On the recordDecember 16, 2020
As a senior member of the Judiciary, Committee and a member representing a state on the nation's southern border, I rise in strong support of S. 2174, the ``Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains Act of 2019,'' sponsored by the senior senator from Texas, Sen. Cornyn, and Sen. Kamala Harris, the next Vice- President of the United States and the first woman and person of color to win election to that high office. I support the Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains Act because it is bipartisan legislation that will help prevent migrant deaths on the Southwest border and will help border counties and nonprofit organizations locate and identify missing migrants. Mr. Speaker, migrants seeking a better and safer life in the United States who attempt to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between ports of entry are often faced with difficult terrain and extremely dangerous conditions. The temperature in barren border sections of Arizona's Sonoran Desert, for example, can reach over 104 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer and drop to below freezing in the winter. Since 1998, the U.S. Border Patrol has reported 7,505 migrant deaths on the border, most due to dehydration, drowning, and exposure to extreme heat or cold. For more than two decades, over one migrant a day has died while attempting to enter without authorization, a misdemeanor offense under Federal law.…
