[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 20, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4829-S4830]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Immigration

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, our overwhelmed Customs and Border 
Protection personnel have already encountered more than 2 million 
illegal immigrants and counting just this fiscal year.
  This is a larger group of people than the entire populations of 14 
States, and this record-shattering 2 million apprehensions only counts 
the subset of people who were actually caught. Experts estimate 
hundreds of thousands more people on top of that number who simply got 
away.
  The latest reports say that CBP encountered more than 200,000 people 
just in the month of August alone, and more than 20 percent of those 
people were not first-time border crossers but rather repeat offenders 
who had already previously been expelled or deported; tens of thousands 
of individuals who had already been thrown out, flooding back in every 
single month.
  Orderly, legal immigration is part of what makes America strong; 
anarchy and open borders make us weak.
  There is nothing compassionate or humane about the border crisis that 
Democrats' mixed signals and failed policies have unleashed.
  It is not fair to American citizens; it is not fair to law 
enforcement; and it is not fair to the people who have been encouraged 
to undertake desperate and dangerous journeys by years of Democrats 
signaling to the world that there are no real consequences for breaking 
our laws and cutting in line.
  Vice President Harris says ``the border is secure.'' The American 
people know better, and they are furious. Illegal immigrants know 
better as well.
  For years, Washington Democrats have attacked Republicans for calling 
for basic border security and law enforcement. The Democratic Party 
line throughout the last 5 years has been that enforcing existing 
immigration law would be cruel and securing our borders would be 
xenophobic, but over the last few days, some liberals seem to have 
changed their tune.

[[Page S4830]]

  Out of desperation, a few Governors along our southern border are now 
giving some Democrat-run States and cities just a tiny, tiny taste of 
what border communities have been enduring, literally, for years.
  According to the Washington Post, the total number of individuals 
whom Texas and Arizona have helped relocate to New York, Washington, 
and other places in recent months is roughly on the order of the number 
of illegal immigrants who arrive at our southern border in a single 
day--1 day.
  All those cities combined have had months to accept, between them, 
approximately 1 day's share of our Nation's illegal immigration.
  But the Democratic mayor of New York City is now declaring that his 
government's resources are ``at a breaking point''--at a breaking 
point.
  According to the Post, these border States have sent to New York City 
less than 1 day's worth of illegal crossers, spread out over more than 
a month, and the self-proclaimed sanctuary city apparently cannot take 
it.
  The Governor of Florida helped a tiny number of illegal immigrants, 
about four dozen, secure transportation to the wealthy liberal 
destination of Martha's Vineyard, filled with millionaires' mansions, 
which appointed itself a so-called sanctuary destination back in 2017.
  Apparently, this sanctuary destination tolerated, fed, and housed the 
newcomers for less than 48 hours before having the National Guard 
promptly put them on a ferry and remove them to a military base 
instead.
  Democrats, liberal activists, and the media are, predictably, melting 
down. There are absurd accusations flying around that it is somehow 
evil or illegal for Republican officials to help illegal immigrants 
move within our country. That would be breaking news because, of 
course, the Biden administration has been flying and busing illegal 
immigrants around the country on a regular basis.

  According to one report from early 2021, the Biden administration was 
already filling Greyhound buses with people turning up at our border 
and driving them to various destinations from the South to the Midwest 
to the Northeast. Ah, but it was never to Martha's Vineyard.
  So these well-to-do blue enclaves are finally witnessing the smallest 
fraction of the challenges that open borders have enforced on working-
class communities all across our country.