John Cornyn

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander) and the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Corker). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander) would have voted ``nay'' and the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Corker) would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Coburn), and the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Corker). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander) would have voted ``yea'' and the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Corker) would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander) and the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Corker). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander) would have voted ``nay'' and the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. Corker) would have voted ``nay.''

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Heitkamp.) Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, before I begin my prepared remarks today I want to offer my sympathy to the community of Spring, TX. Last night in this quiet suburban area north of Houston they experienced the horrific murders of six people. It is reported that four of these people who were killed were young people. As we move forward in the days and weeks ahead I hope we will keep these victims and the community in our thoughts and prayers.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. I thank my colleague from Maine for his courtesy. This is something I hope my colleagues who have not spent as much time thinking about this--and that is logical because they don't come from a State contiguous to the Mexican border or Central America and South America, but they need to know the facts, that these areas are now controlled by cartels and transnational criminal organizations. One official from the mayor's office in Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, reported--when talking about the cartels that control the smuggling-- that in his city ``the Zetas control all trafficking, sending men to recruit women in Central America and sometimes even kidnapping migrant women riding the buses. They sell the women to truck drivers for a night and then throw them away like unwanted scraps.'' The bottom line is there is nothing humane and nothing compassionate about encouraging people to travel through cartel-dominated smuggling routes in hopes of reaching the United States only to find out our law does not permit them to stay. There is nothing humane about that. There is nothing compassionate about that. Yet that is the impression. Nobody should be traveling to America this way and especially not young children. This is something the President of the United States needs to see. If it is serious enough for him to call this a humanitarian crisis and ask Congress to appropriate more than $3 billion on an emergency basis to help pay for additional capacity, it is serious enough to warrant his personal attention. I just don't get it. I really don't. I had an occasion to work with President Obama when he was in the Senate. I see him less often now that he is over in that big house on Pennsylvania Avenue, but that doesn't strike me as who he is. I wonder what in the world could be going on. Is he too wrapped up with living in his bubble? I guess all Presidents have experienced that. He needs to break out of the bubble and find out what is actually happening on the ground. At the very least, I would think the President would want to take the opportunity to say thank you to Chief Oaks, the Border Patrol, FEMA, and other Federal agencies that are trying to help local communities. The invitation still stands. I think the President is still in Austin speaking at the Paramount Theater in my hometown where I live now, but he is talking about the economy instead of talking about this crisis. I bet the invitation still stands for him to take the short trip to McAllen and about an hour out of his day to say thank you to the Border Patrol and other Federal agencies and see for himself this unfolding-- and I would say escalating--humanitarian crisis. I thank the Chair and the Senator from Maine for his courtesy.

Mr. CORNYN. Shifting to a different part of my State where they are experiencing another type of crisis, every day this week I have come to the floor and spoken on President Obama's refusal to travel to the southern border of Texas where a humanitarian crisis continues to unfold. Those aren't just my words; those are the President's words--a humanitarian crisis. As I have said before, the President has been in Dallas; he has been in Austin, where he spent the night last night; and he is there this morning speaking, reportedly, on the economy. Why he persists in his refusal to travel to the border really is beyond my imagination. I just don't understand it. The fact that the President has himself described it as a humanitarian crisis makes this even more strange. People can infer whatever they want to about his potential motivations. I don't know whether it means he doesn't really understand it, whether his handlers have kept him in the bubble so much that simply the facts are not getting through to him or whether he is surrounded by political advisers who say: This is going to be a political liability for you, Mr. President. Don't travel there. If you show up and have your picture taken with these children who are traveling by the tens of thousands unaccompanied from Central America to Mexico, you will own the problem. I don't know whether that is the advice he is getting. Surely it cannot be that he doesn't care. But I will tell you that many of my constituents--Republicans and Democrats alike--and