Texas Border Business
‘A lack of sufficient resources at the border including outdated ports of entry, including lack of personnel, technology, and equipment; these have been a contributing factor to the crisis.’
‘I think the opportunities are there for us to engage in strategic partnerships with Mexico in a number of ways… Through our partnership we can work together to solve this migrant crisis by improving the economy and opportunities people have to live and work in their home country as well as protect trade which supports so many jobs here in the United States.’
WASHINGTON – Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) discussed his two new pieces of legislation to ensure safety and efficiency along Texas’ border. This month, he has introduced the Missing Persons and Unidentified Remains Act of 2018 and the United States Ports of Entry Threat and Operational Review . Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s floor remarks are below, and video can be found here
“I personally believe that legal immigration has been to the benefit of our country. Virtually all of us came from somewhere else at some point in our family history, but the important point is legal immigration is very different from uncontrolled illegal immigration, which is what we are seeing still flooding across our southern borders.”
“I have the honor of representing about 28 million Texans, forty percent of whom are Hispanic, but I also represent a large number of Indian Americans and Vietnamese Americans, Chinese Americans, [and] Korean Americans.”
“The border communities that I represent have experienced very real consequences – negative consequences – from the migrant crisis, and they have also seen the humanitarian consequences of people making this treacherous journey across Mexico up from Central America and travel[ing] to the United States. But of course, it should be no surprise that in some cases that journey is simply too strenuous, it proves to be too much, and a number of these migrants actually lose their lives. They die trying to make their way to the United States.”
“These [border] communities don’t have the resources to recover all the remains from those migrants who die in their counties, causing the cost to be placed on local government, and in turn, local taxpayers. The burden falls on them to come up with forensic experts and medical examiners, for example, who are already overburdened and understaffed. This is a real problem for many of our border communities, and this is why I joined with Senator Cruz, Congressman Hurd, and Congressman Gonzalez to introduce a bill to help local jurisdictions improve the recording and reporting of missing persons and unidentified remains found along the U.S.-Mexican border. My hope is that this bill will help our local communities identify those who have gone missing, process those unidentified remains, and invest in forensic expertise to provide closure to the families in the United States and abroad.”
“A lack of sufficient resources at the border including outdated ports of entry, including lack of personnel, technology, and equipment; these have been a contributing factor to the crisis.”
“Congress has taken some steps to protect and increase the volume of trade across our ports of entry, which include my Cross-Border Trade Enhancement Act, which is now law, to permanently authorize a public-private partner pilot program that will ultimately lead to staff efficiencies and will allow for further infrastructure improvements at our ports of entry.”
“In addition, last week I joined the junior Senator from Michigan to introduce a bipartisan bill that will require the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a threat and operational analysis at all of our U.S. ports of entry, because the same ports that let in legitimate trade and commerce can also be points of exploitation and access for people who wish to do us harm.”
“We have long thrived on international trade and travel through our many ports, but we need to take a hard look at the vulnerabilities and inefficiencies in the system. It’s important that we find targeted solutions to enhance legitimate trade and travel while ensuring the bad actors have fewer opportunities to thwart our protections.”
“I think the opportunities are there for us to engage in strategic partnerships with Mexico in a number of ways… Through our partnership we can work together to solve this migrant crisis by improving the economy and opportunities people have to live and work in their home country as well as protect trade which supports so many jobs here in the United States.”
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