On the recordMay 4, 2022
I want to continue to talk about some of the challenges the administration is facing and the country is facing. Let me talk for just a little bit about the border, about the economy, and about our ongoing concerns on COVID. First of all, the border--we have had a number of people come to the floor and talk about the border, the problems at the border. Many of these problems were really self-inflicted on day 1. The President, on the first day of his Presidency--and I chaired the inauguration on January 20. Hours after that, the President decided to stop building the wall. I was never an advocate of needing a wall everywhere along the southern border, but we had a wall in lots of places already. It was doing some good, but it wasn't doing as much good as it needed to do. And just the idea that we--with the material on the ground and the old wall torn down--would decide to stop building the wall, I think, started these problems. And if that wasn't enough, then-President Trump had made arrangements, the State Department had made arrangements--everybody involved--with Mexico to have people who were applying for asylum wait for their court date in Mexico. It was my view at the time that we should do anything we could to help the Mexican Government make that work because the alternative was people would come into the United States and not show up for an asylum date later.…
