June 4, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 93 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
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Border Security (Executive Session); Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 93
(Senate - June 04, 2019)
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[Pages S3172-S3173] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] Border Security Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, too much of our conversation about migrants seeking to enter at the southern border has to do with what happens when they get here. Not enough of our conversation concerns how we deal with the problems in the countries from which the migrants are coming. Many of these migrants are fleeing vicious gang violence, corruption, domestic abuse, drug cartels, and economic hardships that are so severe that they would risk a journey of 1,000 miles on foot rather than to stay where they are. We simply have to do more to help the countries from which these folks are coming to fix the problems that are causing their people to flee. That is getting at the root causes here, not at just putting on a bandaid after they get to the border, and that may be the most effective way to deal with the overall issue. Unfortunately and as usual, the Trump administration has done the opposite. Its policies are exacerbating the vicious conditions in these Central American countries. President Trump has cut $450 million in security assistance to Central American countries and has provided no information about why the cuts have taken place and where the money will go. As usual, it seems it is sort of on a whim. He gets this idea in his head and spews it out without checking it and without explaining it even when it has the consequence he doesn't want, which is more people coming to our southern border. Now what the President has proposed are tariffs on Mexico that would be massively destabilizing to our economy and theirs--a policy that will only lead to more migration. These whimsical and erratic proposals by the President that seem to pop into his head and with which he goes forward without [[Page S3173]] checking are making a mess of what is going on at the southern border. So I would say to the President: There is a much better way to address the migration issue than with tariffs. Deal with the problems in the Central American countries that are causing the migration in the first place. The Democrats have proposed legislation that would do just that--stem the tide of migrants and help to reduce the backlog of cases. How? First, allow asylum seekers to apply for asylum in their home countries. If the people under all of this gang violence and viciousness and economic hardship would be able to apply for asylum in Honduras or in Guatemala or in El Salvador instead of having to take a dangerous and often expensive 1,000-mile trek, they would do it. Why don't we do that? Let's increase the number of immigration judges so there could be adjudication rather quickly, and let's build the capacity of Central American countries to crack down on the violent gangs and vicious drug cartels. Our bill would provide $1.5 billion in security assistance to these countries, which is far more than the Trump administration has cut, but it is still nonsensical to have cut this money. This administration gets in its own way almost every day, but the solutions we proposed are the types we should debate. So we are going to push forward with these proposals. Democrats will seek to add these policies to any package of border legislation that comes here before the Senate. If no legislation dealing with the border comes up, Democrats will seek to add security assistance for Central American countries to an appropriations bill and push for language that requires the administration to use it. This is so important that we will push hard in whatever vehicle we can find to move this proposal. Again, all of these policies would have a far greater impact, with far less disruption, than slapping tariffs on one of our Nation's largest trading partners. Now, frankly, I don't believe President Trump will actually go through with the tariffs. When he doesn't, we should be ready to proceed to these commonsense policies instead. President Trump has a habit of talking tough and then retreating because his tough talk can't be implemented or doesn't make sense. President Trump has a habit of proposing asinine and dangerous policies before backing off, and President Trump has a habit of pretending that the very act of not following through on a misguided policy is somehow a victory. I wouldn't be surprised at all if President Trump didn't follow through on these tariffs either. We Democrats have proposed a much better solution to the problems the President is talking about, and when the President backs off on tariffs, as I believe he will, this is a solution ready to go that can get bipartisan support that can actually stem the problems we have at our southern border. 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment Madam President, next, on the 19th Amendment anniversary, today we observe the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment by the U.S. Senate--a critical step in the long march for equality that began at the very founding of our country, when Abigail Adams importuned her husband to ``remember the ladies'' when drafting the Constitution, a reminder that fell on deaf ears. It was a march that gathered numbers and force at Seneca Falls, under the leadership of brave New Yorkers like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and found expression in the abolitionist movement. While that march for equality under the law achieved a great and long-overdue victory 100 years ago, it is still not over. We have a lot to do. Wearing the yellow rose is wonderful, but it is not enough. When women in the workplace do 100 percent of the work but only earn 80 percent of the pay as a man in the same position, the march is not over. When good legislation like the House-passed Violence Against Women Act to provide justice to survivors of domestic violence and stalking languishes in this Chamber in a legislative graveyard because the NRA is opposed to it, that march is not over. When the States are passing laws making it harder for minorities to vote, when State parties gerrymander districts to limit minority representation, and when the Supreme Court pretends that discrimination no longer exists in this country and guts the Voting Rights Act, the march to equality and universal suffrage is not over. Without universal suffrage, democracy is incomplete. That was the lesson of the women who organized, protested, and compelled their government to pass the 19th Amendment by the slimmest of margins. So let us not consider June 4 a day to look back with complacency and remark on our historical progress, but rather as a day to look forward and recognize what we still must achieve. There is no shortage of good work we could take up here in the Senate--paycheck fairness, Violence Against Women Act, the Equality Act, voting rights, election reform--to make sure all Americans can enjoy the full blessings of liberty. These pieces of legislation have passed the House and ended up in the legislative graveyard of the Senate. I can think of no better way to honor the legacy of the suffragists than to continue their work on breaking down barriers and strengthening our democracy.
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