Source: United States Senator for Indiana Todd Young
May 17, 2023
**Click here or above to watch Senator Young’s floor speech.**
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Todd Young (R-Ind.) joined a group of Republicans who spoke on the Senate floor about the ongoing humanitarian crisis at our southern border.
Young said that the Biden Administration’s failure to plan for the end of Title 42, enforce our immigration laws, and secure the border is a disaster.
“Americans, no matter their political party, know it. In New York City, where illegal migrants have displaced homeless veterans in hotels, Mayor Eric Adams said ‘the president and the White House have failed this city.’ The truth is, when it comes to the border, the president and the White House have failed this country,” said Senator Young.
To watch Senator Young’s full remarks, click here.
Senator Young’s full remarks:
“Much better than you all expected.”
That’s what President Biden said when asked about conditions at the border after the expiration of Title 42.
“Much better than you all expected.”
At the end of a week that saw a record 10,000 illegal crossings a day.
He says, “Much better than you all expected.”
Those were just the ones that were stopped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
But the President’s statement is clearly disconnected from the on-the-ground reality at our border.
Everyone knows that.
As far as I can tell, the Biden Administration’s policy when it comes to the southern border is largely to do the opposite of what the previous administration did.
This is the “Costanza” policy of border security.
Whatever the previous president did, do the opposite.
Within his first 100 days in office, President Biden stopped construction of the border wall, but he didn’t stop there.
He halted deportations, but didn’t stop there.
He suspended the Remain in Mexico policy.
As a result, there have been at least 6.4 million – 6.4 million – illegal border crossings at the southern border since the President assumed office.
Now to put that in perspective, and this is just the number of people who we’ve seen and been able to track come across the border illegally, so we know there are far more.
But I represent a state – the great state of Indiana – where the population of Indiana is 6.8 million.
That’s a whole lot of people.
Since 2021, hundreds of thousands of children have been trafficked across the border.
85,000 unaccompanied children are now missing, Madame President.
Last year overworked and underappreciated Border Patrol agents apprehended more than 12,000 illegal immigrants who had already been convicted of a crime.
Again, just the ones we have been able to apprehend.
This year, this year so far, those agents have stopped 82 people according to my most recent count from crossing the border and they are on the terror watch list.
Fentanyl, smuggled across the border from Mexico, is now the leading cause of death for Americans between 18 and 49.
Record numbers of migrants are dying, swept away in the currents of the Rio Grande.
So many, in fact, that law enforcement has to keep refrigerated trucks at the ready to store the drowned bodies.
The Administration pretends that its lax border policy is somehow humane.
It’s the benighted, ultra MAGA conservatives, the mean Republicans, in this vision, that are inhumane.
Well I have to say, swamping our law enforcement officers, overwhelming our resources, allowing lethal drugs to spread through our communities, not discouraging migrants from a deadly journey to the border… This is inhumane.
Saying so, and demanding a measure of border security, is not anti-immigrant.
It’s pro-American.
These are not Republican talking points. These are the sentiments of regular Americans. The failure to plan for the end of Title 42, to enforce our immigration laws, and to secure the border is a disaster.
Americans, no matter their political party, know it.
But the President of the United States does not seem to understand.
In New York City, where illegal migrants have displaced homeless veterans in hotels, Mayor Eric Adams said, “the president and the White House have failed this city…”
The truth is, when it comes to the border, the President and the White House have failed this country.