refused to.
Sadly, this issue has become so politicized that few are willing to reach across the aisle and find solutions, and most of the proposals we have seen are ultrapartisan. The Democrats who are running for President support things like decriminalizing illegal border crossings or providing free healthcare to undocumented immigrants, both of which are unpopular, unsafe, and completely unaffordable. The vast majority of Americans oppose open borders and already struggle to manage their own bills. They certainly don't want to be burdened with the costs of people who enter our country illegally and don't pay taxes.
We don't need these radical proposals to solve the crisis at our southern border. Both in the short term and the long term, we need bipartisan solutions that can provide some real relief. If we want to get to the root of the crisis and avoid making emergency funding bills the norm, we need to get down to brass tacks and talk about real reforms that, No. 1, will fix the problem and, No. 2, will stand a chance of actually becoming law.
Right now, there is only one bill, to my knowledge, that has bipartisan and bicameral support, and that is a bill called the HUMANE Act. I introduced this bill with my Democratic friend in the House, Henry Cuellar, to address the humanitarian crisis at the border.
First and foremost, the HUMANE Act includes important provisions to ensure that migrants in our custody receive proper care. It requires the Department of Homeland Security to keep families together throughout their court proceedings, and it includes additional standards of care. Beyond suitable living accommodations, the HUMANE Act requires each facility to provide timely access to medical assistance, recreational activities, educational services, and legal counsel.
It would require all children to undergo biometric and DNA screening so family relationships could be confirmed so as to ensure these children would be, in fact, traveling with their relatives rather than with human smugglers or sex traffickers.
In order to better protect children who would be released to Health and Human Services, this bill would place prohibitions on certain individuals who could serve as guardians. For example, no child should be released into the custody of a sex offender or a human trafficker. I would hope we could all agree on that...."[DESCRIPTION LIMIT REACHED, SEE TRANSCRIPT]
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