John Cornyn: “over the last few months, we have been spending a lot of time talking about the surge of migrants at our southern border…”

“over the last few months, we have been spending a lot of time talking about the surge of migrants at our southern border and, as the Presiding Officer knows, we are having bipartisan meetings here to try to figure out how to address that and other challenges of our broken immigration system. We know the spike in migration is not a new phenomenon, and sadly, neither is the increase in the number of unaccompanied children. But the current surge is unlike anything we have experienced in the past. We are breaking all the wrong kinds of records, including the numbers of unaccompanied children, total monthly border crossings, and capacity levels at care facilities. And, of course, all of this is happening during a pandemic which creates serious risks for our law enforcement and for those caring for these migrants and for the migrants themselves. Unfortunately, the administration has not yet figured out how to stop this flow of illegal immigration. The President and his team are telling migrants: Don't come. But when it comes to his policies, all of his policies say: Come while you can. They haven't figured out how to replace Trump-era policies, and so what they have done is left a void that is being exploited by everybody from the coyotes, the human smugglers, the people who smuggle in drugs into the United States, as well as the people who understandably want a better life. Maybe they are fleeing poverty or violence.…”