[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 50 (Thursday, April 24, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H1852]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


    RECOGNIZE CUSTOMS AND INS INSPECTORS AS LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California [Mr. Filner] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the work of the 
officers and inspectors of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization 
Service and the U.S. Customs Service and ask that they be accorded full 
Federal law enforcement status as outlined in H.R. 1215, which I 
recently introduced.
  My bill will finally grant the same status to U.S. INS and Customs 
inspectors as all other Federal law enforcement officers and 
firefighters. It is in the public's interest to end the unfair, unsafe 
and expensive practice of excluding the inspectors from the law 
enforcement category. Because of the current lopsided law, INS and 
Customs lose vigorous, trained professionals to other law enforcement 
agencies. These agencies also lose millions of dollars in training 
costs and revenues that experienced inspectors help to generate.
  Customs and Immigration inspectors are law enforcement officers. They 
carry firearms and are the country's first line of defense against 
terrorism and the smuggling of drugs at our borders. In my district, 
200,000 people a day cross through the San Ysidro port of entry, making 
it the busiest port of entry and border crossing in the world. These 
inspectors face dangerous felons daily and disarm people carrying 
sawed-off shotguns, switch blade knives, and handguns. They have been 
run over by cars and have had shoot-outs with drug smugglers.
  Just last week in Calexico, Customs inspectors Robert Labrada, Jr. 
and Nicholas Lira were shot by a man that they escorted to an 
inspection area reserved for those suspected of carrying illegal 
weapons or drugs. Before they had a chance to search him, the man 
pulled out a semiautomatic handgun and shot one inspector in the face 
and the other in the chest. The inspectors fired back to protect 
themselves. Both inspectors are now recovering from surgery, but they 
are lucky. Other Customs and INS inspectors have been killed in the 
line of duty, and their names are listed on the wall of the Law 
Enforcement Officers Memorial.
  The shoot-out at Calexico last Friday is not an isolated incident. 
The callous, single-minded ruthlessness of drug smugglers put Customs 
and Immigration inspectors' lives at risk every single day.
  One INS inspector at the San Ysidro port, Paul Cannon, has had to 
draw his service revolver four times in the last four years. In a 
recent case a criminal was trying to break through the inspection 
gates. Even at gunpoint, it took four inspectors to disarm and subdue 
him.
  Yet the Federal Government does not classify these employees as law 
enforcement officers. United States Immigration and Customs inspectors 
daily put their lives on the line. It is time that we value those 
lives. I urge support of H.R. 1215 to correct the unequal treatment of 
these Federal law enforcement officers.

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