September 12, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 146 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S5461-S5462]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           EXECUTIVE CALENDAR

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senate will 
resume consideration of the following nomination, which the clerk will 
report.
  The legislative clerk read the nomination of Thomas Peter Feddo, of 
Virginia, to be Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Investment 
Security. (New Position)
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Tennessee.


                     End Child Trafficking Now Act

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam President, this is not the first time I have 
come to the floor to discuss a situation that is on our Nation's 
southern border and the need that we as a country have for a stronger, 
more efficient immigration policy. I have made more than one trip to 
South Texas this year, and each time I have returned, I have found 
myself more motivated to cut through the noise, and to get something 
done.
  What should be a practical policy discussion has, unfortunately, 
turned political, and very real problems have compounded into an 
unprecedented crisis.
  Within these Halls, we have debates over asylum caps and visa 
requirements. They are indeed important issues, but recent reports on 
the explosion of human rights violations perpetrated by cartels, 
coyotes, and international gangs have added some much needed context to 
these debates.
  By now, we have all heard how dangerous the journey to our southern 
border can be for those who are being brought forward by cartels, 
coyotes, and international gangs. Traffickers have really built a big 
business--a very big and profitable business--on moving drugs and 
desperate human cargo across the border. Sometimes these individuals 
make it, and sometimes the guides leave their charges to die--to die 
alone in the desert. Rumors of abuse, assault, and gang rape have 
manifested and been proven true. Border Patrol agents at most ports of 
entry administer pregnancy tests to girls as young as 12 years of age.
  While we waste time arguing over talking points, monsters--absolute 
monsters--are dragging children into the crosshairs of an international 
crisis. While we debate the best way to amend our loose asylum laws, 
traffickers are finding ways to exploit those laws, using children to 
force their way back and forth across the border under the guise of 
parental legitimacy.
  ``Child recycling'' is a crude term but an accurate term, and we 
define it as when a minor is used more than once by alien adults who 
are neither relatives nor legal guardians but pose as family members 
for the purposes of crossing the border. How despicable and how very 
selfish of them. Child-recycling isn't a myth, unfortunately. It is not 
an urban legend. It is a definite, well-defined, clear and present 
danger.
  DHS has uncovered more than 5,500 fraudulent asylum claims since May 
of 2018. I want you to think about that number--5,500 fraudulent asylum 
claims since May of 2018. Customs and Border Patrol tells us that 
unaccompanied minors are particularly vulnerable to trafficking and 
that drug runners and sex predators are rolling the dice on these 
fraudulent asylum claims to move their products--which, bear in mind, 
are people and drugs--to move them more efficiently.
  Earlier this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement introduced a 
pilot program they believed would help determine how serious the child 
recycling problem is. They began administering DNA tests on all adults 
accompanied by minors who claimed a familial relationship but lacked 
the paperwork to prove this relationship. As a safeguard, all swabs 
were destroyed, and no genetic profiles were collected or stored. The 
purpose was solely to

[[Page S5462]]

prove a DNA match. And thank goodness somebody was watching. The 
results have been horrifying. One in five claims of kinship is 
fraudulent. That means one in five children who were brought to the 
border and then funneled into the pilot program was likely being 
exploited.
  I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to say that finally we 
have had enough and to voice their support for the End Child 
Trafficking Now Act. This act requires the Department of Health and 
Human Services, in conjunction with the Department of Homeland 
Security, to administer DNA tests for all adults accompanied by minors 
at a port of entry who claim a familial relationship without sufficient 
legal documentation to prove the connection.
  Refusal of the test will be met with immediate deportation. 
Fabrication of family ties or guardianship will carry a maximum 10-year 
penalty, and the child will be processed as an unaccompanied minor 
under current law. Proven family members and guardians, however, will 
be allowed to move forward with the immigration process.
  The tests themselves are simple--a quick swab of the cheek and a 
quick wait. I say ``quick'' because we will be using a new form of 
genetic testing that can analyze a DNA sample in about 90 minutes.
  I will tell you that I am aware that the various factions in this 
Chamber have vastly different approaches to immigration reform. We 
should be having a serious discussion about the fundamental flaws in 
our policies and our plans to fix them. I welcome these discussions, 
and I look forward to the changes, but I know and my colleagues know 
that no one bill or package will repair what is broken in our current 
immigration system. There is no viable quick fix.
  We owe it to this country and we owe it to the children who are 
brought here under duress and under false premises to do whatever we 
can to prevent what experience and pilot testing have proved we can 
indeed prevent. Let's make certain that children coming to the southern 
border are with family and that they are protected.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Young). The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.


