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Video: Cornyn Votes to Secure Border, Calls for Reform of National Emergencies Act

Guest Columnist March 14, 2019 Opinion 6

WASHINGTON – Thursday on the floor of the Senate, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed his vote against the Democrats’ attempt to block the President from securing the border and called on Congress to reform the National Emergencies Act.

Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s floor remarks are below, and video can be found above.

“As I’ve said in the past, I’ll repeat again: what we are doing here today is no one’s first choice.”

“The refusal of Democrats in the House and the Senate to engage in negotiations on border security funding has led us to a 35-day government shutdown. Despite the clear message from border security experts, despite seeing the humanitarian crisis at the border described by President Obama in 2014 get many times worse, our Democratic colleagues decided to play politics instead of dealing with the problem.”

“My preference would be for the normal appropriations process to be used. But when your negotiating partners refuse to take a seat at the table, normal goes out the window. Our colleagues across the aisle left the president with few options to fund what he believed were so important for the nation’s security, and that’s what led us to this situation.”

“It’s clear that the president is operating within the authority that Congress has given to him. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to agree with it. But it’s clear that the president is operating within the authority Congress delegated to him.”

“I believe there’s a need to rein back in some of the authority that Congress has delegated to presidents, just as an institutional concern, as a constitutional matter. Which I am cosponsoring a bill that has been introduced by our colleague, Senator Lee, which gives Congress a stronger voice in processes under the National Emergencies Act.”

“I think this is an honest and important effort to hopefully help us prevent us from ending up in this predicament in the future.”

“The terrain and the 1,200-mile border between Texas and Mexico vary significantly.”

“What works well in one sector does not work well in another. And what I continue to hear from my constituents, including elected officials at the border, that if this is the border patrol telling us what they need in order to succeed to do the job we have asked them to do, we’re all in.”

“I think we need to take action to adequately fund our border security missions, and I hope our discussions in the coming months will be more productive than they have been so far this year. I will vote against the resolution of disapproval today and encourage my colleagues to instead focus our energy on reforming the legislation that got us into this situation to begin with.”

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Senator John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, is a member of the Senate Finance, Intelligence, and Judiciary Committees.

As El Paso region sees surge in migrant crossings, nonprofit groups’ support services feel the strain

The Texas Tribune March 3, 2019 News Comments Off on As El Paso region sees surge in migrant crossings, nonprofit groups’ support services feel the strain

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. — The statue of Mount Cristo Rey standing over this small border community is the site of an annual pilgrimage near the Texas-New Mexico state lines, where tens of thousands gather each October to celebrate their Catholic faith and honor the sacrifices it demands.

This month, however, the site bore witness to a different type of mission, one that immigrant rights groups say is borne out of necessity and desperation.

On Feb. 11, U.S. Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector apprehended 311 undocumented migrants near the site of the famed statue. That same day, more than 330 people were apprehended in Antelope Wells, New Mexico. And on Tuesday, Border Patrol agents came across 180 migrants in Sunland Park, adding to the number of large groups that sector agents have encountered this fiscal year, when such figures are tallied.

Through Wednesday, Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector have encountered at least 29 groups of migrants of 100 or more people.

As the number of families apprehended skyrockets, nonprofit and faith-based groups are scrambling to ensure that migrants seeking asylum aren’t let out onto the streets without shelter.

“We’re doing everything we can with all of our shelter network, with the Diocese of El Paso,” said Marissa Limón, the deputy director of the Hope Border Institute, a faith-based community organization in the El Paso, Las Cruces and Ciudad Juárez area. “There are several shelters operating in churches but also through the diocese itself, and they are almost at capacity right now.”

The surge of migrants illegally crossing into Texas has continued even as the Trump administration has tried to crack down on asylum-seekers. The administration and Republican hardliners say the latest surges are the result of an immigration system that is easily exploited by migrants and smugglers. But some analysts think it’s the administration’s policies that are fueling the latest influx, and they say it’s unclear when the numbers will begin to fall.

