Eric Schmitt

Mr. SCHMITT

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize Harriet Turner and her fellow volunteers as Missourians who have gone above and beyond in serving the St. Louis community. Shortly after retiring from a remarkable 25-year career as a nurse at Missouri Baptist Medical Center, Ms. Turner quickly began looking for ways to help others in need and began volunteering at the same hospital. She and her colleagues' warmth and compassion for others, especially for those in crisis, is commendable and has helped countless families over the years. Ms. Turner is truly a Champion of Missouri. Her spirit of service is not limited to Missouri Baptist. In her free time, she has helped organize a community garden to help struggling St. Louis families access fresh produce and has volunteered her time to creating prom dresses for young adults in the foster system. Her dedication to helping others--not for acclaim, but out of a genuine love of service-- is truly inspiring. Her commitment to serving our fellow Missourians is nothing short of remarkable, and I am deeply grateful for her selfless work, which has had a profound impact on the St. Louis community.

Mr. SCHMITT

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize the selfless service and commitment to serving others shown by the volunteers of Missouri on a Mission, lineworkers and community leaders from various electric cooperatives across the Show-Me-State. Whenever severe weather or harsh conditions damage our State's key infrastructure, these brave men and women are quick to respond and devote their energy to restoring power for impacted families. On January 12, 10 outstanding linemen volunteered their time and expertise and traveled to Jamaica to help the nation recover from serious damage caused by Hurricane Melissa last October. Over the next weeks, these heroic men restored key transmission lines, rebuilt and raised fallen poles, and overall helped the island nation get back to an even footing. I would like to briefly recognize and thank each of these remarkable Missourians: -From the Association of Missouri Electric Cooperatives, Craig Moeller and Jim McCarty -From Black River Electric Cooperative, Chris Turner and Colton Stickferd -From Cuivre River Electric Cooperative, Jacob Tiefenthaler and Rodney Braddy -From Lewis County Electric Cooperative, Joe Lay -From Northwest Electric Power Cooperative, Eric Peeper -From SEMO Electric Cooperative, Jared Kelley -From Three Rivers Electric Cooperative, Alex Buschjost I am deeply grateful to each of these selfless individuals for their service and for their commitment to helping the people of Jamaica regain a sense of normalcy. Each of them exemplifies the principle of citizen leadership that has made our Nation great and are truly Heartland Heroes.

Mr. SCHMITT

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I rise today to recognize Lieutenant Commander Hood, a proud native of Dexter, MO, whose distinguished service in the U.S. Navy embodies the very best of our State and our country. Moved by the tragic events of September 11, Lieutenant Commander Hood answered the call to serve by enlisting as a nuclear machinist's mate. His dedication and talent quickly set him apart, earning him a commission and assignments aboard the USS Maryland. He went on to serve with distinction in several critical roles, including auxiliaries division officer aboard the USS Ronald Reagan, anti-submarine warfare officer aboard the USS Hue City, and chief engineer aboard the USS Rafael Peralta. Now on his fourth tour, Lieutenant Commander Hood commands a crew of 80 American sailors aboard the Mine Countermeasure Ship USS Pioneer. His leadership on the frontlines of the Indo-Pacific has been vital in preserving a free and open region in the face of growing threats from the Chinese Communist Party. Through every mission, his steady hand and unwavering resolve have made a difference. For his outstanding service, Lieutenant Commander Hood has earned numerous commendations, including the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. These accolades reflect not just his professional excellence, but a steadfast commitment to duty and country. Lieutenant Commander Hood's career is a testament to the strength, character, and patriotism that define the American people. I am proud to honor him today for his exemplary service and sacrifice. Lieutenant Commander Hood is truly a Champion of Missouri and a credit to the uniform he wears and the nation he defends.

