John Cornyn

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported substitute amendment be withdrawn, that the Risch substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 563, S. 2276.

Mr. CORNYN. I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendment be withdrawn, that the Young substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to, that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation be discharged from further consideration of S. 7 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 2454 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Johnson substitute amendment at the desk be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I now ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 696, H.R. 315.

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent 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.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. I ask unanimous consent that when the Senate completes its business today, it adjourn until 4 p.m. Monday, December 10; further, that following the prayer and the pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the Journal of proceedings be approved to date, the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day, and morning business be closed; finally, following leader remarks, and notwithstanding the provisions of rule XXII, the Senate proceed to executive session and resume the consideration of the Muzinich nomination, with the cloture motion filed during today's session ripening at 5:30 p.m. Monday.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, if there is no further business to come before the Senate, I ask unanimous consent that it stand adjourned under the previous order.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 5075 and that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.

Mr. CORNYN. I further ask unanimous consent that the amendment at the desk be agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from North Carolina (Mr. Tillis).

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.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I join my friend, the Senator from Tennessee, in saying a few words about the service of George Herbert Walker Bush. I would note the difference between him and me, though, is he, having served as Education Secretary and worked here under Howard Baker and having had a chance to work with and watch and listen to George Herbert Walker Bush firsthand, has the advantage over me. I certainly know the Bush family and President Bush ``41'' from my experience in Texas. They were the dominant family and influence in politics in Texas--certainly during the time I grew up in politics. I appreciate the comments the Senator from Tennessee has made. He and I had a conversation about what our side of the aisle needs, which is to do more in the area of supporting public education and which is, I think, probably at the top of the list of most people's concerns. Certainly, when you look at what happened in the midterm elections-- particularly in the suburbs--and you talk to people about what motivated them one way or the other, education had to be way up high on that list. We simply need to find a way of working together and coming up together with creative ways to demonstrate our support for public education, and I think our constituents will respond very well to that. Certainly, the Senator from Tennessee, as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, who is responsible for a lot of the healthcare-oriented legislation that emanates from this body-- and that is another area where, frankly, we didn't do as good a job as we could or should have done, explaining what we were for and what we could do actually to help bring premiums down and make healthcare more accessible. So I appreciate the contributions of the Senator from Tennessee to this body and his comments particularly about this great man. I think it is important to say he was not just a great man but a good man, George Herbert Walker Bush. We know, to his family, he was a loving and caring father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. To his country, he was a devoted public servant who fought to defend our freedoms and led the Nation at the end of the Cold War and at the fall of the Berlin Wall. Every time I think about the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, I think about my dad who was a B-17 pilot in World War II. He was shot down on his 26th bombing mission over Nazi Germany. He was stationed in Molesworth, England. He and his fellow crew in the 303rd Bomb Group in the Eighth Air Force would fly their bombing missions from England--in this case, Molesworth Air Force Base across the English Channel and drop their bombs in Germany in an effort to bring an end to that terrible, terrible war. Unfortunately, my dad died before the Berlin Wall came down. That is one of my regrets; that he was unable to see what ultimately happened as a result of that terrible war in World War II. One expert--I read one of his books recently--calculated that 31 million people died in World War II. It is a shocking number. We need to be reminded of what the horrible wages of war can be--20 million people died in the Soviet Union alone. I know that staggers our imagination. We need to remember our history or, in the words of a wise man, we will be condemned to relive it. Certainly, George Herbert Walker Bush's contribution to ending the Cold War and bringing down the Berlin Wall are one of his most notable