From Oct. 1, when the federal government’s 2019 fiscal year began, through January, more than 25,700 family units were apprehended in the Border Patrol’s El Paso sector, which also includes New Mexico. That’s compared with the 1,523 familiesBorder Patrol encountered during the same time frame last fiscal year, an increase of about 1,600 percent. In the Rio Grande Valley sector, which has been the nation’s busiest, about 43,600 families were apprehended. That’s a 180 percent increase from last fiscal year’s 15,570 during the same time frame.

Although the El Paso sector has always been busy, the latest surge could result from the Trump administration’s policy of stationing Customs and Border Patrol agents on international bridges to turn back potential asylum-seekers. CBP officers have said the move, known as metering, is necessary because the agency has limited space to house asylum-seekers while they wait for their claims to be processed.

“Part of the [surge] is a confluence of factors,” said Jessica Bolter, a researcher with the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. “Smugglers do learn quickly about the most effective routes to bring people into the country, and metering itself is likely to cause increased illegal crossings and also to cause people to go to remote ports of entry.”

In a statement about the Feb. 11 apprehensions near Antelope Wells, a CBP press officer said the smuggling of large groups could be a diversionary tactic.

“In many instances, criminal organizations are saturating areas with large groups with the belief that they can smuggle narcotics or other contraband into the United States while Border Patrol agents are occupied,” the statement asserts. “The U.S. Border Patrol will continue to enforce the rule of law.”

The Trump administration also attempted, through an executive order, to bar asylum for undocumented immigrants who cross in between the ports of entry. A federal judge has since blocked that effort, which Bolter said isn’t lost on smuggling networks.

“It drives the idea that you have to cross while you can before another restrictive policy might be issued,” she said.

As the increases continue, shelter directors and faith-based groups on the border are scrambling to make sure migrants have a temporary place to visit before they move to their final destinations, which are usually cities far north of the borderlands. In El Paso, that means avoiding a repeat of what happened days before Christmas, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers released hundreds of migrants at a downtown bus station with no place to go.

Ruben Garcia, the director the Annunciation House, said last week his organization received more than 3,600 migrants, the most in the organization’s 40-year history. He told local media he expected the numbers would continue to spike during the upcoming spring months when the weather turns more agreeable for travel.

Limón said her organization’s shelters are nearing capacity.

“We’re trying to figure out if there are more spaces that can be open, how can we work better with Annunciation House, but also with ICE and Border Patrol to ensure that the flows are better [managed].”

Things don’t seem as uncertain in the Rio Grande Valley. During a visit to the El Paso area Tuesday as part of the Tex-Mex Bishops Conference, Sister Norma Pimentel of the Rio Grande Valley’s Catholic Charities said her organization is able to manage the influx based on what it’s learned since 2014, when the modern-day immigration crisis began in earnest.

She credits volunteers for stepping up and helping but said communication with Border Patrol and ICE is also essential to ensure people have a place to go.

“The numbers of families have not slowed down,” she said. “But it’s amazing how the Valley continues to be very generous. And not only on the U.S. side but also the Mexican side.”

Pimental said that since 2014, when the Border Patrol opened its processing center, a place where migrants have access to more resources like showers and medical help, they aren’t as desperate when they arrive at her shelters.

“Border Patrol did a magnificent job in moving them to Ursula,” she said. “They picked up a lot of the things that we did as a respite center and tried to model that.”

She added, however, that federal facilities should only be temporary stops for the migrants once they are processed.

“I totally think that’s not the place for a family to be,” she said.

The surge in the El Paso sector has also coincided with the arrival of the latest caravan from Central America. On Feb. 4, about 1,600 asylum-seekers arrived at the border city of Piedras Negras, Coahuila, across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass. Most of the migrants there were given the option of applying for yearlong, renewable work permits that allow them to stay in Mexico. Hundreds were also bused to other Mexican cities, including Ciudad Juárez. That angered Ciudad Juárez’s mayor, who considered filing a formal complaint against the governor of Coahuila.

Limón said that dispute proves that the work groups like hers are doing is that much more relevant.