Mr. SCHMITT

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

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, in the coming weeks, Washington will spend an enormous amount of time arguing about immigration enforcement. There will be speeches. There will be statements. There will be plenty of noise. But beneath all of that, the debate before us is far simpler and far more serious. There are two visions competing for the future of this country. One vision holds that immigration law should be enforced, that borders matter, that citizenship means something, and that a nation has both the right and the obligation to decide who may enter, who may remain, and under what rules. The other vision treats our sovereignty itself as immoral. In that vision, borders are an imperialist evil. The law is a fascist oppression, and our identity as Americans is a source of guilt and shame rather than pride and celebration. All of these ideas are connected to the kinds of people who are attacking Federal law enforcement in the streets of Minneapolis. They believe that we don't deserve to enforce our laws as a nation because they believe we don't deserve to exist as a nation. They are not hiding the ball. You can hear it very clearly in their slogans: No one is illegal on stolen land. So that is what this is. It is a debate about whether the United States remains a nation or not. The rule of law is essential to the American constitutional order. It is the clearest, most visible expression of self-government. A people cannot enforce its own laws, cannot meaningfully govern itself. As much as some of my colleagues across the aisle wish it was, immigration law is not some break with longstanding norms. A country that cannot say who belongs cannot remain a country at all for very long. Every serious nation understands this. Throughout history, societies that endured were willing to defend their borders, uphold their laws, and insist that citizenship carried obligations as well as benefits, without apology or shame. To understand what is at stake, we must be honest--fully honest-- about what the Democrats are demanding, what that vision would mean in practice, and why it represents a fundamental break with the idea of America as a sovereign nation. To understand what lies ahead, we must be honest about what the Democrats are demanding and what it would mean in practice. They speak the language of accountability--of oversight--of reform. Those words sound reasonable enough. They are meant to. But when you strip away the euphemisms, when you look at the substance rather than the slogans, the demands all converge on a single outcome, robbing us of the power to enforce our immigration laws. This is not by accident. It is the continuation of a project that has been explicit for years. Abolish ICE, they say, defund ICE. Pick your slogan. It doesn't matter. It is all part of the same project. Open borders and uncontrolled, unvetted, unlimited mass immigration-- in the leftwing worldview, anything less than this is unacceptable and an unacceptable crime against humanity. For them, the problem is not illegal immigration. The problem is any and every attempt to stop it. That worldview rejects a basic premise of nationhood that a people has the right to decide who may enter, who may remain, and under what rules. It denies that citizenship carries meaning, that membership entails obligation, or that law applies equally to those who violate it. And when a society reaches that point, when it treats enforcement as an offense and anarchy as virtue, it begins to dissolve from within. The end state of this Democrat vision is plain as day. Maybe ICE continues to exist, but only in name. The law remains on the books, but only on paper. Illegal presence becomes permanent by default, not because Congress voted for it, but because enforcement has been made impossible. You don't actually have to pass a law called ``amnesty'' to get the same effect. But this is an abdication of our duty to the American people. To understand how this vision is being put into effect, how our immigration laws are being hollowed out without ever being repealed, we must look closely at the specific demands now being advanced and what each one is designed to accomplish. The Democrat vision doesn't begin by repealing the law. It begins by making enforcement personally dangerous and professionally impossible. It is clever actually. It is twisted. They get to say: See, we don't believe in open borders. We are not repealing any of our fundamental immigration laws--because many of their demands aren't actually going after the law. They are going after the people tasked with enforcing it. But, of course, as they know very well, that gets them the same exact outcome. And that is no accident. History teaches a simple lesson: If you want a law to die without repealing it, make its enforcement intolerable. I am not going to spend much time debating the Democrats' demands for DHS as we roll into this 2-week debate, 3-week debate, 4-week debate, whatever it is going to be, there will be plenty of time for that over the coming weeks. And I look forward to being on this floor dissecting each one of their proposals and how disastrous it would be for our country. But consider for a brief moment the demand that officers remove their masks and identify themselves publicly during operations. This is a clear and obvious intent to intimidate and put our Federal agents in harm's way. ICE officers are already being doxed. Their names and addresses are posted online. Their families are harassed. Their homes are targeted. No one would demand this of narcotic officers, counterterrorism agents, or fugitive task forces because we understand that exposing law enforcement to retaliation is sabotage. The effect is obvious and very well-intended: Make enforcement personally dangerous. Make every operation an invitation to harassment. Make every officer a target. When the state refuses to protect its own agents, it sends a message--one louder than any speech--that enforcement is something to be ashamed of, not supported. And when enforcement becomes dangerous for enforcers, enforcement does not survive. What emerges is not reform. It is amnesty by default--not the kind debated openly, not the kind voted on, not the kind Democrats would have to openly defend to the American people, but amnesty achieved through attrition, through delay, exhaustion, and paralysis, so that no one has to claim responsibility for the result. Every step along this path points the same direction. The collapse is not accidental. And once amnesty becomes the default, once presence becomes permanent simply by waiting, the idea of a nation governed by law gives way to something far more fragile: a territory administered by drift. That is the future vision that is produced here. Today, I want to lay out another vision before this body, one grounded not in drift or denial but in law, order, and national survival: enforcement in the honest application of the rules that everyone can see, understand, and live by. Law without consequence is not compassion. It is chaos. And chaos always falls hardest on the innocent, the lawful, and the most vulnerable. This vision rejects the moral inversion that has come to dominate the debate so far in the last few days here. It