Tommy Tuberville

Mr. TUBERVILLE

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I have come to the Senate floor today to talk about the Corporate Transparency Act or, as we call it in DC-- in swamp speak--the CTA act. The CTA, to me, is one of the worst examples of Big Government overreach that I have seen since I got to Washington over 3\1/2\ years ago. That is saying a whole lot, since our country is $34 trillion in debt. The CTA was signed into law in 2021 as part of the fiscal year 2021 NDAA. Simply put, the Corporate Transparency Act is an outright attack on the 32 million small businesses in this country. This includes farmers, restaurants, gyms, lawn service companies. The CTA specifically targets working Americans with an LLC, and failure to comply could put you in jail for up to 2 years per violation plus slap on $10,000 per violation. That is quite a penalty. You know, I don't know about you, but I have plenty of friends and family members who have an LLC. It is just part of the way the U.S. economy works--capitalism. Small business and LLC owners play a huge, huge role in supporting this country and our way of life. I can tell you most business owners have no idea that this law exists--none, not one bit. The Corporate Transparency Act requires individuals with substantial control over a company or an equity position of 25 percent to disclose personal data with the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Now, that is a long name. It is better known as FinCEN in swamp talk--a government bureau most Americans have no idea as to what it is, and they have never heard of it before. The CTA will impact small businesses across the Nation, in addition to millions of citizens who use LLCs to invest in real estate or protect their assets, which millions of Americans do. My State of Alabama is home to over 400,000 small businesses. Now, small businesses are the backbone of Alabama's economy, making up more than 99 percent of the business community and providing jobs to nearly half of Alabama's working population. But it isn't just Alabamans who will be impacted. Over 32 million businesses across America are estimated to be affected by this overreaching, Big Government, swamp law. Hardly anybody knows about it. It is a well-kept secret, but it affects farmers, lawyers, accountants, and business owners. They are directly and seriously impacted. Under this law, millions of small business owners are required--they are required--to report personal details to the Federal Government. Business owners or anyone who qualifies for this massive government overreach must disclose their names, their dates of birth, their addresses, and scan their government-issued photo IDs to the Treasury Department by the end of this year. Any time this information changes, updated information must be submitted to FinCEN's database within 30 days. So, if you move, you have to let the Federal Government know within 30 days that you have changed your address. The failure to file with FinCEN can, again, lead up to 2 years of jail time and a $10,000 fine per violation. By the way, I find it ironic that we are currently voting on legislation cracking down on social media companies like TikTok and Facebook for storing people's personal data. Meanwhile, the Federal Government is doing the very exact thing that we have been discussing here on this floor for months and months. Why does the Federal Government need this information in the first place? Well, the goal of the CTA was to crack down on shell companies used to commit crimes. That is what this was meant for, but the reality is that criminals are not going to file with FinCEN. That is not going to happen. Criminals don't go by the law. Instead, the law will be used to go after hard-working Americans. In recent years, we have lost over 150,000 farmers in this country. You heard that right. Just in the last few years, 150,000 farmers have gone out of business. They can't keep up with Joe Biden's high-priced economy. It is not happening. They are not making any money. They are selling out. Now the CTA is going to squeeze them for every last cent. We need farmers in this country. We need small businesses. Where does Joe Biden think our food comes from, by the way? It is sad--it really is--but few in Washington and most outside the beltway have no idea that this law actually exists. I continue to say we have a law that has not been advertised. People haven't pushed it. It is out there, and it is just hanging. They have no idea that this law exists. Plus, they don't have an idea that the criminal penalty is there, and it is a very high price. To no one's surprise, large businesses--listen to this point--with powerful lobbyists got a carve-out in the law, and they do not have to comply with the CTA. That is right. If they had a very good lobbyist and they are a big business, they don't have to comply with this law. Companies like BlackRock, Facebook, Amazon--they don't have to comply with this because the Federal Government is too busy going after your local neighborhood restaurant or your daughter's favorite nail salon or your family's dentist or your local farmer. While the little guy has to struggle with all this redtape, LLCs with more than 20 employees and greater than $5 million in revenue do not file with FinCEN. That is right. It is only the small guy. It is only the small person who is trying to make a living. Yet another win for the swampy special interest groups while hard-working Americans who pay their taxes--they will suffer. The few small business owners who are aware of the CTA's existence want to make sure they are compliant, but they have few places to turn. Accounting and law firms do not want to take on the responsibility of filing for these clients, and many industry professionals are unaware of the penalties if you fail to file. So Joe Biden has weaponized the IRS against Americans. He already announced he is using American tax dollars to hire 84,000 new IRS agents to go after everyday taxpayers--84,000. Now, if you remember, President Biden promised: We are not going to go after anybody who makes less than $400,000. Yet another lie from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Now, some of these agents will target small business owners who fail to disclose their personal information to FinCEN, not to mention politically motivated prosecutors who will use the CTA to target conservative business owners. Sadly, the IRS has a history of singling out certain taxpayers based on their religious and their political beliefs. Have we forgotten Lois Lerner, who is living off her taxpayer-funded pension but should have been prosecuted? In an America where justice is becoming less equal by the day and prosecutions have been used to target political opponents, the CTA is just another way that this administration can use the Federal Government to go after conservatives and Christians. To add insult to injury, FinCEN has done little to nothing to educate Americans on the CTA and the harsh consequences if you don't comply. It is almost like they want Americans to be ignorant about the new law so they can punish them for not complying. This is completely unfair. This is not the American way. You would expect this from communist China. But this is not going to happen on our watch. Next week, I am introducing the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act to overturn the CTA in its entirety. America used to be the land of freedom and opportunity. Under Joe Biden, the American dream has become a nightmare for many small business owners and farmers. My bill would provide millions of small businesses and entrepreneurial Americans with regulatory and compliance relief. They need a break. They don't need more regulations; they need less. My bill would also remove a weapon used by rogue prosecutors who would love to punish Republicans and Joe Biden's IRS that openly targets conservatives every day. It is past time we start standing up for our farmers, our store owners, LLC holders, and small businesses who are the heartbeat of this America. I am proud to be joined in this effort by Congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio, who is filing a companion bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. If Congress fails to act on this legislation, millions of American small business owners could be in for a rude awakening next year. I look forward to Leader Schumer bringing this bill to the floor and helping millions of small business owners and helping those who are counting on us to take on this huge government overreach. I yield the floor.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

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

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I cannot believe we are here again. Americans cannot believe what we are witnessing here today. Less than a week ago, House Republican leadership sold out Americans and passed a bill that sends $95 billion to other countries. With the Speaker's blessing, the House Rules Committee approved a package of foreign aid bills that undermines America's interest abroad and paves our Nation's path to bankruptcy. The Speaker relied on Democrats to force this $95 billion package through committee, over the objection of three conservative Members. Unfortunately, our leadership here in the Senate, both Democratic and Republican, are complicit. The Senate is about to follow the House's lead, further violating the trust of those who sent us here. We are about to vote on another $60 billion for Ukraine; this, on top of the $120 billion American taxpayers have already sent to this black hole, with no accountability. We are a country that is $35 trillion in debt. We are a country whose southern border is wide open thanks to the Biden administration. Illegal immigrants are invading our country. Drugs, including fentanyl, are flooding across, killing hundreds--hundreds--of Americans a day. We are printing money for other countries while inflation continues to crush the American citizen. Not one dollar of this bill is paid for or offset. Not one. We will have to print more money or borrow it from China, all to fund foreign wars while we are losing the fight at our own southern border. What we are doing is a slap in the face to the Americans who sent us here to represent them. Instead of debating legislation to close the border and fix the economy, we are about to send billions of dollars to one of the most corrupt countries in the world. The war in Ukraine is a stalemate. It has been for a while. Pouring more money into Ukraine's coffers will only prolong the conflict and lead to more loss of life. No one at the White House, Pentagon, or the State Department can articulate what victory looks like in this fight. They couldn't when we sent the first tranche of aid over 2 years ago and they still can't do it over 2 years later. We should be working with Ukraine and Russia to negotiate an end to this madness. That is called diplomacy, by the way, a tactic this administration has been completely unwilling to use. Instead, Congress is rushing to further bankroll the waging of a war that has zero chance of a positive outcome. The Speaker claims he is privy to special, classified information that justifies support for this massive package. If this critical information exists, all elected representatives who are being asked to vote on this massive spending package should have access to it. Republican leaders in the Senate argue that Russia will roll through Ukraine and into NATO if we don't immediately send another $60 billion we don't have. I wouldn't be surprised if we get a letter signed by fifty or so ``high ranking, former intelligence officials'' confirming this and the dire consequences of delay. Don't fall for it. I had a classified briefing from the Department of Defense just this morning. I can tell you there is no justification to prioritize Ukraine's security before our own. None. To add insult to injury, we are financing this conflict on the backs of the American taxpayer. As I said earlier, this country is $35 trillion in debt. Today we are borrowing $80,000 a second--you heard that right--$80,000 a second, $4.6 million a minute. And I want this body to explain that to the American people next election. This is irresponsible and unsustainable. On top of that, we are now considering adding another $95 billion to that mountain of debt with this foreign aid package. This funding will be financed by deficit spending the American people will eventually have to pay back. This group doesn't have to pay it; the American people do. It is easy to spend somebody else's money. Unlike the so-called loan to Ukraine--loan, we are hearing, which will never be repaid--don't be fooled--unfortunately, some of my colleagues will vote yes on this bill claiming that, hey, this money for Ukraine is a loan. This was a concept originally floated by President Trump. However, this bill not only allows the President to set the terms of loan repayment, it lets him cancel the payment any time and the interest on it. Sounds a little fishy to me. I and the majority of Americans are highly skeptical that we will ever see a cent paid back to the American taxpayer. The chickens are going to come home to roost, and when they do, it is going to get really, really ugly. Every Member of this body should be laser-focused on getting our own house in order, not bankrolling foreign wars. Mr. President, $46 billion of this foreign