many of my colleagues in the Congress are wondering: Why would the President show such little respect for what the communities along the border are experiencing as they try to deal with this humanitarian crisis? Why would the President show such little respect for the Border Patrol, FEMA, and other Federal actors that are trying to help these communities deal with this crisis? It just does not add up. Since the President so stubbornly refuses to visit the border even though he is in Texas and has been there for the last 2 days, people have asked me: Well, if the President showed up, what would he see? First of all, he would learn this crisis is in large part a product of the President's own policy judgments, particularly starting with the ICE memo in 2011, the so-called Morton memo No. 1, then the Morton memo No. 2, and then the deferred action Executive order saying that certain young people would never be returned to their country of origin but the President will act alone to defer action against them. Then there is the continued discussion the President has here in Washington that says he wants to go even further. So I think one of the things the President would learn is that people actually pay attention to what he is saying. The impression is that he is not going to faithfully execute the law. So the children continue to come, and they will continue to come until we fix the problem. The President has to be an important part of that solution. As I have said before, these young children traveled through some of the most dangerous territory on the planet, because the smuggling corridors are controlled by cartels such as the Zetas and these cartels are in the business of crime--smuggling people, drugs, weapons, you name it--smuggling women for sex slavery and human trafficking. They don't really care about the human element. They care about the money. Migrants who travel across Mexico from Central America are subjected to rape and kidnapping--where they are held for ransom so their relatives will pay off the cartels to let them go and continue their journey. We don't know how many of the children that start this long journey from Central America--some 1,200 miles from Guatemala City to McAllen, TX, alone--how many of them die in the process and never make it. So the 52,000-plus so far who have been detained at our southwestern border since October are the ones who made the trip successfully. We don't know how many children and their parents have died in the process. I do know--having traveled to Brooks County, Texas--that I have seen some of the grave sites of unknown migrants who have actually died trying to get through--to get past the Border Patrol checkpoint at Falfurrias, for example. So I am sure, tragically, that many migrants don't make it and die in the process. There is a powerful incentive for people to travel to the United States. Obviously, we understand people who want opportunity, people who are trying to flee violence. But the President has effectively encouraged children and their parents to make this treacherous, life- threatening journey by suggesting that he won't enforce the law. The President himself admits that even under his deferred action order--his Executive order that he issued in 2012--these children wouldn't be covered, but they come because they have the impression that they will be allowed to stay once they make it here. The New York Times recently reported the story of one 13-year-old Honduran boy who was detained in Mexico trying to reach the United States. The Times reported that this young boy said his mother believed the Obama administration had quietly changed its policy with regard to unaccompanied minors and that if he made it across, he would have a better shot at staying. And, in fact, that is proving to be true. So many of these children are now, because of a 2008 law, placed with relatives here in the United States who themselves may not be legally present. They are given a notice to appear for a subsequent court hearing and the overwhelming number of them never show up. Having done so, they have made it because we don't have the resources. We certainly don't have the laws on the books necessary to fill this hole that the cartels are exploiting and that is what we need to work on together as part of this supplemental appropriation to try to fix. We cannot just vote for more money when the cause of the problem that needs fixing remains unfixed. The cartels are happy to tell parents: Yes, send your kids to America, turn them over to us, write us a check for $5,000--or whatever the amount is--and maybe they will be able to escape Central America and make it to the United States. For every one of the parents who take the cartels up on that deal, for every one of the children subjected to this horrific journey from Central America to the southern part of the United States, the cartels are making money. So as long as the hole in the 2008 law remains unfilled--and the President certainly hasn't requested we fix it, but we need to do that--we will keep spending billions of dollars, and we will continue to see the surge of unaccompanied minors continue to go up. In 2011 there were about 6,000 unaccompanied minors detained at the southwestern border. But just since October there have been more than 50,000. So something is going on here, and this 13-year-old Honduran boy interviewed for the New York Times story said: ``Well, my mom thought President Obama was changing his policies and I would be able to stay if I made it.'' Since the President decided not to make the short trip from Austin or Dallas to McAllen, TX, I wanted to share a few stories about what I saw there when I visited. I had a chance to visit the McAllen Border