[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 65 (Wednesday, April 19, 2023)] [Senate] [Pages S1227-S1236] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Date: 2023-04-19
Chamber: SENATE
Mr. BUDD: our country is in the midst of the worst border crisis in our history. Since President Biden took office, there has been more than 5 million illegal crossings at the southern border. I have been to the border multiple times, and I have seen this crisis firsthand. In fact, the last time I was there, I was touring a heavily trafficked sector with off-duty Border Patrol officers. As we were driving along, the officers spotted a couple of cartel members. One of the officers turned to me, and he apologized. He said: I am sorry, but I am going to have to go on duty now. He went over and he apprehended and he arrested the cartel members there, right on the spot. This is just a small taste of what they have to face each and every day. We have to keep these men and these women in our prayers, and we must give them all the tools that they need to keep our homeland safe. Beyond the rampant lawlessness, the crime, the human trafficking, one of the worst aspects of this crisis is the devastating amount of drugs that are pouring into our country. The last annual numbers showed that over 100,000 Americans died just last year from drug-related overdose, and about 90 percent of those were related to fentanyl. This crisis has gotten so bad that fentanyl-driven overdose deaths are now the leading cause of deaths for those who are between 18 and 45 years old. And this is perhaps the worst statistic: Children under 14 years old are dying of fentanyl poisoning faster than any other age group. The drugs that come through the border cause unspeakable harm back in communities in North Carolina. To many, they are only one or two degrees away from a personal tragedy with a name having to do with illegal drugs. I routinely talk to sheriffs all over the State. I recently went to all 100 counties, and I talked to a lot of those sheriffs. Many of them told me that every single county in North Carolinais now a border county because of President Biden's policies. In fact, a recent drug bust in Iredell County, just north of Charlotte, uncovered enough fentanyl to kill 250,000 individuals. That is poison from just one traffic stop in North Carolina. It begs the questions: How did we get here, and what can be done? We got here at precisely the moment that President Biden stopped enforcing the law at the southern border. President Biden stopped building the border wall on his first day in office. He has reversed policies to quickly deport criminal illegal aliens. He refused to get tough on sanctuary cities that don't obey Federal law. He ended the ``Remain in Mexico'' policy. And next month, he will end title 42 with no plan on how to manage the impending surge. The story of President Biden's border crisis is one of preventable tragedies compounding day in and day out. And if the White House won't act to stop it, then Congress should. The very first bill I introduced as a U.S. Senator is called the Build the Wall Now Act. It requires border wall construction to restart immediately, it removes all legal roadblocks to construction, and it unlocks $2.1 billion in unspent funding. I have seen for myself the idle heavy equipment just sitting there, the concrete and the steel that have sat unused since January 20 of 2021. My bill simply orders the Biden administration to use those supplies and finish the job. When I spoke to those border agents, they told me that they really need a wall and, yeah, they need funding but that what they really need is an administration that has their back. And right now, they don't have that. Securing the border used to be a bipartisan issue. So I would call on President Biden to stop ignoring the border crisis, suspend any partisanship that is stopping him from doing what we know would stop this suffering, and for the sake of our law enforcement, for our parents, for our children, we need this administration to change course so that we can save lives. Madam President, I yield the floor.