On the recordNovember 29, 2023
The sponsor of this amendment asked the question: Do these individuals have a legal right to apply for asylum? The answer is yes. The thing is, they are supposed to be applying from the next safe country. We have over 120 countries represented at our southern border. We are only bordered by two. Therefore, they are not following the process and are coming illegally. The cartels are the ones benefiting from the current process as it is. I hope the other side understands that these individuals, every single one of them, are paying the cartels thousands of dollars to be trafficked into the United States. That money is then used to continue to pump fentanyl into the United States, killing Americans. Let's stop bankrolling the drug cartels that are profiting from this human trafficking. Next, let me point out that this process is not safe for anyone--not the migrants, either. That is why I don't understand why my colleagues want to continue to encourage people, instead of applying from the next safe country, to take this treacherous journey at the hands of the drug cartels. By the way, my colleague Tony Gonzales, who represents Eagle Pass, just told me that 14 individuals drowned this Thanksgiving weekend alone in Eagle Pass. We have the Doctors Without Borders report that says in Panama alone, in just 1 month, hundreds of women and children were raped.…
