U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks on Monday on the Senate floor regarding border security:
“Two years into the Biden Administration, the Democrats’ approach to illegal immigration and our nation’s borders has failed the American people.
“Last week, one news organization reported that daily crossings along our southern border ‘have remained near record highs.’ Last fiscal year alone, more than 2.76 million illegal immigrants came across our southern border, absolutely smashing the previous record high by more than a million. That is almost the equivalent of a full 1% of our total national population, encountered on our southern border in just one year.
“And the problem just keeps getting worse. Reported estimates say that more than 73,000 new ‘got-aways’ dodged Border Patrol and escaped into our country in just this past November alone.
“Absurdly, the response to this crisis from President Biden’s team is that everything is fine and going according to plan. Secretary Mayorkas said last month, ‘What we are doing is precisely what we announced we would do in April of this year, and we have indeed been executing on the plan.’ Everybody else in the country calls our functionally open borders an emergency and a crisis, but apparently the Biden Administration calls it ‘mission accomplished.’
“And bear in mind, the terrible and unacceptable status quo has come with some emergency COVID measures still in place. All the crisis-level numbers I just ran through have come with these extra border controls — called Title 42 — still in effect.
“Now one federal judge is trying to force the Biden Administration to do what the far left has wanted for months, and repeal that policy. So the unacceptable, crisis-level status quo may only be the warm-up act compared to coming attractions.
“One immigration expert told a reporter, ‘It is definitely, at least in the short run, going to result in many, many more people being released into the United States.’ Congressman Gonzales, who represents Texas’s 23rd District, says it would be a ‘hurricane’ for border communities.
“Of course, the Biden Administration officials who claim they have a plan to cope with the removal of Title 42 are the same people who’ve brought us record-breaking illegal immigration even with it in place.
“Make no mistake: A choice between the current border situation with Title 42 and an even worse situation without Title 42 is a choice between a disaster and a catastrophe. Democrats need to stop shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic… and start looking to the tough, proven, successful policies that allowed the preceding Administration to get a handle on this issue. And they need to drop the forgiving attitude to illegal immigration that draws more and more men, women, and children on the dangerous journey to our border every day.
“It is inexcusable that the Biden Administration cares more about getting protested by far-left activists than they do about providing a basic level of order and security.
“Everybody knows what steps would improve the situation. The playbook from the prior Administration is right there. Democrats need to pick it up.”