achievements. He served first as a war hero. He actually enlisted in the Navy after the attack at Pearl Harbor. He, like a lot of other young men, decided this was the time to come to the aid of their country. After nearly losing his life after being shot down but being saved by rescuing forces, he came back home and, like so many of the ``greatest generation,'' he went to work and raised a family. In my dad's case, he, too, was part of the ``greatest generation.'' Fortunately, he got out of the prisoner of war camp and met my mother and married and had a family. He continued his education and, like so many of the ``greatest generation,'' made enormous contributions to this country in the post-World War II era that we are benefiting from even today. We also know George Herbert Walker Bush represented his fellow Americans starting as a Congressman in Houston, TX. Then he moved on to be Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He was Vice President. He was President. It has been said that George Herbert Walker Bush was the best prepared person ever to have served as President by virtue of his experience and his resume. I think there is a lot of truth to that. Alluding to the time in the Navy, you can say he was an anchor for our country during tumultuous times--steady and strong. While he was a fierce defender of his principles and ideals, he was sometimes seen as a quiet soldier. Some people even commented that he was too nice a person to be President. I think that is a misconception. He was, it is true, both a good man and a great leader, but I think he showed us you could be both. Not all great leaders are good men. We are all flawed, of course, but he showed that you could be both a good man and a great leader. President Bush carried the lessons he learned in the Navy with him. Specifically, we heard from the Vice President yesterday at the ceremony in the Rotunda talking about a concept known to Navy pilots as the acronym CAVU, which stands for ``ceiling and visibility unlimited.'' I only mention this again after the Vice President talked about it yesterday because President Bush mentioned it on his 80th birthday. He said it summed up his attitude about his life perfectly. He said: But, you see, that is where my life is now. Thanks to my family and my friends, my life is CAVU. Through all he did, his compassion, his love of country, his basic humanity, and strong optimism shone through, which made him such an attractive political figure. One reason for his tremendous success was because people liked him, and they believed in him. They believed he was doing what he did for the right reasons. After a long and tough campaign for his second term as President--a campaign which he lost--he left a letter to newly elected President Bill Clinton. There has been some social media circulating this letter, but I think it is worth noting because it is a snapshot into his character and the type of man he was. He wrote to President Clinton: Your success now is our country's success. I am rooting hard for you. It takes a big man to say that to your competitor after a tough, losing campaign, but, again, this is a window into the character of a good and great man. Just like everything else he did, it was gracious and sincere. This letter conveyed the same sense of ``it is not about me, it is about the country.'' In a word, it is about patriotism--a word that embodies President Bush so well. He was the type of man who makes us look at our own lives and ask, what more can I do for my country and for my country men and women we all love? After graduating from college, he went to Midland, TX. It was kind of an improbable place to go in those days, but he wanted to get involved in the oil business. Later, after his successes in Midland, TX, in the Permian Basin, which continues to be one of the greatest reserves of oil and gas in the United States, he went on to Houston and grew his business and ultimately, as I said earlier, ran for Congress. Even though Texas was an adopted home for him, Texans loved and embraced him, as we did the entire Bush family. We were privileged to have President Bush as one of our own. He once said: ``I am a Texan and an American . . . what more could a man ask?'' I don't think anyone could have said it better. Throughout his time in public service and even afterward, he could have moved anywhere in the world, but he chose to live his life in Texas and in the warm embrace of the State and the people he loved. President Bush felt a kindred spirit in Texas A&M University, choosing it first to bear his legacy through his Presidential library and a graduate school of government and public service and then later to be his and Barbara Bush's final resting place. I think President Bush identified with the university's unique culture, including its inculcation of patriotic values and the emphasis it places on hard work and public service. President Bush taught us all that there is nothing more powerful in life than the power of a good example. He challenged all of us, and he still does by the standards he set for himself. Joined today by my colleague from Texas, Senator Cruz, we introduced a resolution recognizing the nearly 30 years of public service President Bush devoted to our State and our Nation. President Bush is in the Nation's Capital one last time, where many have and will continue to have the opportunity to pay their respects and give their thanks for his extraordinary life. President Bush once wrote in a letter to his mother: ``Tell the truth. Don't blame people. Be strong. Do your best. Try hard. Forgive. Stay the course.'' President Bush never chose the easy road to sacrifice doing what he thought was just and right. In the words of Scripture, he fought the good fight, he finished the race, and he kept the faith. In his book ``All the Best,'' he writes that he wanted a plain gravestone like the ones in Arlington Cemetery, with his Navy number on the back. He also requested that a quotation be placed there as well: ``He loved Barbara very much.'' This is the man he was. I know he has gone on to join the love of his life, Barbara, and their daughter Robin. A truly honorable and gracious man has gone home to God. Mr. President, I yield the floor.