[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 84 (Tuesday, June 10, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5096]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             PROTECTING THE UNITED STATES AND ITS CITIZENS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 7, 2003, the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite) 
is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Ms. GINNY BROWN-WAITE of Florida. Mr. Speaker, most Americans believe 
that the first duty of the Federal Government is to protect the 
security of the United States and its citizens. By any objective 
assessment, when the threat to our security takes a form of foreign 
armies, navies or intercontinental missiles, we have done an exemplary 
job. When it comes to threats confronting us, new threats, the sort 
that resulted in the attacks like that on September 11, we continue to 
ignore gaping holes in our national defense. As it becomes more evident 
that we need better information about who is in our country, we are 
about to surrender that identification process to foreign governments. 
We must adhere to a policy of closed borders with open, guarded doors. 
We cannot rely on foreign nations, even allies, to be thorough enough 
to issue identification that meets our rigorous standards. Do we really 
want to rely on the government of Mexico and the dozens of other 
countries that will be lining up to issue consular IDs to tell us who 
is living illegally in our country? I think not. The majority of 
Americans believe that we should not either.
  Given the very real and deadly threats that we face, how wise is it 
to have millions of Americans, people living illegally in this country 
using dozens of identity documents issued by governments all around the 
globe to do everything from opening a bank account to boarding planes. 
I have recently been informed that our customs office in New York is 
actually allowing customs forms as people enter into this country to be 
turned in and they are simultaneously not checking the names of the 
people turning in the customs forms to compare it to a list of known 
terrorists. Customs forms pile up and are entered several days later. 
This is later when these people are already in our country. It is kind 
of the ``come on in and we will check you later'' process, that ``we 
will check you later if we can find you.'' Is this what we really had 
in mind when we promised the American people that we would do 
everything within reason to prevent another catastrophe like 9-11 and 
we spent billions of tax dollars to create a Department of Homeland 
Security? I do not think so, Mr. Speaker; and I do not think our 
American citizens do either.

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