“It is a different story when it comes to what happens on the Mexican side of the border,” she said of the decisions made south of the Rio Grande. “But obviously the more shared responsibility and cooperation, there is the better for everybody.”

Author: JULIÁN AGUILAR – The Texas Tribune

EP State Legislative Delegation Releases Statement on Gov’t Shutdown, Border Wall

Guest Columnist January 8, 2019 News 1

On Tuesday, the following joint statement was released by the El Paso State Legislative Delegation, comprised of State Sen. José Rodríguez who represents Texas Senate District 29; State Rep. Joseph Moody who represents Texas House District 78; State Rep. Mary Gonzalez who represents Texas House District 75; State Rep. Cesar Blanco who represents Texas House District 76; and State Rep. Lina Ortega who represents Texas House District 77.

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Austin – The President will be on live television this evening to explain why he shuttered the government – and may declare a state of emergency – over a border wall. But there is no good explanation.

The federal government shutdown is unacceptable and must end. The purported reason for the shutdown does not meet any basic test of sound public policy.

The President is equating the wall, variously, with “national security” and with “border security,” sometimes using the terms interchangeably. Immigrants are not a security threat, and we find efforts to paint them in those terms irresponsible and reprehensible.

Simply put, the southern border is not a significant entry point for international terrorist organizations.

As far as street crime, the Cato Institute found that unauthorized immigrants are 44 percent less likely than natives to be incarcerated, and legal immigrants 69 percent less likely. The federal government has poured unprecedented resources into staffing and equipment at the southern border.

In 1992, the Border Patrol had 3,500 agents on the southern border. In 2000, that number was more than doubled to 8,500. Now there are about 20,000 agents. The budget for border enforcement, at more than $20 billion, is more than the combined budgets of the FBI, Secret Service, US Marshals Service, DEA, and ATF, the law enforcement agencies primarily tasked with fighting national and transnational crime. Meanwhile, apprehensions are at historic lows.

The migrants seeking refuge in the United States are not a danger to us. The rhetoric, sometimes implicit and sometimes explicit, that they bring crime and disease simply has to stop.

These lies, said about every wave of immigrants the country has known – said about the Irish, Germans, Italians, Polish, Jewish, Catholics, Chinese, Muslims, and now Mexicans and Central Americans – has led to criminalizing people who we need in this country – risk-takers like the immigrants before them, tough and brave men, women, and children who make the difficult decision to leave their homes and travel thousands of miles across harsh territory for the opportunity to live safe, productive lives.

We need to stop the hysteria about “border security,” which has led to militarization of the border and criminalization of unauthorized migrants, and look at the facts. According to a spring 2018 White House fact sheet, ICE was budgeted for $7.6 billion and CBP for $13.9 billion, yet the Executive Office for Immigration Review was budgeted at only $500 million.

The hysteria has skewed our national priorities for far too long, predating even this administration, which has raised it to new levels. It’s long past time for a sober look at the topic of “border security” and immigration, and for comprehensive immigration reform that rebalances our approach to conform with reality.

Elements of that approach would be:

To focus less on “boots on the ground” and walls, and more on law enforcement that targets true threats such as cartels that traffic people against their will and use extreme violence to maintain a grip on the illegal trade of drugs and other commodities;
A path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants who are here, usually as part of a “blended” family that includes citizens;
More guest worker visas for agriculture and other labor-intensive fields;
More resources to 1) vet immigrants to reduce backlog and wait time for citizenship applications and 2) to humanely process the current influx of asylum seekers;
A hemispheric strategy to reduce the “push factors” that are leading migrants, currently mostly from
Central America, to seek sanctuary in the United States;
Investment in our ports of entry, to increase safe and efficient passage of the 1 million daily travelers and $536 billion in annual trade with Mexico that supports millions of U.S. jobs.

A wall will violate the private property rights of Americans, be prohibitively expensive, and be ineffective. The only return on investment is political, and it sends a signal to the rest of the world that America is no longer the beacon of hope for the tired and poor, who given the opportunity in our country become exceptional, as did our parents and grandparents.

There is a crisis, but it originates in Washington D.C. The President and those who are enabling him are doing great damage. End this now.