                        Tribute to Cindy Hasiak

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, before we vote, I wish to take a moment 
to recognize a lifelong public servant, Cindy Hasiak, who will be 
retiring after 32 years in this Chamber, with the Sergeant at Arms and 
with the Senate doorkeepers.
  Cindy came to the Senate in the spring of 1987. In her time here, she 
has seen hundreds of Senators pass through these doors. When particular 
Senators were nowhere to be found, she was usually the one who would 
have chased them down.
  There is also so much work in the Senate that gets done behind the 
scenes. So much of it is essential to our operations, and all of it is 
performed flawlessly, quietly, wonderfully by dedicated staffers who 
rarely get the recognition they deserve. Truly, the Senate would not 
function without the quiet dedication and steady excellence of folks 
like Cindy.
  As her days of chasing down Senators come to a close, I wish her all 
the best as she embarks on a well-earned and well-deserved retirement 
where, luckily for her, she will be close to her family, friends, and 
loved ones and far from the frenetic demands of wrangling 100 Senators 
with 100 different schedules.
  We all thank her for her dedicated career in public service. She will 
always, always, always have the gratitude of this grand institution.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is, Will the Senate advise and 
consent to the Feddo nomination?
  Ms. COLLINS. I ask for the yeas and nays.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there a sufficient second?
  There appears to be a sufficient second.
  The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk called the roll.
  Mr. THUNE. The following Senators are necessarily absent: the Senator 
from Tennessee (Mr. Alexander), the Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. Inhofe), 
the Senator from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the Senator from Arizona (Ms. 
McSally), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Moran), the Senator from Georgia 
(Mr. Perdue), the Senator from Kansas (Mr. Roberts), and the Senator 
from Florida (Mr. Rubio).
  Further, if present and voting, the Senator from Tennessee (Mr. 
Alexander) would have voted ``yea,'' the Senator from Kansas (Mr. 
Moran) would have voted ``yea,'' and the Senator from Florida (Mr. 
Rubio) would have voted ``yea.''
  Mr. DURBIN. I announce that the Senator from New Jersey (Mr. Booker), 
the Senator from Delaware (Mr. Coons), the Senator from California (Ms. 
Harris), the Senator from Minnesota (Ms. Klobuchar), the Senator from 
Vermont (Mr. Sanders), and the Senator from Massachusetts (Ms. Warren) 
are necessarily absent.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Are there any other Senators in the Chamber 
desiring to vote?
  The result was announced--yeas 85, nays 1, as follows:

                      [Rollcall Vote No. 281 Ex.]

                                YEAS--85

     Baldwin
     Barrasso
     Bennet
     Blackburn
     Blumenthal
     Blunt
     Boozman
     Braun
     Brown
     Burr
     Cantwell
     Capito
     Cardin
     Carper
     Casey
     Cassidy
     Collins
     Cornyn
     Cortez Masto
     Cotton
     Cramer
     Crapo
     Cruz
     Daines
     Duckworth
     Durbin
     Enzi
     Ernst
     Feinstein
     Fischer
     Gardner
     Gillibrand
     Graham
     Grassley
     Hassan
     Hawley
     Heinrich
     Hirono
     Hoeven
     Hyde-Smith
     Johnson
     Jones
     Kaine
     Kennedy
     King
     Lankford
     Leahy
     Lee
     Manchin
     Markey
     McConnell
     Menendez
     Merkley
     Murkowski
     Murphy
     Murray
     Peters
     Portman
     Reed
     Risch
     Romney
     Rosen
     Rounds
     Sasse
     Schatz
     Schumer
     Scott (FL)
     Scott (SC)
     Shaheen
     Shelby
     Sinema
     Smith
     Stabenow
     Sullivan
     Tester
     Thune
     Tillis
     Toomey
     Udall
     Van Hollen
     Warner
     Whitehouse
     Wicker
     Wyden
     Young

                                NAYS--1

       
     Paul
       

                             NOT VOTING--14

     Alexander
     Booker
     Coons
     Harris
     Inhofe
     Isakson
     Klobuchar
     McSally
     Moran
     Perdue
     Roberts
     Rubio
     Sanders
     Warren
  The nomination was confirmed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the motion to 
reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table, and the 
President will be immediately notified of the Senate's action.
  The Senator from Louisiana.

                          ____________________