Floor Statements

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Madam President, today, the United States is facing perhaps the greatest range of security threats both here at home and abroad that we have seen in a long time. Here at home, of course, our southern border has become a major security liability that is being exploited by terrorists, drug traffickers, and, of course, human smugglers. In the Middle East, our close ally Israel is defending its right to exist following a brutal and unprovoked attack by the terrorist group Hamas. In Europe, Ukraine continues to defend itself in the wake of Russia's unprovoked invasion, which was nearly 2 years ago. In the Indo-Pacific, China's aggressive, belligerent behavior has threatened the stability of the entire region and the future of Taiwan. So there is a lot at stake, and the eyes of the world are firmly on the United States of America.

You know, I know sometimes people say: Well, we don't want the United States to be the world's policeman. And certainly that is true. But the fact is that there is no other nation that can actually lead the democracies in the world to a greater path of security and safety. We know that when the United States does not lead, then that is perceived as a sign of weakness and a lack of resolution, and that, I think, has contributed to where we find ourselves today with this tremendous array of diverse threats.

So there is a lot at stake, and the eyes of the world are on the United States. Terrorists and dictators, from Kim Jong Un to President Xi in China, to Vladimir Putin, to the Supreme Leader in Iran--all of them are watching to see how the United States responds when our friends and our allies become victims of authoritarian aggression. Will we brush these conflicts aside as meaningless, regional quarrels or will we lock arms with our friends and allies and commit to defeating evil in all its forms?

I am glad that the overwhelming consensus in Congress is that the only possible option is to respond with strength. Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill to strengthen America's support for Israel while cutting wasteful government spending. That legislation provided $14.3 billion in aid to Israel.

I am disappointed that President Biden, first thing out of the chute, threatened to veto the bill. Senator Schumer went so far as to call it a joke. So $14.3 billion for Israel while it is under perhaps an existential threat by Iran and its proxies, and the majority leader of the U.S. Senate calls that $14.3 billion a joke? I don't think there is anything funny about the strong desire that most of us have to support our ally while protecting the long-term financial health of our country.

The Nation's debt has skyrocketed over the last few years and now exceeds $33.6 trillion. The interest on that debt alone will cost American taxpayers more than $677 billion this year alone. Increasingly, we are seeing the amount of money we have to pay to the bondholders that own our debt creep up to approach the amount of spending we provide for the Department of Defense. And we know this is going to get worse and worse until it gets better. Congress simply cannot continue to spend and spend with no regard for the consequences.

Years ago, Admiral Mullen, who was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,

said something that at the time I found a little odd. He said our greatest national security threat is our national debt. But, as we have come to see, those are wise words, because as the interest we have to pay to those who own our debt continues to grow with the size of that debt, that means less and less money is available for priorities here at home and for priorities to help prevent wars and aggression around the world.

Nowhere is this more apparent now than with the $677 billion we are paying not for some program that we could agree is important here at home or to provide border security or to help arm Ukrainians in their fight for survival against the Russian invasion; that money is gone to the bondholders, the people who own that debt. We just cannot continue down that path without further endangering, as Admiral Mullen wisely said years ago. This has created a national security threat we cannot ignore as well. We have an obligation to make tough decisions to right the ship, and this is as good an opportunity as any to start making progress.

Despite the majority leader's current refusal to allow a vote on the House bill--that is his current position, one I hope will change--the fact remains, we do need to take action. The Senate must find a path forward to strengthen our support for Israel and Ukraine while making meaningful steps to address the out-of-control crisis at our southern border. Senate Republicans are discussing ways to do this in a thorough and thoughtful manner, and I expect that to remain a focus of our work for the next couple of weeks.

This is an important and long-overdue debate, but it cannot distract from our other fundamental responsibilities to support our Nation's security. We have other longstanding tasks that need to be completed, starting with the National Defense Authorization Act. That bill passed the Senate in July with overwhelming bipartisan support by a vote of 86 to 11.

This year's Defense bill helps replenish our defense stockpiles-- something that has been exposed, the inadequacy of our defense industrial base, and our ability to replenish those stockpiles is very much in question and needs to be addressed. This year's National Defense Authorization Act does that. It also supports modernization efforts across the board, from the nuclear triad to next-generation weapons. It will help us regain a credible military deterrent by investing in modernized aircraft, weapons, and facilities. These were the important goals when the National Defense Authorization bill passed the Senate 3 months ago, and they are even more critical now.

Despite the fact that the Senate and the House each passed a version of the NDAA, as it is called, we have yet to formally begin the conference process where those differences can be worked out and where that bill can be signed into law. This legislation should have reached the President's desk earlier, but we are now a month past the due date and watching a new war unfold in the Middle East. So it is absolutely critical that we get the NDAA conference process moving as soon as possible.

As the Senate and the House prepare to iron out the differences between the two bills, there are two items in particular that I have been fighting to include. One is called outbound investment transparency, which was included in the Senate bill but not the House bill.

Senator Casey from Pennsylvania and I offered our bipartisan bill as an amendment to the Defense authorization bill here in the Senate, and it was adopted by a vote of 91 to 6. The reason this measure receives such strong bipartisan support is because it provides much needed visibility into a looming national security threat.

We know that American investors have been sending capital intellectual property and some of our cutting-edge innovation to China by investing in that country, but unfortunately, as we have learned, the Chinese Communist Party, which controls that country, basically is using that investment from American investors to fuel its economic and military rise.

At the end of 2020, U.S. investments in Chinese companies totaled $2.3 trillion in market value. That includes $21 billion in semiconductors, $54 billion in military companies, and a whopping $221 billion in artificial intelligence. Those are enterprises that are being funded by U.S. investment in China, which is now turning out to be our near-peer competitor and a threat to stability not only in Asia but worldwide. Intentionally or not, American companies are investing in products and capabilities that one day could be turned against us.

A recent investigation by Newsweek uncovered another grave cause for concern. Private U.S. entities aren't the only ones fueling China's rise; taxpayer-funded research is being exploited by the Chinese Communist Party. The scientist who is now at the forefront of China's artificial intelligence development received at least $30 million in Federal grants--U.S. Federal Government grants--through the Pentagon and the National Science Foundation. He received this amount of funding from American taxpayers as he built up a parallel research system in China.

The United States, simply stated, cannot continue to bankroll China's economic and military rise, and that is why this outbound investment transparency provision that Senator Casey and I have authored and which is included in the Senate version of the NDAA is so important.

This legislation requires U.S. companies to notify the Department of the Treasury of certain investments in China and other countries of concern. This is a targeted measure. It only applies to sensitive technologies like semiconductors, artificial intelligence, hypersonics, and other capabilities that can ultimately be used against the United States.

To be clear, this does not stop investments from happening or interfere with the free market. It is strictly about transparency. It is about visibility. It will help us as policymakers see and understand the threats from China and other countries of concern so we can respond accordingly. I don't care how much American investors want to build a Burger King or Starbucks in China, but I do care if they are investing in cutting-edge technology that is going to be used to compete against the United States, either economically or militarily.

The second provision I am fighting to include is an extension of something called lend-lease authority, which expired at the end of September. This provision was created by legislation I introduced with Senator Cardin from Maryland which is modeled after a similarly named program in World War II. But this is called the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act, and it was signed into law in May of last year. It was rooted in the same principle as the World War II provision, which allowed the United States to supply Great Britain and other allies with military resources during World War II. President Roosevelt at the time vowed to transform the United States into the arsenal of democracy, as he called it, and the Lend-Lease Act is how he did it.

As I said, Senator Cardin and I introduced this bipartisan legislation to remove some of the big bureaucratic hurdles that prevent us or slow us down from providing Ukrainian forces with the weapons they need, when they need them. Given the level of aid being provided by Congress for Ukraine, the Biden administration hasn't explicitly used that authority granted under that bill, but it doesn't mean it is not needed now.

Ukraine has committed to doing what it needs to do to defeat this invasion by Russia, but it will need additional assistance from the United States and our other allies in order to succeed. We all know that Ukraine's arsenal is shrinking, and it has asked the United States and other democracies around the world for additional aid, but the path forward, as we all know, is extremely muddy.

There is broad bipartisan support for the fact that America should support Ukraine, but there is growing concern over the cost of that assistance. That is why this legislation is so important. Lend-Lease is not a blank check. It gives the administration the option to lease or rent defense articles to Ukraine, just like we did Great Britain in World War II. This legislation will allow us to answer Ukraine's call to provide more of what they need and ensure it is done in a fiscally responsible way.

Over the last several months, the United States has provided Ukraine with unprecedented defense aid--Javelins, Stingers, grenade launchers, small arms, tanks, ammunition, and much more. These weapons have allowed the brave Ukrainians to punch above their weight against the Russian Army, which was once thought to be among the strongest in the world.

Additional American and allied assistance is vital to Ukraine's ultimate success, and we need to reauthorize the Lend-Lease authority as part of the Defense Authorization Act. This provision was included also in the House's NDAA, and I urge my colleagues in the Senate to fight for its inclusion in the final version of the bill.

Given the threats democracies are facing around the world, there could not be a more important time to prioritize America's defense. The National Defense Authorization Act, which I believe has been signed into law for 60-plus years in a row, should have already been signed into law before the end of September. Given the threats we face around the world, it is absolutely crucial that we finish the job as soon as possible.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, last Thursday, I traveled back to my home State of Texas but this time to the U.S.-Mexico border, along with Senator Cruz--my colleague from Texas--as well as three of our non- Texas Senate colleagues. Senators Barrasso, Lee, and Ricketts joined us for a series of tours and meetings in the Rio Grande Valley, which is unlike any other place in America.

This has been one of many times that Senator Cruz and I have welcomed our colleagues to the border because every time I hear people in Washington, DC, talk about the border, it is most likely something they have gleaned from movies or a novel that they have read somewhere. It is not based on reality.

And the truth is, the reality at the border has changed substantially from years ago when illegal immigration was primarily people coming to the United States to work and send money home. It has changed entirely to a global human smuggling enterprise that enriches the criminal organization to organize it, charging tens of thousands of dollars a head to people they smuggle into the United States. And if you come from special interest countries, like Iran, Syria, for example, you may have to pay tens of thousands of dollars, but you can still make your way in because of the broken border policies of the Biden administration, which I will talk about here in a moment.

It really is a shame that such a beautiful, vibrant region of our country that has benefited tremendously from the opportunities that come from living along an international border has been damaged and hurt in such an unfortunate way by the flood of humanity and drugs coming across.