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, the clock is ticking and the days are passing us by, but we know we have a deadline to meet on December 7, and if we don't meet that deadline, then there will be a lot of lives disrupted and a lot of people will say: There they go again. Congress is unable to work together to try to solve problems, just creating more distrust and undermining confidence in our ability to actually do our job to govern. What I want to talk about specifically is this fight over border funding because that is what the deadline is on December 7. Our Democratic friends have said: We are not going to fund President Trump's wall. On the other hand, we see caravans of people coming from Central America, coming through Mexico, closing down the ports of entry at the San Ysidro bridge between Tijuana and San Diego. What I fear is, we have made a parody out of what the problem is. We have thought about the challenge of border security and immigration in too small a way and not given the complete picture of what the challenges really are. I just have to believe that if we were willing to acknowledge the facts, that we would be more inclined to work together to solve the problem, and I feel like we are looking at these problems like we are looking through a soda straw. I have heard people talk about the humanitarian crisis at the border there at Tijuana caused by this huge caravan of Central Americans who want to storm the barriers and enter the United States illegally, and people question why would we stop them, why would they use nonlethal means like tear gas and pepper spray like President Obama did during his administration and which now Customs and Border Protection is doing again in order to protect the sovereignty of our country and to protect our borders from those who would enter it illegally. So let's not look at this through a soda straw. Let's open up the aperture and look at the larger problem because it is a very serious problem, and it affects many lives, both here, in Mexico, and in Central America. Our Democratic colleagues have offered a lot of criticism of the Trump administration when it comes to border security, but anytime you ask them, well, what is your solution, what are you offering as an alternative, it is crickets--complete silence. In other words, they are not offering any constructive solutions, just criticism. Our constituents deserve more than just for us to criticize one another. They deserve our working together to try to come up with solutions. This is a crisis that has arisen as a result of our inability to acknowledge that this is a failure to enforce our immigration laws, a failure to fix our broken immigration system, and a failure to secure our borders. Coming from Texas, representing 28 million constituents in a State which has a 1,200-mile common border with Mexico, this affects my constituents in my State directly. We are at ground zero, and I have tried my best to get educated about the problem and potential solutions. My trips to the border, talking to people in border communities who live and work in those communities, talking to our heroic Border Patrol agents, and visiting our ports of entry where millions and even billions of dollars of commerce flow legally between the United States and Mexico--that is important not only to our border communities but to jobs in the United States. The border communities that rely on the flow of legal commerce through our ports know that without border security, legitimate trade can easily be brought to a standstill. In fact, that is exactly what has happened at San Ysidro, the port of entry between Tijuana and San Diego. They had to shut down the port of entry. So people whose jobs depend on those ports of entry and the trade and commerce that goes on between our countries, they are the ones who are being hurt by the uncontrolled disruption of legal immigration. Any disruption of legitimate trade has an immediate impact on the businesses and the employees and affects the livelihoods of our border residents. An unsecured border creates avenues for the entry of drug cartels and transnational criminal gangs to exploit because they are the same people who are facilitating the passage of migrants from Central America to our borders. Those are the same people who are transiting the heroin, 90 percent of which comes from Mexico, which contributes to our opioid crisis in the United States. As I mentioned before, last year the Centers for Disease Control estimates 72,000 Americans died of a drug overdose--about 50,000 of those from some form of opioid, either prescription drug, synthetic fentanyl, or heroin coming across the same borders these migrants are attempting to storm across. The people who are organizing that, as I said, are the same