the drug cartels, it is a business

If you take a look at what is causing our unsecured border, I would say the root cause is our insatiable demand for drugs.

I agree with Senator Peters.

Knowing this drug is the source of so much violence and misery is truly what keeps me up at night.

This is a marathon, not a sprint, but together we can produce the results that you seek and New Englanders demand.

I would say by any measure still at crisis levels.

One would hope the priority of security on our border does not become just another price tag and/or political posturing, but, rather, legal and moral requirement to safeguard all of America, which so many heroic Americans have paid the…

My concern is that the selective release of information has created a public narrative that prejudices the outcome of the investigation.

there are multiple causes

We need to honestly look at those incentives, and we need to ask ourselves, Is there anything we should do to change those laws, change those regulations that actually incentivized people to come here illegally as opposed to coming here in…

if you really take a look at the root cause of so much of our border insecurity, it is the insatiable demand for drugs in this country and what that has spawned over the last 50, 60 years.

I think I have shown I am not afraid to go after this administration and my own party when it comes to investigating complicated issues of national public interest.

the National Border Patrol Council's--our concern is border security. Always has been. Always will be.

But, unfortunately, I think it continues to incentivize more individuals coming here.

U.S. policy creates direct incentives and disincentives for illegal immigration.

we really need to analyze the root cause of the problem.

I think it is really quite clear that that unilateral Executive Action on Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals was the primary cause for this surge.

it is not a pleasant reality. It is an enormously difficult problem.

we bear some responsibility for that.

these are not going to be easy problems to solve, but we have to make incremental improvements.

I think there is a root cause there, and I think it is called 'Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals.'

We should not be minimizing this. Yes, it is down from last year, but last year was a humanitarian crisis.

the reality is if you are a parent or a child in Central America and you send your child or you come up and you get into America, the bottom line is you are staying.

it was a humanitarian crisis

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.