rejects the idea that those who break the law are the only ones deserving of sympathy, while those who enforce it must apologize for doing their jobs. It rejects enforcement by provision, supervision by activist, and amnesty by exhaustion. Instead, it affirms something older and sturdier: That order is the foundation of freedom, that rights endure only where duties are enforced, and that a people remain a people only so long as they are willing to defend the rules by which they have to live with together. This vision doesn't ask for new theories or radical departures. It asks for seriousness. It asks for the minimum requirements of sovereignty be treated as nonnegotiable. It asks that the law be enforced as law predictably, humanely, and without apology. Today, I want to lay out a framework: four principles--four ways to restore enforcement, defend citizenship, and ensure that the United States remains a nation worthy of name, four legislative ideas to protect America, each one restores something that has been deliberately weakened. Each one reasserts a basic function of sovereignty that no nation can survive or expect to endure. First, end sanctuary cities permanently. Sanctuary policies are not acts of compassion. They are acts of defiance. They announce openly that Federal law will be ignored within certain jurisdictions and that those who violate the immigration law will be protected from its consequences. This creates a two-tiered system, one set of rules for citizens and lawful residents and another for those who remain illegally. That is why we must support my colleague the Senator from South Carolina's bill to end sanctuary cities. A nation cannot survive if its laws stop at the city limits. Conditioning Federal funds on cooperation is not punishment. It is reciprocity. If a jurisdiction wants the benefits of Federal partnership, it must respect Federal law. Anything less is an admission to the Nation that it no longer governs itself uniformly. Second, enhance penalties for illegal entry and reentry. Illegal entry is a misdemeanor. It is time to increase that penalty and make it a felony. And for illegal reentry--entering, being deported, and then reentering, we are going to meet that lawless behavior with swift, predictable consequences for that violation. It is the only humane alternative to chaos, backlog, and false hope. When weak penalties on entry allow illegal presence becomes permanent by default, borders cease to exist in practice, no matter what the law says on paper. Third, protect our law enforcement. We should protect the men and women of law enforcement. I have heard on this floor, including from ridiculous politicians across this country, comparing our men and women of law enforcement to the Gestapo, to Trump's secret police, of a Nazi regime, of an invasion. Pump the brakes. I don't know that you actually believe it, but a lot of the people who are agitating and creating confrontations in very dangerous situations on those streets almost certainly do. Let's recognize law enforcement are increasingly targeted. Obstruction and assault have been normalized. Weak consequences invite escalation. Modern obstruction is sophisticated now. It avoids fists but achieves the same results. Officers are surrounded, blinded, blocked, and drowned out. Operations are struck down through violence-- not through violence, but through chaos engineered to appear peaceful. Protecting officers is not about politics. It is about whether the state stands behind those who serve it. A government that abandons its enforcers invites disorder because authority that will not defend itself cannot command obedience. Law must protect those who uphold it, or it will not be upheld at all. We must pass my Protect and Respect ICE Act that increases Federal penalties for assaulting ICE agents. But we must also be serious about interference and escalation tactics that are becoming more common. So fourth, dismantle rogue NGOs. There are organizations in this country, nominally ``nonprofits'' that materially provide obstruction, incitement, and even violence against law enforcement. They coordinate interference. They publish officer information. They encourage confrontation. And they do so while enjoying tax exempt status subsidized by the American people. That ends. If an organization materially supports or incites domestic violence or obstruction of law enforcement, it is not a charity. It is a political weapon. And it will not receive a penny of taxpayer subsidy. Taken together, these four principles don't harden the Nation; they steady it. They replace drift with direction, paralysis with purpose, and apology with resolve. They move us away from amnesty by default and back toward something far more just and enduring--a country governed by law. If the Democrat vision prevails, the consequences will not arrive all at once. They never do. They arrive quietly, incrementally, under the comforting language of reform and restraint until one day, the reality can no longer be denied. Enforcement retreats. Illegal presence becomes permanent. Citizenship is diluted--not by law but by neglect. The authority of law erodes first at the margins and then at the center. When rules are enforced selectively, obedience becomes optional. When consequences are delayed indefinitely, deterrence disappears. When a nation signals that persistence matters more than legality, it invites exactly the behavior it claims to oppose. Borders become symbolic. The distinction between lawful and unlawful becomes blurred. And the moral authority of citizenship--earned, protected, and passed on--gives way to a system governed by drift. This is not collapse by invasion; it is collapse by abdication. It is what happens when a society convinces itself that enforcing its own laws is somehow mean-spirited while refusing to reckon with the human cost of disorder--communities stretched thin, public trust eroded, and a growing sense that the rules apply only to those who follow them. Moments like this don't come around very often, but when they do, they clarify things that have been obscured for years. This debate that we are going to have potentially over the next few weeks will shape the next generation. Long after the headlines fade and the talking points are forgotten, the consequences will remain written into the meaning of citizenship, the authority of law, and the character of the Nation itself. No nation can outsource its future to avoidance. No society can long survive by pretending the hard questions will resolve themselves if left unanswered. Eventually, the cost of inaction becomes greater than the cost of decision. That is where we stand now. The choice before us is unavoidable: We can affirm that the United States remains a nation governed by law or we can allow that law to dissolve into suggestion. Every subsequent generation inherits a country it did not build from scratch, and every generation decides what it will pass on. Enforcement is the quiet, necessary work of self-government. A nation that cannot say no can no longer say yes to anything that matters--not to citizenship, not to equality under the law, and not to the promise it makes to future generations. The future, ladies and gentlemen, belongs to the countries that believe in themselves enough to enforce their laws.