Legitimate trade and travel have shaped the unique culture of our border and serve as a boon not just to local economies but to the entire American economy. But like so many other areas along the U.S.- Mexico border, this region has become overwhelmed by the weight of the current border crisis.

Last month alone, Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley Sector--just one of many sectors of the Border Patrol--logged more than 45,000 border crossings. In the last year, nearly 340,000 migrants have crossed the Rio Grande Valley Sector, and, overwhelmingly, the Biden administration has simply just released them into the interior of the United States, which has, in turn, proved to be a magnet for more people to come.

If, in fact, the Biden administration wanted to deter illegal immigration, they would stop people from coming to

the border and entering the country illegally, and it would send people back who somehow made it over. That would act as a deterrent.

But right now, notwithstanding the messages of people like Mayor Adams, from New York City, when he recently went to Mexico City, he said: Don't come. Don't come--well, the people who make the dangerous journey from their home to the border and into the interior of the United States, they frequently have access to this thing called television and to this instrument we call a telephone. So they can see people making their way across the border successfully, and they can talk to relatives who have made the trip on the telephone who say: I made it. You can too. Thus, we have seen this huge flood of migrants across the border swell into a virtual tsunami.

It used to be that the overwhelming number of migrants came from Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries. And that is when I hear Vice President Harris and others talk--Secretary Blinken--about root causes, like they want to go in and nation-build in order to discourage people from those countries to come to the United States, which tells me they really don't understand the nature of the current phenomenon because it is not just people coming from Mexico and Central America; President Biden's border policies have made it so that people from virtually anywhere in the world can come to the southern border, say the magic words, and be released into the United States.

In fact, we learned on our most recent trip that many migrants don't even claim asylum before they are released because there simply isn't enough capacity to hold them once they cross the border and then return them where they came from. And there aren't anywhere near enough removal flights to deport migrants without valid legal claims to stay here.

So it is no surprise that people are traveling from all over the world, literally, to take advantage of this open border policy. Agents in the Rio Grande Valley Sector told us that they have apprehended, recently, migrants from China, from Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and other countries around the globe. America's southern border is the world's worst kept secret.

When we arrived on Thursday night, we witnessed the sheer volume and diversity of migrants arriving at the border. Some of my colleagues spoke with a family from Moldova. You will have to look that up on your map. But it is not Mexico. It is not Central America. But they just crossed over the border moments earlier. You might ask yourself what would a man and his wife and their 2- or 3-year-old daughter--how did they make it from Eastern Europe to Texas's Rio Grande Valley. And the answer is simple: with human smugglers.

Cartels and other criminal organizations have hit the jackpot with the Biden border crisis. Indeed, you could say that President Biden has outsourced U.S. immigration policy to these criminal organizations because they are running the show, not President Biden.

In 2021 alone, they made an estimated $13 billion from human smuggling operations. That is just the human smuggling alone. Since then, the number of border crossings, of course, has skyrocketed. They get paid by the head, so that is good business for the cartels. And I imagine their profits have skyrocketed even further.

Cartel smuggling operations aren't limited to Mexico and Central America. For the right price, these criminal organizations will help anyone from anywhere reach the United States and make their way into the interior.

As those who have made the journey can attest, it is an extremely dangerous one, particularly for vulnerable women and children. Human smugglers don't view these migrants as fellow human beings; they view them as a commodity. Migrants are abused, neglected, extorted for more money. Women are often raped or sold for sex. Some migrants have been simply abandoned and left for dead if they become injured or unable to continue their travel.

At one checkpoint, which is about 100 miles into the interior of Falfurrias, TX--it is called Brooks County--they have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in this little, relatively poor, Texas county burying the bones of dead migrants who have died from exposure in their county because what happens is, once people come across the border, the smugglers--sometimes called coyotes--they put them in stash houses. Actually, we saw one stash house. And then when the time is right, they are loaded in the vans and then transported up the highway. That is the reason for the checkpoint about 100 miles inland. But what the coyotes do is they tell the migrants: Get out of the vehicle before we reach the checkpoint; walk around the checkpoint; and we will meet you on the north side.

Well, for migrants who have come hundreds of miles, or further, already suffering from exposure to make it in the hot Texas summers, where it frequently exceeds 100 degrees, it should be no surprise that some of them--many of them, unfortunately--do not make it. So that is another consequence of the Biden border crisis and open border policies.

And even after they cross the border, many migrants still owe massive debts to the cartels who will not hesitate to use them for forced labor or sex trafficking. In fact, if you go to parts of Houston, TX, you will see women who basically are sex slaves because they are working off their debt to the people who smuggled to get them into the interior of the United States in the first place.

As I mentioned, we also visited a stash house where we saw the migrants awaiting the next step of their journey, and I hate to imagine what the cartels have in store for these individuals. But we know these migrants are not the only victims of the border crisis. While agents are busy processing and transporting migrants, it creates an open highway for cartels and criminal organizations smuggling drugs into the United States. They, of course, have spotters. They use drones for technology to see where the Border Patrol is and where they are not. And they use that knowledge to smuggle fentanyl, heroin--and God knows what else--across the border and into our communities.

Here is a shocking statistic, at least it was to me. I don't know whether the President of the United States even knows this. But the No. 1 killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45 is a synthetic opioid called fentanyl--leading cause of death for Americans 18 to 45.

We know where it comes from. The precursors come from China. They make their way to Mexico where the cartels mix them up, run them through industrial-capacity pill presses, and make them look like relatively innocuous pharmaceuticals. And then when a young man or a young woman, let's say, in high school, like Sienna--whose father gave me this rubber wristband at the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District last April--they take this, thinking, Well, it is a relatively innocuous pharmaceutical like Percocet or Xanax, but then they don't wake up the next day, of course, leaving grieving families wondering what in the world happened and how could this happen to them and their child.

Drug overdoses alone have taken the lives of about 110,000 Americans a year, currently. And as I said, fentanyl is responsible for about two-thirds of it. Of course, we aren't just worried about substances coming across the border but dangerous people too: criminals, people on the Terrorist Watchlist, people coming from special interest countries like the ones I mentioned.

It used to be that the number of people on the Terrorist Watchlist who were apprehended along the southern border by the Border Patrol was in the single digits. In the past year, at least 169 were apprehended. And that doesn't account for the ``got-aways.'' The ``got-aways'' are the 1\1/2\ million people who have been seen on cameras or detected on sensors but who have evaded capture by the Border Patrol. And you can bet that they are up to no good because they simply--if they actually wanted to make their way into the interior of the United States and didn't have a criminal record or were transporting drugs or on a Terrorist Watchlist, they can just--like almost everybody else under the Biden administration--come to the border, say the magic words, and the Biden administration would release them into the interior of the United States. But we have had 1\1/2\ million

``got-aways'' evade law enforcement since President Biden took office, including 169 people on the Terrorist Watchlist.

It seems like a long time ago to many people, particularly if you are relatively young, but it was September 11, 2001, where 19 people killed 3,000 Americans by flying airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and taking down a plane over Pennsylvania.

So 19 terrorists killed 3,000 Americans back in 2001. We know that at least 169 people on the Terrorist Watchlist have been apprehended so far. We don't know how many actually have made their way into the United States, but it is a safe bet it is people from countries all around the world where the prevailing ideology is to kill Americans in the United States.

So the truth is really, depressingly, stranger than even fiction here because the potential for us to wake up someday and have a terrorist attack in our country as a result of uncontrolled migration across the southern border is very real, and it is growing by the day.

Yes, there is a humanitarian and security crisis at the border, and it is impacting all of our country. That is the reason you have Senators from Nebraska and Utah and Wyoming coming to the border, because, as several of them said, every State is now a border State. Recently, one of our colleagues from Montana was there, and he said: You know, the fentanyl that comes across the border has made its way into the communities in my State, in Montana, in the northern border of our country.

So every State has become a border State as a result of the Biden open border policy.

We know migrants are being exploited and abused. American families are being terrorized by the opioid epidemic. Cities in Texas and across the country are struggling to keep up with the mass humanitarian needs of migrants. Yes, we heard from Mayor Adams from New York; we heard from Mayor Bowser here in Washington, DC; the mayor of Chicago; the Governors of Massachusetts and Illinois. This is a national crisis.

The situation is extremely complex, but the solution doesn't have to be. We need deterrence through consequences. That is what the Border Patrol tells me and tells anybody who will listen. If there are no consequences to entering the country illegally, people are going to just keep coming. I think we all understand why. But if we are going to deliver consequences, which means to deter more people from coming, that means ending catch-and-release, which is the policy of the Biden administration. We need to actually remove people who have no legal reason to remain in the United States. That means expedited removal. We need to send a message to people who have no legal reasons to remain in the United States that if they come, they will not be able to stay. It is really not any more complicated than that. Congress doesn't need to do a rewrite of our immigration laws in order to give President Biden the authority to do these things. He already has that authority under existing law, but he won't use it.

Deterrence is a key component of a safe and secure border. Until the administration starts deterring would-be migrants with frivolous asylum claims from even approaching our border, we will remain in a constant state of crisis. And I predict it will get worse. We have just seen a record number of people coming across the border. That number is going to continue to grow as more and more people know that if they show up at the border and say the magic words, President Biden will say: Come on in.

The only way to truly understand what is happening at the border is to see it firsthand and to speak with the individuals who live and work in our border communities. I have had the pleasure, as I said earlier, of taking dozens of Senators, both Republicans and Democrats, down to the border to hear from these men and women firsthand. I appreciate all of our colleagues who made the trip and continue to advocate for smart border policies, especially, most recently, Senators Barrasso, Lee, and Ricketts.

I want to thank the many men and women in the Rio Grande Valley who took the time out of their schedule to speak with us. Their input is absolutely invaluable to the work of the Senate. I am extremely grateful to each of them.

I want to especially thank the law enforcement officers who are on the frontlines of this crisis. Every day, Federal, State, and local law enforcement put their lives on the line to safeguard our border and stop potentially dangerous individuals and drugs from reaching our communities, but they need our help, and they are not getting it today. They deserve more than our gratitude; they deserve our commitment to fix this crisis in any way we can.

President Biden has not only proven himself incapable but also unwilling to address this border crisis, so Congress needs to step in and fill the void. In the coming weeks, the Senate will advance legislation to address some of our greatest national security threats, including action to address the border crisis.

As my colleagues and I saw last week, this crisis cannot be fixed with more no-strings-attached funding. We will not fund current border policies under the Biden administration. As long as a flood of humanity is coming across the border at this pace, it doesn't matter how many Border Patrol agents or immigration judges we have; it won't be enough.