Patrol station, one of the busiest and most crowded of the facilities which are trying to deal with this surge of unaccompanied minors. I met another 13-year-old boy who had just arrived from Central America. We asked him to come out of the detention cell that was so jam-packed with teenage boys that nobody even had space to lay down and sleep. I hate to think about how unhygienic those circumstances are. But this young 13-year-old boy--we asked him, through a wonderful young woman who works with me in my Harlingen general office in South Texas who asked him in Spanish: ``Where are your parents?'' He said, ``They are both dead.'' It was heartbreaking. I think the President would benefit from seeing and talking to young victims of this trafficking like this Honduran boy. As I said, inside these facilities there are dozens of children packed into holding cells, with one toilet, that are meant for just a few people. There were young women only 15 years of age who were pregnant, some of whom already had babies that they were nursing. The babies were clothed only in diapers and sleeping on cement floors. Unless you see it for yourself, I don't think you get a full appreciation of the nature and scope of this process. That is something I think the President could benefit from. Conditions are so bad they are housing people in a garage at the Border Patrol facility. I don't have to tell the Presiding Officer, but it is hot in Texas in July, and you can imagine what the conditions are like in that garage. There must have been 100 people basically sitting or standing on that garage floor because they simply don't have the capacity to deal with them. They simply don't have the capacity to deal with them, and they certainly don't have the capacity to deal with the numbers that are coming through. I wish to do something that I wish the President of the United States would do in person by traveling to McAllen. I wish to thank the Border Patrol and the leadership of Chief Kevin Oaks, who has been doing a magnificent job under very difficult circumstances. I thank all of the Border Patrol--FEMA and other Federal employees--who are down there trying to help the local community and the State of Texas deal with this crisis. Chief Oaks has maybe one of the toughest jobs on the planet these days. He is in charge of Rio Grande Valley sector. It encompasses more than 1,700 square miles in 19 Texas counties. It shares 320 river miles with Mexico and 250 coastal miles. This is the sector through which this flood of humanity is coming. They have detained 418,000 people last year alone. That number is growing, and they are mainly coming through the Rio Grande sector--418,000 people from 100 different countries. If you go to Brooks County and look at some of the rescue beacons-- they have actually put out rescue beacons. If an immigrant is so sick or suffering from exposure or dehydrated, they can hit the rescue beacon and a light will go off and the Border Patrol will rescue them. If they are at risk of losing their lives, sure, they may not want to be caught, but they would rather be caught than die due to exposure. Those rescue beacons are not just written in Spanish and English, they are also written in Chinese. Yesterday I said I don't know a lot of Chinese speakers from Brooks County, TX. It is a small rural county. The reason that rescue beacon is written in Chinese, among other languages, is because people can come from all over the world through the southern border of Mexico into the United States. There were 418,000 people detained from more than 100 countries. Admittedly, most were from Mexico and Central America, but they also come from nations that are state sponsors of international terrorism, which is why General Kelly, the head of Southern Command, said this is a national security threat. The President would learn more about this if he took the trouble to go to the border and talk to people such as Chief Oaks and learn of the challenges they dealing with day in and day out. They are doing the best they can, but they simply don't have the resources or the manpower to handle this influx, particularly of unaccompanied children. I am told that because the Border Patrol has to deal with these children and make sure they are taken care of--which they should be-- they are not interdicting illegal drugs coming across the border, and that should concern all of us. I ask unanimous consent for an additional 5 minutes.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I would ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. I think the senior Senator has accurately described how the cartels have figured out how to game the system. Indeed, with all the advertising we do down in Central America saying ``don't come,'' as the junior Senator from Arizona indicated, as long as they get a call saying ``I made it'' and the cartels realize that for every migrant child they shuttle up through the smuggling corridors it is going to be another $5,000 or more in the bank, there is every incentive to continue. But I ask the senior Senator and perhaps our other colleagues--the President has said that he has a pen and he has a phone, and he is going to do things without Congress. He said that because he is frustrated. I know we all have experienced a level of frustration during the immigration debates from time to time and over the years. But he says he is going to consider issuing another order relative to deportation policy, which strikes me as doubling down on his message that he is not going to enforce the law; he is going to try to circumvent the law and basically welcome more people here outside of legal avenues. So I ask my colleagues, doesn't that make things worse, not better?

