[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 60 (Thursday, April 29, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H2523-H2524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     DECLARING CUSTOMS AND INS INSPECTORS 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 other Federal agents and 
various agencies and ask that they be accorded the full Federal law 
enforcement status, as outlined in legislation I recently introduced.
  This bill will finally grant the same status to the U.S. INS and 
Customs inspectors as to all other Federal law enforcement officers and 
fire fighters. It is in the public's interest to end the unfair, 
unsafe, and expensive practice of excluding these inspectors from the 
law enforcement category.
  Because of the current lopsided law, INS and Customs lose vigorous, 
trained

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professionals to other law enforcement agencies. The agencies also lose 
millions of dollars, as they have to train other inspectors to take the 
place of those who have just departed.
  Customs and Immigration inspectors are law enforcement officers. They 
are law enforcement officers. They carry firearms and are the country's 
first line of defense against terrorism and smuggling of drugs at our 
borders.
  I represent the City of San Diego at the border crossing between 
Mexico and the United States; and right there in my district, 125,000 
people per day, 125,000 people per day cross through the point of 
entry. It is the busiest border crossing in the world. And inspectors 
there daily face felons. They disarm people who are carrying sawed-off 
shotguns, switch-blade knives, and handguns. They have been run over by 
cars and have had shoot-outs with drug smugglers.
  Forty-three courageous U.S. Customs and Immigration and 
Naturalization Service inspectors have been killed in the line of duty. 
We owe it to their memory, and to the men and women who now serve in 
the same dangerous jobs that their predecessors died performing, to 
provide inspectors with the full law enforcement status.
  The sad irony in this fight is that the inspectors who were killed in 
the line of duty eventually achieved law enforcement status when they 
died by having their names inscribed in the granite of the National Law 
Enforcement Officers Memorial here in Washington, D.C.
  Mr. Speaker, I say this is too long to wait and way too high of a 
price to pay for law enforcement status for the Customs Service and 
Immigration and Naturalization Service inspectors. We have the 
opportunity to provide inspectors parity and recognition now, while 
they live and protect us from terrorists, drug dealers, and fugitives.
  Mr. Speaker, the U.S. 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. 1228, legislation to correct the unequal treatment of 
these Federal law enforcement officers.

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