The only way to address this crisis is by deterring more illegal immigration, and the simplest way of doing that is by delivering consequences for entering the country illegally. It is a tried-and-true strategy that has worked countless times before.

In the coming weeks, I hope Congress will step in where President Biden has refused and establish deterrence once again.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, as we all know by now, last Friday, President Biden submitted an emergency funding request to Congress. As we all expected, it calls for funding to support Israel as it defends itself against the terrorist organization known as Hamas, a proxy for Iran. It also asks for funding for Ukraine, which continues its heroic defense against a Russian invasion. It requests funding to strengthen security in the Indo-Pacific to help our friends and allies combat increasingly aggressive threats from China.

And, notably, President Biden has also called for emergency funding to help address the crisis at the southern border. At face value, this shouldn't be surprising. After all, the Biden border crisis has been raging for nearly 3 years; and, somehow, it continues to get worse every day.

Last month, Customs and Border Protection logged nearly 270,000-- 270,000--migrant crossings at the southern border, making it the busiest month on record. In total, nearly 2.5 million migrants have entered the United States since last fiscal year--or during the last fiscal year. That is another record.

We don't have the resources or the personnel to deal with this influx in what we all should hope would be an efficient, fair, and humane way. And that needs to change.

First of all, we need to wrest immigration out of the hands of the cartels who care nothing about the people who smuggle individuals into the United States for money--a lot of money. It is a very profitable business. And, also, there are affiliated cartels that are smuggling the drugs into the United States that killed 108,000 Americans last year alone. That is also the source of a lot of money for these criminal organizations, again, who care nothing about the life or welfare of individuals, either the migrants or people in the United States. That is what happens when you outsource immigration controls to criminal organizations as the Biden administration has done.

The President's funding request does include a few items that are definitely needed, starting with additional Border Patrol agents. Personnel shortages have impacted all of our missions at the border, including those that have nothing to do with migration. More Border Patrol agents would help fill the gaps and alleviate the strain on frontline law enforcement; but this change is meaningless unless we address the polygraph examination, which is a major barrier for hiring.

Just to be clear, the policy on passing a polygraph varies so much from Agency to Agency. But currently, the policy employed by the Border Patrol has basically made it impossible to fill the quota of Border Patrol agents that we seek to hire.

The administration has also asked for 375 new immigration judge teams. There is no doubt that our immigration courts are drowning under a rapidly growing case backlog. In 2020, before President Biden took office, there were just under 1.3 million cases pending in the immigration courts. But thanks to the administration's current policies, the backlog has now doubled to 2.6 million cases. Simply adding more judges will be an exercise in futility unless we also address the pull factors or the policies that are causing the backlog to grow at such an alarming pace.

I am reminded of something the former Chief of the Border Patrol said amidst another migration surge. In the summer of 2019, border crossings were on the rise; although, they pale in comparison to what we are seeing now.

Then-Chief Carla Provost testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee and talked about what it would take to fix the situation. She said:

We cannot address this crisis by shifting more resources.

It's like holding a bucket under a faucet. It doesn't matter

how many buckets [you have if you don't turn the water off].

The President's request for emergency funding is a bucket, a relatively small one. But it does nothing to stop the flow. The only way to do that is by deterrence, and the only way to achieve deterrence is by delivering consequences for entering the country illegally. We need to send a message to the people who have no legitimate reason to remain in the United States that if they come, they will not be able to stay.

President Biden does not seem to understand that. And in his emergency funding request, he asks Congress to provide for noncustodial housing for migrants and expedited removal proceedings.

This is the process that allows law enforcement to quickly remove migrants who have no legitimate reason to remain in the United States. I am talking about expedited removal now, the idea that we would release migrants who are on the verge of being deported is patently absurd and just shows the chaos and confusion and the lack of any logical coherence in the Biden border policy.

Anyone who believes that these individuals would come back for their removal hearing is living in an alternate reality. This would constitute yet another massive pull factor attracting people to make that journey to the border. President Biden also called on Congress to expand the so-called lawful pathways his administration created. But to be clear, there is nothing lawful about these pathways.

The administration, once again, has usurped Congress's authority in paroling entire classes of migrants into the United States. ``Parole'' is a technical term. It basically means to release them, even if they are not claiming asylum, which the Biden administration continues to do on a massive scale--simply release people into the United States.

This is, unsurprisingly, a violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and any effort to expand these so-called pathways is a nonstarter in Congress. We will not legitimatize these unauthorized programs and provide an even bigger incentive for migrants to make the dangerous journey to the border.

We need to discourage people who have no legitimate claim to come to the United States this way, not bolster an incentive package. In my view, there are two broad goals that need to be met in order to address this crisis in a meaningful way: First, we need to end catch-and- release. So far, the administration has sent a message to people around the world that if you enter the United States illegally, there is a good chance you will be able to stay, which, in turn, only encourages more people to come--just show up at the border, say the magic words, and then disappear into the great American heartland. We need to revise this message and make it clear that only those with a legitimate claim can remain in the United States. Ending catch-and-release is the most effective way to do that.

No. 2, the administration must remove people who have been determined to have no legal right to enter or remain in the United States. The Biden administration has proven it does not take this responsibility seriously.

In 2021, arrests and deportation by ICE, known as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reached an alltime low. So not only are more people coming into the country than we have ever seen before, but fewer people are going out who have no legitimate basis to stay here.

In 2021, the Agency carried out fewer than 60,000 deportations that year, the lowest number on record by a long shot. The following year, the number of deportations increased slightly but not nearly enough to make an impact and certainly not enough to discourage people from continuing to come illegally to enter the United States.

Apprehensions are at record highs; deportations are at historic lows; and it is clear that this is all part of somebody's plan. Despite having every tool at its disposal, the administration is trying to move a mountain with a teaspoon. It is doing just enough to make some people think they are doing something meaningful without having any real impact.

While I am glad President Biden seems to have awakened to the fact that the status quo at the border is unsustainable, his emergency funding request shows he is still absolutely disinterested in solving this crisis. He has proven, once again, that he doesn't care about deterring illegal immigration; he doesn't care about delivering consequences to individuals who break our laws; and he doesn't care about solving this crisis. He merely wants to ``manage'' the flow, not stop it.

This is not a serious proposal. Some of the proposed spending is actually harmful, and the positive aspects are just window dressing. The President needs to get serious about the border, and what he sent us is not serious. One thing is certain, the Senate will not rubberstamp his paltry border request. You can be certain of that.

This emergency funding bill will absolutely include more funding to address the border crisis, but this is about more than funding; it is about the appropriate policies. We need real changes that produce real consequences, real ways to turn off the flow of illegal immigration and continuing to enrich the criminal organizations that smuggle people and drugs across our border.

Later this week, I am eager to talk with some of the true experts on the border crisis about the current challenges they are facing. Senator Cruz and I are leading another visit to the Rio Grande Valley, and I am glad that Senator Ricketts, Senator Lee, and Senator Barrasso will join us. We are going to spend some time talking to the Border Patrol agents who actually work on the ground as well as the Customs officers who deal with the consequences of the administration's failed policies day in and day out.

We will tour the border to see how virtually anyone--from vulnerable migrant children to dangerous drug cartel members, to people on the Terrorist Watchlist--are able to enter the United States. And we will hear from State officials, local law enforcement, and landowners about the broader impact of the border crisis in communities across our State.

It is going to be 2 busy and informative days, and, as always, I am grateful to the men and women who take the time to meet with us who are doing the hard job. It would be nice if they knew that this administration had their back, but they are demoralized, despite the fact that they continue to do their job, day in and day out, because they realize that the Biden border policies are designed to fail.

Their insight, however, is invaluable to my work here in the Senate, and there couldn't be a more important time to hear from the frontline experts who know about this crisis and how to solve it better than anyone else.

I especially commend my colleagues from Wyoming, Utah, and Nebraska for taking the time to make this important trip and their willingness to hear from Senator Cruz and my constituents on the frontlines of this issue.

I yield the floor.

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

Mr. President, more Jews died on October 7 than have died since the Holocaust. As the war in the Middle East wages on, the world is learning more details about the horrors being unleashed by Hamas, which, as the world now knows, is a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. This has been going on for a long time.

Over the past week and a half, we have heard horrifying stories of atrocities committed against the Israeli people. Last week, I met at Temple Emanu-El, a synagogue in Dallas, TX, and talked to a mom named Kim who has two sons who were born in Dallas. They are native Texans, American citizens, and are now fighting in the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces.

Another woman had been a teacher of a kibbutz in Israel but had recently relocated to the United States. She recounted watching her phone all of a sudden becoming deluged with messages from that kibbutz about Hamas killers coming in and indiscriminately killing babies, children, and other civilians.

These terrorists have no conscience. They have no moral standards. They not only murdered babies and children, they raped, tortured, and beheaded other innocent civilians. They dismembered the bodies of their victims and captured hostages to use as human shields or human bargaining chips.

It gives me no pleasure to recount the horrific evil that we are seeing played out in real time on our TV screens and in social media. But it is important that we acknowledge the reality of this evil because, if we don't--if we brush it under the rug and we act like, well, there is really some moral equivalency between the Palestinian cause and the Israeli nation and that somehow Hamas is justified in committing these acts--we will have bought the propaganda of Hamas hook, line, and sinker.

Of course, we all know that Hamas is a proxy for the Supreme Leader in Iran and that the IRGC, the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Quds Force has helped equip and train Hamas and Hezbollah in Lebanon in the northern part of Israel, and that this is part of a long-term effort to extinguish the Jewish State and to eliminate it from the map.

This is not a spontaneous act. I know that written in many of the newspapers the news media has said: Well, Iran didn't know about this.

Well, they may not have known the timing and they may not have known the scale of these attacks, but there is no question they enabled them. And it was their joint cause between Hamas and Iran to commit these atrocities against the people of Israel as part of their desire to extinguish them from the face of the planet.

These terrorists were carrying documents that explicitly outlined the mission's objective: Kill as many individuals as possible and capture hostages. Those were the orders given to the Hamas terrorists. Other documents included detailed plans to target elementary schools--target elementary schools and a youth center in Israel, and specific plans to target the most vulnerable population--women and children.

In an interview on CNN, Israeli President Isaac Herzog provided even more details about the instructions given to these killers. He showed a booklet that was found on the body of a terrorist. It is a pocket-sized pamphlet that provides step-by-step instructions on how to torture and kidnap innocent people.

