During remarks on the Senate floor Monday, Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) debated Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) over border security and immigration legislation.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, it's with great honor I stand before you.
00:03As you know, I've been in this chamber for ten weeks, and it's one of the greatest honors of my life
00:09to represent the people of Ohio here in the United States Senate.
00:12It's especially an honor because I wasn't born in this country.
00:16I was born in Bogota, Colombia.
00:19My mom and dad moved myself, my sister, and my five brothers to America
00:23to find a different opportunity, a better opportunity.
00:26We are part of a long line of immigrants that have come to this country
00:30to make this country stronger and to make this country better
00:34and to live our version of the American dream.
00:37We know what happened, Mr. President, over the last four years at our southern border.
00:42It was a total and complete disgrace.
00:45It's a disgrace not just because of the unlimited amount of people that came into this country,
00:50almost 10 million encounters over a four-year period,
00:55but it's a disgrace because that's not how we should welcome people to this nation.
01:01We should not have people who want to come to America,
01:05pay a drug cartel to smuggle them across Mexico,
01:10raped along the way, beaten along the way,
01:14every last cent that they have robbed from them and their families,
01:17and then smuggled into the country,
01:20and then charged even more money when they think the journey's over.
01:24In some cases, the people come into the interior of the country
01:27and have to pay back enormous sums of money
01:30so that cartel members don't come into the country and find them and kill them,
01:34or kill their family members back home.
01:37That's no way to have people come to this country.
01:42Now, if you look at this chart, it's a very famous chart
01:45because President Trump referred to it at his rally.
01:48You can see immigration is not a new issue in this country.
01:51We've had a problem for a long, long time.
01:54President Trump took office, and he put in place, right here, an executive order.
02:00And what that executive order did is it said,
02:03hey, you can only claim asylum at a legal port of entry.
02:07So if you cross the river, if you scale a wall, if you go through a tunnel,
02:12you can't claim asylum once you get to the other side.
02:15Because, as we know, asylum is for refugees,
02:19people who are fleeing dangerous situations because of their race,
02:23their religion, or their political beliefs.
02:27So when he put that in place, look what happened, Mr. President.
02:30A total collapse of border encounters.
02:33Now, President Trump left office, Joe Biden rescinded that executive order,
02:38and we saw what happened.
02:40Massive spike in illegal crossings, devastating our border patrol agents.
02:46Our border patrol agents were totally outmanned.
02:49They were completely overwhelmed and unable to do their jobs.
02:54Now, in a political season, Joe Biden put in place the exact same executive order.
03:01What did that executive order say?
03:03You can only claim asylum at a legal port of entry.
03:07If you enter through a non-designated port of entry, you're immediately returned.
03:12And look what happened. Another massive drop.
03:15Now, here, President Trump took office
03:19and is now actively returning anybody who comes through a non-designated port of entry.
03:26And we're down to 8,326 border crossings in one month.
03:34At the peak of Biden, that number was almost 350,000.
03:40We didn't have to pass a law.
03:42We didn't have to hire new border patrol agents.
03:44We didn't need new equipment.
03:46We honestly didn't even need more wall.
03:49We needed better policy.
03:52Mr. President, I campaigned to run for the United States Senate for two years.
03:57And during that two-year period of time, I drove to every corner of my incredible state.
04:03I drove to every corner of Ohio.
04:06And to a man or a woman, the voters would tell me,
04:09please go down to Washington, D.C., and do something.
04:14The American people want to have faith and confidence
04:18that their leaders are actually able to come together and accomplish legislation that's purely common sense.
04:26So I present to you, Mr. President, today a very simple bill.
04:30Very simple bill.
04:32We don't have to boil the ocean.
04:34We don't have to reinvent the wheel.
04:36It's very simple.
04:37It says if you're an asylum seeker, you must file a claim for asylum at a legal port of entry.
04:43If you're going to come to America and you're seeking asylum, do it at a legal port of entry.
04:50No release of asylum applicants into the interior of the country.
04:56We're going to follow the law.
04:58We're going to have them wait in the prior country.
05:00And in 180 days, which is currently the law, which is being violated,
05:05sometimes it's five or six years, but they wait until their asylum claim is heard.
05:11There's no second chance.
05:13Once we've identified that you have a fake asylum claim, then you can no longer claim asylum ever again.
05:20And anyone who entered the U.S. illegally is banned from claiming asylum.
05:25We welcome people in our homes every day.
05:28We don't let people bake through our windows to come see us, because that's insane.
05:34Now I know that my Democrat colleagues are in a mode where they want to fight everything that we're doing, Mr. President.
05:41But we should at least come together on this.
05:44And as I look over at my Democrat colleague, there's only two of us.
05:48Two of us in this entire chamber that are naturalized U.S. citizens.
05:53We know firsthand what it means to be able to be accepted by this country.
06:00Ninety-eight were born here. Two of us were not.
06:04We became citizens of this country, and we got the ultimate opportunity to represent this country in the United States Senate.
06:12Let's come together one time and show the American people we don't have to fight about everything.
06:23We can actually accomplish common-sense legislation.