Mr. SCHMITT. Does the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. SCHMITT. You and I were talking last night and you mentioned, in closing, resetting debate. I think that is so important right now. We are talking about appropriations bills, which is fine. I fully supported that. The chairwoman has done a great job. But what we are also hearing now is, the Democrats have now moved to they want a policy debate and policy changes on approps. I thought that is what we were supposed to do in this place, but that is what they want to do whether it is in 2 weeks or 4 weeks or whatever we come up with on this potential CR for DHS. I think it is very important for us to remind the country as to how we got here. This didn't start this weekend in Minneapolis, and it didn't start last year when President Trump came into office. It started in January of 2021 when Joe Biden let 15 million people in here illegally and fought every single attempt to stop it. What we discovered was that laws don't really mean anything if they aren't enforced. Yet we have a President now who ran on this central platform of enforcing our immigration laws and deporting people who are here illegally, and the Democrats cannot accept that. They can't come to grips with that reality, which is that the American people--and I hear a lot of: We are preserving democracy. Well, if democracy means anything to you, it means, when the American people saw what happened and they sent this guy back here to clean up the mess, that maybe we ought to respect that for a year and a half, but they don't want to do it. So we are going to have this debate, right? So the reason I laid out the four ideas is that I want to make very clear to my Democrat colleagues that this is a home game for us. If you want the debate on immigration, bring it on, and we can be out here every single day for 2 weeks or 4 weeks at every single hour because the American people are fed up with this, and I know you believe that too?

Mr. SCHMITT. It is.

Mr. SCHMITT. That was a question mark at the end. ``I know you believe that too?''

Mr. SCHMITT. ``I know you believe that too?''

Mr. SCHMITT. Wouldn't you agree that the reason we are here--if it were about ICE or if it were about DHS or if it were about President Trump, you would see this everywhere in the country. The fact of the matter is, the incidents of violence against ICE agents is 500 times more likely in 9 sanctuary counties in this country, and so Minneapolis has become the epicenter. Why? Because the local law enforcement doesn't help ICE agents. They are having to do the job that local law enforcement might do. They are not telling them when criminals are being released on the streets. Think about that, that the American people know of the murderers and rapists and child molesters who are illegal immigrants and that we are not going to tell Federal law enforcement about it because you want everybody to stay here indefinitely. That is insane, and that is why it is dangerous. It is dangerous.

Mr. SCHMITT

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 4241 and ask that it be reported by number.

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, we are at an inflection point right now in America's role in the world. As we reassess how we deploy our time, money, and political capital abroad, Congress has an obligation to ensure that taxpayer-funded organizations operate within the mission and guardrails Congress has established. The National Endowment for Democracy was created to support democratic norms overseas, not to engage in domestic political advocacy or to amplify one side of America's internal debates. That distinction is essential to its legitimacy. Yet there is ample evidence that NED has drifted from its statutory mission. Senior leadership and staff have used official positions to engage in domestic political advocacy, and NED funded a foreign organization that created ideological blacklists of conservative American media outlets. These concerns go directly to whether NED is fulfilling the role Congress intended. That is why the President's budget included no funding for NED this year. I requested the State Department inspector general investigate NED's leadership conduct and the use of taxpayer dollars. Until that investigation is complete--

Mr. SCHMITT. I would argue that if we are true to advocating the democratic norms, accountability must come first in our own democracy. I urge adoption of the amendment.