So the evidence is crystal clear. This is an evil terrorist group whose only goal is to eliminate Israel and the Jewish people and if they can't do that, to kill as many Jews as they possibly can.

In the wake of these attacks, we have seen an overwhelming show of support--certainly here in Congress and across America--for the Israeli people and a powerful condemnation of Hamas.

Here in the Senate, where disagreement seems to be the rule these days, I am glad this is an issue that has garnered overwhelming bipartisan support. In the coming days, I expect the Senate to pass a resolution affirming Israel's right to self-defense--literally its right to exist--and committing American support.

I want to thank Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Chairman Cardin, and Ranking Member Risch for introducing this resolution in the Foreign Relations Committee. I am proud to be one of the 99 Senators who has cosponsored the resolution, and I hope we can advance it formally soon. It is important that the United States is the leader of the free world. It is important that we voice our clear and unwavering support for Israel in the face of this evil. It is important not only what we say, but it is important what we do.

The administration, we know, is preparing a supplemental funding request to give Israel the weapons and the humanitarian relief they need to sustain themselves. I expect this will include weapons, intelligence support, humanitarian aid, and other various and sundry items. Given the constant threats they face from Hamas terrorists and the threat from a potential enlargement of the war if Hezbollah were to join in, it is absolutely critical that we treat this request with urgency. Israel is our closest ally in the Middle East, and it deserves our full support both in words and in action.

While support for Israel has been overwhelming, a small but loud minority has tried to establish some false equivalency between Hamas's attack and Israel's defense. These individuals have offered bogus assessments that somehow Israel is to blame. Sadly, many of these individuals cannot even offer ignorance as an excuse because they are students and leaders at some of the most prestigious universities in America.

A coalition of students at Harvard issued a statement, claiming that Israel is ``entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.''

The president of New York University's Student Bar Association falsely claimed that ``Israel bears full responsibility for this tremendous loss of life.'' It is no surprise that this young woman's peers denounced this statement and her future employer rescinded its job offer.

Leaders at Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Stanford, and other elite schools have faced fierce and much-deserved backlash over their responses to this war.

Fortunately, these views do not constitute a majority, and it is important that those who have the evidence to back it up speak out and call it what it is, which is Iranian propaganda.

One prominent voice of reason among college administrators is our own former colleague Ben Sasse, who now serves as the president of the University of Florida. In a letter to Jewish students and alumni, he pointed out the truth, which is what his colleagues in ``elite academia'' could not bear to say. He called Hamas's actions evil, and he said there is no defense for terrorism.

It is embarrassing that many students, faculty, and administrators at some of America's most prestigious universities cannot even acknowledge that simple fact. It is no wonder people begin to wonder what is being taught in our colleges and universities. Are our children who are attending these colleges and universities being brainwashed? being only told one side of the story? intimidating people who have different points of view and silencing them from speaking out and telling the truth? Unfortunately, I think that is happening on a regular basis at some of these most elite colleges and universities. Our kids are being brainwashed.

While the rhetoric alone is deeply concerning, it is horrifying to see that some of this has turned into actual violence. An Israeli student at Columbia University was assaulted with a stick outside the university's library. Synagogues in Utah were forced to evacuate after receiving bomb threats, which, thankfully, were not credible but were disturbing nonetheless. Swastikas and Nazi flags have been spotted in cities across the country from California to New York.

Let's just state the truth: There is no space, no room, no argument for hate or anti-Semitism in the United States, period.

Now, we do believe in free speech. We do believe that those who have different points of view deserve the right, at some point, to speak their mind. But those of us who know better, who know what the facts are, who have the courage and backbone to stand up and tell

the truth, need to speak out as well and just as forcefully so the American people can know the truth and our actions can follow the evidence.

This is a time for moral clarity. We are watching a battle of good versus evil, and there can be no ambiguity about where America stands. President Biden traveled to Tel Aviv yesterday to affirm America's unyielding support for Israel as it defends itself. Good for him. I am glad he made the trip, and I hope the Israeli people can find some comfort and some confidence in the message of solidarity.

If Israel needs weapons, which it does, particularly for the Iron Dome, which is the anti-rocket defense weapon that is designed to knock out these hundreds of rockets being launched from Gaza into Israel-- they need the Iron Dome in order to stop those rockets from hitting innocent civilians. But, of course, they need increased access to our intelligence capabilities to supplement their own, humanitarian aid, diplomatic support. Whatever it is, the United States will provide it. Israel has our complete and unwavering support.

As each of us knows, support for Israel is only part of the equation. America cannot relinquish its leadership role in the world, which means we cannot simply replenish Israel's arsenal or bolster its efforts to defend itself. We must also adopt a new approach to deal with those who are spreading terrorism in the Middle East--namely Iran. Iran is the leading state sponsor of international terrorism, and it has bankrolled and trained Hamas.

Again, I am troubled by this idea that somehow Iran was not involved in this attack. Of course, they were, by sending $100 million a year to Hezbollah and Hamas with which to train them and then by providing weapons, with the objective of wiping Israel off the map. The blood is on Iran's, including the Supreme Leader's, hands, and he is proud of it because his goal is to wipe Israel off the map by any means necessary. Iran has provided Hamas and other terrorist proxies in the region, as I said, with funding, weapons, and training to enable the types of attacks we have witnessed.

We should be absolutely clear. President Bush, some 20 years ago, made a fairly controversial statement at the time by identifying the axis of evil--he called it--which included Iran, Iraq at the time, which was under the rule of Saddam Hussein, and North Korea; but, today, that axis should include not only Iran but also Russia, which is more than happy to have its ally Iran distract the world from what they are doing in Ukraine, and, of course, the Chinese, who are more than happy, in exchange for the oil that they import from places like Iran and Russia, to provide support for their evil aims.

The Supreme Leader of Iran once labeled the United States as Iran's ``No. 1 enemy.'' There is no doubt that Iran has serious skin in this game, and it has a lot to gain from Hamas.

President Biden needs to reassess his approach in dealing with Iran. Rather than appeasement, which has allowed them to circumvent the sanctions that we put on, for example, oil exports, they are now back in business, and their economy is booming as a result of the oil they are selling to countries like China and others. And the idea that President Biden would accept anything, any kind of deal--even a bad deal--on the Iranian nuclear weapon development is giving them the confidence that they can continue not only to negotiate a weak agreement but also continue to sell drones to Russia with which to kill Ukrainians. Eventually, they will be able to succeed in their No. 1 goal, which is to develop a nuclear weapon.

Can you imagine, given the death and destruction in the Middle East now that has been caused by Iranian-sponsored proxies like Hezbollah and Hamas, if that same country--the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism-- got a nuclear weapon? That cannot happen. That must not happen. So I hope these events have caused the administration to reconsider its approach.

The series of missteps has projected an image of weakness to our adversaries, who are eager to exploit any cracks in our defense. Appeasement, as we learned from World War II, is not a viable strategy because countries like Iran, led by the Supreme Leader and this theocracy which is bent on the destruction of Israel, can't be reasoned with. There is not really a cost-benefit analysis. They are not rational actors; they are ideologues determined to accomplish their goal, which is to wipe out countries like Israel.

So we need to get to work and work together to confront the threats that Iran and its proxies present and reestablish a credible deterrence in the Middle East. Until that happens, we can expect assaults on Israel and other pro-democracy movements in the Middle East. They will be under constant and increased assault.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Mr. President, as we all know, the war between Israel and Hamas is intensifying this week.

Just as any sovereign nation would have the right to defend itself against a terrorist attack, Israel has that right as well. It took swift and decisive action to retaliate against the terrorists who invaded its land and murdered its people, but Israel now has the responsibility to eliminate Hamas's leadership and to make sure that Hamas is incapable of mounting a similar terrorist attack against Israel in the future.

To that end, the Israel Defense Forces are preparing a ground assault against the Hamas forces in Gaza. Obviously, this is a terrible situation, but we shouldn't be confused about the right and the necessity of Israel to defend itself and to eliminate the Hamas threat. Deterrence is the best way to maintain the peace and to keep bad actors like Iranian proxies, like Hamas, from doing what they did in Israel. But, with that having failed for a variety of reasons, it is now important to give Israel the flexibility they need in order to do what they must.

Hamas's unprovoked attack on Israel has killed nearly 1,400 people, including 30 Americans. That point should not be lost. American citizens have been killed in Israel by this terrorist attack. In addition, nearly 200 people have been taken hostage, and their fate remains in question. And, given the way that Hamas has used Palestinian civilians as human shields, the number of casualties in Gaza continues to rise.

Hamas's war on Israel is not fueled by a quest for liberation or freedom or anything noble but, rather, by hate. This is a clear attempt to eliminate the Jewish State by any means necessary, a goal of the No. 1 terrorist state in the world, which is Iran, and their proxies--Hamas in the south, Hezbollah in the north.

Hamas's war on Israel is pure evil, and the United States cannot and will not be silent. We have the responsibility, moral and otherwise, to support Israel with our words but, more importantly, with our actions. The United States must support Israel without delay or hesitation. We must commit ourselves to defeating this evil by, with, and through our Israeli allies.

I, like many of us, am a student of history because it helps us understand the challenges we are experiencing today and realize that many of those challenges have precedents--things that have happened in the past that should inform us about how we should respond today. As Israel and Hamas continue fighting, it can be easy to mistake this as some isolated or, perhaps, local or regional conflict, but that could not be further from the truth.

I think back to what British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain said in the fall of 1938 about the escalating conflict between Nazi Germany as it prepared to invade Czechoslovakia.

Neville Chamberlain famously said:

[It is] a quarrel in a far away country between people of

whom we know nothing.

Well, today, 85 years later, it is easy to see how misguided those views were, because less than 2 years after Chamberlain's remark, Nazi bombs fell on London. This faraway quarrel quickly escalated into a global war that became the deadliest conflict in human history.

I say this only to emphasize that the United States and our allies cannot brush aside this conflict and treat it as an inconsequential regional dispute. This is, in my view, a war between good and evil, and the world is carefully watching to see how America responds.

There is no question that among the most engaged spectators are Russia and China. Russia's war against Ukraine has been raging for more than a year and a half, and it is watching--Russia is watching--to see if America's support for Ukraine erodes to the point where Russia can gain an upper hand. Mr. Putin is depending on our fatigue or our being distracted from the job at hand, helping Ukraine defend itself.