06:29Let's put in code.
06:31Let's put in legislation those executive orders that not once, not twice,
06:38but three times has been proven to reduce border encounters.
06:44I can't imagine that my Democrat colleagues will fight this.
06:49And I hope that somebody who's been here for ten weeks, as opposed to my colleagues,
06:56some of them have been here for two or three decades, fail to understand that the American people are watching.
07:05The American people want to have a Senate and a House and a government that can actually do something that matters a lot to them.
07:19So I will yield to my Democrat colleague from Hawaii, and I implore you.
07:24Let's show leadership together, you and I.
07:27Let's show this leadership and get a very, very simple bill accomplished.
07:33And I ask unanimous consent that the committee and the judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S-200
07:40and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.
07:43Further, I ask that the bill be considered read a third time and passed,
07:47and that the motion to reconsider be made and laid upon the table.
07:51Is there an objection?
07:53Mr. President?
07:54The senator from Hawaii.
07:56Mr. President, I'm reserving the right to object.
07:58My colleague claims that this bill will reform our broken asylum system.
08:02As the other naturalized citizen in this body, I object.
08:09And we actually passed comprehensive immigration reform out of this Senate in 2013,
08:16and I was one of the senators who worked on that bipartisan bill.
08:21But when the bill got to the House, it didn't pass.
08:26So we are here once again.
08:28And more recently, there was a bipartisan immigration bill that was about to be brought to the Senate,
08:36and everything was set to go until the current president decided that he would much rather this issue continue to not be addressed.
08:47So there you go.
08:48We can all agree that our immigration and asylum systems need reforms,
08:52but I have serious concerns about this legislation.
08:56My colleague has stated that this bill is intended to prevent those who come to the United States
09:03in between ports of entry from applying for asylum, but as it is drafted.
09:09This bill eliminates the section of the law that allows people present in the United States to apply for asylum.
09:17This means that it would prevent anyone, even those who have lawful status, from applying inside the United States.
09:26Instead, they would have to travel to a port of entry.
09:31This bill would also require that anyone, including families seeking asylum at a port of entry,
09:38be arrested and held in custody for the entire time their request is pending,
09:46and it could take quite a long time using taxpayer money to detain them.
09:55I certainly agree with my colleague that we need to do more to address our immigration court backlog,
10:02which includes many asylum cases and improve our asylum system, but this legislation would not address these concerns.
10:12Let me give you an example.
10:14This bill would prevent a Ukrainian fleeing Russian aggression
10:19who entered lawfully from applying for asylum from within the United States.
10:26It would force them to travel with their families to a port of entry to apply for asylum.
10:32They would then be detained with their children while they wait for their application to be processed.
10:41These are individuals who have work permits and are contributing to our economy and society every day.
10:48They came here lawfully.
10:50How does making them leave and seek asylum at a port of entry improve our system?
10:57It doesn't.
10:58Here's a reality.
10:59This bill and the recent actions by the Trump administration
11:03are not focused on truly addressing problems with our asylum system.
11:08If the Trump administration was serious about improving our asylum system,
11:14why did they recently fire nearly two dozen impartial immigration judges without cause or notice?
11:29They fired military veterans and expert judges who had experience processing immigration cases effectively.
11:38With a backlog of over 3.6 million immigration cases,
11:43you heard me right, 3.6 million immigration cases,
11:47we need more immigration judges, not less.
11:55But the current leadership at the Executive Office of Immigration Review,
12:00which oversees immigration courts, has said they plan to fire more judges.
12:06Exactly the wrong thing to do.
12:08This is no way to address our broken immigration system.
12:13I urge you Republicans to set aside this misguided bill
12:17and to stop taking a chainsaw to our federal workforce,
12:23including immigration judges.
12:27Believe me, this chainsaw approach to what is going on in our federal government,
12:33if the administration wanted to create fear and chaos,
12:38if that is their aim, they are succeeding mightily.
12:42I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join us in good faith
12:47to work on the truly comprehensive bipartisan immigration reforms
12:52that we so desperately need.
12:55For these reasons, Mr. President, I object.
12:58The objection is heard.
13:00Mr. President.
13:01The Senator from Ohio.
13:02If I could just go back and just reiterate a couple points for my colleague.
13:07The executive order went in, border crossings dropped.
13:11President Biden, President Biden put in place the exact same executive order
13:18that in effect is this exact legislation.
13:21Border crossings dropped.
13:24I have a question.
13:25I'm confused by my colleague's explanation about the Ukrainian refugees.
13:32If they're coming from Ukraine and they're entering through a legal port of entry,
13:37that's when they would claim asylum.
13:39I don't think we have a scenario where we're asking Americans or legal residents to apply for asylum
13:47because if you're already in the interior of the country, that decision was already made.
13:52So if you're the Ukrainian family that you talked about,
13:55what you claim asylum at the legal port of entry,
13:58the law says, which we're not following, this body refuses to enforce its own laws,
14:04is that we'll adjudicate that claim in 180 days.
14:07I absolutely never said they would be arrested.
14:11In fact, nothing in this bill mentions being arrested.