Mr. CORNYN. I would ask the senior Senator of Arizona, who is also a national well-known security expert but who also knows a little bit about this big world we live in, what is it we can do with some of the money slated to go to countries such as Honduras, Guatemala, and even Mexico? Historically, we have had a successful partnership, for example, with the Colombian Government to help them build their capacity under Plan Colombia. Admittedly, that is a different scenario. In Mexico we have the Merida Initiative, where we train and provide equipment to help build their police and law enforcement capability. Are there things we ought to try to tie the money that goes to these countries to right now that would be productive programs and help solve the problem at its source?

Mr. CORNYN. I would ask the junior Senator from Texas, surely the President understands the facts as we have laid them out here, the problems with the 2008 law, really, the flaw in that law. They have created a business model out of it because they realized these immigrants who come across will not be detained, either the children or many adults, women traveling with minor children, because there are not adequate detention facilities. I wonder if the Senator has an opinion why, if the President-- surrounded as he is with some pretty smart policy people, people such as Secretary Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of Homeland Security, whom I have had a conversation with about this very topic--hasn't sent over a request to actually fix the problem, as opposed to continuing to warehouse people?

Mr. CORNYN. I would say to the Senator I have been in Brooks County near Falfurrias, TX, to see some of the rescue beacons they have there with some of the language written in Chinese. This is in Brooks County near Falfurrias, TX, where I guarantee nobody who lives there speaks Chinese--or not many people. So the Senator's point is well taken. Out of the 414,000 people detained coming across the southwestern border last year, they came from 100 different countries. Most of them were from Mexico and Central America, but the Senator is exactly right; we have seen a huge influx from Central America up through Mexico, and that is the primary source today.

Mr. CORNYN. If I could ask a question, really, of all three. I think we have described the catastrophe that continues to unfold and indeed grow. I know, speaking for myself--and I venture to say, I bet, for all four of us--we are actually interested in trying to solve this problem. The President sent over an appropriations request that is essentially a blank check. The junior Senator from Arizona appropriately acknowledged that the majority of the money is for health and human resources to continue to warehouse these kids with no actual solution. The Senator from Arizona said we need to change that 2008 law. I agree with that. We need to make sure the children are detained and then get whatever process they are entitled to, perhaps even appear before an immigration judge--that is something we should talk about-- before they are repatriated. But I want to ask the senior Senator from Arizona, because of his long distinguished service on the Armed Services Committee, I was troubled to read and hear some of the testimony of General Kelly, the head of Southern Command, who is the combatant commander for the world south of the Texas border, Mexico and into Central and South America-- or actually I guess Mexico is Northern Command. But he said they sit and watch 75 percent of the cartel activity involving illegal drugs and they simply don't have the assets to do anything about it. I asked him: Do you think trying to figure out how to adequately fund and resource Southern Command, how to get our U.S. military to perhaps work more closely with the Central American military forces and the Mexican military forces, is that part of the solution to this problem?

Mr. CORNYN. If I may, the junior Senator from Texas had visited Lackland Air Force Base recently and observed some of these 1,200--if I am not mistaken--children who are being essentially warehoused because we do not have any other place to put them. If he might comment on what we are going to do if the numbers continue to grow at the level they are growing now. I know in 2011 there were about 6,000 unaccompanied minors detained at the southwestern border. This year since October, it is somewhere in the 50,000 range. If that number continues to escalate, where are we going to put all of these kids?

Mr. CORNYN. The Senator is exactly right. What we need is a legal system of immigration, not an illegal system, because the people who control illegal immigration are the cartels and the coyotes the Senator mentioned earlier and the criminal gangs. By the way, they have discovered a new business model. They treat these children as commodities, and they hold them for ransom. They sexually assault the young women, as the Senator pointed out. We do not know how many of these children start this perilous journey from Central America, some 1,200 miles away, and never make it to the United States because they simply die along the way. So this is a horrific situation. I know both the Senators from Arizona might want to speak to this. The President has acknowledged that even under the Senate immigration bill that passed the Senate, none of these children would qualify. I would ask maybe the junior Senator from Arizona if he would care to comment. How did this situation get created where even under the law that the President has advocated for, the Senate immigration bill, none of these children would be able to stay?

