Floor Statements

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Marshall), the Senator from Kentucky (Mr. McConnell), and the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).

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 President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, 10 million. Between official U.S. Customs and Border Protection encounters and known ``got-aways,'' there have been roughly 10 million migrant encounters at our southern border during the Biden-Harris administration.

To put that number in perspective, that is roughly 10 times the population of my home State of South Dakota. Ten million is larger than the population of Colorado. It is larger than the population of Tennessee. It is larger than the population of Maryland, of Massachusetts, of Indiana. I could keep going. Ten million is larger than the population of the vast majority of U.S. States.

Needless to say, a crisis of this size has had consequences. Shelters have been overwhelmed. Border cities have been overwhelmed. Blue cities far from the border have been overwhelmed. Border Patrol agents are exhausted, as their Chief noted in an interview last week.

I haven't even mentioned the national security implications. There is no question that the chaos at our southern border represents a serious security risk for our country. And you don't have to take my word for it. The Department of Homeland Security's 2025 threat assessment notes:

Over the next year, we expect some individuals with

terrorism ties and some criminal actors will continue their

efforts to exploit migration flows and the complex border

security environment to enter the United States.

That is from the Biden Department of Homeland Security's 2025 threat assessment.

The June arrest of 8 Tajikistan nationals with suspected ties to ISIS who had illegally entered the country as well as the identification of more than 400 migrants who used an ISIS-affiliated smuggling network to enter the United States are just two examples of the kinds of threats we face.

Then there is the fact that chaos at the border creates opportunities for cross-border illegal activity, like the deadly trade in fentanyl, which affects communities around our country. My State of South Dakota is about as far away from the southern border as you can get, but law enforcement officials consistently tell me that the illegal drugs they are dealing with have entered the country across our southern border.

Four years of recordbreaking illegal immigration at our southern border under the Biden-Harris administration. Ten million encounters-- and those are the migrants that we know of. It has been a dangerous 4 years, but the end is in sight. When President Trump and Republicans take control in January, stemming the flood of illegal immigration will be one of our first priorities. Under Republicans, national security here at home, at our borders and in our communities, will be just as important as taking care of our national security priorities abroad.

We are going to start right away with a once-in-a-generation investment in border security and immigration enforcement here in Congress. Among other things, that package will include substantial resources to increase the number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and Border Patrol agents, increase detention space, and provide the barriers and technology we need to fully secure the border.

There is a lot of work to do and a big mess to clean up.

A recent article reported that there are around 1.4 million individuals who have been ordered to be deported but are still here in the United States, and most of them are not in immigration custody. And that is just one small corner of the problem.

As I said, we have a lot of work to do, but Republicans are committed, for the sake of our national security and for the sake of our rule of law. Four years of recordbreaking illegal immigration, but the end is in sight.

I yield the floor.

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Alaska (Mr. Sullivan) and the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Louisiana (Mr. Cassidy), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), the Senator from Idaho (Mr. Risch), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio), and the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).

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

Mr. President, one of the drawbacks of the end of a Congress is the need to say goodbye to departing colleagues. We are losing two Republicans this year--Senators Mitt Romney and Mike Braun.

Mitt gave his farewell remarks yesterday, and they were characteristic of the man I have come to know: humble, faith-filled, patriotic. Mitt is what I would call a character guy. He is guided by a moral compass, and he is not afraid to live by it. And in a world where being religious isn't always highly regarded, he is unapologetic about his faith.

Mitt is also a big family guy. Like me, he married up, and he and his wife Ann have shared the good times and the tough times for well now over 50 years of marriage--hard to believe to look at him. But they say children keep you young, and Mitt has 5 sons and an incredible 25 grandchildren--a beautiful legacy all on its own.

Mitt's professional legacy needs no recounting. He is well known as a successful businessman, a successful Republican Governor of a deep-blue State, and most recently as a successful Senator. He may be leaving us after just one term, but that term was filled with an outsized amount of work, and he has more than earned his retirement.

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran) and the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cornyn), the Senator

from Kansas (Mr. Moran), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio), and the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from Texas (Mr. Cornyn), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), the Senator from Florida (Mr. Rubio), and the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).

Mr. President, the past 4 years have been marked by increasing instability on the world stage. Over the course of the Biden administration, we

have seen an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russia, China flexing its power in the Indo-Pacific and beyond and increasingly threatening the Philippines and Taiwan, Iran continuing to foment terror in the Middle East, the worst terror attack in Israel's history, and the list goes on. And while the Biden administration cannot be held solely responsible for all of these events, the lack of clear American leadership under President Biden has undoubtedly contributed to the unrest that we have seen internationally.

The President often seems incapable of staking out a firm policy position. Again and again, he seems to want to have things both ways, whether he is ordering attacks on Iran-backed terrorists while simultaneously declaring his unwillingness to escalate or drawing redlines for Israel while proclaiming U.S. support or take the war in Ukraine, where President Biden has advocated for the United States providing defense assistance while simultaneously slow-walking approval for critical combat resources, which has unquestionably contributed to the present situation.

I don't know whether the President is trying to keep all his interest groups happy or is simply afraid to fully commit, but his indecisiveness telegraphs weakness to our enemies and allies alike, just as his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan did or his policy toward Iran.

The Biden administration began relations with Iran on a note of appeasement with an attempt to reinstate the Obama administration's flawed nuclear deal and then followed that up by unfreezing $6 billion in Iranian assets as part of a deal to free American prisoners. Thankfully, the administration ultimately refroze those funds in the wake of Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack, but unfreezing them in the first place was a serious mistake, as were things like the Biden administration's decision to restart funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, despite long-held suspicions--since confirmed--that there were UNRWA staffers with ties to Islamist militant groups.

These types of decisions convey a message to our adversaries: a lack of firm resolve and a willingness to compromise and accommodate. And in the face of this kind of message, it is little wonder that terrorists throughout the Middle East have been emboldened and have been attacking not just our ally Israel but American assets and American soldiers in the region.

And I have to wonder whether bodies like the International Criminal Court, which recently attempted to put Israeli leaders in the same class as Hamas terrorists by unlawfully issuing warrants for their arrest, have also been emboldened by the Biden administration's waffling.

As China flexes its muscle, Iran continues its proxy war on Israel, and North Korean soldiers join Russia's war on Ukraine, it is time for a return to clear American leadership on the world stage, and that doesn't mean an America that intervenes in every conflict or dictates terms to everyone. We neither can nor should attempt to become the world's policeman. But it does mean an America that speaks clearly and doesn't equivocate, that condemns evil and doesn't accommodate, and an America that projects and can deliver strength, the kind of strength that will make our adversaries think twice before tangling with us or our allies.

President Trump has made an excellent choice for Secretary of State with our colleague Marco Rubio. He is one of our strongest and clearest voices on national security. And between him and President Trump and other future members of the Trump administration, America's adversaries should be on notice. I think there has already been something of a shift in the air, and I am hopeful that in the weeks to come we will finally see movement on freeing the remaining Americans and other hostages who were captured by Hamas in its October 7, 2023, attack. It is incredible that these individuals are facing their second--second winter--in Gaza. And President Trump's statement Monday about his commitment to freeing these hostages immediately should be a warning to Hamas that the United States will no longer tolerate the captivity of her citizens.

The last few years have shown us what a world without clear American leadership looks like. I am confident that the next 4 years will show us what the world looks like with it.

I yield the floor.

I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).

The following Senator is necessarily absent: the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).

The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer) and the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Vance).

Further, if present and voting: the Senator from North Dakota (Mr. Cramer) would have voted ``nay.''