14:15All it says is they must wait in the prior safe country.
14:19So in the case of Ukraine, they can go to France, apply for asylum there,
14:25wait 180 days, and then we'll welcome them with open arms to America the right way, the legal way.
14:35I hope my colleague is not hoping for a scenario where that Ukrainian family goes to Mexico City,
14:42pays a drug cartel member a few thousand dollars and gets smuggled across the border,
14:48across a river with a family where the children, who knows what can happen to them.
14:54That's how you want refugees to come to this country?
14:58That doesn't even make any sense.
14:59There's nobody being arrested by this bill.
15:02There's nobody being detained by this bill.
15:04It's exactly the opposite.
15:07We're asking the refugee to wait in the prior safe country for 180 days, which is the law.
15:15And then once your claim is adjudicated, we welcome you with open arms.
15:19My colleague mentioned that there's 3.6 million cases backlogged.
15:25That's true.
15:26It's a stunning and shameful number.
15:28What she doesn't mention is that 90 plus percent of those cases,
15:35a judge rules once they get to it in five or six or seven years that it's an invalid asylum claim.
15:43It doesn't mean that they're not economic migrants.
15:46It doesn't mean that there's somebody who may want to come to this country.
15:50But there are people who are clearly not refugees.
15:53Not my thoughts, the thoughts of immigration judges that are making this decision over and over again.
15:59You're only in Washington, D.C.
16:01Only when you've been here so long that your head can't see straight.
16:06Do you think it's a better idea to have unlimited amounts of fake asylum claims?
16:11And the way you handle that, instead of changing the law, is to hire thousands of more judges
16:16to give the answer you already know?
16:19To waste taxpayer dollars that way?
16:22My colleagues talk about Republicans being on the side of billionaires.
16:27You know what billionaires the Democrats have created?
16:30The drug cartel members that are making billions of dollars smuggling people.
16:35I went to a border crossing in Del Rio, Texas.
16:39The Border Patrol agents let me come right to the edge of the river.
16:44I saw four people come across.
16:47Two men, two women.
16:49The minute they landed, they got on their knees and said,
16:52Asilo! Asilo!
16:54Which is asylum in Spanish.
16:57I asked them if they knew what that meant.
16:59They said no, but that's what the drug cartel had told them to say the minute they landed in America.
17:04They're not refugees.
17:06Why are you making those Ukrainian families wait behind economic migrants claiming fake asylum claims?
17:13Look, this is what's wrong with Washington, D.C.
17:16This is an easy, obvious fix.
17:18The data proves it out.
17:20You put that law in place, border crossings drop.
17:24Trump, Biden, Trump.
17:27They put the exact executive order in place.
17:30Now, you don't have to take my word for it.
17:32On CBS just yesterday, Face the Nation.
17:37Wake up on a beautiful Sunday and turn on Face the Nation.
17:40Margaret Brennan asked Congressman Zawazi.
17:44I apologize if I pronounce his name wrong.
17:47She says, Margaret Brennan says to the Congressman,
17:49Illegal border crossings, as we just discussed, they are at a historic low.
17:55President Trump made that point when he was addressing Congress this week.
17:59Was he right that he didn't need to wait for Congress?
18:02We didn't need comprehensive immigration reform.
18:05Was he right that it really was messaging for the White House beyond?
18:11This is what a Democrat, a Democrat from New York says.
18:16Well, obviously, keyword obviously, we've seen a reduction in crossings.
18:21Why is it obvious? Because we know this works.
18:24We know that if we make asylum only an illegal port of entry,
18:28180 days to process, can't claim it if you cross illegally.
18:32We know, obviously, his words.
18:34Well, obviously, we've seen a reduction in crossings.
18:37We saw it under Biden at the end of his administration.
18:41After he did his executive order to say no asylum applications are between ports of entry.
18:46But we need to make it permanent law.
18:50Democrat, member of the House of Representatives, we need to make it permanent law.
18:57I guess after 10 weeks in the United States Senate, I should expect that everything has to be hard.
19:07Everything has to be a battle.
19:10But I can tell you, people all over this country, the people who don't watch C-SPAN 24-7,
19:17the people that don't go on X and read every last debate between their elected members,
19:24they're just regular Americans, want to enjoy their lives, pay taxes,
19:29cannot understand why we can't come together on something so incredibly simple,
19:37so easy.
19:39Democrat president did it.
19:41Republican president did it.
19:43It works.
19:44This is not theoretical.
19:46And to my colleague, I don't want those Ukrainian refugees waiting behind millions of economic migrants.
19:53It's not fair to them.
19:55Why would we do that?
19:57I yield back.
20:01The senator from Hawaii.
20:03Mr. President, I hear my colleague acknowledging that the asylum system is broken.
20:09My objections remain.
20:18The senator from Ohio.
20:20I ask unanimous consent that the committee on the judiciary be discharged from further consideration of S-200
20:26and the bill be placed on the legislative calendar.
20:29Is there an objection?
20:31The senator from Hawaii.
20:33Reserving the right to object for the reasons previously stated, I object.
20:38The objection is heard.