Martin Heinrich

Mr. HEINRICH

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I am aware of the testimony of General Kelly, but given his role at SOUTHCOM and in particular its location in Florida and the fact that the Senator from Florida was there for the testimony, I would ask him to remind us exactly what General Kelly had to say about how we are or in some cases are not interdicting and dealing with the flow of narcotics and particularly cocaine that has been at the root of so much of the instability and violence we see in these three Central American countries today.

Mr. HEINRICH. If the Senator from Florida will yield for a minute, the sad thing is it didn't used to be that way in this part of Central America, and I know that for a fact because my wife and I traveled there 15, 16 years ago. We traveled extensively in Honduras, and at that time these gangs simply did not have the influence. They did not have this level of destabilization and they did not have this murder rate. I always joke about trying to drive into Tegucigalpa, and I would not recommend it to anybody who has not had time to acclimate to the speed and crush of cars in that capital city, but it was a completely different country at the time. We traveled extensively in urban areas in San Pedro Sula and rural areas such as Santa Rosa de Copan, and it was an economically challenged country. For those folks who have claimed that all of these immigrants are simply heading north out of economic desperation, the economic situation has not changed all that much. It is worth looking at the rest of Central America. The surrounding countries, such as Belize and Costa Rica and other countries in Central America, are also seeing refugees from these countries. Nicaragua, which has substantial economic challenges right now, is losing economic immigrants, and those immigrants are not making it to our southern border in any substantial numbers. In fact, less than a year ago, I was in Costa Rica and many Nicaraguans are working in Costa Rica because the economy is better there. Yet we don't see them showing up--especially the unaccompanied minors, 7, 8, 12-year-olds--at our border by themselves. They are not being driven out by the extreme violence we have seen in these three nations where the drug cartels have such a disproportionate influence on their country's stability.

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I thank all of my colleagues who have been vocal about their commitment to address the Central American refugee crisis along our southern border. We have heard the stories of unimaginable violence, of corruption, of instability in places such as Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala-- factors that are driving many children to the United States and to other neighboring countries in Central America. In some cases these children are literally fleeing for their lives. Our Nation has responded with a spectrum of attitudes toward immigrants ranging from hostile to downright hospitable. It is my hope that our attitude as a nation continues to be defined by the image of the Statue of Liberty and not by shouting protesters holding signs labeled ``Return to Sender'' as they stand in front of buses full of Central American children. I recently received a letter from a constituent in my home State of New Mexico whose grandmother, as a result of extreme poverty, left her family and emigrated by herself to the United States from Ireland at the age of 14 at the end of World War I. Brendan said that when he was growing up, his grandmother frequently shared this Irish proverb with him. She said, ``Courage is the trust that your feet will bring you to where your heart is.'' Brendan asked that I continue to remind my colleagues that the immigrants who arrive at our borders come by foot following their hearts and do so in the hope of building a better life. Last week I sat down with Ambassadors from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala, and we discussed how our Nation's approach to stemming the influx of unaccompanied children to the United States must be collaborative and get at the root cause of the dire situation in these countries. With out-of-control drug cartels and nearly 90 murders for every 100,000 persons annually, Honduras now has the highest murder rate in the world. Similarly, El Salvador and Guatemala have the world's fourth and fifth highest murder rates. There is no easy solution to these problems, but Congress has an opportunity and a responsibility to act on pragmatic measures before time and resources run out. Secretary Johnson has warned that Immigration and Customs Enforcement will run out of money in August and Customs and Border Protection will run out of money in mid-September if nothing is done. With resources already running scarcer by the day, Customs and Border Protection won't have any other choice but to direct border agents away from other sectors of our southern border and into the Rio Grande Valley. So let's be clear. Those who would choose not to support this emergency supplemental are putting our border security at risk. New Mexico, California, Arizona, and West Texas will all see fewer agents and fewer resources on our border if the House and Senate do not act. This is no way to address a crisis. We must pass the Senate's emergency supplemental funding bill introduced by Senate Appropriations Committee chairwoman Barbara Mikulski. This emergency funding bill includes important resources to help stem the current refugee crisis while continuing to treat these refugee children humanely as required by the law. This situation is an emergency, and we need emergency funding. Passing the emergency supplemental would also allow the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice to deploy additional enforcement resources, including immigration judges, Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorneys, and asylum officers, as well as expanding the use of the alternatives to detention program. Instead of ensuring that we provide these necessary resources to address this crisis on our border, some of our colleagues are actually proposing that the solution is to actually weaken Federal child trafficking law and to roll back protections for unaccompanied child refugees seeking asylum. The proposal introduced by our colleague from Texas Senator Cornyn would weaken the 2008 William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Act and short-circuit justice in order to deport refugee children faster and without the due process afforded under our law. According to a poll released Tuesday by the Public Relations Research Institute, 69 percent of those surveyed believe that U.S. authorities should treat the children as refugees and allow them to stay in the country if it is determined it is not safe for them to return to their home country. Some would use this crisis to eliminate crucial child trafficking protection, punish some of our Nation's brightest DREAM Act students, and promote a narrow border-enforcement-only agenda. I believe we are a better nation than that, frankly. Let's step back and remember that just 1 year ago the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill that included provisions to further strengthen the border but that would also protect refugee children and crack down on smugglers and transnational criminal organizations. Notably, the bill was widely supported by both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate. Public support and good economics have not been enough to convince House Republican leaders to hold a vote on immigration reform, but they cannot turn a blind eye to the current humanitarian crisis along our southern border. The bipartisan Senate bill that passed more than a year ago includes provisions for family reunification and for the protection of children who have been the victims of human trafficking. The bill also includes measures that would address refugee and asylum laws. The public, including faith-based organizations, educators, local elected officials, small businesses, and many others, overwhelmingly supports this balanced approach to immigration reform. However, here we are more than 1 year later, and House Republicans are still unwilling to even hold an up-or-down vote on the Senate's proposal. Each day the House fails to act on serious solutions to our broken immigration system is another day our Nation and our economy suffer. The Congressional Budget Office reported that last year's bipartisan immigration reform bill that passed this body would reduce the budget deficit by $197 billion--billion with a ``b''--over the next decade and about $700 billion in the second decade. In a companion analysis, CBO also estimated that fixing our broken immigration system would increase our country's GDP--our economic output--by 3.3 percent in 10 years and 5.4 percent after 20 years. The evidence is clear. Immigration reform is good for our economy, good for our workforce, and it is good for the future of the American middle class. I am familiar with the promise America represents to its families. My father fled from Nazi Germany in the 1930s as a young boy. As the son of an immigrant, I know how hard immigrants work and how much they believe in this country and how much they are willing to give back to our Nation. Those of us who represent border communities understand the difficult challenges we face, but there are solutions before us that are pragmatic, bipartisan, and that uphold rather than compromise our American values. In the short term we must approve the Senate's emergency supplemental bill, and in the long-term we should partner with Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador to stabilize their nations and end the cycle of gang violence we see there. A key part of our long-term solution is for House Republicans to finally put the Senate's immigration reform bill on the floor for an up-or-down vote. We in Congress have a historic opportunity to pass comprehensive immigration reform and to address root causes rather than just symptoms for a change. I believe we will have failed if the only immigration legislation we pass as a body in this Congress is to weaken legal protections for refugee children. With this in mind, I will continue to work with my colleagues to ensure that we address this humanitarian crisis and fix our immigration system once and for all. Let's seize this opportunity. Mr. President, I see that I have been joined on the floor by the Senator from Florida, and I would ask unanimous consent to engage in a colloquy with Senator Nelson.

