On the recordJune 18, 2019
The truth is the President of the United States shouldn't be forced to have to make the tough decisions of figuring out how to secure our border without support from this institution, but that is precisely what is happening. The President of the United States is having to look at a crisis on our border that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle just simply straight up refuse to acknowledge exists. When I was down at the border in McAllen in January, I was told of about 200,000 people that would be apprehended; maybe 200,000 that would not be apprehended. And I was told 90 percent of that was going to come through McAllen, as opposed to Brownsville. Why? Because there is fencing in Brownsville. I would ask my colleagues whether they have ever been to the border, in the cane, along the river, talking to Border Patrol when they are there at 11:00 at night, and they have radios that don't work; cell signals that don't work. They can't see the river because the cane is too thick. They have no roads that are lateral that run along the river, so they can move up and down the river to protect our border. They are down there by themselves, and the cartels have operational control of the river. The Reynoso faction of the Gulf Cartel, they own it. They are making hundreds of millions of dollars moving people through McAllen right now. And right now, little girls are going to be abused on the journey because we bury our heads in the sand.…