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I would say to the distinguished senior Senator from Arizona that the administration has been sending mixed messages. First they called this a humanitarian crisis. Then they called it--I think the Senator said--a ``situation.'' They are sort of walking this back. But I just wanted to remind my colleagues from Arizona of what the President said a few years ago in El Paso when people said we needed better border security measures in place. He ridiculed people. The Senators may remember this. He said--this is the President talking in El Paso in May 2011--he said: You know, they said we needed to triple the Border Patrol. Now they are going to say we need to quadruple the Border Patrol, or they will want a higher fence, or maybe they will need a moat, or maybe they want alligators in the moat. They will never be satisfied. I understand that. That is politics. But the truth is, the measures we put in place are getting results. The truth is, they are not getting the kind of results the American people expect--nor these children who are being subjected to horrific conditions as they are smuggled from Central America up through Mexico to the United States. One of the most puzzling things to me--I see my colleague from Texas here. I know Governor Perry has implored the President to come visit the border. Now he said: Well, I will invite the Governor to an immigration roundtable--where I doubt the Governor will get in a word because the President will probably just deliver another lecture. He is pretty good at that. But that is 500 miles from where the problem is. How can you have a humanitarian crisis, as the White House has called this, and not want to go see it for yourself? Maybe you will actually learn something. I agree with the Senator from Arizona. In the bill the administration sent over, they stripped out all of the reforms that would actually go to solve the very problem we all know needs to be solved here and instead asked for a blank check.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, yesterday I came to the floor and spoke about President Obama's reluctance to see firsthand the ongoing and growing humanitarian crisis occurring on the U.S.-Mexico border. Today I come to the floor to renew my call--as other elected officials from both sides of the aisle have done--urging President Obama to please come to the border, where this humanitarian crisis is unfolding. It has been reported that the President will be in Texas for 2 days starting tomorrow. He will be there Wednesday and Thursday on a fundraising trip. I am not suggesting a handshake on the tarmac or a roundtable 500 miles away from the border, but please come and see it with your own eyes, as I have. Talk to the Border Patrol. Learn from not only the migrants who have traversed Mexico at the risk of their own lives to come to the United States, but find out what we need to do to deal with the ongoing crisis and what we need to do to solve it. I urge him to do so not as a political statement but so he can witness what is a very sad and in many ways tragic situation and one that could have been mitigated if not prevented. Unfortunately, this is a humanitarian crisis that his policies and the perception about his commitment to enforce our laws have helped create. Given the recent White House announcement that the President refuses to visit the Rio Grande Valley this week, it unfortunately appears that my request today will fall on deaf ears and therefore suggests to the American people that either the President doesn't really understand this border crisis or he simply doesn't care. To give the President a fair shake, I was with the President after the tragic shootings at Fort Hood in 2009 and last year. I was with the President at the memorial service in West, where first responders were tragically killed as a result of an explosion. Why he is so stubborn and hardheaded that he refuses to visit the Rio Grande Valley and witness this ongoing humanitarian crisis with his own eyes is really mystifying. Governor Perry has been doing what I have been doing and urging the President to visit the border. He happened to share with the media-- Governor Perry, that is--last night a White House letter inviting him to an immigration roundtable in Dallas. This crisis is unfolding on the border and not in Dallas. I brought a map of Texas with me so the President can see this for himself. This is Dallas. This is where the crisis is unfolding in the Rio Grande Valley, which is about 500 miles away. Thankfully, the President doesn't have to fly commercial; he flies on Air Force One. My guess is that it would probably take him an hour out of his scheduled activities in Texas to go to the border and maybe another hour on the ground to talk to the Border Patrol, as I did last week. If he did that, he would see these children jammed in detention facilities at the Border Patrol detention stations. It would give him an opportunity to talk to some of them, as I did in my visit last week. I think it would be helpful to the President. I think one of the biggest problems Presidents have is they end up living in a bubble. They only get access to information that is filtered through their advisers and counselors, and sometimes Presidents simply don't understand; they are tone deaf to the problems which confront the country. That is why it would be in the best interests of my constituents in Texas, it would be in the best interests of these children who are part of this humanitarian crisis, and it would be a contribution toward a solution to this crisis if the President would simply travel 500 miles from Dallas, TX, where he invited Governor Perry to a roundtable, down to the Rio Grande Valley. As I said, the President's trip to Texas will focus on fundraising, and I understand that. But the problem is his policies have had a disproportionate impact upon my constituents who live along the U.S.