Mr. HEINRICH. If I understand the Senator from Florida correctly, General Kelly simply does not have the resources to do the job we have done historically in terms of interdicting cocaine moving north for the market that, frankly, is in North America--

Mr. HEINRICH. I thank the Senator from Florida for continuing to be an advocate for this cause. I know that Southern Command's annual budget now is about $1 billion--literally $1 billion out of $550 billion in the Department of Defense. Given the necessity of engaging with Central and South America on these issues, I think it is time to reevaluate, in terms of resources but also in terms of priorities, how we look at Central and South America, to reengage with our neighbors and try to address some of these issues at the root level instead of always at the symptom level. I see we have been joined by our esteemed chair of the Appropriations Committee, Senator Mikulski of Maryland. So I thank the Chair for allowing the Senator from Florida and I to indulge in this colloquy. And, once again, I wish to say how much I hope we take this opportunity to do something, not just about the symptoms of the current crisis which has to be dealt with, but also the underlying causes of this crisis.

Mr. HEINRICH. If the Senator from Florida will yield for a moment, having formerly served on the House Armed Services Committee, I know the Department of Defense budget is somewhere in the order of $550 billion. Surely SOUTHCOM must have a substantial amount of resources to be able to meet this, right? Of that $550 billion, does the Senator from Florida know how much actually goes to Southern Command?

Mr. HEINRICH. The Senator from Florida also brought up another issue that I think is worth exploring. It is my understanding that he was recently briefed on the relationship that exists between these drug cartels and the entities that are actually engaging in human trafficking and moving people, for a fee, through Central America and Mexico and to the U.S. border. Can the Senator tell us a little bit about the nature of that relationship?