people. They are the drug cartels that are getting rich because we have not found a way to come together to fix our border, to reform our laws, and come together to try to protect the people we represent in the process. We know that the gangs, the cartels, and the transnational criminal organizations are ever evolving. They are always adapting. They spread terror, they prey on the weak, and they have taken control of large swaths of Mexico and Central America. They are, as I have said before, commodity-agnostic--they don't really care whether they are trafficking children for sex or heroin that will cause an overdose in the United States or a migrant who just wants a better life in the United States, because they do want a better life. The same people facilitate that for money. On average, I have read that a migrant from Central America has to pay about $8,000. You multiply that $8,000 times thousands and thousands. Last year, in 2017, there were almost 400,000 migrants detained at our southwestern border. Just multiply that number by $8,000, and you get just a glimpse of what we are talking about in the huge criminal enterprise. We are continuing to enrich these cartels and transnational criminal organizations when we fail to do our job when it comes to securing our border and fixing our broken immigration system. This is more than just about whether President Trump gets his money for the wall. As a matter of fact, many of our Democratic colleagues voted in--I think it was 2006 for the Secure Fence Act, which called for 700 miles of secure fencing along the southwestern border. So they have already voted for tactical infrastructure that is part of the piece of the puzzle of securing our border; yet they stand intransigent against our effort to try to improve border security now even though they have supported similar funding in the past. As I said, we know that the cartels are very shrewd, adaptive, and are always evolving. They know that if they can tie up the Border Patrol with processing children and family units, those same Border Patrol agents aren't available to stop the drugs that come across the border. So it is a method of distracting the Border Patrol and law enforcement in order to exploit that vulnerability for the purposes of bringing those drugs into the United States. When I want to learn more about what is happening at the border, I talk to my constituents in the Customs and Border Protection business, such as Chief Manny Padilla, who is the Chief of the Rio Grande Valley Sector of the Border Patrol, and Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost. Customs and Border Protection does all it can do with the tools available to it to stop flows of illegal immigration and to stop illegal contraband, including drugs, from making it across the border, but they need our help. We basically have not given them the tools they need in order to do the job we have asked them to do. Shame on us. We know the cartels are cunning. I have seen produce that appears to be watermelons or other vegetables that basically contain heroin or fentanyl or some other illegal drug. The creativity of the cartels is amazing. I have seen them put human beings, migrants, into the upholstery of a seat in a car so they are obscured or pack them into a truck or put them in an 18-wheeler--unfortunately sometimes leaving them to die as a result of exposure to heat and other conditions. We also know that these same organizations traffic women and children through Central America and enslave them, essentially, here in the United States. They traffic them for sex--again, to generate money because that is all they care about. The operations of these cartels are increasingly sophisticated, and they are always diversifying their income streams to avoid detection and defeat our efforts to stop it. They are strategic about when and how they cross the border, and they have developed this strategy over many years. To put it simply, they are taking advantage of and exploiting our inability to deal with our porous border, and a lot of innocent people are getting hurt in the process. Again, this is about more than just funding President Trump's border wall; this is about our pulling back and looking at the complexity of this problem and using our very best efforts in order to stop it. But somehow it becomes trivialized over a fight over tactical infrastructure that our Democratic colleagues have already voted for in the past under the Secure Fence Act. Well, the instability and violence created by the criminal organizations in Central America and Mexico over the last few years are part of the strategy. Violence, unfortunately, is at an alltime high in Mexico. That is one of the reasons President Lopez Obrador was elected. He said he wanted to decrease the violence in Mexico. I learned recently that more people have died in Mexico since 2007 than have died in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq combined. It is terrible, and we need to work together to try to stop it. We know that gangs control much of El Salvador, and as a result, many Central Americans have their lives and safety threatened daily. It is no wonder they try to flee. But the United States cannot bear the burden of this crisis alone. I believe the United States is the most generous country in the world when it comes to legal immigration. We have always considered ourselves a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws, and we see what happens when the law is ignored and when Congress fails to