Marsha Blackburn: “I come to the floor today to say that we have gotten some good news this week from our Southern border. We are making…”

“I come to the floor today to say that we have gotten some good news this week from our Southern border. We are making progress on the wall that President Trump has fought so hard for, and that progress will be further supported by billions of dollars in new appropriations funding to reach the President's goal of 450 miles by 2021. Think about it--450 miles that have been secured. What we do know is that as a result of all of these ramped-up security efforts, border apprehensions are down 78 percent from last May's high of over 130,000. We have had falling--falling--numbers every single month for the last 8 months. This is a very good thing. It shows the word is getting out that we are serious about our sovereignty, about securing our border, about ending the access that traffickers-- human traffickers, drug traffickers--have had on that border. That is a good thing. This good news is clouded a little bit by the reality that all is still not well. Border Patrol officials estimate that nearly 1 million migrants--I want you to think about that number: nearly 1 million migrants--crossed our border illegally and evaded apprehension in fiscal 2019. That is the severity of this problem. Think about it--1 million people, additional people. Think about the size of a population of 1 million people. That is the number that moved into our country. We do not know who they are. We do not know where they have come from. We do not know if they are traffickers.…”