Mr. HEINRICH

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, when Congress unanimously passed the bipartisan William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act back in 2008 to strengthen Federal trafficking laws and ensure that unaccompanied and undocumented children receive humane treatment, it was welcomed by the Bush administration as a priority issue in preventing the trafficking of persons around the world. At the time Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission president Richard Land said that: It shows a broad coalition all the way from the left to the right and in between when it comes to significant human rights issues. The law itself was named for William Wilberforce, an evangelical Christian who led the effort in Britain's Parliament to end the slave trade in Britain in the 19th century. But now, 6 years later, too many of my Republican colleagues are calling to roll back the very protections that just a few years ago were rightfully lauded as a tremendous victory for human rights. Many of us believe the current Central American refugee crisis requires an immediate and compassionate response. Yet the proposals put forth by Senate Republicans have been to reverse critical child refugee protections, and deport DREAMers who have absolutely nothing to do with this current crisis. The proposal introduced by my colleague from Texas, Senator Cornyn, and similar proposals from my Republican colleagues would weaken the 2008 trafficking law and implement expedited deportation that denies children the chance to go through an orderly process to determine if they need protection--and it applies to all unaccompanied children who cross the border. I believe we are a better nation than that. My Republican colleagues keep saying they want a humane process, but these proposals would trade the safety of children for expediency and eliminate the very protections unanimously set forth by Congress back in 2008. As a father, I have to say I believe this debate can't just be about the efficiency with which we can deport refugees. It should take into account the situation these boys and girls are seeking to escape in the first place. Both the United Nations High Commission on Refugees and the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services in two separate reviews recently found that approximately 60 percent of unaccompanied children from Central America suffered or faced harms that indicated a potential or actual need for international protection. To understand how these proposals could adversely harm the children involved, one can read a recent article in the New York Times by Julia Preston. It tells the story of Andrea, a young woman from Honduras who was forced by her own family--associates with the Mexican drug cartel-- into prostitution at age 13, if you can imagine that. After 2 years she ran away, hoping to seek safety in the United States. She tried twice to flee abuse, crossing the Rio Grande, and was apprehended by the Border Patrol in both attempts. When agents questioned her, Andrea did not tell them why she fled. She said: I was just trying to protect myself . . . I was just afraid of everything, after all those things those guys had been doing to my body. Andrea, a victim of sex trafficking, was sent back into harm's way to live with relatives in Mexico. Andrea is not alone. Many more children could also be sent back into a dangerous environment if proposals to overturn the 2008 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act are passed. Unaccompanied children such as Andrea need a safe place to talk about violence and abuse. A Border Patrol station holding cell is no place for an interview that literally will impact the rest of their lives, especially while they are still recovering from a dangerous journey. Subjecting Central American children to this screening process would be a retreat from our Nation's commitment as a humanitarian leader, and, frankly, undercuts our American values of putting children ahead of politics. A coalition of more than 100 nongovernmental organizations--such as First Focus, Women's Refugee Commission, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association--all wrote a letter to President Obama earlier this month to share their thoughts on this humanitarian crisis. They wrote: Congress gave consideration to the unique circumstances of children when it enacted the [Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act]. Undermining due process and protection under the law is not the right answer, and certainly will not appease the criticisms of those who have been calling for more punitive and aggressive enforcement. Yesterday, in an open letter to Congress, the Evangelical Immigration Table warned against weakening the protections afforded by the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act, stating that the law: . . . ensures that victims of trafficking are not only identified and screened properly but that traffickers are penalized and brought to justice. I have also heard from the Southern Baptist Convention, the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops, anti-trafficking groups, and children's lawyers who have all sent the same message to us: Don't weaken this anti-trafficking law. Congress should focus on strengthening safeguards for children rather than weakening their protections. Last week one of my colleagues from Texas proposed that the only way to stop the rise of unaccompanied children is to punish DREAMers and introduce legislation to defund the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program--or DACA, as it is called. DACA has helped more than 550,000 undocumented students across the country who came to the United States as children to have an opportunity to pursue a higher education. DREAMers in the DACA Program are not the cause of the current Central American refugee crisis. And the notion that any legislation to address this issue must also end DACA is, frankly, out of touch. DREAMers are bright, they are hard-working, and most of them don't know how to be anything but an American. I have met many DREAMers from New Mexico. I have heard their stories. I have read their letters. They have never given up on this country, and, frankly, I am not giving up on them. Last year I had the pleasure of meeting a young woman named Laura in Las Cruces, NM. She arrived in the United States from Mexico when she was 7 years old. She learned English. She earned good grades in school. It wasn't actually until she was 13 years old that she even found out she was undocumented. She said: I couldn't believe it. All my dreams, all my hard work, it felt like it was all for nothing. . . . Don't leave anyone behind on the American dream. Laura wants to be a doctor. There is the story from a young woman named Yuri. Her family immigrated to the United States from Mexico when she was 2 years old back in 1996. While in high school in Albuquerque, NM, Yuri volunteered in her community, graduated in the top 10 percent of her class. She even received the 2013 Sandia Laboratory scholarship. Recently, she was approved for DACA and is currently a student at the University of New Mexico. There are literally countless stories just like these of young people who love this country and have only known