fix the problem to the best of our ability. We have seen uncontrolled illegal immigration. We see thousands of people banding together in caravans trying to storm our ports of entry into the country, overrun our Customs and Border Protection personnel. Until we deal with this problem, new caravans will continue to arrive on a daily basis. In fact, they have. It is just now in the news because it is so large. We have had literally many caravans show up on a daily basis, but that doesn't make a lot of news. As I said, 400,000 people were detained on the southwestern border in 2017 alone. What is frustrating is that the tools we need to address these problems are at hand and available to us. We can begin to work together to fight these gang cartels and organizations and secure our border by partnering with the governments of Central America and Mexico because our War on Drugs, our effort to provide safety and security to our constituents, is part of their war too. It is a fact that border security doesn't begin at our southern border; it ends at our southern border. It starts in Central America and Mexico. I know it is sometimes difficult to grasp the complexity of these problems, and that is why it is so tough to resolve them. There are social, political, historical, and moral aspects to all of them. Many people and facets of our society are implicated. Because of corruption and powerful criminal organizations in Mexico and Central America, a genuine rule of law is missing in many parts of these countries, and it has been for a long time. That is why it is so important for us to work together with these countries in Central America and with Mexico to help them stabilize their governments, root out the corruption, and stop the violence, which will benefit them and their economy, as well as the United States. These countries can in turn restore the relationship between their government, their law enforcement, and their people. When their people begin to see opportunity and safety in their home countries, making the long haul from Central America to the United States becomes less of an imperative and less of a necessity for them. They would probably be happier staying at home if they could do so safely and enjoy some modest prosperity. We have already had some successes in partnering with our closest neighbor in the crisis; that is, the Government of Mexico. I believe we can and should continue to build on some of the things we have already put in place. We have already partnered with Mexico in recent years through programs like the Merida Initiative to combat drug trafficking, organized crime, and money laundering. We have directed funds toward strengthening communities and empowering the Mexican criminal justice system and judicial system to combat the rampant culture of impunity. We have collaborated on intelligence matters and cooperated on providing various forms of security. The Bureau of International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement Affairs continues to work to develop programs to combat international narcotics and crime, especially in Central America, but U.S. funding for this program in Mexico has stagnated. Why? Because we somehow fixed the problem? No. It is because we have taken our eye off the ball once again. Additional aid for these programs would help not only improve drug interdiction and train Mexican law enforcement and judicial personnel, it would help them help us work together to combat the threats of these transnational criminal organizations. We should begin to look at the effectiveness of these programs so we can take full advantage of the work they do and make sure they are modernized and are more efficient and more effective. I was encouraged to see that the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Trump administration have already begun to negotiate new partnerships with Mexico to implement a new strategy to address some of the migrant flows from Central America. I appreciate Secretary Nielsen's and Secretary Pompeo's work with Mexican officials--primarily those associated with the incoming administration of President Lopez Obrador--toward an arrangement where migrants can seek asylum in the United States but wait in Mexico while their claims are being processed. I look forward to attending the inauguration of Mexico's incoming President this Saturday with Vice President Pence and other Members of Congress. I think this is--hopefully--a gesture that will be appreciated and reciprocated when it comes to our desire to work closely with this new administration to address many of the problems that I have talked about this morning. Ignoring this problem is not going to make it better; it is only going to get worse. Working together--not just here in Congress but with the administration and our partners to the south--to secure our borders is the only path forward. Solving this crisis takes a whole- government strategy and one that looks at all pieces of the puzzle. Instead of shutting down the government by refusing the President's request for border security measures, we need to get to work and fix our broken immigration system. I hope our friends across the aisle are ready to leave their criticism behind and join us in solving the problem.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Madam President, I yield the floor.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe). Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe) would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Innofe).

