[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 139 (Tuesday, October 16, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H6783-H6784]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         BORDER STATES EXPERIENCING STATE OF ECONOMIC EMERGENCY

  Mr. FILNER. Mr. Speaker, I rise on behalf of the towns and cities 
along the southern border with Mexico in our Nation. These areas are 
dying economically and need our assistance now.
  In the wake of the events of September 11, this country has embarked 
upon unprecedented procedures to increase our domestic security, and 
those procedures are proper. We must have a new sense of preparedness; 
we must have a new sense of being on guard in this dangerous time of 
the 21st century.
  But as we increase our security efforts, we have not taken the steps 
to address the effects on our economy and on our quality of lives as we 
take those steps. Yes, we must be prepared and, yes, we have to take 
these security measures and, yes, we are going to have inconveniences 
that we have never experienced before, but let us think these out 
thoroughly and take the steps to increase our resources, if necessary, 
to make up for the problems caused by the increased security.
  We have grounded, for example, much of general aviation around this 
country, causing incredible hardships on one sector of our economy. We 
can think that through and change that situation. We bailed out the 
airlines, but all of the businesses and the economy related to airline 
flight, whether travel agencies or rental cars or hotels, and all the 
people associated with staffing those areas have been laid off, those 
businesses are in trouble, and yet, this Congress has taken no steps to 
help them.
  In an area where I know best because I represent the border district 
in San Diego, California, which borders with Mexico, towns and cities 
all along the Mexican border have taken a hit such as no other American 
community has taken because of the security measures. Yes, we have to 
protect our northern and southern borders from any infiltration by 
terrorists and, yes, we have to inspect all of the pedestrians and all 
the vehicles and all of the trucks that cross those borders, and we 
have to do it more thoroughly than we ever did before. But let us 
increase the resources to do it and not try to do it with fewer 
resources.
  For example, at the biggest border crossing in the world between 2 
nations in my district of San Ysidro, California, where between 50,000 
and 100,000 people cross per day, the wait at the border because of the 
new security checks has gone from a half-hour to 4 hours, to 5 hours, 
to 7 hours, 8 hours or more. In fact, nobody knows how long the wait 
will be as they start off for jobs legally, for education legally, for 
cross-border cultural activities legally. Nobody knows how long it is 
going to take to cross that border, whether we are talking about San 
Ysidro and Otay Mesa and Tecate and Calexico, California; and Nogales, 
Naco and Douglas, Arizona; and Brownsville, Harlingen, San Benito, 
McAllen, Pharr, Edinburg, Roma, Zapata, Rio Grande City, and El Paso, 
Texas. These areas depend economically on cross border traffic, cross 
border legal traffic. Legal traffic. People who have the proper 
documents to work and shop in our Nation.
  So businesses all along the border are suffering losses from 50 to 80 
to 90 percent of their income. They are additional victims of September 
11 and nobody seems to be worrying about them.
  Yes, increase the border security. Assure all Americans that no 
terrorists are crossing. But let us increase the resources.
  I have been told by the Director of the INS in San Diego that if she 
had 20 more inspectors per shift, that is 100 more positions in San 
Diego, which would cost roughly $5 million or $6 million, she can 
reduce the border wait from 6 hours to 20 minutes and assure us of the 
level 1 security that this country demands and our citizens want. We 
can do the security and we can keep a reasonable flow across that 
border if we give some resources to the INS and to the Customs Service.

[[Page H6784]]

  I have asked the Governor of California, and my colleagues have asked 
the Governors of their border States, to declare a state of emergency 
to bring attention to this economic disaster area. We have asked the 
President of the United States to declare a national state of 
emergency. Let us get help now to the border communities. We can have 
security and economic activity at the same time.

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