aid package is supposedly for Israel. Sadly, that is not reality. If you read the fine print, $9 billion of that funding would go to the Palestinians for what is being billed as humanitarian aid for Gaza. Of course, sending any money to Gaza will immediately be used to line the pockets of Hamas terrorists. They will provide zero relief to the civilians suffering under their control. There is no requirement that any hostages--also in this bill--be released for any exchange of this money. Why is that not happening? We have American citizens and we have Israeli citizens who have been captive for 5, 6 months. We are giving $20-something billion--$9 billion to the people who are holding hostages--and we are not getting any relief for the people who have been suffering as hostages going on 6 months. Why in the world would America agree to funding both sides of this war? Israel is our greatest ally in the Middle East. We should be standing firm in support of our friends in their battle against Hamas. Sadly, the White House is more focused on playing politics and appeasing their radical, pro-Palestinian base. Why else would we send billions of dollars to Hamas? Is this a political payoff in an election year? Sounds like it to me. What a sad state of affairs this country is in. While Congress rushes--rushes--today to bankroll Ukraine and the Palestinians, our leadership is avoiding the key crisis facing our Nation: our southern border. Wake up. According to a recent Gallop poll, immigration is the top concern of people in this country who pay our bills, but the American people were just sold out. It is that simple. You are witnessing the swamp at its worst--a swamp more concerned about maintaining power and being smarter than everybody else and lining the pockets of their friends than representing the interests of the American people. Colleagues, wake up. The clock is ticking. How many Americans must die before we take on our own security as seriously as we are taking on other people's borders, including Ukraine's? We lose 100,000 people to fentanyl. Does anybody care in this body? I haven't heard it. This is a direct result of the border policy under President Biden. Fentanyl is manufactured in China and ran by the cartel in Mexico. At what point does that horrific reality become important enough for us to come in here and vote and shut this dang border down? The left loves to tell you about threats. What kills more Americans than the Biden border policy? Nothing. It is the biggest disaster in history since I have been alive and a citizen of this country. Ukraine is losing soldiers by far fewer than the number of Americans who are dying from fentanyl. We have to take care of our own people before we take care of the rest of the world. The Biden administration is failing this country. We know what the problem is. We know the solution. But nobody wants to solve it. That is an ineffective government. President Trump proved that we can get operational control of our border. He had control. The problem is, no one in this administration or this body actually wants to solve this problem, which means we are also failing this country. Americans are counting on this body to stand up and correct the course. I hope we don't let them down. For these reasons, I will be voting against this massive supplement of taxpayer money that we don't have today going to Ukraine. I yield the floor.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, on April 5, Alabama lost Montgomery County Sheriff Deputy Jermyius Young to injuries sustained in a duty-related car crash. Deputy Young began working as a correctional officer at the Montgomery County Jail at the age of 18 while waiting to turn 21, the age required to attend the police academy. He joined the police academy as soon as he could and then became a sheriff's deputy for the county. He also served as a specialist with the U.S. Army Reserves 206th Transport Company out of Opelika. Nicknamed ``Smiley'' by his parents for his positive demeanor, which was always accompanied by a huge smile, Deputy Young was an inspiration to everyone around him. Whether on or off the clock, he continually sought ways to help his community. He specifically invested his time volunteering with young people who aspired to be in law enforcement, like him. ``Deputy Young was a role model, not just for other deputies, but for me, as well. He was a fine law enforcement officer. He was loyal, unselfish, efficient, and he always came to work with a smile on his face. He came in wanting to make a difference. He was dedicated to the community and dedicated to making a difference,'' said Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham. There is no doubt that in Deputy Young's 21 years of life, he made a difference--in his community and in our State. Alabama mourns the loss of Deputy Young, but we also celebrate the legacy of courage and selflessness that he established. I join Alabamians in expressing our deepest gratitude for his courageous service.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I rise today to honor the career of LTG A.C. Roper, the deputy commander of the United States Northern Command--USNORTHCOM--and United States Element, North American Aerospace Defense Command--NORAD. Lieutenant General Roper is a native of the great State of Alabama, where he graduated from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He and Edith, his wife of 39 years, are also the proud parents of two daughters. I know that after over 40 years of distinguished military service, your family is looking forward to your retirement. In capacity as a civilian, Lieutenant General Roper has over 33 years of law enforcement experience, culminating with his 10-year tenure as the chief of police of the Birmingham Police Department, the largest municipal police department in the State of Alabama. A dedicated law enforcement professional, he is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation--FBI--National Academy, the FBI National Executive Institute, and is an adjunct professor of criminal justice. He specialized in protecting critical infrastructure and served on the executive board of the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force. Lieutenant General Roper is a role model for aspiring servicemembers and law enforcement officers. He has demonstrated the power of passion and purpose in fulfilling a life of service. Lieutenant General Roper, thank you for your long and distinguished career in service to our Nation. On the occasion of your retirement, I wish you and your entire family the best. Congratulations on a job well done.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. It was a pretty good game, by the way.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Thank you to my colleague from Utah. I am kind of amazed at what has happened today. It has been categorized several ways, whether it is kangaroo court or three-ring circus or organized grab-ass. I don't know how you look at it, to be honest with you. It is amazing what we sat here and watched. We all thought in the last few weeks that there was a chance for an impeachment trial of Secretary Mayorkas, but it only lasted a few hours--a historic event in the eyes of every Senator, not just Republicans but also Democrats. One thing I want to say is, has he faithfully executed his duties of the United States Constitution, the one that we all put our hand on the Bible and swore to do? It was amazing to me how this all went down at the end of the day. It really wasn't Secretary Mayorkas. He wasn't the only one on trial today or would have gone on trial, impeachment trial; it would have been every Democrat--every Democrat here in the Senate, every Democrat in the House, and every Democrat who is running our executive branch-- because there has not been one person who has said anything since I have been here, in 3\1/2\ years, like: We need to do something at the border. Not one. We have let in 10 million illegal aliens in the last 3 years. On that data point alone, Secretary Mayorkas intentionally--intentionally-- failed to secure the border. I personally asked him one day why he was not at least giving a fair chance of closing the border. He says: Senator, we need more money. Well, I looked it up, and his budget is 20 percent more than what President Trump's Secretary of Homeland Security had--20 percent. His job is homeland security. That is his entire job. Senator Schumer and all the Democrats could have conducted this impeachment trial today, and it would have never seen the light of day after the trial because we would not have had the votes on our side to impeach Secretary Mayorkas. So, instead, the impeachment process is over. The media will stop covering it in a few days. We will be going back to throwing millions of taxpayer dollars at blue States so they can manage the surge of illegal aliens going to blue cities all over the country. Just last week, the Department of Homeland Security awarded another $300 million to cities in support of illegal aliens. Today, the city of Denver announced that they would shift $8 million from their law enforcement to take care of illegal aliens. It is clear that the Biden administration is more concerned with taking care of these illegals than they are about protecting the citizens. So I will ask again: Has Secretary Mayorkas fulfilled his oath of duty before this body to protect and defend the country against all threats, foreign and domestic? Is our border secure? The answer is simple: He has not, and it is not. Mayorkas has been derelict in this duty--derelict--and confrontational in his duty to all of us when we have asked him personally what he is doing at the southern border. In voting against his impeachment, our Democrat colleagues are basically lying to themselves. They are risking the lives of Americans. Senator Schumer and Democrats can't say that they want to fix the border while trying to save his job. Americans are dying at the hands, every day, of what is going on at our southern border. Every State is a border State now. It is not just Texas; it is not Arizona and California--every State. My State of Alabama is being overrun with illegal aliens. The number of people crossing the border who are on the Terrorist Watchlist is unprecedented. That is what scares me. If you listen to our FBI Director, he said we have a major threat to our country, and he said it is coming, but it doesn't seem like anybody is listening. Nobody is listening who is in charge. Just last week, it was reported that an Afghan on the FBI Terror Watchlist has been in the United States for almost a year. He is a member of a U.S.-designated terrorist group responsible for the deaths of at least nine American soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan--nine. ICE arrested him in San Antonio just last year in February. Unfortunately, this known terrorist has been released on bond and is now roaming the neighborhoods in the United States of America. It isn't just terrorists; it is also fentanyl. We have had 100,000 people a year die in the last 3 years. The last time I looked, that is 300,000 people. It is a crime, what is going on. Law enforcement officers in Alabama tell me that they had never heard the word ``fentanyl'' until 3 years ago--not heard the word. It was heroin. It was cocaine. It was meth. Now it is almost 100 percent fentanyl, just in the last 3 years. That is a pretty good coincidence. In February this past year, Secretary Mayorkas traveled to Austria to speak to Chinese officials about counternarcotics efforts. Now, he traveled to Austria to do that. Did he discuss the flood of Chinese people coming into our country? Madam President, 22,000 Chinese illegals have come into our country just in the last 5 months. Most of these individuals are adult males. And I wonder where we get the idea that there might be a big problem coming to America soon. Yet the media tries to act like all the people who are coming here from China and all these other countries are great people. Some of them probably are, but most probably are not. They are coming here for different reasons. This is not a border crisis; it has turned into a huge invasion. It is a national security problem, and we are having it more and more each day. So I just want to say this: We have not done our duty here today. We have failed the American people. My phone rings constantly about protecting the sanctity of not just Alabama but everybody in this country from what is happening at the southern border. Nothing good is happening because of what has happened from Secretary Mayorkas to the people who have opened these borders-- again, not just southern but also our northern border. That is getting worse and worse. We failed the American people today. Why? I don't know, but we don't do our job. We had a Republican majority when I first got here 3 years ago. We brought the President of the United States on an impeachment trial, and he was a Republican. We put him on trial in this very room. This is all politics. We broke something today that has never been done in the history of this school--excuse me. I am used to getting on people when their phone is ringing in the classroom. But it has never happened before. Now, we have set a precedent, and, unfortunately, it will be a precedent probably that will be broken many times. How is this body ever going to be able to hold anybody accountable for anything that they have done wrong here in the Federal Government?

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, the House managers have officially delivered the letters of impeachment for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas to the Senate. Now is the time for every Senator to go on record. Do you think Mayorkas has done a good job at the border? Has Mayorkas fulfilled the oath he swore before this body to protect and to defend our country against all threats, foreign and domestic? Is our border secure? The answer is simple. Mayorkas has intentionally failed to do his job. Now, Senator Schumer and the globalist Democrats have the opportunity to conduct a full and a fair trial before the entire Senate and the public. Unfortunately, that is not how this is going to play out. Democrats are going to try to table the Articles of Impeachment, which has never been done in the history of the Senate. They are going to attempt to sweep the border crisis that President Biden has created under the rug. Every single House Democrat voted to save Mayorkas's job. They endorsed our wide-open borders that have allowed terrorists, drug traffickers, and murderers into our country. The Democrats are lying to themselves and risking the lives of every American. Senator Schumer and the Democrats can't say they want to fix our border while voting to save Mayorkas's job. Mayorkas has been derelict in his duty to secure the border in the 3 years he has been on the job. Our border is the least secure it has ever been. In fact, it is almost nonexistent. Our Border Patrol agents are so overwhelmed and receive such little support from the Biden administration to enforce our laws that they have been forced to release millions of illegal immigrants into the United States. And those who are released on parole, they are even given work permits. The Biden administration is more concerned with taking care of illegal aliens than they are about protecting American citizens. We might as well start mailing every criminal, drug trafficker, and terrorist an open invitation to cross our borders. I have spoken numerous times on this floor to highlight stories of Americans who have died at the hands of illegal aliens. Their tragic deaths are a direct result of Secretary Mayorkas's inaction. Mayorkas and Joe Biden have blood on their hands. The most important responsibility of any sovereign nation is the safety of its citizens. Yet what did the Department of Homeland Security announce just last week? They plan on sending another $300 million to communities receiving illegal aliens from this border crisis. The top priority of this administration is to let as many people in as quickly as possible, regardless of how many American lives are lost in the process. The number of people crossing into the United States who are on the Terrorist Watchlist is unprecedented. Just last week, it was reported that an Afghan on the FBI Terror Watchlist has been in the United States for almost a year. He is a member of a U.S.-designated terrorist group responsible for the deaths of at least nine American soldiers and civilians in Afghanistan. ICE arrested him in San Antonio just this past February. Unfortunately, this known terrorist has been released on bond. He is now roaming our neighborhoods. You know, it just isn't terrorists we have to worry about. Fentanyl is flowing freely across our borders, and it is killing hundreds of thousands of Americans--not thousands but hundreds of thousands. Law enforcement officers in my State of Alabama tell me, time and again, how their officers must wear heavy equipment and carry Narcan spray to protect themselves from the fentanyl that is pouring into our communities. And, by the way, most will tell you they never heard of fentanyl until this administration came into power. Despite the critical need to secure our borders and discourage illegal immigration, Mayorkas has been traveling the world--yes, this Mayorkas, traveling the world--lecturing other countries about their national security, while his refusal to enforce U.S. laws has exposed his own country to an invasion. It is embarrassing. In February, he traveled to Austria to speak with Chinese officials about counter-narcotic efforts. Did he discuss with them the flood of Chinese illegal immigrants coming to the United States through the southwest border? Since October of last year, 22,000 Chinese nationals have been arrested by Border Patrol agents at the southwest border and released into our country. Most of these individuals are single adult males of military age. Yet, the media tries to act like all these people crossing the border are innocent women and children. Now, some of them are, but most are not. This invasion is more than a border crisis; it is a national crisis. Yet I seriously doubt Mayorkas even brought up that point in his meeting with the Chinese officials. In February, he was in Germany for the Munich Security Conference. The Munich Security Conference is the largest international security meeting in the world. Mayorkas was there giving speeches on strengthening global security and partnerships. Meanwhile, the border he is responsible for is wide open, and thousands of people are dying. Give me a break. Our allies must be laughing at us--absolutely laughing. The Secretary's priority should be here in our country, securing our borders, protecting our citizens. President Biden has made the United States a joke around the world. Under this administration, nearly 10 million people have invaded our country. Every State is now a border State--every State. This is not a gray area. Secretary Mayorkas has intentionally failed to do his job. He has personally lied to me to my face three times in the last 3 years--a U.S. Senator. Just tell me the truth. He can't say the truth. He can't tell you the truth. To my Democratic colleagues, have you read the heartbreaking stories of innocent Americans who have been murdered by illegal aliens? Are you concerned? Are you concerned about the safety of your spouses, your kids, your nieces and nephews? Does it worry you that hundreds of terrorists are flooding our country? Does that bother you at all? Do you know somebody who has died of fentanyl which was trafficked into our country by cartels? This isn't about politics, folks. Our national security and our country's future are at stake. Americans deserve to know the truth about how Secretary Mayorkas has intentionally failed to secure the border. I will be voting to hold Mayorkas accountable. I yield the floor.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and globalist Democrats have been derelict in their duty to secure the border under President Joe Biden--I repeat: derelict in their duty. Our border is the least secure it has been in the history of our country. In fact, it is almost nonexistent. At least 9 million illegal immigrants have entered our country since the beginning of this administration. Our Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed and receive such little support from the Biden administration to enforce our laws that they have been forced to release millions of illegal immigrants into the United States. Those who are released on parole are given work permits. Tell me this: How does handing out work permits discourage illegal immigration? It doesn't. How do these actions secure the border? They don't. We might as well start mailing every criminal, drug trafficker, and terrorist an open invitation to invade our country. I have spoken numerous times on the floor to highlight stories of Americans dying at the hands of illegal aliens: 12-year-old Travis Wolfe of Missouri, 22-year-old Laken Riley of Georgia, Washington State Trooper Chris Gadd. The tragic deaths are a direct result of Secretary Mayorkas's inaction. How many more Americans have to die before the globalist Democratic Party takes meaningful action to secure the border? This madness must end. Americans deserve to be safe from the drug traffickers, terrorists, and murderers who are flooding into our country. The number of people crossing into the United States who are on the Terrorist Watchlist is unprecedented. Fentanyl flows freely across our borders and is killing more and more Americans every day. Law enforcement officers in Alabama tell me time and time again that their officers must wear heavy equipment and carry Narcan spray to protect themselves from the fentanyl that is pouring into our communities. Three years ago, they had never heard the word ``fentanyl,'' says our police chief in the city of Montgomery. The cartels are trafficking professionals. They are managing the human and drug trafficking at our border. This is a billion-dollar industry that the Biden administration is turning its back on and allowing. Secretary Mayorkas has completely--completely, 110 percent--refused to do his job. He swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Can any one of us seriously say that Secretary Mayorkas has upheld his oath of office? Progressive Democrats are wanting to try to table the Articles of Impeachment and sweep Biden's border bloodbath under the rug. Every House Democrat already voted. They have already voted to save Mayorkas's job. Globalist Democrats are lying to themselves and risking the lives of American citizens. Senator Schumer and the progressive Democrats can't say they want to fix our border while voting to save Secretary Mayorkas's job. Despite the critical need to secure our borders and discourage illegal immigration, Secretary Mayorkas travels the world discussing national security with our strategic partners while his own country is being invaded. It is embarrassing. Last month, Secretary Mayorkas was in Guatemala discussing migration flows from South America to the United States. Have these folks done anything to stop the border invasion from their countries? They have done absolutely nothing. In February, Mayorkas traveled to Austria to speak with Chinese officials about counternarcotic efforts. Did he discuss with them the flood of Chinese illegal immigrants coming to the United States through the southwest border? Madam President, 22,000 Chinese nationals have been arrested by Border Patrol agents at the southwest border since October and released into our country. Most of these individuals are single adult males of military age. Yet the media tries to act like all these people who cross the border are nice people, nice women and children. Some of them are, but most are not. This invasion is more than a border crisis; it is a national security crisis. Yet I seriously doubt that Secretary Mayorkas even brought that up in his meeting with the Chinese officials a few months ago. In February, Secretary Mayorkas was in Germany for the Munich Security Conference. The Munich Security Conference is the largest international security meeting in the world. Secretary Mayorkas was there giving speeches on strengthening global security and partnership. Americans are dying--dying--from our dangerous open borders, and he is talking about other borders across the world. The Secretary responsible for securing our borders is collecting passport stamps while lecturing other countries on their national security. Our allies must be laughing at us. The Secretary's priority should be here, securing our borders, not somebody else's, and protecting our citizens, not somebody else's. President Biden has made the United States a joke on the world stage--an absolute joke. We need to get our house in order. We are in trouble. So far, there has been only talk as far as border security is concerned for the last 3 years. Now is the time for every Senator to go on the record. If you are at all concerned about the drugs and criminals flooding into our country and moving to your State, you will vote for a full and fair trial. This is not a gray area. Secretary Mayorkas has intentionally--intentionally--failed to do his job. It is time that the Senate take action. The families of Laken Riley, Travis Wolfe, Trooper Gadd, and countless others deserve--they deserve a fair trial. I will be voting to hold Secretary Mayorkas accountable, and I ask my colleagues to do the same. I yield the floor.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, in a time when we are facing shortages in the trucking industry, Alabama's veterans are helping fill this vital need in our economy. One such veteran is Scott Croisant of Florence. Scott joined the U.S. Marine Corps in 1982, after graduating from Wilson High School. While in the Marines, he trained to become a truck driver. Scott deployed twice to Lebanon, following the 1983 Beirut bombings. There, he helped transport food, water, and ammunition in combat zones. He was also part of Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada. After completing his time in the military, Scott served in law enforcement before entering the trucking industry. And for more than 24 years, he has driven a truck for Greenbush Logistics in Abbeville, out of its Tuscumbia location. Scott spends many, many early mornings and late nights on the road, to keep our supply chains moving. He is committed to ensuring folks across the southeast get the building materials that they need on time. Scott has an incredible record of more than 2 million accident-free miles. Travis Williams, the director of Logistics for Greenbush, says that Scott ``epitomizes the essence of a professional driver. His unwavering dedication, skill, and attention to detail make him a role model for all drivers.'' Scott is also a trusted mentor for upcoming truckers. He has helped train nearly 100 new truck drivers. Alabama is thankful for Scott's service to our country, and his tireless efforts to keep America's economy moving. It is my honor to recognize him as the April Veteran of the Month.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. I move to concur in the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 2882 with a further amendment No. 1781.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I still can't believe we are having serious conversations about men competing in women's sports. We have lost our minds. I know many of you have daughters, nieces, and granddaughters who play sports. My amendment would protect the integrity of women and girls in sports and protect them and sports itself, because women and girls are being discriminated against. I am here to fight for the future of women's and girls' sports, for the safety of their locker rooms and showers. The Biden Department of Education is doing exactly the opposite. My amendment is simple. A school should protect women in sports and ensure that only biological women can compete against each other. An educational institution should not be able to use Federal funds to implement a radical agenda and facilitate biological males competing in women sports. It is time to draw the line in the sand. Women are being attacked, not just on the court, in the pool, but in the dressing room. It is time to show what side you are on. So when you vote, I hope you take a look in the camera and smile, and go home and explain your vote to the daughters and granddaughters and young women in your families.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, here we go again. I cannot believe I am here today on the Senate floor talking about Americans dying at the hands of illegal aliens. I said I would do this every week and give an update on the young people and people of our country who are dying at the hands of illegal aliens--specifically young people. Our kids are dying because of Joe Biden's immigration policies. I was on the floor last week talking about the death of Laken Riley, a young woman who was running around the University of Georgia, minding her own business, when she was abducted and brutally beaten-- unrecognizable--by an illegal alien from Venezuela. Just a week ago, I came to the floor to talk about the death of Washington State Trooper Chris Gadd. He was on duty at a DUI checkpoint when Raul Benitez Santana, an illegal alien from Mexico, drunk behind the wheel, crashed into Trooper Gadd's police cruiser. Trooper Gadd was 27 years old. There are so many other young people who need and deserve to be recognized and remembered, so many sad examples of the deadly impact this administration's open border policies have had in this country. It is a shame. In December, Travis Wolfe, a 12-year-old boy from Missouri, was riding with his parents when their car was struck head-on by another vehicle driving down the wrong side of the road, 70 miles per hour--the wrong side of the road, 70 miles per hour. Court documents reveal that the driver of the other car that crashed into Travis Wolfe was an illegal alien from Venezuela. Twelve-year-old Travis spent the last 3 months on life support. He died on March 6. His family hasn't received an apology from Joe Biden. They are not going to get an apology from Secretary Mayorkas. They just buried their 12-year-old son. Do my colleagues care? Do they care? Last August in Ohio, a minivan driven by Hermanio Joseph, an illegal alien from Haiti, collided with a bus that was carrying 52 kids and was headed to school for the very first day. Although he was from Haiti, Joseph illegally entered the country through the southern border. Twenty-six kids were hospitalized--26. One child, 11-year-old Aiden Clark, was ejected from the bus and pronounced dead at the scene. In Aiden's obituary, his family wrote that he loved daily vegetable gardening with his dad, trampoline jumping with his sister, and snuggling with his mom. Eleven years old. Aiden's life was taken far too soon. Travis Wolfe will not get to grow up. Trooper Gadd had a wife and a 2-year-old daughter. His daughter will never see her father again. Laken Riley will never become a nurse. She will never hang out with her friends again or celebrate a victory at the University of Georgia with friends and family. Losing a child is a parent's worst nightmare. We can't possibly imagine what their families are going through, but we can work to prevent more deaths from occurring. We know what needs to be done. People in this body know what needs to be done. People on the other end of the building in the House know what needs to be done. People in the White House know what needs to be done to protect these lives. President Biden can use the authorities given to him by Congress to secure the border. He can do that. He doesn't need more laws; he can use the laws that have already been written. He can finish the border wall, which he stopped and now is selling all the materials that are at the border to build this wall, that the American taxpayers have paid for--they are selling it for 10 cents on the dollar. You can't make this up. He can stop exploiting the Department of Homeland Security's parole authority by letting in millions of people without screening or processing. President Biden can stop supporting sanctuary cities where law enforcement officers are blocked from working with Federal officers to get criminal aliens off the streets and out of our communities. President Biden can bring back order to our country. We are losing it daily. He can do all these things right now. He doesn't need another law. The laws are there--just go for the laws. He himself suspended the border wall. He authorized Homeland Security to continue paroling people without consequences. He and his blue State supporters set up shelters in the middle of cities and suburbs to house illegal aliens indefinitely, costing you, the American citizens and taxpayers, billions of dollars, when we have homeless and veterans on the streets not being taken care of. Hospitals, schools, and other community resources have been depleted--depleted--by being forced to provide for both U.S. citizens and the millions of illegal aliens crossing the border. U.S. citizens are paying for all of this, not the Biden administration--the U.S. citizens. It is their right. It is embarrassing. Our country's leadership must be reminded of their greatest responsibility: the safety and security of Americans. No. 1 responsibility. This administration could care less. Let's look at a recent example of a country's prioritizing safety for its citizens. What has the Dominican Republic been doing in response to gang violence and unrest in Haiti because Haitians are coming to the Dominican Republic? What are they doing? They secured their border. The Biden administration established a parole program specifically for Haitians. Our immigration policy priorities are completely misaligned and totally opposite of what they are doing in the Dominican Republic. With our duty to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, they are letting our guard down. So States are taking matters into their own hands. Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled that a new Texas law, which allows State and local law enforcement to arrest and detain and deport illegal aliens, could go into effect while under review at the lower court level, but late last night, the Fifth Circuit Court again blocked enforcement of the new Texas law ahead of oral arguments. This is a crime. The Supreme Court has spoken. While the Biden administration won't arrest, detain, or deport illegal aliens, Texas would have been doing so. It is shameful that a State had to take matters into their own hands like this. It is embarrassing that President Biden's Department of Homeland Security sued Texas for implementing immigration laws which they should have been implementing themselves. But they have a different agenda. They want more people in this country to vote for this administration. Americans are being killed by illegal aliens, and the President simply cannot be bothered. The blood of Laken Riley, Trooper Gadd, Travis Wolfe, Aiden Clark, and so many other Americans is on his hands--the blood of Laken Riley, Trooper Gadd, Travis Wolfe, and so many others. They won't be forgotten. Democrats say their open border policies are motivated by compassion: We have compassion for people coming into this country. Whose compassion? Democrats have plenty of compassion for illegals. What about American citizens? taxpayers? the young people in this country who are dying at the hands of these illegal aliens that should not be here but only are here because of this administration? They don't seem to have compassion for victims of crime. Joe Biden, last week, apologized that he called an illegal alien ``illegal'' in the State of the Union Address. That sets the scene for everything. They couldn't care less about the American citizen. They care more about people from other countries. This is madness. This madness must end. We can't wait until an election. We can't let 4 or 5 million more people in. We can't let hundreds of people die at the hands of these illegal aliens. Our children's lives are at stake, and our country is at stake. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, later this evening, we are going to hear the President of the United States tout the successes of his administration over the last year. He will say that our country is in a better place because of his leadership. Are you ready? Are you looking forward to hearing how grocery costs, energy costs, and the gas prices have all gone down over the last year? Maybe you are eager to hear about Joe Biden's solution to the historic border crisis--one which he created, by the way--that has crushed our rural hospitals, our schools, and other public resources. So let me save you some time. Here is how President Biden's speech is going to go. The economy has never, ever been better. This is a lie. Grocery prices are up 21 percent; gas prices are up 32 percent; inflation is up 18 percent; credit card debt for the average American is at an all-time high. Do those numbers sound like the economy is better than ever? Well, I don't think so. He will say America has never been safer. This is a lie. Cities across the country are experiencing surges of homicides, muggings, and carjackings. New York City just deployed the National Guard to combat subway crime. Let me read that one more time. New York City just deployed the National Guard to combat subway crime. I never thought I would see it. This is obviously a Democratic city. Washington, DC--right here, our Nation's Capital--saw, last year, its deadliest year in almost two decades. That doesn't sound like this administration and its Democratic allies have prioritized the safety and security of Americans, which, by the way, is any--any--administration's top responsibility. Joe Biden will turn to Ukraine next and say that, by continuing to send billions of dollars to secure their border, we will protect our country--billions more dollars. Yet that is another lie. We have already spent and sent over to Ukraine $120 billion, only to watch their war descend into a yearslong stalemate, with hundreds of thousands of people killed and no end in sight. We are $34 trillion in debt and borrowing an additional $80,000 per second. You heard me right. We are borrowing $80,000 per second. That is $4.6 million a minute. We are increasing the debt at a rate of $2.5 trillion per year. Our munitions are depleted because the President has continued to give it away to other countries. We are defenseless; we are broke; and we have little to show for it. Our streets should be made of gold. We should have fast trains across the country. Our airports should be immaculate. We have nothing to show for a $34 trillion debt. President Biden will also say the border crisis should have been solved with the Biden-Schumer border deal and complain that Republicans blocked the bill from moving forward. I was looking forward to this bill, but, surprisingly, this is another lie. The Biden-Schumer border deal was a border giveaway. The bill did not stop the administration from paroling thousands of people per day into our country. To me, that was what a border bill was supposed to be about. The bill did not authorize funding to complete the border wall. It is simple: Put up a wall. We just put one outside the Capitol here today to keep the mean people from coming to this speech tonight. The bill will not stop funding sanctuary cities where criminal aliens are protected from deportations. The President will claim he has done everything he can do to secure the border but that Republicans have tied his hands. That is what he will say. To clarify, the President of the United States will claim, at the end of the night, he cannot secure the Nation's border. How embarrassing. What a shameless dereliction of duty and a bold-faced lie. He thinks that Americans are either too stupid to see what is going on here or he might think they just don't care, but I think they do. He is wrong on both counts. Tuesday's primary race results proved just how wrong he is. When I last spoke on the floor 1 week ago, I said I would be back the next time an American was killed by an illegal alien. Well, here I am, and it is far too soon. This past weekend, 27-year-old Washington State Patrol Trooper Christopher Gadd was killed by an illegal alien. This is he right here. Raul Benitez Santana--a Mexican citizen, drunk and high behind the wheel--crashed his car into Trooper Gadd and killed him. Trooper Gadd was a husband, a father, a brother, and a son. Benitez Santana has been arrested multiple times before since he has been in the United States illegally--illegally--over the last 10 years, and this man lay dead today because of that. He has been charged several times for driving with a suspended license in addition to possession of marijuana and domestic abuse. He should have been deported long ago, but he wasn't. Now Trooper Gadd is dead. Does anybody care other than his family? Sadly, Marysville, WA, where the crash occurred, is a sanctuary jurisdiction. I still haven't figured that out. You know, I have spoken about sanctuary jurisdictions before. They are cities, counties, and States where locally elected officials prohibit police from cooperating with Federal law enforcement officers to get criminal aliens out of our communities and into removal proceedings to be deported, but if you are in one of these sanctuary cities, that doesn't happen. This tragic event is but one in a pattern of occurrences happening across our country in which the lives of U.S. citizens are put at risk because of Joe Biden's refusal--absolute refusal--to secure the border. So, earlier today, the House of Representatives voted on the Laken Riley Act. We talked about her a couple of weeks ago here, right on this floor--a young lady who was killed by an illegal alien at the University of Georgia. The Laken Riley Act would mandate the detention of illegal aliens charged with crimes as small as shoplifting. That is exactly what Laken Riley's killer had been arrested for previously. By the way, he had also been arrested for endangering a minor before he was charged with Laken Riley's murder. This bill today that was voted on in the House-- 170 Democrats voted against this bill. The blame for the state of this country rests solely with President Biden. He is the boss; he is the leader--period. Does he care about you? Does he care about you as a taxpayer and a citizen of this country? He doesn't show it. Does he care about your family? Does he care about keeping them safe or is it just by luck that nothing happens to you? I don't think he does. Will he protect you? I don't think so. He hasn't shown that. He didn't protect Laken Riley or Trooper Gadd here. I am sure he won't talk about Laken or Trooper Gadd in his speech tonight, but he should. Their names should come up. Their families are grieving. It is just unfortunate that he doesn't take the leadership role and the blame. These two Americans don't support his narrative of a successful Presidency. He is going to say he has had a successful first 3 years and his last year was successful, but we have lost a lot of people because of the decisions that he has made at the border, and there have been many, not just these two. One is too many. I don't know how many people will support this talk tonight. I am anxious to hear it. I am anxious to hear what his writers got together and said about our country and what has happened over the last year and what he foresees in the future. It had to be hard. Unless drastic changes are made to our Nation's leadership in the very near future, I think the American citizens are going to be on their own. It is just going to be by luck whether you are going to make it or not make it. I am not talking about just financially. I am talking about life or death, because we are losing people almost daily. So, on that, I am looking forward to hearing President Biden's speech tonight. I hope the American people will listen in--listen in hard--on what is going on, because this is our country, and our country is in trouble. I hope to God that we make the right decisions come this November. God bless. I yield the floor.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, every single day, our veterans use the skills and discipline they learned in uniform to build up our country. Countless veterans pass on these lessons to others. Colonel Earle Thompson, from Lake Martin, is one such example. Colonel Thompson began his military service by signing up for the U.S. Army after graduating from Carroll High School in Ozark. This was the start of an accomplished 36-year-military career. Earle went on to get his bachelor's degree from the University of South Alabama. He balanced being a fulltime student while serving in the Alabama National Guard. After college, he transitioned to the Air Force, where he would serve 28 years across the globe, including combat sorties in Panama and Operation Desert Storm. He took full advantage of the training we have to offer right here in Alabama, particularly at Maxwell Air Force Base. There, he went through Squadron Officer's School, Air Command and Staff College, and Air War College. Since retirement, Earle has been doing his part to help students make the most of Alabama's resources for successful careers. For the last 13 years, he has been using his military experience to lead aviation training at Auburn University. He serves as the deputy director for Defense Research Programs, where he teaches air traffic control and aerodynamics. His work helps address the shortage of both commercial and military pilots in the U.S. Additionally, Earle serves as the chair of the Auburn University Regional Airport Safety Committee. He is also actively involved in Opelika First Baptist Church, where he sings in the choir. Earle spent 36 years protecting our Nation, and now, he is raising up the next generation of pilots who will help Alabama soar to new heights. It is my honor to recognize Colonel Earle Thompson as the March Veteran of the Month.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that Jacob Walker, an intern in my office, be granted floor privileges until March 1, 2024.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President: I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. That is the oath that we all take once we become Senators of the United States. Just imagine that you are Allyson and John Phillips. Last Thursday afternoon, you get a phone call from law enforcement in Athens, GA. The voice on the other end of the phone says that your daughter has been murdered by an illegal immigrant. I cannot imagine what that feels like. I cannot even begin to understand the shock and sadness and anger. Laken Riley was a nursing student at Augusta, GA, this past year. On Wednesday morning, she went out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia. She never came back. Police found her body in the woods a few hours later around noontime. She was covered with blood and injuries from head to toe. An autopsy found that she died of blunt force trauma to the head. The charging documents in this case say that her skull was disfigured. This was a brutal murder of an innocent young woman. Laken Riley was just 22 years old. She had her whole life ahead of her. She had a bright future. Now that future will never be realized. You know, I spent 40 years of my life on college campuses. I have dedicated my life to coaching young adults, but I wasn't just a coach; I was also a mentor. There is nothing more heartbreaking than losing a promising young person like Laken Riley, and I want to offer my condolences to the Riley family. Our No. 1 commodity in this country is our young people. Laken's death is even more heartbreaking because it could have been prevented and should have been prevented. On Friday night, police arrested and charged Jose Antonio Ibarra with malice murder, felony murder, aggravated battery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, kidnapping, and hindering a 911 call. Jose Ibarra is an illegal immigrant from Venezuela. In other words, he should never have been in this country in the first place. This brutal and horrific murder would have been prevented if Joe Biden and Democrats had done their job by enforcing the law. Jose Ibarra crossed the southern border in El Paso in September of 2022, a year and a half ago. He was paroled into our country, and I will talk about parole here in just a minute. His social media accounts show that he went from El Paso to New York City. New York is a sanctuary State and city. That means that illegals who commit crimes will not be turned over to the immigration police when their jail time is up. This is an open invitation by New York City to criminals. We have a lot of these sanctuary cities in our country today. According to ICE immigration police, he was arrested just 5 months ago in New York, charged with acting in a manner to injure a child and for driving without a license. Specifically, he was arrested for allegedly endangering a 5-year-old child, 5 months ago. Athens police called the murder of Laken Riley a crime of opportunity. In other words, this was, essentially, a random act of violence. It could have been anyone's daughter. She did absolutely nothing wrong. So my question is: Where are Georgia's Senators today? What are Georgia Senators doing to secure the border, to protect more people like Laken Riley? Where is their outrage? Soon, the Senate will hold a trial on articles of impeachment against Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas, the guy that is in charge of our border. Georgia Senators, how are they going to vote when the trial comes up? Are they going to vote for Secretary Mayorkas since he has been impeached in the House? Because he is the one that let this killer in. Are Senators from border States like California and Arizona going to save Mayorkas' job, the job that he has refused to do for the last 3\1/ 2\ years? We will find out and find out soon. In the House, every single Democrat fell in line and voted--and voted to save Mayorkas' job just a few weeks ago, every single Democrat--and the guy hasn't done his job in 3\1/2\ years. Every single House Democrat endorsed the job that Secretary Mayorkas is doing; that includes five Democrats from the State of Georgia where Laken Riley was killed. In a separate vote, 150 House Democrats voted against deporting illegals who had been convicted of drunk driving. Mr. President, 150, all Democrats, voted against deporting illegals if they got caught drunk driving. That includes all five of Georgia's Democrats in the House. This is today's Democrat Party, and I go back to the oath that we all took to protect domestic and foreign, to protect. Are Senate Democrats going to put their political careers on the line by continuing to support the least popular President in modern history, who has not done his job at the border? We will soon find out. Or are they going to stand beside somebody who has broken the law? If Laken Riley were my daughter--if Laken Riley were my daughter, Secretary Mayorkas would have a lot more to worry about than a pending impeachment trial. He would need to go into hiding. It is embarrassing to this country of how these people are holding people accountable under the law. I would do everything in my power to ensure he never forgot her name and that his inaction led to her death. Blood is on his hands. I cannot possibly understand what this family is going through today. But for open borders--all the open-border crowd--she is just collateral damage, just somebody else that has been murdered. It won't be talked about again. Don't worry about it. All we care about is votes. All we care about is power. To Democrats in this administration, Laken Riley is just another sacrifice on the altar of woke ideology. The blame for this crime lies with this administration and with the Democratic Senate majority. Democrats run Washington right now. The buck stops with them. They uphold the laws. Democrats could have stopped this if they would have secured the border, if they had done their job. But they have utterly refused for the last 3\1/2\ years. In fact, this administration has done exactly the opposite. This is globalism. This is putting the interest of other countries ahead of our own country, our own people, our own citizens. Joe Biden has effectively erased our southern border--we don't have a border--and has invited the world in with no oversight or plan to figure out who is here and why. I have been talking about this issue since I was elected to office 3 years ago. Nearly every American--excuse me. Nearly every Republican has been talking about it in both the House and the Senate. I haven't seen Georgia Senators down here on the floor sounding the alarm on the southern border, not one time in the last 3\1/2\ years. I haven't seen California Senators giving speeches about the border and why is it open, because they are being overrun. I haven't seen Arizona Senators down here giving speeches on the border: You have got to help us. Let's close the border. I haven't seen that. I am not sure I have seen one Democratic Senator on this floor in the last 3\1/2\ years talking about the open borders that we have--not one. This is the biggest problem facing our country by far. President Biden says it is climate change. You have got to be kidding me. Democrats don't want to talk about this. Republicans have tried to fix the problem. I introduced the Border Safety and Security Act, which would close the border until the Federal Government regained control of operations along the southern border. I have sponsored legislation like H.R. 2, which is the best border security bill that we have had. I have offered more than 50 border amendments to the recently passed national security supplemental bill--any one of them which would have helped fix the border crisis. Democrats have blocked me and the Republicans at every turn. They are the majority of the Senate, and they control the floor. I understand that. A few week ago, we almost took up a so-called border bill from Senator Schumer and Senator Murphy. They worked on it for months. For months, they worked on it--embarrassing. It was more of a border giveaway--a border giveaway--than a border bill. This would have not stopped the deaths of these young people. It would not have stopped and prevented the death of Laken Riley. Unbelievably, the senior Senator from California actually opposed it for being too conservative. The people of California are suffering because of a wide-open border, just like all the people across our country. I will just mention a few, starting in California. Last May, an illegal alien named Carlos Dominguez stabbed three people in Davis, CA. Two of them died, David Breaux and a student named Karim Najm. A third person was stabbed but survived, named Kimberlee Guillory. The alleged attacker in this case, Carlos Dominguez, came here in 2009 as an unaccompanied minor. He just had his first preliminary hearing in court this past week. Where is the outrage from the California Senators about the death and the stabbings of these people? Let's talk about Arizona. Last year a young man named Harly Sellers was killed by a drunk driver in Fountain Hills, AZ. The alleged drunk driver who killed him is named Hilario Ortiz Cruz. He is an illegal alien who had previously been deported in 2013. It is a felony to reenter this country after being deported. A lot of people don't realize that, but it is. We don't go by many laws anyway. Harly Sellers was 29 years old. He was engaged to be married in just 2 months. That wedding will never happen. Harly Sellers left behind two young children, including a 1-year-old baby named Carter. Carter will never know his dad. This was a crime that could have and should have been prevented. Where are the Senators from Arizona? Where is their outrage? The silence is deafening. Part of the blame for this crime falls on this city, here in Washington, DC. This city should be blamed because we make the laws, and we push the laws. Just a couple of weeks ago in Texas, a 16-year-old girl named Lizbeth Medina was killed in her own bedroom--just a couple of weeks ago. A grand jury has now charged an illegal alien in the case. He is charged with breaking into the home and then beating her to death and stabbing her. This is happening all across our border. But it is not just limited to the border. Every State in our country now is a border State. Just last night, people arrested and charged an illegal alien just a few miles from this building--just a few miles. It is about a 30-minute drive from the U.S. Senate. Police allege that an illegal alien named Nilson Granados-Trejo was among a group of gang members who shot at another group of gang members. Police say it was all about a drug dispute. Caught in the middle of the crossfire was a mom and her 2-year-old son. That 2-year-old, Jeremy, has died. He didn't have a say about the border. Nilson Granados has previously been arrested twice for alleged theft. The guy that shot this kid right here, twice has been arrested. He was subject to a deportation order from a judge in New Jersey, but he was released from custody several times, even though immigration police filed a detainer. He was never sent back. Nilson Granados should not and should have not been in this country. He should have never been here in the first place. He should have been deported when he was caught the first and second time. Like the judge says, this crime could have and should have been prevented. But it was not prevented because of Joe Biden's open border. Just this week, an illegal alien was arrested in Louisiana for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl. He also allegedly stabbed someone in the face during an armed robbery a few weeks before. A month ago, an illegal alien pled guilty in court to stabbing a man to death in Bozeman, MT, in 2022. Just yesterday, in my home State of Alabama, in Albertville, police arrested two illegal aliens for alleged child exploitation. This goes on and on and on. I could have been up here all day. Americans are dying due to our open borders at the southern and northern borders, and they are dying every single day. Who cares? We are worried about a budget here. We are worried about sending $60 billion to Ukraine. We are not worried about the citizens of the United States. People are going to wake up, and when they do, there is going to be a huge change around here, and I hope it happens. Americans are dying due to open borders every single day when it comes to drugs, and 100,000 Americans die every year because of drug overdose. You would think that would be something that people would talk about. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. That is 300 Americans a day dying from fentanyl--300 a day. That is like a commercial airliner crashing every day. Nobody cares. This building doesn't care. Everybody is worried about their next election, getting reelected. That is our problem here. They don't do what is right. The DEA tells us drugs that were brought here over our southern border are absolutely destroying the young people in this country. So Joe Biden, our President, is going to the southern border tomorrow-- hallelujah. This will be only--I want you to think about this. This is a guy who has been up here for 50 years. Now, I don't know why. I don't know why anyone would want to be up here 50 years to watch what goes on here. He has been up here 50 years as Senator, Vice President, and President. This is only the second time he has been to the border. And he asked why we don't have border policies. Well, hell, man, you have been here forever. What did you do while you were in office? He did zero. His first time ever at the border was last January, after 50 years in politics. And he is trying to run for reelection again. Good luck. He went to El Paso. Border Patrol cleared the streets of all illegal camps and immigrants. There was nobody there. He didn't talk to any illegal immigrants. He didn't go to the Border Patrol station. He just took his picture, walked around with his sunglasses on, had a relaxing day, not worrying about the border, not worrying about what is coming across the border. He just went down there to have his picture taken. Now, the media says he is going to Brownsville, TX, tomorrow to get his picture taken. He is going to Brownsville, TX. Yesterday, 12 illegals come across at the border there. You know we have got another President, former President Trump. He is also going to the border tomorrow. He has been down there many times. He is going to Eagle Pass, TX. Yesterday, there were over 500 that came across the border there. No matter what you think about President Trump, he actually cares. One of Joe Biden's Executive orders was to let asylum officers give out asylum at the border without ever going to a judge. In other words, when you come to this country, you are supposed to be given a time and a day to go see a judge to see whether you get to stay here or not. But, in the last 3\1/2\ years, we have been giving asylum at the border, giving a piece of paper which has a destination that you are going to; put on an airplane and flown somewhere across the country, and finding out what you can do to make a living and where you can go. I know. I was on a plane not too long ago with a planeload from McAllen, TX, of illegals that were put on there, on this plane, going to cities all over the country. I was on there with them. I am watching them come on. I am thinking: You know, it took me 45 minutes to go through TSA. I got patted down. All my stuff was scanned and didn't have anything on. They brought them up straight to the plane, opened up the door, and let them get on. It was absolutely amazing. Why do we need TSA? That is another point. Meanwhile, as we are giving out all this asylum, Joe Biden has taken 94 Executive actions against immigration enforcement since he has been in office. In other words, 94 times he says: OK, we don't need this at the border. That is my law. That stands. We don't need this one--94 times. Meanwhile, he said we can't do anything to fix the border. If you want to fix the border, Mr. President, just take those 94 Executive actions and put them back somewhere on the shelf, and let law enforcement do their job. One of these Executive actions was the abuse of the parole system, and I said I was going to say something about this. (Ms. CORTEZ MASTO assumed the Chair.) That is how Jose Ibarra, who killed Laken Riley, got into this country. Joe Biden paroled him into the country, meaning he was arrested when he got to the border by Homeland Security and then released. Federal laws say that parole is supposed to be used only on a case- by-case basis. Why are you here? Why do you need to come here? Full information given by the immigrant and should be on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons. That is the reason you are here. They just wave him on through. That is not what Joe Biden is doing. He is not looking into the backgrounds of these people. They are just coming right through the front door, laughing at us--we have seen the pictures at the border-- and going on. Joe Biden is paroling massive numbers of people into this country. We better wake up. This is illegal, but Joe Biden is doing it anyway. And now Laken Riley is dead. People will forget about her, except for her parents and her friends. I mean, we will go on to some other tragedy down the road. But we had better wake up. We had better wake up. We need to bring back the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. We have to bring it back. We do not need more asylum officers. Joe Biden has just turned our Border Patrol and our asylum officers into Walmart greeters at the border. Again, I have been down there several times, and these people need help. He is going to go there tomorrow and say: Oh, we need a lot more help down here, more secretaries. We don't need law enforcement. We don't need any more Walmart greeters. We need a wall. We need to bring back the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy, as I said a few minutes ago. We need to go back to the policies of President Trump. President Trump's policies worked, and the reason Joe Biden changed them is because he wanted to do exactly opposite of what Trump was doing. He didn't want to give him any credit. Joe Biden has the exact same laws on the books that President Trump had, but the difference is day and night. Laken Riley's death and the death of every other American caused by this border crisis rests with President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas. I hope they can't sleep at night, because this could have been prevented. We need to go back to the policies that work, stop playing these dang games, and stop playing politics. Otherwise, this will keep happening. We are here, and we took an oath of office to say we are going to watch over the citizens of this country. If we don't do something, more Americans will die, more Americans like Laken Riley. More parents will be forever scarred for what happened last week. We have to do something. We can't forget about this. Every time we have somebody who has lost their life in this country because of an illegal alien, I am coming back up here and I am going to rub it in the faces of the Democratic Party, Secretary Mayorkas, Senator Schumer, and Joe Biden. It is 100 percent their fault. With that, I yield the floor.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, reclaiming my time, I come to the floor to sound the alarm, as a lot of my colleagues are, about the crisis at the southern border. I have been here over 3 years, and I have never seen this group try to do more for people out of our country than within our country. It is amazing. But this is the worst border crisis in our history. Since Joe Biden took office, there have been at least 8 million illegal crossings at our southern border--that we know of. This is in addition to the 2 million ``got-aways.'' These are the illegals that we know of. The real number is probably much, much higher. Border crossings are at a record high. Deportations are at a record low. Why is this happening? You know, it didn't come out of the blue. This is a policy choice by President Biden and his allies here in Congress. We have been talking about this now for 3 years, asking why; and we have not gotten one good answer yet. Why is our border open? Joe Biden campaigned on opening up our borders. He campaigned on giving free healthcare to illegal aliens. So it is no surprise that he is keeping his promise. Since taking office, President Biden has taken 94 Executive actions related to immigration--94. We have the same laws on the books as we did when President Trump was in office, but President Trump secured the border. Joe Biden has opened our border more than it ever has been in the history of this country. Let's take a look at just a few of these Executive actions. First, President Biden stopped building the wall. In fact, he has been selling all parts of the wall for pennies on the dollar. I know people in Alabama who have bought stacks of steel that the American taxpayers paid in lots--$300,000 for these certain lots; $300,000 of American taxpayer money. These people now can go online at an auction and buy these lots for 10 cents on the dollar. I know people who have bought $300,000 lots for $30,000, just throwing taxpayer money down the drain. The same thing with razor wire, same thing for other parts of the wall that are being sold. They are just, basically, being given away. So we have been selling parts. President Biden--nobody told him to do it. He did it on his own. He chose to do it. President Biden got rid of President Trump's ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. That was the most effective policy we have seen in discouraging the abuse of our asylum system in years. I have been down the border several times. Border Patrol has told me time and time again: Finish the wall. That is the best thing we can do here. It won't stop it, but it will give us an opportunity to police the wall, make them come in through certain sections of the wall, and allow us to have some kind of border security. President Biden is currently suing the State of Texas to get them to stop securing the border. Let's think about that for a second. The President of the United States is suing a border State for stopping illegal immigrants from coming into our country. That doesn't sound quite right. I am proud that my State of Alabama has sent Texas hundreds of National Guardsmen to help them police Texas' borders. Unfortunately, President Biden is trying to stop them from doing that. As I mentioned, Joe Biden has essentially stopped all deportations right now--completely stopped it. He is not letting ICE do their job, immigration police. All these policies have led to this unprecedented crisis. They have also sent a message to the world: If you can get here, you can get in, and you will never, never have to leave. That message has been heard around the world loud and clear. There are 193 countries around the world, and we know of 190 countries that have been accounted for coming across our southern borders. Illegal aliens have literally crossed our border wearing Joe Biden T-shirts. I would imagine the American taxpayers somehow paid for those. TV reporters have asked people coming across our borders why they came across. Time and time again, they say because President Biden invited them. That is on television. FOX News recorded one illegal in Tucson saying, ``I love you, Joe Biden. Thank you for everything.'' That migrant was not from Mexico. He was from Africa. People are coming from every corner of the globe. People are flying to Mexico and then walking across our border. The whole world knows that our border is open. These illegal aliens are criminals, drug traffickers. Just last year, nearly 500 people on the Terror Watchlist were caught trying to cross our border--500. You would think that would open somebody's eyes. You would think it would go all the way up Pennsylvania Avenue, but nobody seems to care. Just a few weeks ago, Christopher Wray, the FBI Director, said something bad is going to happen. This is Christopher Wray, the guy that runs our FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, said something is going to happen. He seemed like in his voice, he was begging somebody to do something. Nobody has. But just imagine, if 500 have been caught, how many more terrorists have come across the border unchecked. It doesn't take many; it only takes a few--9/11 was committed by 19 foreigners here on visas--19. It only takes a small group to do terrible, terrible damage. But Americans are already dying because of the border crisis. We all know that. We are here to protect American citizens, but we are losing. We are losing that battle. More than 300,000 Americans--300,000 Americans--have died from drug overdoses since Joe Biden took office--300,000. I met with a police chief of Montgomery, AL, not too long ago. He said: Coach, I had never heard the word ``fentanyl'' until 2 years ago; and now, it is 95 percent of what we have on our streets here in Montgomery, AL, killing young people. That is roughly half of the Americans killed in the Civil War--300,000. And that was the deadliest war in American history. The Governor of Oregon recently declared a state of emergency over fentanyl. The Governor is a Democrat. But she declared a state of emergency. Where does she think the fentanyl is coming from? She should demand that the people that represent the constituents in her State do something about what is happening. Federal law enforcement has said for years that almost all of these drugs are coming over the southern border. You don't have to take my word for it. That is what the DEA has said for years. Under Obama, under Trump, and under Biden, they said that most of the drugs that come into our country come across the southern border. Every day we fail to secure our border, another 150 Americans die from overdoses--150 a day--a planeload of people. This is in addition to Americans who are victims of crime committed by illegals. A few weeks ago, we saw the video of illegal aliens attacking New York City police officers. New York City is a sanctuary city. In fact, New York City is giving out free money on debit cards to illegal aliens as we speak. American citizens don't qualify for this money that the New York City government is giving out. If you are a citizen, you don't qualify for it. American citizens just have to pay for it. Yet New Yorkers wonder why there is a magnet pulling illegal aliens from all over the world into their city. You wonder why that is? New York State is also a sanctuary state. That was a policy choice by the current Governor. That means they do not cooperate with ICE. That is what a sanctuary city does. When an illegal commits a crime in New York or Philadelphia or Boston, they do not get sent to ICE when their jail time is up. It doesn't matter what crime they commit. My Democratic colleagues want these criminals to stay in our country because they don't want them to have to be sent home because that is exactly what ICE would do. In the New York case, these illegals who attacked the NYPD officers were jailed and then released without bail. They were let back on the street where they can continue to commit crimes against Americans. This case shows you how much Democrats care about our police officers. ``Defund the police'' is all I have heard since I have been here. Really? They want police to go out and arrest the same people over and over again. Police are risking their lives every day. Every time they arrest someone, every time they kick in a door, they are risking their lives. Yet liberal judges and leftwing prosecutors will just let criminals go back on the street again, again, and again. Democrats like President Biden talk about a lot of compassion in our immigration system. We have to be compassionate. They don't have any compassion for Americans. They don't have compassion for Americans like Kate Steinle who was murdered in San Francisco. They don't have compassion for the woman who was raped by an illegal on a train recently in Philadelphia. They don't have compassion for the mother and daughter killed by a drunk driver who had allegedly been deported four times. When Americans get attacked or even killed by illegals, Democrats just see that as collateral damage. It is just the price of open borders. It is clearly more important to them to keep the border open than to bring justice to the victims. Protect American citizens. What an idea. Just weeks ago, the House voted on legislation to deport illegals who have been caught driving drunk--deport them. Madam President, 150 House Democrats voted against deporting anybody that was illegal caught driving drunk--150. The House also voted on legislation to deport illegals who committed Social Security fraud; 150 House Democrats voted against it. Democrats won't even do the most basic things to secure our border--won't do anything. Now that it is an election year, obviously, now that we have gotten to this point and people have to have votes, we are supposed to believe that our Democratic colleagues have had a total change of heart-- because I have not seen anybody down there in 3 years and 2 months, and I have been going once or twice a year. I have not seen any of my Democratic colleagues down there. I wouldn't be shocked if I didn't see somebody down there in the near future because it is an election year. They are paying lip service to the crisis at the border. They don't listen to their rhetoric. Look at their actions. Democrats are not doing anything of substance that would actually help. President Biden could start by undoing all 94 Executive actions on immigration. We didn't need to do that, but he did it because he wants open borders. Earlier today, I spoke at length about why the Schumer-Murphy border bill is not good enough. I won't belabor the point, but, as Senator Murphy said, under their bill, the border never closes. That gets pretty much to the point. Even at 5,000 crossings a day, we would still process 1,400 illegals per day--1,400. This is like putting a bandaid on a bullet hole. Why even worry about it? The acceptable number of illegal crossings is not 5,000. It is not 4,000. It is zero. In a TV interview a few days ago, Chris Murphy said: We failed to deliver for the [American] people we care about most. No, they care more about the undocumented Americans. What is an undocumented American? Undocumented is just a leftwing code for illegal. They don't like using the word ``illegal.'' The term used in Federal law is ``illegal alien.'' That is who we are talking about. These are not Americans who lost their paperwork and just can't find their documents or lost their passport. These are illegal aliens who have no right--no right--to be here. First, we stop them from coming in, and then we deport the ones who are here. For decades, we have been told that there are about 11 or 12 million illegals here right now. I would say that is very, very short on numbers, but this is a huge problem. Alabama's population is 5 million--my home State. So there are two States of Alabama's worth of illegals already here before Joe Biden let in the other 8 million. This takes away power from American citizens. They are overrunning our hospitals, our schools. They are even affecting the balance of power in Congress and the electoral college. Seats in the House of Representatives are divided up based on census. Votes in an electoral college are based in votes on Congress. Right now, illegals are counted as part of the census. A Democratic Member of Congress went on TV recently and said: I need more people in my district just for redistricting purposes. The presence of tens of millions of illegals in this country is tipping power to blue cities like New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. It is watering down the power of the American voter. I joined with Senator Hagerty to introduce legislation to fix this. Only American citizens should have representation in Congress. We ought to count citizens only. Otherwise, our voting system is not equal for all Americans. This shouldn't be a partisan issue. This should be an American issue. But it looks like a partisan issue when Democrats in Congress go on television and say they need more illegals in their State for redistricting. Democrats have shown no willingness to stop this crisis--none. They put out some press releases and a few vague statements in the press, but they have taken no meaningful action in 3 years. Actions speaks louder than words. Remember, President Trump had the same laws on the books as President Biden, but President Trump secured the border. He went with the law. He went with the Constitution. Joe Biden opened it up. And so new laws are not absolutely necessary, but certain new laws would be very helpful. And so, right now, I would like to propose an amendment to the Ukraine bill that would actually secure the border. My amendment is still a bill. It is a bill I have introduced called the Border Safety and Security Act. The bill would simply suspend all illegal entries, completely, until the Department of Homeland Security has operational control over the border. My amendment also prohibits mass parole programs. The Schumer border bill would have allowed parole programs to continue at an unlimited pace. My amendment prohibits catch-and-release and requires detention. The Schumer bill would require release of illegal aliens. The Schumer bill would have allowed up to 4,999 border crossings a day. My amendment would mean zero crossings as soon as it is signed into law. It also allows States to sue the administration if it doesn't do its job and enforce the laws. We should not pass a Ukraine bill until we first pass a border bill worthy of the name. That was my position in December, and it is my position now. Either we will end this border crisis, or this border crisis will end us. I yield the floor.

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Madam President, I come to the floor today in opposition to the Senate's effort to give away 60 billion more of our taxpayer dollars in weapons to Ukraine. We should not give another dime to Ukraine until we secure our border for our citizens. That is what we are here for. In December, all 49 Republicans voted to defeat similar legislation because it did nothing for our southern border. Senate Republicans were unanimous. We had a consensus in the Republican conference that we should not give more money to other countries until we secured our southern border. I still believe that. My position has not changed since December. The 17 Republicans who voted to take up this legislation can explain their change of heart themselves. It is up to them. My demands have not changed. We should not send a dime to Ukraine until our borders are fully secured. We have already given Ukraine more than $120 billion. This is more than enough money to secure every border in our country. Unfortunately, but predictably, the $120 billion we sent to Ukraine has resulted in a yearslong stalemate that has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, both Ukrainian and Russian. This money is in addition to the Executive actions that Joe Biden has taken to isolate Russia from the global financial system. None of this has worked to either deter Russia or force parties to the table to negotiate a diplomatic solution. Yet some of my colleagues think that another $60 billion--another $60 billion--of what $120 billion failed to do will do the trick. It doesn't make sense. Now should be a time for diplomacy--what a thought. Bring this war to an end. Stop the killing and bloodshed. When Joe Biden took office, he went to the State Department and claimed ``Diplomacy is back.'' That turned out to be a lie. We have yet to see a diplomatic effort from this administration. Joe Biden's idea of diplomacy is sending Anthony Blinken to Israel to tell Israel to slow down the war in Gaza. That is not diplomacy. We need some real diplomacy in Ukraine. Right now, we are facing the possibility of a regional war in the Middle East. There have been 160 attacks on our troops in the Middle East since October 7. We are also facing the possibility of war in the South China Sea, with China threatening Taiwan. A real leader has the right priorities. We cannot get involved in every conflict around the world. Last year, there was a war in Ethiopia. I ask my colleagues who support Ukraine, should we have paid for that? Last year, there was a war in Armenia. I ask my colleagues, should we have paid for that? No one was clamoring for billions in weapons for those two wars. Yet our entire defense industry is now being largely put in service to Ukraine. Under Joe Biden, Americans' foreign policy is no longer dictated by American interests. It is not even dictated by American ideals. Instead, it is dictated by simplistic moralism with no depth or intellectual heft. A land war in Europe is not America's top priority. Even President Obama said 13 years ago that we needed to pivot to Asia--13 years ago. Can there be any doubt that our No. 1 rival and adversary is China? It is not Russia. China is watching us. President Xi is watching America bankrupting ourselves for a war that gains us absolutely nothing. We can have a conversation about shifting Ukraine aid to somewhere high- priority, like Taiwan, but right now, aid to Ukraine is two-thirds of this bill. The bill also includes money for Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas. The vast majority of Gaza supports Hamas. They elected Hamas as their leaders. The bill would send billions to Gaza. Can there be any doubt that some of that will end up in the hands of terrorists? I don't think there is. Much of what we have sent to Ukraine has been stolen or wasted. There has been a complete lack of oversight. In this year's Defense bill, we finally got an inspector general for Ukraine aid, but it is a little too late. There has already been enormous theft and money laundering of our tax dollars in Ukraine. You don't have to take my word for it; Zelenskyy fired his own Cabinet members for corruption. Ukraine has been one of the most blatantly, notoriously corrupt places in the world for a long, long time. We are paying Ukraine farmers, and yet we just punted the farm bill for American farmers to next year. We have been paying Ukrainian pensions. We can't even pay our own pensions in this country. We have paid more than $6 billion for Ukrainian pensions. That is enough money to pay for President Trump's border wall, an amount that the sitting Vice President said was too expensive. We don't have a plan. We do not have a plan to win the war in Ukraine. We also don't have a plan for Ukraine if it loses. The Biden administration simply says ``as long as it takes.'' Hell, that is not a strategy; that is a blank check from the American taxpayers to another country. It would be irresponsible to give a blank check to any other country. Three out of four dollars of Ukraine aid in this bill are for after the current fiscal year. It is not now. We keep hearing that we can't wait 2 weeks. This money is not going to Ukraine for months. And they say they are running out of aid. In other words, this money is for the next President. It is intended to force the next President to continue this war. So I stand opposed to this legislation. I am not the only one. This bill could not pass the House of Representatives. Therefore, this bill is not going to become law. Passing this bill is purely an exercise in messaging. What message does this bill send? It says that those elected to represent Americans care more about the borders of countries halfway around the world than our own. It is not a winning message. The American people are opposed to a blank check to Ukraine. The American people are saying enough is enough. The arguments for this bill have been utterly lacking. Some of my colleagues have argued that Vladimir Putin wants to conquer the world. This is absurd. He can't beat Ukraine. Russian tanks are not going to conquer Europe if we don't pass this bill. Another argument that has been made is that this money will stay in the United States to support defense contractors. In fact, a Washington Post columnist tweeted at me yesterday, claiming that we should pass this bill to give more money to Alabama's defense contractors. You know, it wasn't long ago that this would be referred to as corruption, but that is the kind of thing that gets published in the Washington Post these days. Simply put, his argument is more about people should die so that we can increase profits for a few American companies. It is disgusting. These are the same people lecturing us about the morality of supporting Ukraine. Alabama is deeply, deeply proud to be the top State in America when it comes to the defense industry. I strongly support Alabama's defense industry. I support funding Alabama's defense industry to strengthen our military. I support funding to replenish our stockpiles. It will take months, if not years, to do that. We are far behind. We couldn't fight one war right now, much less three. The arguments from the other side just don't add up, so it is no surprise that they have resorted to personal attacks and name-calling. One of my colleagues accused opponents of Ukraine aid of getting their ``messaging from Russia.'' This is the best argument they can come up with--name-calling. If you oppose a blank check to another country, I guess that makes you a Russian. We are $34 trillion in debt. We are borrowing $80,000 a second, $4.6 million a minute. American taxpayers, listen to that one more time. We are borrowing $80,000 a second, $4.6 million a minute. Does that make any sense when you are $34 trillion in debt? We cannot afford to keep giving any money to any countries or any illegal immigrants flooding our border. We don't have it. We are taxing the future of this country. There is no moral, economic, military, or political argument in favor of more Ukraine aid. Our country--our country--has serious problems of its own, and we need to solve them. But there is no solving any of those problems in this room. It is about spending. The top of that list is the southern border. If we are so worried about Russia, what about the actual Russians who are entering our country on a daily basis through the southern border? What about that? Is anyone in Washington worried about the Chinese coming in this country every day? It doesn't seem like it. Day after day, month after month, we are failing to meet that crisis with the seriousness it deserves. Earlier this week, Senate leadership on both sides of the aisle laid out our border giveaway bill that had been written in secret by three Senators over a period of months. We were not allowed to see it until last Sunday night. For weeks--for weeks--there were leaks coming to the press about what it was. When my colleagues and I expressed concerns about these leaks, we were attacked. The authors of the bill said that it was fake news and wouldn't let us see the bill until last Sunday. However, once we got the text, we found out these leaks were true. The bill was even worse than we had feared. Senators from across the spectrum of the Republican conference came out in opposition. Even some of the Senators who were initially involved in writing the bill opposed it. After the bill was rejected, we were told that we were ``playing politics'' if we weren't from a border State. Here is the reality: Under the Biden administration, every State is a border State. I met with some Alabama sheriffs last week from across our State. They are being absolutely overrun--overrun--by drugs, crime, criminals, illegal aliens. Every single part of every single State is being hurt by this border crisis. Do you think this body cares? No. I won't belabor the point, but the border bill is a giveaway--is a giveaway. This bill did not attempt to address the seriousness of the crisis. This is the worst border crisis in the history of our country. It is worse than any natural disaster we have ever seen. Yet the response from Senate leadership to this crisis has been superficial, uncaring, and dismissive. The so-called border bill was more of a border giveaway than the actual border bill. Remember, President Trump had the same laws on the books as President Joe Biden does. President Trump secured the border. It was a priority. Joe Biden opened it up his first day in office. So new laws are not absolutely necessary, but certain new laws would be very helpful. I have proposed an amendment to the Ukraine bill that would actually truly secure the border. This amendment, the Border Safety and Security Act, would simply suspend all illegal entries completely until DHS has operational control of the border. They have no control--no control whatsoever. My amendment prohibits mass parole programs. This Schumer border giveaway bill would have allowed parole programs to continue. My amendment prohibits catch-and-release and requires detention. The border bill required the release of illegal aliens if we had passed it. The Schumer bill would have allowed thousands of illegal border crossings a day. My amendment would mean zero illegal crossings. It also allows States to sue the administration if it doesn't do its job and enforce the laws. We should not pass the Ukraine bill until we first pass a border bill. That is my position, that was my position in December, and it is my position again today. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I am proud today to join my colleague Dr. Marshall on the floor to support the State of Texas in their efforts to secure the disaster at the southern border. I have been there many times. I would challenge my Democratic colleagues: How many times have you been to the southern border in Texas to see this disaster? Right now, the Biden administration is actively trying to stop the State of Texas from protecting their and our border. Meanwhile, Democrats are telling the press that they want to fix the border crisis that President Biden has created. It has taken 3 years. But they say that the Republicans won't let them. That is not true. The Biden administration is suing Texas and destroying barriers at the border actively, every day. The taxpayers have already paid for the wall--the extension of the wall that was stopped after President Trump stepped down a few years ago. President Biden refuses to build a wall. He is pushing a bill on us that actually sets aside money it already appropriated for the wall and allows him to postpone new construction indefinitely. There is no plan. This is what they call a border bill. I call it a border giveaway. Joe Biden is selling off the border for pennies on the dollar that the taxpayers have already paid for. It is online. You can go online and buy, in an auction, the wall and razor wire that is sitting on the ground mostly in Arizona, and you can buy it for 10 cents on the dollar. He is actively destroying our southern border. This is something from the worst nightmares of our Founding Fathers: a President who is more concerned about other people's borders and not ours. Now, about half of the American southern border is also the southern border of Texas. There is an old saying that the Constitution is not a suicide pact. The Federal Government cannot--I repeat, cannot--force Texas to let itself be invaded and destroyed. Article IV, section 4 of the Constitution promises that the Federal Government shall protect every State from invasion. In fact, the Declaration of Independence accused King George of exposing the colonies ``to all the Dangers of Invasion.'' Article I, section 10 of the Constitution explicitly says that a State may engage in war without the consent of Congress if ``actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.'' Now, let's look at the facts. At least 10,000 people a day, on several months, have been coming across our border, averaging 7,500 a day. The Biden administration admits to releasing 85 percent of that 7,500 a day into our country--85 percent are released into the country. This is in addition to the 2 million illegal immigrants that we have lost track of in the past 3 years. More than 100,000 Americans are dying every year because of drugs, which a lot have come across our southern border--and getting worse. That is more than we lost in the Vietnam war, and that was a very long war. Drugs, gangs, and even terrorists are flooding--are flooding--our border. We don't know who they are. Can there be any doubt that the Founding Fathers would consider this an invasion? The population of our country at the founding was about 4 million people, at the beginning, 248 years ago. The population has grown, obviously. We have had more than 8 million illegal crossings since Joe Biden took office--8 million. The sheer scale of this is unlike anything that any of us have ever seen. So it should be clear. The facts and the Constitution are both on the State of Texas's side, and Texas has every right to protect the people in its State and our country. I am confident that the Supreme Court will uphold the Constitution on this ruling, but the real solution is not relying on a court ruling. The real solution is for President Joe Biden to stop destroying the border and put a stop to what is happening. Stop cutting the wire. Stop suing our border States. Stop selling off the wall. Stop pretending to want a border bill that we know won't work. Stop encouraging. Stop encouraging the invasion. He is personally doing that from the White House. Stop encouraging the invasion of our country, which is costing American lives every single day. I yield the floor.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, many of our veterans come home with scars, including scars you can't see. After fighting America's battles, they come home to fight their own personal battles. One American warrior who knows this well is SGT Lloyd Michael Austin of Mobile. He grew up in a military family, the son of a World War II veteran. After graduating from Williamson High School, he enlisted in the Army to continue his dad's legacy of military service. Sergeant Austin deployed overseas during Desert Storm and Desert Shield. There, he drove a truck for multiple combat missions. After being diagnosed with PTSD from his time in combat, Sergeant Austin returned home to Alabama. He found himself fighting a different war, as he struggled with substance abuse. He became isolated from family and friends, and even attempted to take his life. Thankfully, he survived and found help. Now, after more than 17 years sober, Sergeant Austin uses his own experience to help others. He works with Vets Recover, where he helps veterans struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. He is also a pastor at Love Me Anyway Ministries. Sergeant Austin visits hospitals and treatment centers to encourage people, with special help from his poodle and service dog Ivy. His story has given hope to many Alabamians during some of the darkest moments in their lives. Alabama is grateful to have compassionate servant leaders like Sergeant Austin. It is my honor to recognize him as the February Veteran of the Month.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to express my very strong support for school choice. Sunday was the start of School Choice Week. Tens of thousands of parents, students, and educators are going to celebrate the accomplishments of the school choice movement. I spent 40 years in education. I was a government school teacher--better known as public school-- including in higher education. I was a coach. I was a mentor. For 40 years, I watched the school choice movement grow and change many, many lives. I have seen the changes that school choice has brought for students across our great country. When I first started in education 40 years ago, there was no opportunity for school choice. Homeschooling was very, very rare. But our government schools were in better shape back then. Homeschooling today is practically like attending a small school. Today, there are about 2 million kids being homeschooled across our country. Homeschooling is the fastest growing form of education in America. It is growing because parents recognize that our schools are failing--I am going to repeat that: failing--our kids. It is time for lawmakers across this country at every level, including us, to recognize that our schools are failing. Over the past 40 years, I have watched our education system decline with my own eyes. I have visited schools, parents, and principals in 49 States and American Samoa. What I saw sometimes was absolutely shocking. And, for today, it is the main reason that I ran for this seat here in the U.S. Senate. Education wasn't just a local problem; it was a national problem. By now, it is undeniable that our K through 12 education system is in a crisis because of job protections and teachers unions. We spend more money on education in the United States of America than any other country, but we are not in first place. We are not even close. And that is a shame. Before the pandemic, we were 8th in reading, 11th in science, and 30th in math. You can't blame that on the pandemic. Some like to. This has been going on for a long time, even before the pandemic. It has been getting worse and worse and worse. Last year, we had the worst ACT scores in 30 years. Let me repeat that. Last year, we had the worst ACT scores in 30 years. Nearly half of all of our students could not meet a single ACT benchmark--half. The most recent national report card showed a steep drop in reading and math scores in almost every State. These were the lowest scores in the last 20 years. Even Joe Biden's Secretary of Education called these test scores ``appalling'' and ``unacceptable.'' In some cities, there are entire schools--entire schools--where zero students can read or do math at the level that they are in. In Chicago alone, there are 55 schools where zero students can read or do math at grade level. Children in these schools are being robbed of their future. Our K through 12 system is failing. It is failing to prepare our kids for college or for life. When I talk about education, I often hear my Democratic colleagues argue that we don't spend enough money. Their answer to everything is to spend more. We pay more than any other country in the world, and, again, we are not even in the top 10 with some of these countries that spend a lot less. We pay $14,000 per student in this country in our public and government schools. In other developed countries, it is $11,000 or less. So we are spending nearly 40 percent more money, but we are not getting 40 percent better test scores. We are getting a lot less. We are 26th in math in this country competing against other countries across the world--26th. If you can't do math, you can't survive in today's world of technology. You can't pay your bills if you can't do math. How are we going to compete in a modern, high-tech economy if we can't do math? I don't think anybody has thought about that. We just keep going on down the same road. According to the National Science Foundation, China graduated 1.2 million engineers in 2016. We graduated 130,000. One third of Chinese college students major in engineering. In America, it is 7 percent. How are we going to compete against our biggest adversary, China, if we are not educated? Kids in China are learning calculus, and this is in elementary school. Kids in China are learning calculus while our kids are studying pronouns and 50 genders and critical race theory. It is a disservice. We are cheating our kids. Frankly, it is a national security issue. My Democratic colleagues need to remember that our education system does not exist for the sake of the teachers or principals and administrators, or even coaches. It doesn't exist for that. It is not about our teachers unions. It is about our students getting an education, learning to read and write, do math, preparing for a future. We forgot about that. Unfortunately, we forgot about that for a long time. It is about preparing kids for life--what an idea. So what is school choice? School choice just means funding the student instead of the school building. That is what we do now: We send all of our money to these school buildings. We put it in teachers and administrators. The money is not going to exactly where it should be going--to prepare students for life. It is the idea that the school was made for the student, not the student for the school. School choice brings the power of the free market, which is what we are supposed to be, to our education system. The results benefit everyone, even kids in the government or public schools. Studies show that school choice means better test scores and better outcomes for students. When we talk about choice, my Democratic colleagues will say: If you are for school choice, then you are against public and government schools. That is not true. That is not true. I used to teach in a public or government school. I was a member of the teachers union. I want our government schools to be the best in the world--the best--not 2nd, not 10th, not 20th, but the best. Our schools--our public and government schools--should be good enough to compete with our private schools, which are growing every day, but right now most of them are not. They are not competing against other schools. They don't have to compete because nothing is going on in the majority of our public schools. It is just a simple fact. There is a laundry list of things we need to do about our public and government schools. But to make it better, what should be at the top of the list is competition, which is school choice--school choice to go where you want to go. There are 20 studies--20 studies--that have shown that school choice improves our public schools. This is because school choice forces government schools to compete for students. And that is what this country is about. It is about competition. It is about the opportunity to do what you want, but it is all built on competition. Competition makes everyone better, whether it is in football, business, or just life. Competition makes us all better. Kids deserve teachers, deserve teachers and schools that will compete for them, not for a teachers union but for them. The job is to make our students better, and we are failing. A child's education should not be decided--should not be decided--on their ZIP Code, where they live. Their education should not be decided on their family's income. That is not the way this should work. It should be decided by the people who know them best and love them the most--which is who? Their parents. Parents are a big part of the equation. When I was a coach, I always told my players that this country owes you only one thing, and that is an opportunity. I didn't care who you were. When I coached, I didn't care whether you were rich, poor, Protestant or Catholic, Jewish. It didn't make any difference what race you were. I was hired to teach football and to win games. It is no different in a classroom. Everybody has that opportunity. And don't give me ``Everybody doesn't have that opportunity.'' They do. You just have to take that opportunity and run with it. So, at the end of the day, the key to unlock that opportunity is what? It is education. If you can't read and write in our country, in which we are struggling at almost every school--if you can't read and write, you can't make it. You are going to end up living off the government, and that is not what this country is about. So our future is built on our kids. If we don't educate our kids, we won't have much of a future, and it has really declined. But if we unleash--and I know we have got a lot of problems going on in our world today, in our country, a lot of division. But if we unleash the potential of our young people, there is nothing that we cannot achieve. So I urge my colleagues to support school choice in the upcoming budget process. Give them the opportunity to compete. Give them the opportunity for a better education. Put the pressure on our public and government schools. Make them compete to keep their students there. And the way you do that is you educate students. Get it to a point where we don't need school choice or homeschooling. This should not be a partisan issue. This should not be about Republican and Democrat. This is about Americans. This is about Americans, giving them the opportunity to succeed and achieve. This is a huge American issue. We had better wake up and smell the roses. It is about basic American values--the values of education for all, opportunity for all, and letting our people live out their God-given potential, not keeping it locked up. Give everybody that opportunity. I yield the floor.

Mr. TUBERVILLE

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

Mr. TUBERVILLE

Mr. TUBERVILLE. Mr. President, as a native of the State of Arkansas, I would like to add my congratulations to Harding University national champions football. Being a former football coach, I know how hard it is to achieve any kind of championship, but to win a national championship is special. It is special to these young men and coaches, and people involved will always remember. So my congratulations go out to Harding. I actually played against Harding for 4 years, being in the same conference as they were in, back in the seventies. So, man, what an honor--I guess the first time--the first ever national championship. So, again, congratulations to the Harding Bisons. It is quite an honor.