At the same time, China is preparing its plans to invade Taiwan. President Xi has instructed the People's Liberation Army to be ready to do so by the year 2027, but as we know, there is no guarantee of any particular timetable. President Xi could decide to go at any time. China is hoping that the United States will be distracted by the conflict in the Middle East as it continues to build contingencies related to Taiwan.

Both see the war--both, that is Russia and China see the war--in Israel as a global distraction that could work to their benefit. Now, this is not a reason to avoid U.S. support for Israel. In fact, it is a good reason America's attention and support are so critical at this time. Russia and China and, really, the rest of the world, including our friends and allies, are watching our actions very closely. They want to know whether we are dependable, whether our allies can rely on us to stay in the fight against this evil.

Russia and China are seeing just how far they can push the boundaries of international norms before members of the rules-based international order react. What we are doing for Ukraine, together with our European allies, and what we will do for Israel are subjects of great interest in Russia and China. We cannot bow down in the face of attacks on freedom-loving people whether those attacks happen in Israel, Ukraine, or Taiwan.

Now, I know many of us are not eager to embrace America's leadership role in the world. We think, well, we have got problems here at home-- and we certainly do--but America's leadership is indispensable in rallying similarly minded nations to fight evil like this attack against Israel. Without the United States' leadership, it will never happen.

As the fighting in Israel continues, the United States must remain committed to two clear objectives. First and foremost, we must support Israel, and we must provide Israel, along with our other allies, what it needs not only to fight but to win this war. They don't need our direction or our lecturing. They know what they need to do, and we need to help them do it. That includes military aid, intelligence support, and humanitarian assistance, today and in the future, to help Israel

defend its sovereignty and protect its people in a very, very dangerous neighborhood. Israel is the lone beacon of democracy in the Middle East, and we have a national interest in supporting one of our most critical allies as it responds to this terrorist invasion.

Our second goal is to prevent this war from widening. Hamas does not operate in a vacuum. It is a beneficiary of funding, weapons, and training from Iran--the world's leading sponsor of international terrorism.

I have been disturbed as I have read some press reports where Biden administration officials have said: Well, we don't see Iran's fingerprints on this attack. But that is like looking at this situation through a soda straw--ignoring history; ignoring the fact that Iran has been at war with the West, including the United States, for decades, killing American soldiers in Iraq by providing explosively formed penetrators, using proxy groups like Hamas and Hezbollah to commit terrorist attacks. So Iran's fingerprints are definitely on this attack. They may have been surprised about the timing of the attack, but attacking Israel and killing innocent Israelis is the way they do business.

As I have said for years now, Iran has provided Hamas with the money, the weapons, and the military training that it uses against Israel and other allies of the United States. According to the State Department, Iran provides up to $100 million a year to the Palestinian terrorist groups, including Hamas--$100 million a year. And people in the Biden administration have said: We don't see Iran's involvement in this attack.

Give me a break. It doesn't matter if Iran called the plays for the attack or knew about the specific timing. Tehran has bankrolled Hamas's arsenal and its capabilities and is cheering on Hamas as it kills innocent Israelis--men, women, and children.

Iran gave Hamas the tools it needed to attack Israel and to further its goal of eliminating the Jewish State. The question now is, Will Iran use this opportunity to escalate? That is why U.S. warships are positioned in the Mediterranean--to provide the deterrence necessary to deter Iran and its proxies, including Hezbollah, from joining the conflict.

Our second goal must be to prevent this conflict from widening outside of Israel. The United States has a long and proud history of supporting Israel, and it is important for Hamas and its allies to understand that America's support for Israel is not just about empty words. We are committed to providing Israel with the resources it needs to defend itself whether that comes in the form of weapons, intelligence support, humanitarian assistance, or anything else.

Israel has received longstanding support from the United States and our allies, and I hope that Iran and Hezbollah recognize the high cost of expanding this conflict.

In an era of near-constant division and disagreement in Congress, I am glad this is an issue that has garnered broad, bipartisan support. Republicans and Democrats are united in purpose, as are the American people. We are committed to aiding Israel's fight against these terrorists and defending democracy in every corner of the globe.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, 9 days have passed since Hamas launched its unprovoked attack on the State of Israel. Hamas fighters have entered Israel by land, air, and sea. They brutally murdered, abused, and kidnapped innocent civilians. They paraded hostages through the streets of Gaza like trophies.

Hamas terrorists--and that is exactly what they are--killed at least 1,400 Israelis, making it the deadliest days for Jews since the Holocaust. Nearly 200 additional people were kidnapped by Hamas, including at least 13 Americans who are currently unaccounted for, on top of the 30 Americans who we know have been killed in the attack.

Since this war began--and that is what it is, a war on the State of Israel--we have witnessed evil in its purest form. There is no excusing, no equivocating, no explaining the actions of Hamas. It is not trying to protect the Palestinian people or promote freedom; Hamas's singular goal is to annihilate the Jewish people and wipe Israel off the map. Any attempt to explain or justify or provide some argument of moral equivalence is completely wrong, and it is dangerous. It plays directly into these terrorists' hands.

First of all, Israel has a right to defend itself. It has a right to exist--something Hamas wishes was not the case. If Hamas or any other terrorist group launches an attack on Israel, its government has both the right and the responsibility to protect its citizens.

Second, the number of civilian casualties on both sides, particularly those children and babies, is absolutely appalling and heartbreaking. But then again, the innocent always bear the ultimate cost of war.

Over the last several days, we have seen videos and heard firsthand accounts of the terror Hamas has unleashed against Israel and the Israeli people. These images and stories are extremely difficult to watch, but they are also very important to share. People need to know what is happening. They need to know the truth, not some

candy-coated version of the truth. The people of the United States and the rest of the world need to understand the magnitude and the threat of what is unfolding in the Middle East.

Texas, I am happy to say, is home to a sizable Jewish community. For these individuals, the war in Israel is far more than just a sad clip or the most recent news; it is a deeply personal attack on their faith and their family, because many Texans--many Americans--have relatives living in Israel as I speak.

Last week, I visited the Temple Emanu-El in Dallas to hear from several members of the Jewish community in my State whose families and friends were directly impacted by this war against Israel. I heard from one incredible mom, Kim, whose sons--26-year-old Benji and 24-year-old Sammy--both serve in the Israel Defense Forces. They were born and raised in Dallas and moved to Israel after high school and joined the IDF. Benji's wife Leah is a New York native and also a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. Kim says she struggles to sleep at night. She is constantly checking her phone to see if she is getting messages and to make sure her two sons are safe.

I also heard from another brave woman, Aya, whose family moved from Israel to Dallas just 2 months ago. Aya and her husband and her three children came to the United States from a small kibbutz near the Gaza Strip, where she was a teacher. She said she and her husband were awakened last Saturday by a string of messages on her phone from friends, neighbors, and former students describing the terror that was unfolding in their former home. Aya told me about conversations with former students who were terrified that they might be next. She shared stories of people fleeing and showed me photos of four people who were believed to have been kidnapped and two others who had been killed.

As hard as it is to hear these tragic stories--and I know there were even more difficult ones to share--they help us all understand the depravity and the evil of what Hamas has unleashed on innocent men, women, and children--civilians--in Israel. Although this is thousands of miles away from where we are, it affects all of us deeply.

Of course, these pictures show the brutality of Hamas and underscore the need to continue our support for the nation of Israel as it tries to eradicate this terrorist threat. Over the last several days, the support for Israel has been overwhelming. It transcends party lines, religion, race, and ethnicity. This is not an issue of opinion; this is a battle between right and wrong, good and evil.

Of course, the United States has a long and proud history of supporting Israel since its inception in 1948, and it is important for Hamas and its allies--and they, of course, are a proxy force for Iran, the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism, as is Hezbollah in Lebanon--it is important for the terrorists and their sponsors to understand that America's support for Israel is not limited to rhetoric. If Israel needs weapons, the United States will provide them. If Israel needs support gathering or analyzing intelligence, the United States will provide it. If Israel needs help with humanitarian assistance, medical supplies--whatever they need--the United States and the people of this great country will answer the call.

The United States will not toe the line between good and evil. We will stand with our allies as they defend their home against a terrorist invasion, just as we did when cowardly terrorists took 3,000 lives here in Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania about 20 years ago.

As the fighting continues, I am reminded of the saying that has been around for years. It goes: If Hamas laid down its weapons today, there would be no more violence. If Israel laid down its weapons today, there would be no more Israel.

Hamas is not fighting for peace. It is not fighting to defend their way of life or their territory. It is trying to wipe out an entire people. It is trying to wipe Israel off the map--with the help, support, and training, the aiding and abetting by Iran, the No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism, as I said. That is what is at stake here.

Israel has been the lone beacon of democracy in the Middle East. It is a sacred home for the Jewish people. Christians travel to Israel each year to look at the place where their faith and their religion were born.

Of course, Israel is also a longtime friend and ally of the United States and has always had America's full and unwavering support. Whether there is a Democrat or a Republican in the White House, whether Democrats have the majority or are in the minority or vice versa, the United States has always supported Israel and will continue to do so during these very difficult and tragic days.

This week, the Senate is expected to pass a bipartisan resolution condemning Hamas's attack on Israel and expressing our support for Israel's response. I am proud to be a cosponsor of that legislation--or that resolution, and I hope it will pass the Senate with a unanimous vote.

America must remain steadfast in its commitment to support Israel and continue to counter threats posed by terrorist organizations around the world. As I have said, we have been the victim of some of these terrorist organizations, and Americans have lost their lives as a result of our failure of imagination to dream of the possibility that they might not just attack over there but would actually attack us here.

Of course, we all hope and pray for a day in the future when the Middle East can be a place of peace, stability, and democracy. We simply will not reach that point without a strong and secure Israel.

I stand in full support of Israel and will continue to advocate for any form of assistance she needs, whether it is military, humanitarian, or otherwise.

We must stand with Israel. The United States does not bow down to terrorist organizations, and we will not allow our allies to be bullied and beaten by Hamas or any other terrorist organization.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

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

Madam President, according to news reports, September was another recordbreaking month at the southern border. My State, of course, has 1,200 miles of common border with Mexico so we are bearing the brunt and have borne the brunt of this flow of humanity, this humanitarian crisis, which has created now a public safety crisis as a result of unrestrained illegal immigration.

News reports are that more than 260,000--more than a quarter of a million--more than a quarter of a million migrants crossed the border last month, making it the busiest month on record. I know sometimes it is hard to grasp the immensity of these numbers, but let me put it another way. It is an average of 8,600 migrants coming to the United States every day. Of course, when they come to Texas or Arizona or California, they don't stay there. That is why you are hearing from the Governor of Illinois, the Governor of New York, the mayor of New York City, talking about the impact on their States and their cities.

