Marsha Blackburn: “I wanted to spend just a few minutes today speaking with my colleagues and also with Tennesseans about an issue that we…”

“I wanted to spend just a few minutes today speaking with my colleagues and also with Tennesseans about an issue that we hear so very much about every single day. The issue continues to persist. It is our border, and we all know--and, indeed, you read in news count after news count--that yes, indeed, there is a crisis at our border. Just a few months ago, we had some of our friends who are in the other Chamber who kept saying: Oh, this is manufactured; oh, there is nothing to it. But as we hear from law enforcement professionals, as we hear from ICE, from DHS, and from the Border Patrol, we have a crisis. Our border is strained to the breaking point. The real humanitarian crisis at the border is escalating. There are people who are being brought in through Central America, through Mexico, and they are stranded in the desert without food and without water. During the summer, sometimes you have temperatures above 100 degrees. Our border is at a breaking point, and it is, indeed, time for this body to do something about it and to support these Agencies that are on the frontline dealing with this crisis every single day. What we know from our hearing that we held yesterday at the Senate Judiciary Committee is that ICE is facing mounting challenges when it comes to expediting the deportations that need to take place. Abuse and exploitation of the asylum process overburdens our court system as illegal immigrants flood our borders claiming persecution.…”