The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“IMMIGRATION” mentioning Mitch McConnell was published in the Senate section on pages S1001-S1002 on March 3.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
IMMIGRATION
Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, on a completely different matter, just 6 weeks into unified Democratic government, we already have another crisis brewing on our southern border. In January, Customs and Border Protection logged more than 78,000 encounters on our southwest border, more than double the figure from January of 2020.
Last week, HHS sources told reporters we just logged the busiest February in the history of the Unaccompanied Alien Children Program. The number of kids turning up on our border with no parents is soaring, and everyone expects the numbers to keep climbing.
Now the Biden administration is reportedly planning to reopen the same kinds of emergency shelters over which Democrats vilified the Trump administration a couple of years back. Both President Biden and his Secretary of Homeland Security have said this week they don't think this is a crisis. Not a crisis, they say? Well, if this isn't a crisis, with unaccompanied kids pouring in and exceeding the capacity in a pandemic, I would hate to see what one looks like.
The cause of this emergency is not some mystery. It is not mysterious at all. Everybody knows exactly what happened. The new administration explicitly campaigned on weakening border security, and 6 weeks in, they have reversed the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy, begun letting more people in in a haphazard way, and broadcast confusing mixed messages.
The L.A. Times says: ``Biden immigration policy stirs confusion at Mexico border.'' They interviewed one woman who crossed the Rio Grande
``on a smuggler's raft'' and was only briefly detained before being released into our country. She explained she had specifically come because of the new Biden administration: ``That gave us the opportunity to come.''
Another reporter put it this way: ``The message received in Tijuana and other Mexican border cities was simpl[e]: Joe Biden was now letting people in.''
We are not just talking about the fine details of border policy. The big backdrop behind this whole discussion is the sweeping leftwing amnesty plan that the Biden administration unveiled before they were even sworn in. They want to fast-track 11 million illegal immigrants into temporary legal status, then green cards, and then full citizenship.
The far left loves this approach, but so does a certain cross section of Big Business. There is a whole lot of cultural power and economic power pushing the liberal vision. As for the best interest of American workers, well, that is not as trendy a cause in certain circles.
The truth is that it is not helpful or compassionate to just open up our borders. It is not fair to American citizens and workers, but neither is it fair to the people who are being lured into a humanitarian crisis in the middle of a pandemic because they believe this Democratic administration just conspicuously turned on a neon
``Vacancies'' sign.
Republicans just spent 4 years making major headway on the security and humanitarian crisis at our border. It took serious policy changes. It took international diplomacy with multiple countries, and it took border enforcement.
The American people would be better served if the Biden administration had chosen to build on this progress instead of rapidly trying to tear it down.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Hickenlooper). Without objection, it is so ordered.
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