Of course, we all know that the fentanyl crisis, which is part and parcel of this open border, has taken the lives of 71,000 Americans last year alone. We know where the precursors come from. They come from China. We know where it is manufactured--in Mexico--and then it comes across the border. The business model of the cartels is flood the border with people, divert the attention of the Border Patrol who have to engage in pushing paper and processing these migrants. Meanwhile, the unprotected border allows for the surge of drugs across the border, and they end up in all 50 States and in every community.

So it is an average of 8,600 migrants per day, but we have seen surges up to 11,000 people a day, and it isn't going to get any better unless something changes. Former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson once warned that even 1,000 migrants a day overwhelm the system. We are now operating at more than 8\1/2\ times that pace, on average.

When migration levels are so high, it impacts all of our missions at the border, even those that have nothing to do with migration. Law enforcement, as I said, shifted from the frontlines. Instead of stopping dangerous drugs, many agents find themselves pushing paper and changing diapers because we have seen 300,000 unaccompanied children come across the border since President Biden took office.

Unfortunately, as the New York Times has documented, in at least 85,000 instances, when Health and Human Services--the Office of Refugee Relocation--made a wellness call to the sponsors for those children, there was no answer and no followup by the administration. So the administration can't tell you whether they are being trafficked for sex or whether they are being forced to work in dangerous jobs, whether they are getting healthcare, whether they are going to school. They just can't tell you, and they, frankly, don't care. They say: It is not our job anymore once we place them with sponsors.

This is up to the Child Protective Services in each of our States. As the Presiding Officer knows, all of our States are seeing tremendous caseloads in their Child Protective Services, and they can't handle what they have now much less the thousands more coming each day.

Under President Biden's leadership, the crisis at the border just gets worse. As I said, we have hit a record of 260,000 a month. The United States has pretty much broken every record on the books at the border and broken those records again. The busiest days, years, months at border crossings have all happened under President Biden's watch. With each day that passes, the border crisis is affecting the safety and security of our country, and the White House refuses to accept any responsibility or to change anything about the way they operate or to reach out or to even receive suggestions or have a willingness to meet to try to solve the problem. They just show no interest.

The President and his administration act like their hands are tied and they can't do anything, but that is simply false. In the 1990s, President Clinton signed a law establishing what is called expedited removal. It allows the Border Patrol to detain and quickly remove illegal immigrants. Expedited removals have been utilized by Republican and Democratic administrations over the years. It is a powerful deterrent, and what we lack now is any sense of deterrence.

I learned with interest today that the mayor of New York is making a trip to Central and South America to give the message: Don't come. Don't come to the United States. Don't come to New York City.

Of course, that voice is lost among the images on TV that demonstrate that people who do come can successfully make their way to the border and into the country. Of course, then there are people who successfully make it and call their relatives back home and say: I made it. You can, too. Come.

So there is no deterrence, but there would be if we used the law that President Clinton signed which allows for expedited removal, because not all of the people coming to the border are claiming asylum, but they are being paroled in the nomenclature of our immigration laws. They are being released into the interior of the United States without even claiming any legitimate basis for being here.

President Biden has the authority to conduct expedited removals today. He had that authority from day one, but he refuses to utilize it. Rather than stand up new facilities or hire more personnel to make the expedited removal process function, the Biden administration has simply been releasing people into the interior of the country at an unprecedented pace.

CBS News reports that the Department of Homeland Security has released most migrants into the interior in recent months, instructing them to undergo immigration court proceedings which are years away. One of the New York newspapers recently reported that in order to get a hearing in an immigration court in New York, it could take up to 10 years.

The administration has engaged in catch-and-release on an unprecedented scale, and communities across our country are paying the price. Their children are being stolen by fentanyl. Their streets and sidewalks are filled with migrants who have nowhere to go. Their city budgets are being wrecked by a crisis that should be managed by the Federal Government.

I have often asked myself, what is it going to take for President Biden to care and do something about this crisis? He seems unfazed by the more than 6 million border crossings that have happened since he became President, not to mention the 1.5 million ``got-aways.''

He seems unconcerned that this crisis serves as a perfect diversion for the drug cartels that are trafficking fentanyl and other deadly drugs into the United States. He seems unbothered by the fact that the administration has lost track of hundreds of thousands of migrant children, including countless kids who we know are being exploited for child labor.

Thanks to President Biden's neglect, the border needs far more resources than ever. We need more agents; we need more detention space; more physical barriers; more immigration judge teams; and more flexibility to remove individuals who have no legitimate claim to remain in the United States.

I will give you an example of where one small tweak in our asylum practices could change a lot. It could send a message that you can't come unless you have a legitimate claim. It involves something like what is known as safe third country transit.

For example, about a year and a half ago, Del Rio, TX--a small town of 35,000 people--had 15,000 Haitians show up. You can imagine the chaos and the burden just of trying to take care of the basic human needs of that many people at one time. Well, it turns out these Haitians did not come from Haiti, at least not directly. They had been living in South America. But because they knew that they could show up at the border, say the magic words, and then be released into the interior of the country, only to be told to show up for an immigration court hearing years in the future, they knew they could beat the system. They knew how to exploit the system.

Well, neither little cities like Del Rio nor, apparently, big cities like New York City have the infrastructure or the ability to manage this many migrants in a fair, orderly, or humane way. But given the administration's complete lack of interest in solving the problem, the only thing I know to do is for Congress to act. We need Democrats and Republicans to try to work this out.

I have worked on immigration issues the whole time I have been in the Senate, and, believe me, it is one of the most frustrating topics to work on that I can imagine. But I don't think we have any choice but to keep trying. This should be a point of agreement among our colleagues on both sides of the aisle. After all, the impact of this crisis is now being felt far beyond the southern border.

The majority leader's home State of New York is overwhelmed, they say, by the burden of the migrant crisis even though Texas and Arizona, for example, have had millions of people come across our borders. Now Mayor Adams of New York City is crying uncle when 10,000 people show up in New York City. The Governor of New York and the mayor of New York City have sounded the alarm over the devastating impact of this crisis.

The majority whip's home of Illinois is feeling the burden too. Governor Pritzker recently made similar comments to the Governor of New York and to the mayor of New York City. The situation has become so untenable that hundreds of migrants have begun sleeping on the floors of police stations and the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

Cities more than 1,000 miles away from the southern border are overwhelmed by the unbearable weight of President Biden's border crisis. Thanks to his failed policies, every State has now become a border State. No community is immune to the consequences of the security failures at the southern border, including communities where I

have met with the parents of young people who lost their lives by consuming fentanyl, by taking a pill that they thought was innocuous but that had just enough fentanyl to take their lives.

We know where it is coming from, and it is a result of the failure to control the borders. There is nothing safe, orderly, or humane about the status quo; and our colleagues across the aisle need to work with us to fix it. This is now a nationwide disaster that affects every State and every community in America, and I hope we can rely on the courage and the leadership of the Members of the U.S. Congress to take action.

Border security is national security. It is not just a problem in my State or in Arizona or in New Mexico or in California. We need to be clear-eyed about the vulnerabilities at the border and what the ramifications of an open border are, and then we need to take decisive action to address them.

I yield the floor.

Mr. President, as the world now knows, over the weekend, Congress passed a short-term funding bill to prevent a government shutdown.

I want to commend Speaker McCarthy and the Members of the House on both sides of the aisle for finding a path forward to keep the government open for the next 45 days while the two Chambers advance full-year appropriations bills. The failure to advance those bills was, in fact, the reason why we came up against the end of the fiscal year deadline and had to resort to a short-term continuing resolution.

Now, I have made my feelings about government shutdowns crystal clear. They don't save any money. They don't solve any problems, and the same problems that caused you to shut down the government are still there staring you in the face when you reopen. They are not in anyone's best interest, unless you are concerned primarily with politics and the blame game.

When the government shuts down, millions of federal workers are left without being paid. Now, that doesn't mean they don't have to continue doing their jobs. It just means they won't get paid. That includes members of the military, our frontline border security personnel, and so many others. I am glad their families don't have to confront the reality of a shutdown today.

Beyond the impact on individual workers, shutdowns impact critical functions of the Federal Government. Immigration court hearings are canceled, resulting in an even greater backlog of pending cases. The E- Verify system, which is designed to allow employers to determine whether somebody can lawfully work in the United States, is taken offline, meaning employers have no way to verify job applicants' employment eligibility. In many cases, Federal investigators aren't able to pursue leads of potential criminal activity, develop evidence, or even bring enforcement actions against bad actors. Programs that support our veterans, low-income families, and other vulnerable Americans are temporarily paralyzed.

So there are no winners during a government shutdown. The overwhelming majority of us--and, I believe, of the country--understand that. So I am glad we were able to avert a crisis at the last minute. But the fact that we even landed in that situation represents a failure of Congress to govern, and it starts right here in the U.S. Senate.

At the start of the summer, it looked like the Senate would embrace the regular appropriations process, something it hadn't done in a long time. The day this Chamber passed the legislation raising the debt limit, Leader Schumer and Leader McConnell issued a joint statement about the process going forward. This is back when the debt ceiling legislation was signed. They said they asked the chair and vice chair of the Appropriations Committee to get regular order process started to move all 12 appropriations bills through the Appropriations Committee. The leadership also pledged to work in a bipartisanship fashion to advance funding bills and noted that ``expeditious floor consideration'' would be key to preventing automatic funding cuts.

Well, there is no question that our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee did their job. As a matter of fact, they exceeded their expectations. Under the leadership of Chairman Murray and Ranking Member Collins, the Appropriations Committee passed all 12 appropriations bills before the end of July. Each bill received, as I said, broad bipartisan support. More than half of them passed unanimously.

So our colleagues on the Appropriations Committee, on a bipartisan basis, handed the majority leader 12 bipartisan funding bills on a silver platter. They put the Senate in the strongest possible position to return to a transparent, orderly, and full-participation process, where every Member of the Senate would get a chance to participate in shaping those bills--hopefully, maybe even improving them.

But, as we know now, that is not what happened. The majority leader, which, as we know--maybe not everybody knows--is the only person in the Senate--of all 100 Senators, the majority leader is the only one who can schedule legislation for votes on the floor. And he allowed the months of June, July, August, and half of September to pass before he even attempted to put a bill on the floor.