it as their home. We are not going to let Republicans use this current humanitarian crisis as an opportunity to punish DREAMers. I am happy to end President Obama's deferred action program, but we will only do that by passing the DREAM Act as part of comprehensive immigration reform. If we really want to help solve this crisis and make our policies crystal clear, it is all the more reason to pass the Senate's bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill. The reality is, our Nation is facing a refugee crisis at our southern border. Children from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala have fled to the United States and to other neighboring Central American countries to escape unimaginable violence, corruption, extreme poverty, and instability in their home countries. In some cases, these children are literally fleeing for their lives. Many of these children are turning themselves in to Border Patrol agents. This little boy's name is Alejandro. He is 8 years old. He traveled alone from Honduras, with nothing but his birth certificate in his pocket. I thought about that. I can't imagine my 7-year-old traveling across Washington, DC, or Albuquerque, NM, or any major metropolitan city in the United States by himself. It took him 3 weeks to make that dangerous journey from Central America to the banks of the Rio Grande. After being asked where his parents were, Alejandro said they were in San Antonio. He came to the United States because he wanted to reunite with his family. He didn't run, he didn't hide when an agent approached him. Alejandro wanted to turn himself in--just as many mothers and children have done over the course of the last year. Yet we have heard this week calls from some who would militarize our border and send in the National Guard. I would say we need more resources for our Border Patrol agents. They have been taxed. They have certainly been putting in long hours since these numbers started to crest. But I don't think sending soldiers to meet people like Alejandro is the right solution to this crisis. The notion that lax border policies are somehow responsible for this latest crisis is not just a myth, it is a willful misrepresentation driven by politicians who would rather create a political issue than solve a real problem. In a recent interview when asked to discuss whether sending in the National Guard would be an appropriate response to these problems at the core of the current crisis, Steven Blum--who was the former Chief of the National Guard Bureau under President George W. Bush--told the Washington Post: There may be many other organizations that might more appropriately be called upon. If you're talking about search and rescue, maintaining the rule of law or restoring conditions back to normal after a natural disaster or catastrophe, the Guard is superbly suited to that. I'm not so sure that what we're dealing with in scope and causation right now would make it the ideal choice. That is a very polite statement. The fact is there are more Border Patrol agents today and more technology and resources at the border than any time in our Nation's entire history, and our Border Patrol is better prepared to deal with this issue than the National Guard. Border Patrol apprehensions are today less than one-third of what they were at their peak, and this is because we have worked so hard and so effectively to secure the border. Those of us who represent border communities understand the challenges we face, but there are solutions before us that are pragmatic and bipartisan; that uphold our American values; that don't compromise them. Republican leaders should demand that their colleagues in the House of Representatives act to fix our broken immigration system. The Senate passed a bipartisan bill more than a year ago now, and passing that bill would make our immigration policies crystal clear to the world. Additionally, passing the Senate's supplemental funding bill to address this crisis sends a clear signal that we are aggressively stemming the flow of children and families from Central America while continuing to treat those refugee children humanely under the law. This situation is an emergency and frankly we need emergency funding. Passing the emergency supplemental would allow the Departments Of Homeland Security and Justice to deploy additional enforcement resources, including immigration judges, Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorneys, asylum officers, as well as expand the use of the alternatives to detention program. We are not arguing that every child should stay. Many, in fact, will be returned, but it will be after a Department of Justice judge has evaluated his or her case for asylum. The supplemental would also help governments in Central America better control their borders and address the root causes of migration, including criminal gangs causing and profiting from this refugee crisis. A number of us today met with the Ambassadors from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, and it was very clear what was driving these issues. Without getting to those root causes, we won't be able to solve this crisis permanently. The supplemental would provide much needed resources for U.S. Health and Human Services to ensure that these children receive medical screenings, housing, and counseling. Yet, instead of supporting this funding which seeks to meet these challenges head-on and protects these children, Republicans want to use the crisis to eliminate crucial child protection, punish some of our Nation's brightest students, and promote their border-enforcement-only agenda. Before I close and hand the floor off to some of my colleagues, I would like to highlight some of the humanitarian work that is being done in my home State of New Mexico to address this crisis by telling the story of Project Oak Tree volunteer Orlando Antonio Jimenez. Project Oak Tree is a short-term-stay shelter for Central American undocumented immigrants in Las Cruces run by the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces. The shelter opened earlier this month after DHS established a temporary facility for undocumented parents and their children at FLETC--the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center campus--in Artesia, NM. Orlando signed up to volunteer for Project Oak Tree on day one. He said he saw the immediate need to assist families facing this humanitarian crisis and he didn't think twice. He said his Christian values and belief in doing the right thing drove him to volunteer. Orlando gets the opportunity to speak to almost every single person who arrives at Project Oak Tree and said that almost all of the stories he hears from mothers have some element of fear for their safety if they were to go back home. Orlando said he will never again say the words ``I am starving'' when he is hungry because he knows now what starving really means. He says that this experience has changed his life forever and that he will continue to help as much as he can. I am grateful for Orlando's work in our community and for the many others in New Mexico who have stepped in and shown compassion and done all they can to help. Now it is Congress's turn to help. It is our turn to be part of the solution to this refugee crisis. Thank you, Mr. President.

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

Mr. HEINRICH

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 22, 2014, at 9:30 a.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Abuse of Structured Financial Products: Misusing Barrier Options to Avoid Taxes and Leverage Limits.''

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 22, 2014, at 10:30 a.m., in room SD- 366 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building to conduct a hearing entitled ``Leveraging America's Resources as a Revenue Generator and Job Creator: A View from State and Local Partners.''

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Finance be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 22, 2014, at 9:45 a.m., in room SD-215 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, to conduct a hearing entitled ``The U.S. Tax Code: Love It, Leave It, or Reform It!''

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 22, 2014, at 10 a.m.

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Foreign Relations be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 22, 2014, at 3 p.m., to hold an International Development and Foreign Assistance, Economic Affairs, International Environmental Protection, and Peace Corps subcommittee hearing entitled, ``U.S. Security Implications of International Energy and Climate Policies Issues.''

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 22, 2014, at 3 p.m., to conduct a hearing entitled ``Building Economically Resilient Communities: Local and Regional Approaches.''

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate, on July 22, 2014, at 10 a.m., in room SD-430 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. to conduct a hearing entitled ``Coal Miners' Struggle for Justice: How Unethical Legal and Medical Practices Stack the Deck Against Black Lung Claimants.''

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Select Committee on Intelligence be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 22, 2014, at 2:30 p.m.

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Veterans' Affairs be authorized to meet during the session of the Senate on July 22, 2014, at 3 p.m. in room SD-G50 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.

Mr. HEINRICH

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, for the next hour a number of us from the Democratic Caucus will be talking about the Central American refugee crisis. We are lucky to be joined by Senator Mikulski, the chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, to get us started today. So I look forward very much to hearing what she has to say and you will be hearing from me in a little bit.

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, let me start by thanking my colleague from Maryland for her leadership on the Appropriations Committee and her leadership on this difficult issue. She said something in caucus the other day that really struck me. She said: Every Senator has an opinion on this, but not every Senator has the facts. Facts matter. They make for good policy. Last week I had the opportunity, along with Secretary Johnson, to visit a temporary facility for refugee mothers and their children that is in my home State of New Mexico. The holding area at this facility in Artesia, NM, is one of several ways that DHS is increasing its capacity to process the increasing number of families with children from Central America who are crossing our southwest border. On Monday, 40 individuals were repatriated back to Honduras. It is reported that more mothers and their children will be sent back to their countries of origin. While I was at this facility, I saw firsthand the remarkable interagency effort that it took to take a Federal law enforcement training center, a campus, and turn it into a safe and humane place for families to stay while their cases are being processed. But that is not all I saw while I was there. I watched a young boy play soccer with his little brother, both of them clearly happy to be in the kind of secure environment where they could just be kids. I saw a lot of mothers. I saw mothers whose faces were worried, who reflected the clear concern about what the future would be for them and for their children. What I did not see at that facility--I did not see cartel mules. I did not see drug runners. I did not see criminals or gang members. Those were mothers and little kids. Most of those families come from one of the most violent regions in the world today. This current crisis is of grave concern to all of us. I know I have heard from a number of my constituents who wanted to know what they can do to help. I have to give great credit to our local chamber of commerce in Artesia, NM, as they worked hard as they received hundreds of donations from compassionate New Mexicans across the State hoping to make a difference in these people's lives. They understand that this is first a humanitarian crisis. They also understand that we are a nation of laws, that our immigration system has been broken for a long time and needs to be fixed. The Senate worked for months to address this, but the Republican-led House of Representatives refuses to even debate immigration reform, much less allow a vote on it. Instead, Republicans claim that the President's immigration policies, including deferred action for childhood arrivals--or DACA, as it is known--caused a crisis at the border. That could not be further from the truth. The increase in unaccompanied children started before President Obama created the DACA program 2 years ago. The United Nations High Commission on Refugees has documented an increased number of asylum seekers from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala since 2009--a full 5 years ago. What is more, children crossing the border would not be eligible for DACA. In fact, they would not be eligible for the Senate version of immigration reform. These asylum seekers are not only fleeing to the United States but also to the other neighboring countries in the region. They are fleeing to Panama, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Belize. In fact, those countries saw a 712-percent spike in asylum cases from El Salvador, from Honduras, and Guatemala from 2008 to 2013, further demonstrating that children are not coming to the United States to apply for DACA. They are coming because their lives are at risk back home. In interviews with over 400 children, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees found that no less than 58 percent of them were forcibly displaced because they suffered or faced harm that indicated a potential or actual need for international protection--an increase of more than 400 percent from 2006. Less than 1 percent of these kids spoke of immigration reform or some new program or policy as the basis for coming to the United States. In fact, out of the 404 children who were interviewed, there were only 4-- 4 children who expressed a reason for coming that related to some part of the U.S. immigration system. The reality is, as we heard from Senator Mikulski, what is driving children to our borders is unimaginable violence, corruption, extreme poverty, and instability in their home countries. This picture was taken in Tegucigalpa in Honduras. This is frankly an all-too-common sight in Honduras today. Not only is the poverty unimaginable, but the violence we have seen is like nothing in recent history. Honduras has now the world's highest murder rate, with over 90 murders per 100,000 persons annually. Last year approximately 1,000 young people under the age of 23 in Honduras were murdered--murdered in a nation of only 8 million, 1,000 young people. In a report published by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, they found that 93 percent of crimes perpetrated against youth in Honduras go unpunished--completely unpunished. The National Observatory of Violence reported that violent deaths of women increased by 246 percent between 2005 and 2012. This is all the more unsettling to me because I know firsthand that Honduras did not always look this way. In the 1990s I traveled to Honduras with my wife Julie. We were on our honeymoon. We flew into San Pedro Sula. The only time I felt any fear was trying to drive in a city that moves a lot faster than I do when I try to drive on country roads in New Mexico. But we never had any fear for violence when we were in Honduras. We traveled around the country. We went to many places off the beaten path. That is very different today. Today San Pedro Sula is a city synonymous with murder. To understand just how bad it is, you can look at pictures like this one of literally body bags getting ready to go to mass graves from murders happening in these neighborhoods in San Pedro Sula. You can read a recent article in the New York Times by Frances Robles that tells the chilling story of Cristian, an 11-year-old sixth grader from Honduras who lost his father in March after he was robbed and murdered by gangs while working as a security guard protecting a pastry truck. It is kind of hard to imagine needing a security guard to protect a pastry truck. Three people he knows were murdered this year alone, and four others were gunned down on a nearby corner in the span of 2 weeks at the beginning of the year. A girl his age resisted being robbed of the sum of $5. She was clubbed over the head, dragged off by two men who cut a hole in her throat and stuffed her underwear in it and left her body in a ravine across the street from Cristian's house. Then there is Anthony, a 13-year-old from Honduras, who disappeared from his gang-ridden neighborhood. His younger brother Kenneth hopped on his green bike to search for him, starting his hunt at a notorious gang hangout in the neighborhood. They were found within days of each other, both dead. Anthony, 13, and a friend had been shot in the head. Kenneth, age 7, had been tortured and beaten with sticks and rocks. They were among seven children murdered in the La Pradera neighborhood of San Pedro Sula in April alone--in 1 month. El Salvador and Guatemala are the world's fourth and fifth highest in murders. The Center for Gender and Refugee Studies found that in 2011, El Salvador had the highest rate of gender-motivated killings of women in the entire world. In Guatemala, the Department of State reports widespread human rights problems, including institutional corruption, particularly in the police, in judicial sectors, kidnapping, drug trafficking, execution, and often lethal violence against women. We have a human crisis at our southern border that requires an immediate but compassionate response. Yet instead of supporting the supplemental which seeks to address the root causes of the crisis and protect these vulnerable children, Republicans are trying to use the crisis to promote fear and their border-enforcement-only agenda. Recently, a Republican Governor suggested that the President send the National Guard to ``secure the border once and for all'' and that ``the border between the U.S. and Mexico is less secure today than at any time in the recent past.'' As I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks, facts are stubborn. This is simply not the case. In fact, the notion that lax border policies are somehow responsible for this latest crisis is not just a myth; it is a, well, full misrepresentation driven by politicians who would rather create a political issue than to solve a very real problem. The border today is more secure than it has ever been. There are more Border Patrol agents on the ground. There are more resources. There is more technology deployed on the border than at any time in our Nation's history--at any time. In fiscal year 2012, the Federal Government spent almost $18 billion--$17.9 billion--on immigration enforcement. That is $3.5 billion more than the budgets of all the other Federal law enforcement agencies combined--$3.5 billion more than the FBI's budget, plus the DEA's budget, the ATF budget, plus the Secret Service, plus the U.S. Marshals Service. These resources have made a difference. From fiscal year 2009 to 2012, the Department of Homeland Security seized 71 percent more currency, 39 percent more narcotics, 189 percent more weapons along the southwest border as compared to the last 4 years of the Bush administration. It is important to remember that this crisis from refugees in Central America is not about children and families sneaking across our border like criminals. As we heard from the Senator from Maryland, many of these refugees seek out the first Border Patrol agent they can find in order to turn themselves in. Many of these children have walked across the border or across the Rio Grande with identification literally safety-pinned to their shirts. But that image does not serve the political interests of those who prefer a border crisis to a refugee crisis. Let's step back and remember that the Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill more than a year ago now--a bill that included incredibly important provisions to further strengthen our border but that would also protect refugee children and crack down on the smugglers and the transnational criminal organizations that are at the root of the current crisis. Notably, this bill was widely supported by both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate Chamber. Public support and good economics have not been enough to convince the House leaders to hold a vote on immigration reform, but they cannot turn a blind eye to the current humanitarian crisis along our Nation's southern border. Instead of attacking the President, Senate Republicans should work with them to address the issue, and they should demand that their colleagues in the House act to fix our broken immigration system. Additionally, passing the $3.7 billion supplemental sends a clear signal that we are aggressively stemming the flow of children and families from Central America while continuing to treat these refugee children humanely and as required under the law. This situation is an emergency and we need emergency funding. Our immigrant communities have helped to write the economic, social, and cultural history of America. I know this firsthand. My own father is an immigrant who came to this country as a boy from Nazi Germany in the 1930s. As a nation we value the twin promises of both freedom and opportunity. Those ideals are important no matter where you are born. The fact is, our immigration system is broken. Those of us who represent border communities understand the challenge we face, but there are solutions--solutions before us that are pragmatic, bipartisan, and uphold our American values. I am familiar with the promise America represents for families. I know how hard immigrants work, how much they believe in this country, and how much they are willing to give back to this country. A small group of faith leaders from New Mexico penned an op-ed in the Albuquerque Journal over the weekend. In sharing their thoughts on this humanitarian crisis they wrote: While the current situation raises the issues in powerful ways, expressing hatred toward, fear of, or anger with women and children serves nothing to resolve national debate. Rather, it engenders a destructive spirit of mistrust. Let us seek to understand the immigrant's reasons for coming and to work collaboratively for just and reasonable immigration reform. I could not agree more with these faith leaders. It is time to fix our broken immigration system once and for all. Our short-term solution is to approve the President's emergency supplemental request now, and as part of our long-term solution we need House Republicans to put the Senate's immigration reform bill on the floor for a vote. Our Nation will be the better for it.