Mr. SCHMITT

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, we are at an inflection point in this country, and what happens over the next few months will ring onward, far into the future. We have all seen the scenes in Minneapolis--the riots, the violence, the bitter chaos. You have seen the headlines, the TV monologues, the nightly news reports, and the pundits' spin. If you weren't paying close attention, it might seem like all of this noise just exploded out of nowhere, a month or two ago. But the story of what is happening in Minneapolis didn't begin last month. It didn't even begin last year when President Trump took office. It began on January 20, 2021, the day Joe Biden became President. The Biden administration did something that has no precedent in American history. They intentionally opened our border to a full-scale invasion and actively sought to block any attempt to fight back. Millions upon millions of illegal aliens entered our country illegally, flooding in from some of the most violent places on Earth, in direct violation of constitutionally enacted immigration laws passed by multiple Congresses and signed by Presidents of both parties. It was the most egregious betrayal of Federal law in American history. Trump ran and won on fixing this. It wasn't some minor footnote in his platform; it was one of the most fundamental defining policies of his 2024 campaign. If you went out in the street and grabbed 10 Americans at random in November of 2024 and asked them what Donald Trump was running on, just about every single one of them would give you the same exact answer: the economy and illegal immigration. Here is the thing: He won. Donald Trump won. Let me repeat that for my Democratic colleagues. He won. He won the electoral college. He won the popular vote. He swept all the battleground States running on the promise to end the invasion and send the illegal immigrants back home. The promise was one of the key reasons the American people sent him back to the White House. That was democracy in action. You know, we hear a lot of talk from the other side about democracy. Well, if democracy means anything at all, it means that this administration must be allowed to carry out the agenda the American people voted for--enforcing our immigration laws, securing the border, and deporting immigrants who are here illegally. This is not a new concept, by the way. Democratic Presidents for the past 20 years have done this. But the other side never had any intention of letting this happen. President Trump moved forward with his agenda. They were never going to let us enforce our immigration laws against those who had broken them. Why is that? Well, because mass migration is not just one policy preference among many of today's Democratic Party; it is the policy priority, the fundamental organizing principle of their entire agenda. It is the foundation of their platform and the final end of their world view. Not one single Democrat has called on leftists in the streets to stop impeding law enforcement with their cars or to stop physically attacking law enforcement--not a single one. They have zero interest in lowering the temperature. At this point, it is so obvious, it almost feels silly to say. In Minnesota and here in DC, Democrats are actively and intentionally adding fuel to the fire. The mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey, has claimed his city is ``invaded, under siege, occupied.'' The Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota, Peggy Flanagan, declared that ``our neighbors are being disappeared. . . . It is just called kidnapping'' and publicly called upon Americans to ``put your body on the line'' and ``not go silently into the night.'' Governor Tim Walz compared the ICE presence in Minnesota to a Nazi occupation and likened residents of Minneapolis to Anne Frank. On Monday, Walz published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal declaring that the ``Trump administration's assault on Minnesota is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state.'' Just last week, he stood behind the metal gates of the Governor's mansion with a bullhorn and told the crowd of protesters outside to go and cause ``trouble.'' These aren't unique examples; they are par for the course. Over the last month, we have heard similar things from just about every powerful Democrat in this country. I don't know what is in each and every one of their hearts. I don't know that. I don't know if they really believe that we are at war or that ICE is the Gestapo or that Minneapolis is under Nazi occupation. But whether or not they believe it, many of the people who hear them and are listening to them do. Now, many of those people are taking these ideas to their final, logical conclusion. That is exactly what the people in power on the left actually want. They want the confrontations. They want the chaos. They want their conscious political strategy. That is what this is, their conscious political strategy. They have decided that leaning in and ratcheting this up as far as it can go serves their political and ideological interests, so they are all in. By the way, might I just point out that they are about ready to shut the government down again. They shut it down the first time because they wanted healthcare for illegal immigrants. Now they are willing to shut the government down, including FEMA funding and TSA funding, because they want to stop deportations of illegal immigrants. It is the single organizing principle of their party right now. Think about that for a moment. Really sit with this. Think about what it says about the kinds of people we are dealing with at this point. In a better era of American politics, we used to say things like: We all want what is best for the country; we just have different ideas about how to get there. When you hear statements like the ones that I just rattled off, it seems harder and harder to believe that right now. These radicals are people who fundamentally do not believe America deserves to be a sovereign nation, a nation that gets to decide who comes here and for how long and when you have to leave. These radicals have opposed the efforts in Minnesota and across the country to take criminals off of our streets--criminals like Kou Lo Vang, a criminal illegal alien from Laos convicted of first-degree murder; Phuc Trong Nguyen, a criminal illegal alien from Vietnam convicted of possession of a weapon and rape; Pedro Ornelas, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico convicted of sexual assault and rape; Abdi Gelle Mohamed, a criminal illegal alien from Somalia convicted of sexual abuse of a minor. That is just a small sample of the last few weeks of arrests in Minnesota. These radicals are people who will cynically wax poetic about democracy in one breath and then deploy organized mob violence as a weapon to undermine the express will of the people when democracy doesn't go their way. My colleagues on the left are currently threatening to shut down our government, shut down the Department of Homeland Security, if they don't get their way. What is their way?