The minibus, or the package of three appropriations bills that the Senate majority leader, the Senator from New York, put on the floor for vote, wasn't until 18 days before the funding deadline. Now, that is a far cry from the ``expeditious floor consideration'' that he promised earlier this year. He had ample time and countless opportunities to move those bills across the Senate floor and to pave the way for a thoughtful and on-time appropriations process.

Instead, as we all know, we were here on Saturday, September 30, scrambling to pass a short-term funding bill to avoid a shutdown. And I remember, speech after speech after speech, the

majority leader said: Oh, it is those Republicans in the House who are causing this problem. And he accepted no responsibility for his failure to move a single appropriations bill through the Senate before the end of the fiscal year.

Well, we were staring down the barrel of a government shutdown, and it was in large part because of his lack of leadership of the Senate. I am sure that Senator Schumer will not hesitate to claim credit for keeping the government open and blame the House for the problems, but I think it is important to remind everyone of the facts.

Mr. President, here we are, October 3, the Democrat-led Senate has still not passed a single one of the 12 regular appropriations bills. We haven't passed funding for the Defense Department, for Homeland Security, for Veterans Affairs--nothing. And what is even more astonishing is the majority leader, apparently, has no plans to move any appropriations bills across the floor this week or in coming weeks. The Senate is not even expected to address any appropriations bills before gaveling out tomorrow evening and returning about 2 weeks later.

Now, as we know, Congress passed, thanks to the House, a bipartisan stopgap appropriations bill. We had 45 days from Saturday to fund the government on an ongoing basis, and the majority leader has chosen to send the Members of the Senate home for the next 2 weeks and to burn 2 weeks out of the 45 days, doing nothing. I fear that, 45 days from Saturday, we will have passed--since we passed the current continuing resolution, we will find ourselves exactly in the same place we found ourselves just a couple of days ago.

It is outrageous. It is irresponsible. The American people deserve better.

The House, by contrast, which the majority leader likes to point to as the problem, even though they saved our bacon by passing a short- term CR there--when the Senate had done nothing, all we could do was take up their short-term continuing resolution and pass it, which we did on Saturday night.

Meanwhile, the House has passed 5 of its 12 funding bills, with plans to advance even more during the coming days. Speaker McCarthy canceled the scheduled recess so the House can continue to process those bills.

The Senate majority leader should take a few lessons from Speaker McCarthy. He should start putting funding bills on the floor and take our responsibilities seriously. There is no excuse for burning 2 weeks out of the 45 days we just got last Saturday when there is so much work to be done.

But I guarantee one thing, I will bet you Senator Schumer will try to cast blame on House Republicans. But the facts speak for themselves. The only reason we are not in a shutdown today is because of Speaker McCarthy, because of his leadership. He managed to get a clean short- term funding bill through the House with bipartisan support. All Senator Schumer had to do was schedule a vote in the Senate. McCarthy's clean continuing resolution passed with the vote of 88 Senators.

Well, I hope the majority leader will use the next couple of weeks-- or the remaining weeks in that 45-day reprieve--far more wisely than he has used it during the last 3 months. He promised regular order, and now is his chance, once again, to deliver it.

In the next several weeks, I hope the Senate will have the chance to visit all 12 of those appropriations bills--maybe bundled as so-called minibuses, but to address them, nonetheless. But I expect the Senate will also, at the same time, have a thorough debate about our Nation's border security or lack thereof.

The Biden administration claims it is taking action to control illegal immigration, but the evidence plainly shows that their policies are making things worse, not better. According to news reports, September broke the record for the most border crossings in a single month. An estimated 260,000 migrants crossed the southern border last month.

CBS News has reported that the Department of Homeland Security has released most migrants into the interior--just released them--some even without a notice to appear in immigration court. The Department of Homeland Security has instructed them to undergo immigration court proceedings, which, potentially, are as much as 10 years away.

Law enforcement, nonprofits, and border communities have been under tremendous strain throughout the Biden administration, and it is time for Congress to take action to address the crisis, even if President Biden will not.

I was in New York yesterday and learned about the strain being placed on that great city, just trying to house all of the migrants who end up there.

I read that the Governor of Illinois is asking for more money to help pay for the housing and the feeding of these families.

So, clearly, we have got a problem, but, so far, the Biden administration hasn't cared to lift a finger to do anything about it.

One thing I can promise you is I, for one, am not going to vote for a penny of more money to fund the current broken system. So we are going to have a debate and a discussion, and we are going to have some votes on what the Federal Government needs to do to step up and fill the gap being filled right now by States like Texas and Arizona.

We need more agents. We need more detention space, more physical barriers, more immigration judges, and more flexibility to remove individuals who have zero legitimate claim to remain in the United States.

President Biden has proven his unwillingness to address this crisis. So it is time for Congress to do so.

As funding discussions continue, this is a top priority for Senate Republicans, and I know, from talking to my Democratic colleagues, they understand this is a problem. They understand that the problem that many thought was one that border States had to bear is now affecting the entire country. And we haven't even talked about the drugs that come across the border, smuggled by the same criminal organizations that smuggle people.

So I am glad Congress averted a government shutdown, but the real work has just begun. We have less than 7 weeks to advance a full-year appropriations bill and address urgent priorities like securing the border. I would urge the majority leader just to quit wasting time. You know, for many weeks now, Congress has not been in session--or the Senate has not been in session--on Mondays. So we come into session on Tuesday at about 3 in the afternoon, have a vote at 5:30, and then we leave after lunch on Thursday. The American people are not getting what they pay for when it comes to the Senate doing its job. But, again, the person who controls that schedule is the majority leader, and it is time to get serious and to get to work and to do our job.

I hope the majority leader will quit wasting time and allow the Senators to do the work we were sent here to do.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. President, I know there are others who are waiting to speak, and I will yield to them momentarily, but I think it is important that the majority leader explain the entire story of where we find ourselves here today on the verge of a shutdown.

The truth is, the Senate has not passed a single appropriations bill that passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee by bipartisan support. Some of them were passed unanimously. The first bill, I believe, that passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee passed out some 80 days ago. Now, it may have taken until the end of July before we could get a House bill to then amend, which is a necessary procedural prerequisite, but the fact of the matter is, the majority leader, who is the only person who can schedule a vote on any of these pieces of legislation, has failed to bring any of these bills to the floor and successfully passed in the U.S. Senate.

So 18 days before the end of the fiscal year, which is the shutdown unless we pass another funding bill, the majority leader puts a so- called minibus, or a combination of three appropriations bills, on the floor. That was the first time the majority leader decided to actually schedule a vote on anything.

My point is that the majority leader likes to blame the House--and particularly because it is a majority of Republicans--so he acts like this is all their fault. Everything is just hunky-dory and bipartisan in the Senate. That is false. The majority leader has contributed dramatically to this shutdown because of the Senate's failure under his leadership to pass any appropriations bills whatsoever. And, yes, it is no surprise to anybody that here we are needing to find some way forward on a continuing resolution--in other words, to keep the lights on--while we continue to work out other differences.

I think shutdowns are a mistake. Shutdowns are a mistake because they don't solve the underlying problem. They disrupt all sorts of people, and he mentioned some of the people they disrupt, including pay to our military. Our own staff aren't going to get paid. People aren't going to be able to get passports through the passport office. If they have immigration problems, if veterans are worried about getting compensation or other benefits, they are not going to be responded to because of this government shutdown. Completely, completely predictable and completely, completely unnecessary.

So I think if you are going to talk about who contributed to where we are today, the majority leader--I say this respectfully--this is in large part a Schumer shutdown because the Senate hasn't done its job. This is not governing. This is not responsible. Again, the only way we can consider legislation in the U.S. Senate is if he schedules something on the floor. That is his prerogative as the majority leader.

But people ought to be held accountable. People ought to be responsible for their own actions. And the majority leader has simply failed to let the Senate do its work even though the Senate Appropriations Committee, which is chaired by a Democrat, Senator Patty Murray, and ranking member, Senator Susan Collins. They did magnificent work. They did what they were supposed to do. But because the majority leader failed to bring any of those bills to the floor, we haven't passed a single appropriations bill, and we are looking at a deadline of midnight Saturday,

where the government ceases to function because of the failure to do our job here in the Senate.

The House has its own problems, but we ought to take care of business here first, and we haven't done that.

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

Mr. President, more than 4\1/2\ months ago, title 42 expired. That was on May 11 of this year. Title 42, just to refresh everybody's memory, was a public health order that was designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19, particularly from people entering the country from other countries around the world.

In the lead-up to title 42's expiration, the Biden administration rolled out its plan to address the expected surge in migration. This plan was called the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule, and it was sold as a way to discourage illegal immigration and restore some sense of order along the border.

As I and countless others have pointed out, this wasn't a real solution. This was a shell game. It was an attempt to conceal the scope and scale of the border crisis and to process migrants into the United States at an unprecedented rate. Let me just paraphrase that. This was not designed to deter people from illegally immigrating to the United States. It was a way to greet them and welcome them and then invite them to enter into the United States without following the legal rules and laws that Congress had passed.

Well, despite the people who pointed out that this was really a ruse--a Trojan horse, if you will--the administration moved forward with the plan. Just days before title 42 was lifted, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tried to assure the American people that the Biden administration was in control.

He said:

The border is not open; it has not been open; and it will

not be open subsequent to May 11.

Well, at the time, it was clear that at least two parts of his statement were false. The border was open. That is why more than 10,000 migrants a day were crossing the southern border in the final week of title 42. How do you say the border is not open when 10,000 people are traversing the border each day without going through our legal immigration system? And the border had been open, and that is why the United States broke nearly every record in the book for border crossings on President Biden's watch. So it was open, and it had been open, and it is clear today that the border is still open even with the administration's new plan in place.

Despite the initial drop in border crossings after title 42 was lifted, illegal border crossings have surged once again. In August, Customs and Border Protection apprehended just under 233,000 migrants, setting the record for the busiest month this calendar year. As you might have predicted, the cartels simply sat back to assess the lay of the land and this new state of affairs and adapted their operations to exploit the rule's numerous loopholes.

Unfortunately, the challenges at the border have only grown since August. Over the last few weeks, areas along the entire U.S.-Mexico border have experienced a new surge in immigration. One area that is under tremendous strain is the west Texas town of El Paso. Last week, more than 8,000 migrants crossed into Eagle Pass. Excuse me--Eagle Pass. This isn't a major city. In fact, I mentioned El Paso by mistake. Eagle Pass is actually a much smaller town. This isn't a major city with extensive resources. Eagle Pass is a small border town with a population of roughly 28,000. It doesn't have the resources to house, feed, or transport thousands of migrants each week. Eagle Pass is bearing the brunt of this surge, but it is not alone. El Paso, that I mentioned earlier, is also experiencing a massive influx.