Mr. HEINRICH

Mr. HEINRICH. I rise to speak on the pending nominations. I appreciate the majority leader scheduling this vote to confirm Mr. Norman Bay to be a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC is one of the lesser known but perhaps one of the most important independent agencies in the Federal Government. It has jurisdiction over interstate transmission of electricity, oil, and natural gas, as well as licensing of hydroelectric power. I believe Mr. Bay will be an outstanding member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. I urge all of my colleagues to support his nomination today. Since 2009 Mr. Bay has been the Director of the Office of Enforcement at FERC, where he has gained extensive experience in the regulation of energy markets. The Office of Enforcement is responsible for market oversight and surveillance and for implementing the antimanipulation authority Congress enacted in the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This authority provided FERC new tools to combat the type of market manipulation that produced the devastating power crisis a decade ago across the West. Under Mr. Bay's leadership, FERC has increased transparency in its work, while bringing a number of enforcement actions that have helped protect the integrity of the energy markets and provided $300 million in relief to consumers--$300 million back into the pockets of energy consumers. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School and has had a long and distinguished career of public service. Before joining FERC, he taught law at the University of New Mexico. He also served as an assistant U.S. attorney and in 2000 was nominated by the President to be the U.S. attorney for the District of New Mexico. He was confirmed in that position by the full Senate by unanimous consent. Mr. Bay is an outstanding public servant with extensive experience in the field of energy markets. I am confident he will judiciously implement FERC's statutory responsibility of oversight of our Nation's energy infrastructure, competitive markets, and reliability. At his confirmation hearing in May, members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee had a chance to question Mr. Bay extensively on his work at the FERC and his views on regulatory policy. Senator Pete Domenici, a former chairman and longtime member of the energy committee from my home State of New Mexico, spoke at the hearing in strong support of Mr. Bay's nomination. Senator Jeff Bingaman, another former chairman of the energy committee from New Mexico, wrote a letter in support of his nomination. The Senate must give consent to the President's nominees to be members of the FERC. The Senate is fulfilling that responsibility with this vote today. However, there should be no misunderstanding--Congress gave the President alone the responsibility of designating a member of the Commission to be the Chairman of the Commission. The law enacted by Congress in 1977 remains very clear: The President, and not the Senate, determines who will serve as Chairman of the Commission. I believe Mr. Bay will be fair, balanced, pragmatic, and a consensus- oriented member of the FERC. He will decide cases on the merits, based on the facts, based on the law and on the record. I am pleased to support the nominations of both Commissioner LaFleur and Mr. Bay to be members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. I hope the Senate will vote today to confirm them both. I yield the floor.

Mr. HEINRICH

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, for the first time in our Nation's history the total amount of student loan debt has exceeded the total amount of credit card debt. This very real problem weighs heavily on families in my home State of New Mexico. Last year Congress narrowly stopped the student loan interest rate hike from going into effect--a rate hike that would have doubled student loan interest rates. As a result, undergraduate students borrowing this year are able to take advantage of reasonable student loan rates. But students who borrowed before this agreement could be paying rates as high as 9 percent. Those who pursued an education to get ahead are literally starting out from behind. Student loan debt is proving to be a debilitating impediment to achieving the American dream. Recently, I met a working mother in southern New Mexico who told me about her family's struggle to raise their children while paying her husband's student loans from a degree he had earned more than two decades ago. Another woman shared her story of going back to school to become a teacher. She is a single mom who wanted to make a better life for herself and her daughter. She got a degree but not without acquiring more than $40,000 in student loan debt. She worries that she will be paying her loans off well into retirement. As a parent, she worries for her daughter who will be entering college and fears that she has no choice but to take out loans to pay for her education. Unfortunately, these stories are all too common today. Outstanding student loan debt in America totals more than $1.2 trillion--trillion with a ``t.'' In New Mexico, students are graduating with an average of nearly $18,000 in debt. Outstanding balances not only affect families working to pay those loans, it affects the entire American economy as well. Because of this debt, many are unable to buy a home, to start a business, to save for retirement or even start a family. In today's economy we should be eliminating the obstacles that keep Americans from earning the education they need to get ahead. College should not be a luxury; it should be an opportunity all Americans can at least afford to pursue. The student loan refinancing legislation that was on the floor this week would have helped address this problem of skyrocketing student loan debt by allowing graduates to refinance and put more money into productive use and strengthen our economy as a whole. However, our colleagues across the aisle decided to filibuster this legislation. They don't seem to understand that crushing student loan debt is a serious issue that forces many Americans to put their American dreams on hold. Higher education is one of the most important investments any person can make in their own future. From my perspective, making college affordable is an investment in America's future. Republicans should know this and even recently helped to do something about it. Just last year Democrats and Republicans came together in Congress to prevent a student loan interest rate hike that would have doubled student loan rates. This was a great money-saving piece of news for students taking out new loans. However, there are still approximately 134,000 New Mexicans--just in my small State of 2 million people, there are 134,000 New Mexicans who would benefit from passing this newest legislation which would allow them to access those same student loan rates. We had an opportunity to come together to address skyrocketing student loan debt, and instead our colleagues on the other side of the aisle chose to leave families, students, and really the American economy behind. A college education opens the doors of opportunity. It provides an avenue into the middle class for families. College graduates are nearly twice as likely to find work as those with only a high school diploma, and they will earn nearly $1 million more over the course of a lifetime. We should be willing to give our aspiring college students a fair shot. Senate Republicans should reconsider their priorities and allow us to at least debate this student loan refinancing legislation, to end their filibuster so that we can move forward, so that we can provide immediate relief to student loan borrowers and put that money to work in growing the American economy. I would yield back the rest of my time.

