[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 139 (Thursday, October 14, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H10113-H10114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     INS NEEDS TO CLEAN UP ITS ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Metcalf) is recognized for 5 minutes.

[[Page H10114]]

  Mr. METCALF. Madam Speaker, I do not have to remind this House about 
the fine work of our border patrol officers. They put their lives at 
risk every day to slow the flow of illegal drugs into this country and 
to keep our borders safe from dangerous aliens. We are all thankful to 
them for their efforts.
  Due to the current inept management of the Immigration and 
Naturalization Service, the INS, the jobs of these officers are made 
much, much more difficult. Last year, Congress appropriated enough 
money for the INS to hire and train 1,000 new border patrol agents. The 
agency has hired nowhere near that number, however, and has resorted to 
moving agents from our already shorthanded northwestern border to shore 
up its border patrol offices in Arizona. Nearly 10 percent of the field 
agents in Washington State have been temporarily assigned to the 
southern border. That is not what Congress intended. There were 
supposed to be more agents in Washington State, not less. INS 
management brags about the new sensor technology that has been 
developed to detect people who cross our northern border illegally, but 
what good is the technology if there is no one to catch the people that 
set off the sensors?
  I agree that there are serious problems on the southern border. We 
all know that. That is why the INS was given so much money for the 
border patrol last year. INS management needs to do its job and hire 
more agents, instead of robbing from one shorthanded border to fill out 
another.
  Last week, a Washington State trooper was shot and killed during a 
routine traffic stop. I feel this very deeply. My brother was a 
Washington State trooper for over 20 years. The main suspect in this 
killing is a 28-year-old Mexican national who had already been deported 
three times. This summer, he was already in jail on a cocaine delivery 
charge but was able to post bond and be let back out into the 
community. He should have been detained by the INS after posting bond 
but he was not because the border patrol agent who should have 
recognized him was somewhere in Arizona. This is tragic. This is sad. 
And this never should have happened. The INS needs to clean up its act.

                          ____________________