Mr. SCHMITT. No. What is their way? They demand we defund law enforcement Agencies like ICE and CBP. They demand we force ICE agents to dox themselves so that their families can be harassed and threatened in their homes. They demand that we cripple Federal law enforcement's ability to enforce our immigration laws. This is not about oversight; it is about paralysis. And the objective is mass amnesty, rewarding those who broke the law and punishing the men and women sworn to enforce it. My colleagues on the left are smart enough to know about the trail of American victims that mass immigration has left in its wake, but they made a conscious decision to sneer and roll their eyes and pretend like it is all just a hysterical rightwing fantasy to advance their agenda. What is really going on here? Well, it is a desperate and intentional thirst for power at all costs--padding their numbers by importing new voters and illegally adding people to the census rolls to distort congressional apportionment in the electoral college, even if Americans are less safe and it destroys our way of life in the process. I want my Republican colleagues in particular to hear me on this. Nobody wants to see American citizens being shot and killed. On a basic human level, it is a tragedy. Every time a life is lost, it is a tragedy. The lives lost in Minnesota have been tragic. But what we are seeing in the streets of Minnesota--it is not on ICE, it is not on the Border Patrol, and it is certainly not on President Trump. If it were, we would be seeing the same chaos in every city where ICE and Border Patrol carry out these operations, but we are not. There have been large-scale deportation operations in red States all across the country. Most Americans probably never heard of them because they went off without a hitch. In fact, when we measure ICE arrests in each State last year against the State's share of the national illegal alien population, 21 out of the top 25 States are red. Only 3 blue States, plus Washington, DC, crack the top 26. One of those States was Virginia, which had a Republican Governor who was willing to work with ICE at the time. A recent analysis found that just nine counties account for nearly two-thirds of all violent confrontations with ICE in America over the past year. The number of violent confrontations in those counties was twice as high as the total instances of anti-ICE violence from the remaining 3,134 counties combined. Anti-ICE violence was 590 times more likely to occur in those 9 counties than in any other county in America. All nine counties are deep-blue sanctuary jurisdictions run by Democrats. We hear the left tell us that ICE and Border Patrol are agents of chaos and terror. The data tells a very different story. It is not ICE or Border Patrol that is causing this terror; it is the militant leftists and their enablers in the Democratic Party. Yet, in the face of all of it, the agents of ICE and Border Patrol continue to do their job, courageously carrying out their duty and running towards the fire. They are not villains. They are American heroes. They are on the frontlines of the fight to save our country, and we owe them absolute, unequivocal, unflinching support. I want to close by reading a message from a DHS agent on the ground in Minneapolis that was shared earlier this month. Here is what he wrote: It is about negative 20 in Minneapolis right now. Negative 31 with wind chill. I was leaving the building we are all holed up in. I think we've stacked close to 2,000 people in a building designed for 500. I ran into a grunt officer who's been sent here from Miami. He clearly had just got back from an operation. Dude looked absolutely exhausted. We talk a little [smack] about how bad the weather sucks, how tired everyone is from the op[eration] tempo. We get outside, I ask him point blank how he feels about risking his life going up against arctic temperatures, criminals, rioters. . . . He stops, looks at me, and says ``doesn't matter. We do the job.'' Then he walks off and jumps in the car to get on ANOTHER target. No less than 10 seconds later, one of the garage doors where teams are staging at opens, and about 15 [to] 25 guys roll out in full kit and hop in cars for a different target set. Guys are risking it all in [minus] 40 temperatures to grab foreign invaders, getting attacked by the very same countrymen they are trying to protect, with an entire city mobilized against them. They don't even think of stopping for one second. They don't eat, they barely sleep, they survive on nicotine and black coffee and the occasional MRE. Not one of the dozens if not hundreds of men I've talked to even thinks about quitting. Everyone, even senior leadership, is out there right now. [The] equivalent of general officers are out there on the ground making arrests and fighting through protesters alongside their guys. I've never seen commitment like this before. These men are genuine heroes. . . . They're putting it all on the line every second of every day. They know that the political winds can shift and that all the work and sacrifices and danger could be for nothing. They even know they'll probably face serious retribution for doing the right thing. But they don't care, they're still getting after it. Please, keep these men [and women] in your prayers. They are a force of 20,000 going up against 20 million. Mr. President, that is courage. That is heroism. It is a heroism that the cowards hiding behind their guarded mansion gates will never understand. The ICE and Border Patrol agents are risking death every day. The small men who sneer and bark at them from the sidelines are not men of virtue but men who defy our rule of law. The deportations must continue. Sanctuary cities must end. The era of fake deals is over. There will be no fake ``comprehensive immigration reform'' because a nation does not need new laws to enforce the ones it already has. President Trump demonstrated a basic truth of self- government: Law without enforcement is not law at all. Congress criminalized illegal entry. The executive branch is obligated to enforce it. And that is exactly what will happen--the systematic removal of those who violated Federal law by entering this country illegally--no theatrics, no apologies, no amnesty, just enforcement. So protest all you want, but let law enforcement do their jobs-- enforcing the immigration laws that Republicans and Democrats passed. Let our men and women in law enforcement get home safe to their families. The only way out is through.