Mr. HEINRICH

Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, as an engineer one of the things I learned early in my education was that science does not care if you believe in it or not; you can deny science as much as you want, but the data suggests that the scientific method works pretty darn well. The corollary to that fact is whether you believe in climate change has no bearing on whether it is actually occurring. Unfortunately, the data shows a warmer and warmer planet, characterized by weather fluctuations that are more extreme and oftentimes more destructive. In my home State of New Mexico, too often we find ourselves dealing with the impacts of climate change today, not at some theoretical future date. For example, we are already seeing the effects of climate change and how it manifests itself in more extreme drought conditions, larger and more intense wildfires, shrinking forests, and increased flooding when it finally does rain. The longer we wait to act, the more difficult and expensive the solutions will be, and the more unpredictable our weather will become. 2012, as the Senator from Vermont mentioned, was our Nation's second most extreme year for weather on record. In my home State of New Mexico, we experienced the hottest year in our entire historical record. With humidity levels lower and temperatures higher, we are dealing with fire behavior in our forests that is markedly more intense than in the past. We also see climate change take a toll directly on our economy, especially in my State. That is an important point, because inaction has its costs too. The costs already being borne in New Mexico are substantial. With less snowpack, communities that rely on winter sports tourism take an economic hit. Fewer people lodge in hotels, shop in stores, eat in restaurants. Climate change is also having a devastating impact on New Mexico's agricultural industry, where farmers and ranchers are often the very first to see the direct impact of extreme weather. The agricultural sector is highly vulnerable due in large part to the sustained threat to the water supply, the soil and vegetation from continuous drought. Things are only going to get worse if we do nothing. If we take our moral responsibility as stewards of this Earth seriously, it is imperative that we face the challenge of reversing the effects of climate change head on and have a sober discussion about what actions we will need to take now and in the future. America clearly has the capacity to become energy independent. But we also need to transition from our current energy portfolio to one that produces as much or more power with substantially less carbon pollution per kilowatt hour. That will require innovation, something that historically our country has done better than any country in the world. But additionally, we will need political will, something we have grown short of as climate denial and pseudoscience have made their way into the halls of Congress. If history is our guide, we should know that investing in cleaner energy will not be without cost, but little of value is ever free. The question is, are we willing to make the modest investments now necessary to create the quality jobs of tomorrow and to protect our Nation from the serious economic and strategic risks associated with our carbon reliance, our reliance on both foreign and carbon pollution- intensive energy sources? Since we are looking at history, let's take a moment and look at the Clean Air Act of 1990, and compare the rhetoric of debate with the reality of its implementation. In 1989, the Edison Electric Institute predicted a significant rise in energy costs due to the Clean Air Act. Yet the reality, according to a recent study by the Center for American Progress, actually showed a decrease of 16 percent over those years. In 1990, the U.S. Business Roundtable claimed that passage of the Clean Air Act would cost a minimum--a minimum--of 200,000 jobs. But a recent study released by the EPA revealed the reality. The Clean Air Act resulted in a net creation of jobs and new industries created to reduce pollution, good-paying jobs in industries such as engineering, manufacturing, construction, and maintenance. By 2008 the environmental technology sector supported 1.7 million jobs in this country. The time has come to address climate change rather than embracing the pseudoscience and denial that is embraced by far too many in Washington today. The Nation has never solved a single problem by denying the facts. Let me be clear. Inaction is not a solution to this very real crisis. Denial is not a strategy. Consequently, if my Republican colleagues have a better way to address carbon pollution than what the President has proposed, I would ask them to join the debate. If they have a pollution solution that is more efficient or more effective, now is the time to have that discussion. Through American ingenuity we can slow the impact of climate change and unleash the full potential of cleaner energy. We can create a healthier, more stable environment for future generations, but we must have the will to recognize the facts as they are. We will need to make the investments that are necessary, and we will have to find the political will to act.

Mr. HEINRICH

Mr. HEINRICH. Madam President, it is an honor to join my colleague from New Mexico, Senator Tom Udall, in celebrating the life and service of Chester Nez, the last of the original 29 Navajo code talkers, who passed away this last Wednesday, and to honor the historic role the Native American code talkers played in the allied victory in World War II. Our Nation's liberties and patriotic spirit were personified by the commitment and service and the legacy of Chester Nez. He was a true American hero. Chester Nez helped to create an unbreakable code during World War II. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps to protect the Nation and also his people, language, and culture. He understood the significance and the importance of his language, and he used it as a shield to defend this Nation. Chester Nez chose to enlist in the marines at a young age, not knowing he would become part of an elite group of indigenous code talkers. Despite growing up in an era where speaking the Navajo language was not only prohibited but often punished, his fluency in both Navajo and English made him invaluable to the war effort. He was a member of the all-Navajo 382nd Marine Platoon entrusted to create a code that would prove impenetrable to the Japanese. The 382nd Marine Platoon literally changed the course of history. After Chester Nez's service, he continued to remain silent about his instrumental role as a Navajo code talker, maintaining a quiet, modest, and humble lifestyle until the mission was declassified in 1968. Later in life Mr. Nez shared his contributions and his experiences in World War II with younger generations. He advocated for keeping the Navajo language, its traditions, and culture alive so that future generations would know how influential the Navajo people and language were during World War II. Thanks to Mr. Nez and his fellow code talkers, our Nation's remarkable spirit continues to thrive and we are forever grateful for their service. I join all New Mexicans in keeping Chester Nez's family and friends in our thoughts and prayers. I yield the floor.

Mr. HEINRICH

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