[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 14 (Thursday, February 10, 2005)]
[House]
[Page H570]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 SECURING OUR BORDERS & TIGHTENING NOOSE ON PERPETRATORS OF SENSELESS 
                                VIOLENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, just last October, FBI agents, in cooperation 
with Baytown, Texas, and LaPorte, Texas, police, both law enforcement 
departments in my district, shattered a major document forgery 
operation being run out of a trailer house just across the street from 
the massive Exxon Mobile Refinery in Baytown, Texas. The result: six 
men were arrested and charged with numerous Federal counts of 
conspiracy and producing false documents, including Texas driver's 
licenses, resident alien cards, and industrial safety training cards 
used for employment in the strategic petrochemical industry.
  The REAL ID Act that our Chamber passed today was a sensible first 
step toward desperately needed immigration reform in the United States. 
Still, however, in order to truly construct a watertight system, we 
cannot, when legislating here in Congress, just hitch our wagon to the 
newest pony when we have a solid team of stallions sitting around with 
nothing to do. Before discussion of any new proposals or their 
benefits, we must first ensure the laws currently on the books are 
being enforced. We must expect people from other nations to respect our 
borders.
  Not only is it essential that we enforce existing laws; we must also 
reduce the incentives we offer foreigners to come to our country 
illegally. CNN reported a short time after the forgery bust I just 
mentioned that precious American dollars are being hijacked on 
unreimbursed medical care and education for illegal aliens who, in the 
darkness of the night, manage to come across our borders.
  Have Texas and other border States merely become free HMOs for 
illegals, with Americans, many of whom do not even have their own 
medical care, paying the cost?
  Similarly, in the Washington Times, they had an article dealing with 
the invasion of illegal immigrants and the exorbitant cost to taxpayers 
in the health care and prison areas. It was reported that one in every 
four uninsured people in the United States is illegal. Moreover, its 
study revealed that in 2000 alone States like Texas, which are on the 
Mexican border, have losses in almost $190 million in unreimbursed 
costs for treating illegals, with an additional $113 million in 
ambulance fees and follow-up medical services.
  Mr. Speaker, why, as unintentionally as it may be, are we rewarding 
brazen lawlessness? During my tenure on the bench as a felony court 
judge in Houston, Texas, I can recall that approximately 15 to 20 
percent of the criminals I sentenced in my court for the most serious 
felony crimes were illegal immigrants. And while these individuals were 
doing time in the penitentiary, Texans, Americans no less, were once 
again paying the price for their incarceration.
  Americans pay for the illegal immigration. Americans always pay. As 
that noted scholar Pogo once said: ``We have found the enemy, and it is 
us.'' I believe, though, as we continue to heed vital lessons from the 
tragedy of the September 11 attacks on our soil, that we are making 
progress in securing our borders from unlawful immigration, while 
tightening the noose of the perpetrators of senseless violence and 
terror who harm our citizens.
  I commend the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner), chairman 
of the House Committee on the Judiciary; the gentleman from California 
(Mr. Cox), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee; and the 
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Tom Davis), chairman of the Committee on 
Government Reform, for their leadership towards these collective goals.

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