Mr. CORNYN

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

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, next Friday marks an important deadline in funding the Federal Government. While we have been effective in passing appropriations bills that have funded 75 percent or so of the government, there is still a small but important portion left to be negotiated before we break for Christmas. Part of the debate will be how we go about securing our border, especially as recently, several large caravans of men, women, and children have left their homes in Central America and made the long, dangerous trek to the United States via Mexico. The truth is that the caravans occur on a daily basis. Of course, most of that hadn't penetrated the consciousness of the American people because it took thousands of people en masse, in a big caravan, to actually get their attention and get the attention particularly of the President of the United States. I bet it would surprise most Senators and most Members of the House to know that in 2017 alone, there were 396,000 people detained at our southern border--almost 400,000 people. These caravans, whether they are the large, massive caravans like we see in Tijuana or the minicaravans that occur daily in places like the McAllen sector for the Border Patrol--this is a big and important issue. But funding is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to border security and the migrant crisis. I would like to say that I was encouraged by a story that I saw in the Washington Post dated November 24 entitled ``Deal with Mexico paves way for asylum overhaul at U.S. border.'' This article goes on to talk about a policy of ``Remain in Mexico,'' where the Mexican Government has actually provided work permits and offered asylum to Central Americans transiting Mexico. Some of them have taken the Government of Mexico up on those, but many of them want to come to the United States, understandably, and the problem is how to deal with these large numbers of asylum seekers. This development, if it proved to be accurate, I think represents an impressive change in policy on the part of the Government of Mexico in a very constructive sort of way. I want to congratulate Secretary Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary Pompeo, and the entire Trump administration for undertaking this delicate and difficult negotiation because this really represents a sea change in the way the Government of Mexico regards the migrant crisis. In other words, it is not just our problem. They themselves regard it as part of the solution to this challenge. But the truth is, we can't look at this issue like we are looking through a soda straw. I had reporters yesterday ask me ``Well, what about what is happening at the bridge in Tijuana,'' as if that were the whole story. We can't narrowly focus on just one part and refuse to see the full picture, and that is what I want to talk about here briefly. We won't secure our borders and we won't solve the migrant crisis or improve our asylum system by simplistically looking at the problem. We need to look at this as symptoms of a far more serious problem. This is especially true as the issue of migrants illegally crossing our borders is not new. It has been happening for a long time. It is only recently that there has been no new net migration from Mexico because of improved economic conditions there, and we have seen the flood of people coming up from noncontiguous countries, like those in Central America. But of course it started with the softening of our borders and the disregard of our Nation's immigration laws, and it has continued with the rise of crime and corruption across countries in Central America. We need to secure our borders, to be sure. You would not think that would be a controversial statement, but apparently some of our colleagues view our efforts to secure our borders with ridicule. They act as though this is not a problem, that this is something all about the midterm elections. Well, the midterm elections have passed, the problem persists, and we need to do something about it. We do need to partner with Mexico, as I mentioned a moment ago, but also the Central American governments to fight against the cartels and the gangs who are terrorizing these countries and affecting ours in such a negative way, in a way that will help address this migrant crisis that we are seeing symptoms of at the ports of entry in Tijuana, for example. In Tijuana, about 5,000 immigrants made their way there, and more are on their way. The truth is, every time someone successfully penetrates our border by exploiting gaps in our immigration law or by illegally entering the United States, it is an encouragement for more people to do exactly the same. Anybody who thinks that a caravan of 5,000 migrants coming from Central America is the last caravan that will attempt to penetrate our borders is engaged in a flight of fantasy because human nature ought to tell us that if it is successful, there are going to be more right behind them. We need to deal with this. We need to deal with the crisis that the Tijuana mayor has called a humanitarian crisis. That reminds me of what President Obama called the crisis of unaccompanied minors coming from Central America a few years ago when he was President; he called it a humanitarian crisis as well. We need to work together to try to solve it. We know that this group of migrants isn't entirely made up of innocent asylum seekers fleeing poverty or violence in their home countries. The truth is, we haven't really been able to vet the people in the caravan. And that, of course, is one of the goals of our legal immigration system--being able to look at people as individuals and determine: Do you have a criminal record? Have you been deported previously for illegally entering the United States? It is true--I am confident that this mass of people does include people like criminals and other migrants who intend to exploit