- Mexico border. In fact, it is my recollection that the President of the United States has not once visited the Rio Grande Valley, where a majority of this ongoing crisis is taking place. He did come to El Paso back in 2011. When people suggested we had a problem with security at the border, he ridiculed them by saying: Well, maybe we ought to build a moat along the border. That is actually insulting coming from a person who has never actually been to the border, particularly the Rio Grande Valley, where a majority of these children are crossing. Indeed, over time what has happened is much of the illegal immigration that comes across the border has migrated from Nogales, AZ, to the Rio Grande Valley. You can't see it on this map, but if you understand the geography here, most of these children are coming from Central America. The shortest distance from Guatemala and Honduras to the United States is through the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The President should also visit Brooks County, which is a place I have visited. This is where the Falfurrias checkpoint is located. They have found many dead bodies of immigrants who died from exposure while trying to circumvent the checkpoint at Fallfurrias. What happens is coyotes, as they call them--human smugglers--will bring them across the border, put them in stash houses on the border, and many of those conditions are inhumane in and of themselves. What will then happen is that the coyotes--smugglers--will bring them in trucks up the highway, and before they hit the checkpoint in Fallfurrias, they will tell them to get out of the truck, give them a milk jug full of water, and tell them they will see them on the north side of the checkpoint. So dozens, if not hundreds, if not thousands of immigrants over time try to walk--some in the 100-plus-degree Texas weather--around this checkpoint, and some simply don't make it. If you understand where they have come from--some from Central America--many are terribly dehydrated, already ill from exposure, and for many of them their last steps are in Brooks County while trying to walk around this checkpoint in Fallfurrias. I think the President would benefit from doing what I have done. He should visit the residents in Brooks County, talk to the Border Patrol, and learn more about the problem and how we might effect a solution. If he refuses to go out of stubborn pride or whatever the reason is, then he will simply be ignorant of the best ways we can work together to solve this underlying problem. In recent weeks I have shared only a few of the many horrific stories regarding the dangerous journey countless numbers of children take to get to the United States from Central America. They call the train that many of them ride in the corridors controlled by the cartels who treat human beings as a commodity--like drugs and guns. They treat human beings as a commodity that makes money for them. These immigrants go through the corridors on a train system they call The Beast. There is a chilling book written by Salvadoran journalist Oscar Martinez about The Beast. In it, you find out that 6 out of 10--maybe more--women who come up along this train system known as The Beast are sexually assaulted. Migrants are routinely kidnapped and held for ransom by the gangs and cartels that patrol this area, and many of them simply don't make it. I shudder to think of how many of the young children--some as young as 5 have been detained at the border region--never make it to the border because they die in the process. That is not humanitarian. That is not friendly. That is cruel. We ought to be telling the truth about this horrific journey and discouraging parents from sending their children from Central America up through Mexico on the back of The Beast only to die in the process or to be assaulted, kidnapped, or horribly injured and maimed. Well, this is one of the many reasons why I think the President would benefit from a visit. It is hard to ignore the facts, especially when you see them with your own eyes and you get a chance to talk to our hard-working professional Border Patrol, doing an incredible job with limited resources. When you have 52,000 children coming across the southwestern border at the Rio Grande sector since October and 39,000 women with minor children detained in the Rio Grande sector, unless you go and talk to the Border Patrol and learn about this with your own ears and eyes, you may not realize that drug interdictions are depressed because our Border Patrol is basically trying to change diapers and deal with the humanitarian crisis. They are overwhelmed and are unable to do one of their principal jobs, which is to interdict illegal drug importations into the United States. So I hope the President will reconsider. He is not going to Texas until tomorrow. My understanding is he will be there for 2 days, and certainly he has an hour or 2 hours out of his schedule that he could dedicate to seeing the crisis for himself and learning more about it, and then coming back and working with us to try to stop it. Of course, we all feel nothing but sympathy for the children and families who sacrifice their lives trying to make it to the United States but fail because of the impression that our immigration laws simply will not be enforced. Many of my colleagues