[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 42 (Thursday, April 10, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      GETTING TOUGH ON IMMIGRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Stearns). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Foley] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. FOLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to step up the heat, if you 
will, and the pressure on this administration to work with our 
Immigration Department and ferret out some of the significant problems 
that exist in that agency. I also call upon them to increase staffing 
for our Border Patrol agents in the State of Florida. I am reading 
today in Insight magazine, ``Customs Officials Eat Crow at the 
Border,'' which details a number of allegations that have been brought 
forward against border officials in our administration. Serious 
allegations.
  One includes a 3-week period where one of our agents called a known 
convicted drug trafficker, 207 calls from an agent's home. We also have 
some claims made by some of our employees that a customs dog handler 
when attempting to search an 18-wheel tanker was prevented from doing 
his job. Later that tanker was found to contain nearly 4 tons of 
cocaine. Meanwhile at the California port of Calexico, immigration 
investigators, who already have arrested one customs inspector recently 
on corruption charges, are closing in on a customs secretary who is 
accused of selling intelligence to Tijuana's drug lords.
  Mr. Speaker, if this country is going to be secure from both illegal 
immigration and the rapid importation increase of illegal drugs, we 
have got to be able to depend on people who enforce the law as passed 
by this Congress. It concerns me greatly when we read these reports and 
we hear allegations of corruption and bribery and people being allowed 
to bring numerous people into this country illegally.
  So I ask this administration, the attorney general, to fully 
investigate these allegations, not to sweep them under the rug as 
alleged by several officers of the Immigration Service. In fact one 
says, ``They're pulling punches.'' Inspectors at San Ysidro argue 
punches are being pulled and that several more serious corruption 
allegations against senior personnel are being buried. You read about 
what happens to people when they are discovered to have violated the 
laws of this country. They are moved to a desk assignment, they are 
transferred, they are offered early retirement. These are serious 
violations of our laws. These people should not be offered retirement. 
They should be shown the way to jail.
  We have also got to look carefully at what NAFTA has brought us. 
Recently allegations of tainted strawberries in our school system 
originating in Mexico. Under Federal law they are not allowed to sell 
to the school lunch program but somehow once again they have slipped 
into the process and now our children are being shot for potential 
hepatitis virus. Tainted strawberries.
  Last year we had a scare for raspberries from Guatemala. All along we 
have said about NAFTA that we are concerned about pesticide 
application, we are concerned about the quality of water that is used 
to irrigate the fields, we are concerned about the child labor 
standards. Obviously they do not have any. They would be serious 
violations here in this country if the same standards applied. Wage and 
hourly pay in Mexico. And at the same time our produce growers are 
going out of business in America because we have gleefully embraced 
NAFTA and said everything is perfect, give it a chance. At the same 
time, people are getting sick. If that is good progress on NAFTA, then 
I must have read the wrong book on protecting public safety and health.
  Drug enforcement not taking place on our border, I must have read the 
wrong chapter about getting tough on the laws of this Nation. Clearly 
the unbridled attempt by others to seek entrance into this country 
illegally has got to stop. But it will not stop if the people charged 
with enforcing our laws in this country look the other way, turn a deaf 
ear, or line their pockets with bribes in order to turn back the 
problems that we face in America.
  Again I urge the administration to act on my request as we have 
submitted with members of the Florida delegation asking for increased 
Border Patrol, increased immigration assistance, quicker deportation of 
illegals from our prison system, quicker deportation of those that have 
falsely claimed asylum as a reason to come to this country. Because if 
we again are not able and capable of protecting our Nation from 
invasion from those who seek to break our laws, then our Nation shall 
perish.

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