gaps in our immigration laws and some who have already been deported one or more times from the United States for violating our immigration laws. I believe the United States is the most generous country in the world when it comes to legal immigration. We naturalize almost a million people a year, and we are the better for it. We have always considered ourselves to be a nation of immigrants but not uncontrolled illegal immigration. That is a recipe for chaos and danger. We have always been a nation that believed in some order, and the rule of law was important when it came to naturalizing people and becoming part of the great American family. We have always provided refuge to those who fled their countries based on persecution because of their religion or their race or their political orientation or their nationality or because they belong to a particular group. We expect those who enter our country to respect our sovereignty and the rules and laws of the U.S. Government. There is a process for coming into the country legally, and that is the process that should be followed here. I might say that when a mob of migrants tries to break through the border barriers in Tijuana, it is fundamentally--in addition to everything else I said--unfair to the people who stood in line and tried to enter the country legally and waited their turn for them to break to the head of the line and try to enter by force. Unfortunately, there are organizations that exploit our generosity and use our borders as a transit corridor for all sorts of illegal activity, including drugs and human trafficking. Believe me, if you look at the trial that is occurring in Manhattan today, El Chapo, you can learn a little bit about the complex, big, lucrative business that being head of a drug cartel entails. Unfortunately, transnational criminal organizations--another word for cartels--have overrun some of the legitimate governments in Central America, and it is no wonder that people are fleeing. Therein lies the root of the current problem. The cartels and the gangs have figured out that it is quite lucrative to traffic migrants to the United States. Based on what I have read, maybe $6,000 to $8,000 is paid to a drug cartel--one of these transnational criminal organizations--to transport a person from Central America to the United States. That is a pretty good, lucrative business. Unfortunately, it is illegal and dangerous too. This is exactly the same business model that is used to transport drugs into the United States. Last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control, 72,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in the United States. About 50,000 of those were opioid-related. Some of those were fentanyl, a synthetic opioid. Some of those were prescription opioids. But a significant portion of those were heroin, and 90 percent of the heroin that makes its way into the United States comes from Mexico. This is the dirty business of the cartels, these transnational criminal organizations--trafficking migrants and children and women for sex and illegal drugs. They are commodity agnostic--whatever will make them money, they will engage in, no matter how vile, how cruel, or how dangerous. They have no morality whatsoever and no regard for life at all. The cartels know we are a generous country and take full advantage of our gaps in border security and immigration laws. As long as we fail to address this issue, we are complicit in making these cartels richer. By our own inaction, we are facilitating their illegal and dangerous enterprise. This is not just a problem with immigration or drugs or smuggling; it is about all of these issues combined. It starts with the reign of the cartels and gangs in countries like Mexico and countries in Central America. Gangs like MS-13 and Barrio 18 in Central America threaten the safety and stability of the people who live in those countries. They fill an endless circle of supply and demand and operate in a vacuum of power with impunity. But their terror does not stop at their border or our border. Like the mob we have seen on TV, they are crashing through borders and threatening our border communities. They are interrupting legitimate trade and commerce through the ports of entry. We saw that the port at San Ysidro was shut down because it couldn't accommodate the mob of asylum seekers and conduct legitimate trade and traffic at the same time. So it has a very real prospect of threatening to disrupt not only the U.S. economy and jobs but that of our Mexican colleagues as well. I think that is part of what has gotten the attention of the Government of Mexico. Their life blood is trade with the United States. If that is prevented because of the mobs of people coming across, trying to break through barricades and enter our country illegally, then that threatens that life blood and their economy. My home State of Texas shares a 1,200-mile common border with Mexico, and about 40 percent of my constituents are of Hispanic origin. The communities along the Texas border are vibrant, and they rely upon the millions of dollars of legitimate trade that pours through our ports of entry. Texas is home to 29 air, land, and sea ports of entry. That is more than any other State in the Nation. About half of the U.S.-Mexico trade moves through a Texas port of entry. As the volume of commerce that crosses our borders has tripled in the last 25 years, Customs and Border Protection has struggled to keep up with the staffing needs. The infrastructure is old and is being exploited, too, particularly by drug traffickers, who move their high- value cargo through the ports of entry. Texans who live and work in those regions know they can't afford the cartels' continued exploitation of our flawed system. So we need to look at how we can address the thousands of migrants who look to cross our borders and the cartels who exploit our laws while we still protect legitimate trade and travel. Any solution we find must try to strike a balance between compassion for the migrants and respect for the rule of law and fundamental fairness to those who are doing it the right way. I have taken, of course, numerous trips to the border to meet with the Border Patrol, and I have heard from many of them on this issue. When migrant caravans cross our borders, Customs and Border Protection not only has to deal with this massive humanitarian crisis, but it has to ensure that the cartels can't take advantage of opportunities that have been opened up by the fact that the Border Patrol is now consumed with trying to process children and families through the ports of entry in accordance with U.S. law. The cartels know that and take every advantage by moving their drugs through the ports of entry or between the ports of entry because they know the Border Patrol is otherwise occupied with paperwork and other distractions. We need to work more closely with our allies in Mexico and Central America to keep commerce alive, which, as I said, is the lifeblood of the economy. By helping in Central America, we can begin to address the root problems that have forced many to flee. At the same time, we need to secure our borders and protect our free trade. As I said, if our ports of entry are clogged with thousands of migrants, legitimate trade comes to a standstill. That not only hurts our economy, particularly in border communities along the U.S.-Texas border, but also our southern neighbor's, Mexico. The fact of the matter is the United States cannot alone bear the burden of this mass migration. We need our partners in Central America and Mexico to work with us to find solutions for these migrants, which is another reason I was encouraged by the article I mentioned in the Washington Post, which talked about the ``Remain in Mexico'' program as one way to begin to address some piece of this migrant crisis. My friend Henry Cuellar, a Member of the House of Representatives, who represents border communities in South Texas, likes to say that we should focus on pushing back our borders. I think that is right. Border security ends at our border, but it starts in Central America and Mexico. This week, the incoming President of Mexico, Lopez Obrador, will be sworn in. I hope to be at that inauguration on Saturday, December 1, in Mexico City. Soon-to-be-President Obrador said he is committed to dealing with the violence in Mexico that has been brought about by the cartels and gangs. I know the United States also shares a commitment to working with this new government in helping to reduce that violence. Our two governments should continue to work closely together because our interests are aligned. Both of our countries want security, and we want the prosperity that comes from legitimate trade. Both of our countries want to see a decrease in the cartel and gang violence. Our relationship is an important one, and it must continue to be nurtured and to evolve because the gangs and the cartels surely will continue to adapt. By partnering with governments in Central America and Mexico, we can help those countries in bolstering their economies, providing security for their people, and restoring the relationship between their communities and law enforcement to one that will be built on trust so that their people will feel safe again in their homes. I stand ready to work with others on this issue, but neither I nor my Republican colleagues can do it alone. This will take a full bipartisan effort, and it is going to take a more serious approach than I have seen in some press accounts in which people want to focus, as with a soda straw, on one narrow aspect of the problem when it is much more complex and much more dangerous than that. So I would invite all of our colleagues to join us in enforcing our laws and securing our borders and protecting our economy by securing free and fair trade. Those who say that by enforcing our laws one is somehow anti- immigrant are engaged in a slanderous lie. It is simply not true. Immigrants who come to the United States legally, who have waited patiently in line, deserve the respect and deserve the reward of their complying with the laws on the books. Somebody who jumps to the head of the line and violates our laws, who has no respect for the safety and security of our border communities, and who wants to facilitate the business model that the cartels have, by moving poisonous drugs or migrants for employment or by trafficking children and women for sex, has no regard for our border communities, for the rule of law, or for those migrants who come to the United States legally and appropriately. This is not a onetime crisis. You can't be against human trafficking but for allowing migrants to be used as human commodities and to freely enter our country illegally. It is the same people who are bringing them into the country. You can't be against the opioid and drug addiction crisis but for allowing the cartels to exploit our borders by exporting their poison. You can't sit back and say you want to help migrants who flee their countries but not engage in bipartisan solutions. You simply can't have it both ways. I hope we will take another look at this humanitarian crisis, as the mayor of Tijuana is calling it and as President Obama called it a few years ago when we saw this flood of unaccompanied minors coming across our borders from Central America, and deal with it with the seriousness and the gravity that it deserves. I look forward to working with my colleagues both in the House and the Senate, as well as with the administration and our partners in Central America and Mexico, to find solutions that address the migrant crisis without abandoning the rule of law or opening our borders or encouraging others to ignore our immigration laws. I yield the floor.

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Mississippi (Mrs. Hyde-Smith).

Mr. CORNYN

Mr. CORNYN. The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Mississippi (Mrs. Hyde-Smith).