have come to the floor and said, If we would pass the comprehensive immigration bill the Senate passed last year, that would do it. Well, I would say, with all respect, that is demonstrably false, because even the President and Secretary Johnson of the Department of Homeland Security have conceded that none of these children would be eligible, under the President's deferred action Executive order--none of them would be eligible for entry and to stay in the United States. So passing that law would have nothing to do with this current crisis. Between President Obama's failure to enforce our immigration laws and his ever-shifting explanations, it is no wonder he has lost credibility on this issue. Many Americans simply don't have confidence that the President is willing to faithfully execute the laws of the United States, including our immigration laws. No wonder Speaker Boehner and so many of our House colleagues have gotten so frustrated they have decided maybe the only alternative is to take the President to court. We know the President has had a pretty bad couple of weeks when it comes to overreach, and he has been rebuked several times recently for unconstitutional acts such as trying to determine when the Senate is in recess and evade the confirmation process in the Senate. If the President wants to know why we haven't been able to pass immigration reform, all he has to do is look in the mirror. All he has to do is look at his own policies which have created an enormous amount of distrust between not only Congress and the executive branch but in his agencies so that they will actually do what they are supposed to do, such as the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement--ICE--and the other components of the Department of Homeland Security. Given all the differing narratives coming out of the White House concerning this surge of unaccompanied minors, it is time for the President to directly address the problem. I know the President has sent over today a $3.7 billion request for more money. I have no doubt that some pieces of it are justified. For example, we need enhanced detention facilities. We need more immigration judges and other people as part of that process so hearings can be conducted on a timely basis and a legal determination made according to existing law whether people can stay or whether they have to be returned to their country of origin. Visiting the border is just one in a series of steps the President could take to regain some of his own credibility but also to help address this crisis. This is not just a humanitarian crisis; this is also a national security crisis, as recently testified to by the head of Southern Command, General Kelly, a Marine general who is head of that combatant command. He is in charge of that area of the globe from Mexico south known as Southern Command, and he says because of inadequate resources and equipment and manpower to deal with the drug cartels moving illegal drugs from South America up through Central America through Mexico to the United States, 75 percent of the time, General Kelly said, they simply have to sit and watch because they don't have the resources. I would hope that some of the money included in this $3.7 billion request would be dedicated to making sure that General Kelly and our law enforcement agencies have the resources and equipment necessary to stop the drug cartels from moving drugs from South America through Central America and up through Mexico. As General Kelly said, we have this intersection of criminal conduct and terrorism that sometimes takes place with organizations such as Hezbollah, for example, that has established a presence in South America, historically, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this vulnerability can be exploited by other people and not just the drug cartels. The question remains, if one has enough money, can one make it into the United States? Unfortunately, I think we have to answer that question in the affirmative. Last year alone, 414,000 people were detained on our southwestern border from 100 different countries--100 different countries. So this isn't just about people who have no hope and no opportunity trying to come to the United States from Mexico and trying to get a job; this is about uncontrolled immigration through our southwestern border from all over the world. Admittedly, most of them come from Mexico and Central America, but this is a vulnerability where people can come from Pakistan, they can come from Afghanistan, they can even come from Iran--countries of special interest, countries that are state sponsors of international terrorism. So this is worthy of the President's attention and worthy of a Presidential visit, and I hope he will change his mind and do that. I think President Obama needs a wakeup call. He needs to realize that the situation along the border is not as rosy as perhaps he is under the impression it is. Only by visiting the border and visiting firsthand and seeing with his own eyes and listening with his own ears to the professionals who are working there so hard and are simply overwhelmed will he be able to get a good idea of not only what the problem is but what the solutions are. Then and only then, I believe, will he be ready and will we be ready to sit down and work together through this request the President has sent us and figure out how we can solve the problem. Once again, I hope the President will reconsider his decision, since he is going to be in Texas anyway on Wednesday and Thursday, and go to the border, just 500 miles away. On Air Force One it is easy to get there. It won't take much time. He could spend an hour on the ground, and then I think he will come away glad he has taken advantage and accepted this invitation by Governor Perry and me and other Texans to come see the problem for himself. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Flake), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), and the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Arizona (Mr. Flake), the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson), and the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Vitter). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Wisconsin (Mr. Johnson) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. This Wednesday, it is reported President Obama will be traveling to my State of Texas, but he will not visit the border between Texas and Mexico, the site of what he has himself called a growing humanitarian crisis. Instead, on his 2-day trip, he will fund- raise and apparently deliver remarks on the economy. It is a little ironic, given the economic boom in Texas relative to the rest of the country, that the President would choose to come to Texas and to lecture us on what he thinks we should do about the economy, but my hope is he would come to learn from Texas and not just give another lecture. Today, the White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest, said the President was ``well aware'' of the crisis on the border. As the distinguished Presiding Officer knows, I recently visited McAllen, TX, myself 1 week ago today, and it is heartbreaking to see these young children without their parents. It is difficult to hear the horrific stories about the journey these children made from their homes in Central America through Mexico, dodging assault, kidnapping, various and other sundry crimes, and then finally making their way into the United States. So it is easy in one sense to see why the President might prefer to stay away rather than to come, learn, and listen for himself, particularly in light of the sad stories he is going to hear or he would hear if he decided to come. But I think the problem speaks for itself when the President, who would prefer to hang out with campaign donors and other political supporters, would decide not to have any interaction with those who are directly affected by his failed policies--in this case the failed immigration policies that led to a full-blown humanitarian crisis. Instead of taking the easy way out, I wish the President would step up and lead--and he would learn, perhaps, something he did not already know or that he thinks he knows and which is absolutely wrong. It is puzzling, and it is frustrating that the President of the United States chooses the path he apparently is going to take rather than one that will help him solve problems. We know the President last week stood in the Rose Garden in front of the American people and at the same time he asked for money to help address this problem--and it is reportedly on the order of $2 billion-- in the very next breath he announced he is looking at expanding the very same policies that have helped create this crisis, create the impression there will be no consequences for coming to the country in violation of our laws. It is disheartening, it is disappointing, and it is extremely dangerous. This week, during his trip to Texas, it would take the President less than 1 hour on Air Force One to visit the border and to see what I and so many of my colleagues have seen firsthand, a very sad situation that could have been prevented. But now that it has happened, it needs to be addressed in a bipartisan way. He would see what I saw, which is children separated from their parents with no certainty about the future, children who have endured unspeakable hardships and cruelty at the hands of some of the most vile thugs on the planet, the cartels, who view them as a commodity as they do drugs and weapons. They view these children as a commodity, something to make money off of. The Border Patrol in South Texas and along the border is doing a very professional job under very difficult circumstances, but they are simply overwhelmed. Repeatedly, we will hear of the Border Patrol--law enforcement officers--basically having to divert their attention from doing those law enforcement responsibilities and duties to basically taking care of children, making sure they are fed, their medical condition is being attended to, and they have a safe place to stay while going through the procedures there at the border. I commend the Border Patrol and all of our Federal law enforcement agencies for making their resources and time stretch as far as possible for these children while the Commander in Chief has decided to do something else. I realize how controversial and polarizing this issue can be, but at least in some respects it should take precedence over partisan politics and fundraisers. What I don't understand is how the President can send us a bill for $2 billion--which he reportedly is going to do tomorrow, apparently asking us for some changes in the existing law--and then to simply be missing in action when it comes to learning for himself the very facts that are necessary for him to be able to make the case not only to Congress but to the American people for why both of those were necessary. President Obama evidently needs a wakeup call, and visiting the border and learning firsthand about the severity and causes of this ongoing crisis will be that wakeup call. Again, I urge the President to visit the border this week during his fundraising trip to Texas. I yield the floor.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the Record.