Mr. SCHMITT. Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. SCHMITT

Mr. SCHMITT. The senior Senator from Florida.

Mr. SCHMITT

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

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I rise today to wholeheartedly endorse the nomination of Tom Albus to be the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri. He is part of the forthcoming nominations package that this body will be voting on later this week. His nomination in particular is special to me. He not only is eastern Missouri--the eastern district of Missouri, my lifelong home--but when I was attorney general of Missouri, Tom was my first assistant, the chief deputy when I first came into office. He is a proud alum of Georgetown, Mizzou Law, and St. Louis University High School. Tom is one of the finest prosecutors I have met in my whole life. For 17 years, Tom served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Missouri, where he won numerous special achievement awards and recognition for his outstanding service. Tom served as my first assistant attorney general in Missouri and then as a circuit judge in Missouri's 21st Judicial Circuit, which is in St. Louis County. In his distinguished legal career, Tom has appeared in nearly 900 Federal criminal prosecutions and civil matters. He has tried 15 cases to verdict and presided over dozens more as a judge. But Tom shines just as bright outside of the courtroom. He is as committed to St. Louis as anyone I have ever met. As a lifetime leader at the Missouri Athletic Club, in our local parish--the Mary Queen of Peace Catholic Church--with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri, and as the mock trial coach for St. Louis University High School and now St. Joseph's Academy, Tom has a pure and genuine heart. That is what he cares about--service. Tom is sharp, serious, and a lifelong proponent of law and order. He is a career law man. As interim U.S. attorney, Tom is already delivering results, going after violent crime and its root causes with everything he has got. Just in the last few weeks under his watch, he has indicted a former high school baseball coach on drug trafficking charges. He has sentenced child sex traffickers to serious, long prison terms. He has taken down illegal immigrants tied to a nationwide organized retail crime ring. That is leadership. That is Tom Albus. He has trained for this job that we are set to vote on here his entire career. I have the utmost confidence in his abilities. He is going to do a fantastic job as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, and I urge my colleagues to support his nomination. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHMITT

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, this November marks two very special dates for our great country. Our Nation comes together every November 11th to celebrate Veterans Day, in recognition of the exemplary and selfless work put forth by those who have served in our great Republic's Armed Forces. Since our Nation's founding, our brave troops have valiantly defended American freedom and values. Time and again, our veterans' unwavering courage and dedication have shielded our homeland from foreign aggression and helped secure the blessings of liberty for our neighbors overseas. November 10th also marks an important landmark in our Republic's history. On this day in 1775, the Continental Congress formed what would become the U.S. Marine Corps under the command of Major Samuel Nicholas. Since its founding 250 years ago, the Marine Corps has stood as a symbol of excellence and steadfast commitment to defending our homeland. From the Revolutionary War to the present, our marines have demonstrated outstanding courage wherever and whenever they are called to serve. I encourage my colleagues to join me as we honor those currently serving in or retired from our uniformed services and commemorate those who gave the last measure of devotion to protecting their fellow Americans. These heroes' adaptability and bravery have safeguarded our Nation for two and a half centuries, and we all owe them our most sincere gratitude.

Mr. SCHMITT

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I rise today to honor Chad Wolfe of Missouri. Over his life, Mr. Wolfe has consistently shown an outstanding commitment to serving his country and fellow Americans in all his endeavors. After enlisting in the U.S. Army in 2012, Mr. Wolfe served two tours in Afghanistan and demonstrated remarkable valor. After his exceptional service, he retired from the armed forces highly decorated, receiving multiple awards including the Army Commendation Medal and no less than six Army Achievement Medals. After joining the civilian workforce upon his return to the States, Mr. Wolfe has continued his work to serve his fellow veterans with the St. Louis Agency on Training and Employment, SLATE, where he provides crucial employment and support services to veteran households across St. Louis. As SLATE celebrates its 50th anniversary, I am proud to highlight both Mr. Wolfe and the entire SLATE team for their outstanding daily work to help our Republic's brave veterans transition to civilian life. Chad Wolfe is truly an example of our State's Heartland Heroes. He has continually gone above and beyond to support his fellow Americans, and I am grateful for his ongoing commitment to helping the military community. I am honored by his devotion and wish him continued success in the future.

Mr. SCHMITT

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I rise today to honor Mr. Dan Singletary and to congratulate him on his upcoming retirement. Over his remarkable 40-year career with Howell-Oregon Electric Cooperative, Mr. Singletary has demonstrated outstanding dedication to ensuring top-tier service for the co-op's members. Not long after beginning his service with Howell-Oregon, Dan was selected to serve as the associate manager, then general manager of the organization, and can proudly claim to be the longest serving leader in the co-op's history. In his free time, Mr. Singletary's selfless character continues to speak for itself. Outside of the workplace, he has volunteered his time for utility cooperatives across the State and has served on the leadership board of Missouri Electric Cooperatives Insurance Plan, Sho- Me Electric Power Cooperative, and the Associated Electric Cooperative. He has more than earned his place in the Missouri Institute of Cooperatives' Hall of Fame. I am proud to call Mr. Dan Singletary a fellow Missourian, and he has done the Show-Me-State proud. I wish him all the best as he begins his well-earned retirement this coming January.

Mr. SCHMITT

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I rise today to commend the quick response and lifesaving work of Captain Derek Baker of the Kansas City Fire Department. Captain Baker has long demonstrated an outstanding dedication to protecting our fellow Missourians and helping them out in times of crisis through his work, but his heroism doesn't stop off the clock. When Derek was vacationing in Mexico, he noticed an individual face- down in the ocean. Acting quickly, Captain Baker swam out to rescue the nonresponsive victim and performed lifesaving CPR for several minutes until local healthcare workers could escort them to the hospital. Thanks to his decisive action, the victim survived and regained consciousness shortly after. Captain Derek Baker is truly a Champion of Missouri. His bold heroism, even during his well-deserved downtime, embodies the spirit of service that has made our Republic great. I thank him for his continued service as a devoted firefighter, and I am proud to call him a fellow Missourian.

Mr. SCHMITT

Mr. SCHMITT. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the career and contributions of Dr. Patrick Westhoff, a cornerstone of agriculture research. For decades, Dr. Westhoff has made outstanding contributions to the agriculture industry through he and his peers' essential economic studies. Before his remarkable 29 years with the University of Missouri's Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, Dr. Westhoff began his lifelong work to improve America's farm industry by helping on his family's dairy farm in Iowa and has played a key role in shaping agriculture policy over the years. Outside of his work in academics, Dr. Westhoff has shown his fierce commitment to addressing supply chain issues, helping coordinate vital economic and food research in countries across the world, and devoted considerable time to helping developing nations. It is no surprise he has received multiple awards for his work. I am proud to call Dr. Patrick Westhoff a fellow American and know that my colleagues from Iowa are as well. His lifetime of contributions to our world cannot be overstated, and I wish him the best as he begins his well-deserved retirement.