When we see how much is coming over the border, I mentioned it and it's already been mentioned here by the Chair, but we've lost over 100,000 people to drug overdoses and 70,000 of those, as you mentioned yourself, are attributed to…

I have traveled to the border three times in just the first 2 months of my time here in the Senate and I can tell you that reducing resources for border security is not the way to go.

I want to reiterate my concern. President Biden said himself that budgets are statements of value.

When we look at what drug cartels are doing not only south of our border but here in our country, we are allowing this crisis to make these cartels rich to the tune of billions of dollars and the cost of that is in real human faces and…

Why did the department not request appropriate funds to provide CBP with modern, safer technology and advanced helicopters that they tell us they need at the rate of the fiscal year 2024 request?

I cannot emphasize enough that we must make real and lasting impacts so that we can stop the cartels, stop the manufacturers of precursors and stop the senseless deaths of Americans due to fentanyl.

This is affecting communities all across our country. It is affecting children. It is the leading cause of death between the ages of 18 and 45 in this nation.

Despite the legal requirement to detain migrants facing removal, yet again President Biden's budget requests fewer resources for detention beds and alternatives to detention.

When we look at what's coming across the border, you said in your testimony right now that that is the single greatest challenge facing our nation.

Sadly, this Administration's budget proposal doubles down on failed policies that encourage these kinds of tragedies to happen every day.

I value the work that this department can and should and will be doing and I hope that we see that same commitment from the Administration, as well.

It is without a doubt a crisis and I will say once again that I'm disappointed that I can't hear you say those words as well.

I'm disappointed to not hear you call it a crisis truly because I think that's what we have before us.

I'm disappointed to not hear you call it a crisis truly because I think that's what we have before us.

I fully support unions. If people want to join a union, then that is fine. I mean, I think that is what this country is about.

For the third year in a row, the Biden Administration has submitted a budget that does not make a serious effort to solving the vast problems of which the Department of Homeland Security has direct purview.

Respectfully, Mr. Secretary, it's not enough. We have a humanitarian crisis and national security crisis, the face of which becomes very real.

I fully support unions. If people want to join a union, then that is fine. I mean, I think that is what this country is about.