Several weeks ago, El Paso, in far west Texas, was seeing roughly 350 to 400 border crossings per day. In recent days, that number has skyrocketed to more than 2,000 a day.

Customs and Border Protection is releasing more than a thousand migrants a day into the community. And these aren't people, necessarily, who are claiming asylum. They are simply just trying to keep the line from stacking up and overloading the processing facilities of Customs and Border Protection.

So what are they doing? They are simply releasing them into the community, and they are on their own but for the help of some of the nongovernmental organizations that are trying to provide humanitarian assistance.

The city of El Paso has limited resources to care for migrants, and those resources are quickly being depleted. Over the weekend, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said the city had reached a ``breaking point'' due to the growing number of migrants. That may sound familiar. That sounds like another mayor, Mayor Eric Adams of New York City, who said the influx of migrants into New York City is creating extreme danger and reaching the breaking point.

I am, generally speaking, a pretty optimistic person. But I don't see any indication that anything is going to change in the Biden administration's abdication of its responsibility to secure the border and have orderly, safe, and legal immigration.

People around the world see that America's southern border is wide open, and they are making their way to the United States.

I have mentioned this story before, but when four of our colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle and four on the Republican side went to Yuma, AZ, with Senator Sinema and Senator Kelly, who represent that State, we found a sleepy little agricultural community where the chief of the Border Patrol sector there welcomed us saying: Last year we encountered people from 174 different countries speaking more than 200 languages. Senator Kelly, one of the Arizona Senators, pointed out that there was an airport in a northern Mexican city called Mexicali and that, evidently, people

were just flying into that city and then literally Ubering over to the Yuma sector and claiming asylum.

The New York Times reports that in August, nearly 82,000 migrants have passed through what is known as the Darien Gap, which is the sole land route to the United States from South America, describing it as ``by far the largest single-month total on record.''

The border crisis has had--and continues to have--a major impact on border communities in my State, but the scale of the Biden border crisis means the burden is now being shared more broadly with communities across the country.

Liberal enclaves, self-styled sanctuary cities like New York and Chicago have been longtime supporters of open-border policies, I suspect, primarily because it hasn't affected them in a negative way like it has always done in my State and my communities.

These cities proudly identify themselves as sanctuary cities and have even criticized commonsense measures to enforce our immigration laws. But as more and more migrants have poured into these liberal cities, the narrative has changed, as I pointed out a moment ago.

Mayor Adams of New York City, for example, issued a stark warning, saying it will ``destroy New York City.''

The Democratic Governor of New Jersey, who once vowed to turn New Jersey into a sanctuary State, now says the State is at capacity. We have seen the same story play out in Boston, Chicago, and even right here in Washington, DC.

Even major sanctuary cities that are more than a thousand miles from the southern border can't keep up with the volume of migrants from the Biden border crisis. As our colleagues know, this is more than a humanitarian crisis. This is a public safety crisis as well.

When border agents are pulled off the frontlines to process, transport, and care for migrants, it creates a vulnerability for cartels and criminal organizations to then move illicit drugs across the border. They are given a clear pathway--literally, a multilane highway--to smuggle fentanyl, heroin, and other dangerous drugs across the border and into cities and communities all across this country.

This isn't news to the cartel. This is their business model: Flood the zone with people, divert law enforcement, and then move the drugs into the United States. Last year alone, 108,000 Americans died as a result of those drugs.

The cartels know that this game that they are playing--or this business model--inures to their benefit. We saw this 2 years ago, when 15,000 migrants crossed into Del Rio in a matter of days. Del Rio is this little city of 35,000 people. They had an influx of 15,000 migrants--mostly Haitians--in just a matter of days.

It looks like we are seeing this history repeat itself. Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said he believes the surge last week was by design. As I said, cartels and these criminal organizations know they can flood the zone with migrants and distract law enforcement. It creates open corridors for drug traffickers, human smugglers, maybe even terrorists, and criminals of all stripes to sneak across the border.

When talking about the threats posed by fentanyl and criminal organizations, Chief Owens said:

It's about as bad as I've ever seen it.

This is somebody who has given his professional lifetime to serving the country as a member of the Border Patrol.

Communities across our country are being ravaged by the overdose epidemic, which is killing more than 110,000 Americans a year, and President Biden seems content to let the carnage continue. He has shown no interest in securing the border and cutting off the cartels' illicit trade corridors.

I can't reach any other conclusion but to think that President Biden doesn't care. If he did care, he would do something about it. But he, obviously, hasn't done anything about it, and the only obvious conclusion is that he doesn't care.

We are seeing clear and convincing evidence, both at the southern border and major cities, that President Biden's border plan--if you could call it that--isn't working. Apprehensions are on the rise, detention facilities are over capacity, and cities and nonprofit organizations are stretched beyond their limits to deal with the migrants with weak or nonexistent claims for asylum who never should have been released in the first place. The so-called Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule has made the border crisis worse, not better.

In many ways, that seems to be the theme repeated over and over again: taking a bad situation and making it worse. And nowhere is that more evident than at the border.

What we have seen is the Biden administration is using this rule to funnel migrants into unlawful parole programs, essentially creating another class of immigrants with flimsy immigration status.

Rather than deliver consequences for illegal immigration, the administration is simply creating a new set of magic words migrants have to say in order to avoid immediate removal.

This rule is riddled with loopholes. And when too many migrants claim to fit within these loopholes, they will once again overwhelm DHS capacity. It is not fair to the migrants who have been led to believe that they can depend on these parole programs long term, and it is not fair to those with legitimate claims for asylum--which are maybe 10 to 15 percent of the people claiming asylum--to have to wait in line for years upon years with people who have no legitimate claim to asylum. And the reason they have to do that is because of the backlog in the immigration courts.

As we have seen with DACA, which is Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals--these are the Dreamers, people who came as children with their parents into the country and for whom I have complete sympathy. We don't hold children responsible for what their parents do. Yet these migrants will face years of uncertainty and heartache as a result of the procedures employed by President Obama at the time, which have now been litigated in court for 10 years. Right now, the current status is the courts have said that what President Obama tried to do was illegal. He didn't have that authority.

It is time for Congress to intervene. We, obviously, can't depend on leadership--or even participation at this point--from the Biden administration.

This summer, I introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution that puts an end to President Biden's shell game. We know from the press that immigration groups, both on the right and the left, oppose the Circumvention of Lawful Pathways rule. Earlier this year, some of our Democratic colleagues said that they were deeply disappointed with the administration's decision to move forward with the rule.

I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who have raised concerns over this policy will support the effort to overturn it.

Our colleagues know the impact of the border crisis, and they know that it is being felt far beyond the U.S.-Mexico border. Cities across the country, from El Paso to New York City, are overwhelmed by the burden of caring for these migrants who have no plausible claim to be in the country legally. Yet by sheer volume, they have overwhelmed the system.

Mayors and Governors are sounding the alarm over the unbearable weight of this crisis. They can't look for help at the White House; so they ought to be looking to us to do our job and provide that help.

At the same time, communities across the country are being terrified by the destruction and the death caused by the fentanyl crisis. On Monday, I sat down with parents, students, and first responders in Dallas, TX, who really drove home this point.

Each of our colleagues should have a vested interest in ending policies that are fueling the humanitarian and public safety crisis that begins at the border and yet reaches into every community across America. I didn't think it was possible for the Biden border crisis to get worse, but it clearly has.

Congress needs to act before the situation gets even more dangerous and worse and to force the Biden administration to put forth a serious plan that actually discourages illegal immigration and doesn't just invite migrants without any plausible or legitimate claims to being in the country and in the great American heartland.

I yield the floor.

Madam President, following the devastating shooting in Uvalde just a little over a year ago, Congress passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. As we know, this legislation invested in mental health, school safety, and commonsense measures to prevent dangerous individuals--namely, those with mental health problems or with criminal records--from carrying out acts of violence.

Importantly, it did all of this without impacting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. That was a red line. Unfortunately, the Biden administration has misinterpreted a section of this law and is using it as a pretext to defund hunter education and archery programs, which is ironic because one of the things that many people have advocated is, let's teach people how to safely use firearms for recreational or hunting purposes. Yet they want to somehow stop those very programs?

Well, these programs are offered in school districts across Texas and equip

students with invaluable skills, including, as I suggested, firearms safety and wildlife management. They are teaching students to be responsible gun owners and good stewards of the environment, something I would think we would all want.

These programs have overwhelming bipartisan support, and Congress had no intention of impacting them or curbing their availability in any way. Members of Congress worked together in good faith to pass this legislation that will build stronger, safer communities. But the fact that the administration is stretching the law--the words of the law-- beyond any meaning that we intended is unjustifiable. When this happens, it undermines the good will between Congress and the White House. It makes it difficult, if not impossible, to legislate on important and contentious issues like this.

The Biden administration is attempting to take creative license with the law, and Congress needs to step in and correct the situation immediately. That is what we are doing today. Senator Sinema, Senator Tillis, and Senator Murphy were my partners in negotiating this Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. We came together with Senator Capito and immediately started working on a new bill to clarify congressional intent on this legislation given the overreach by the administration. We worked with our colleagues on the House side to craft a bill that could pass both Chambers of Congress.

The Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act clarifies that Federal funds can be used to support archery, hunting, and other valuable enrichment programs in schools.

This legislation passed the House yesterday evening by a vote of 424 to 1, an overwhelming show of bipartisanship. I hope the Senate will follow suit today and send this legislation to the President's desk to clarify, once and for all, that the Biden administration cannot ignore the express will of Congress.

This is the Biden administration, not the Biden kingdom. The wishes and whims of the President and his staff do not outweigh Congress's intent. I am eager for President Biden to sign this legislation and acknowledge that this interpretation of the clear words of the legislation that we passed on a bipartisan basis were totally in conflict.

Once again, Congress has reclaimed its right as a separate, coequal branch of government in a bipartisan way to pass legislation that expresses not the will of the staff at the White House or some administrative Agency but the will of the Members of Congress. I am glad the House acted quickly to correct this shameful behavior, and I hope now the Senate will follow suit.

Madam President, I see the Senator from Arizona here on the floor, and I yield to her.

Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 5110, the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act, which was received from the House.

I further ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate.