[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 140 (Friday, October 28, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H9418-H9424]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              A NEW DIRECTION FOR U.S. IMMIGRATION POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Foxx). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is 
recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, a nation that cannot defend its borders 
against an illegal invasion is a nation without national sovereignty.
  Madam Speaker, rhetoric rules the day when it comes to immigration. A 
lot of people with self-promoting agendas do a lot of talking. They 
have hidden motives that range from political

[[Page H9419]]

to monetary to cultural. However, the only motive for immigration 
should be what is best for America, not what is best for cheap labor, 
not what is best for Third World countries, not what is best for 
obtaining more votes for the left, not what is best for any specific 
race, creed, or religion, but what is best for America. That should be 
our immigration policy.
  Madam Speaker, people who enter the United States must serve a 
purpose for the greater good of this Nation. A little history is due. 
Over 100 years ago, this Nation welcomed immigrants through Ellis 
Island in New York, where people would come from all over the world 
into New York Harbor. They would be seen at Ellis Island. These 
individuals would be examined, they would be questioned, and if this 
person saw, after the immigrant was examined to be healthy and ready to 
work in America, they were allowed to come in. That process did not 
take a great amount of time.
  Now, today, if people want to come to the United States legally, 
there is so much bureaucratic nonsense that it takes a long time for 
people who wish to become citizens or people who wish to work here or 
go to school here if they do it the right way, the legal way. We have 
all heard of the excuses and the so-called explanations for why it 
takes so long to allow people to come to the United States the legal 
way. Madam Speaker, they are just excuses; they are not reasons.
  I am an advocate of immigration, legal immigration.

                              {time}  1515

  I am proud of the fact that my ancestors came from Scotland, and the 
hard-headed ones came from Germany. But, you know, Madam Speaker, we 
discriminate in this country against people who want to come here the 
legal way, the right way, those who want to do something for America 
and not to America, to the benefit of the lawless illegals who 
disrespect our rules, the rule of law and our Nation.
  Madam Speaker, the battle for the border is upon us. And I am not 
talking about Iraq. I am not talking about Afghanistan. I am talking 
about the American border. We have an invasion going on in this 
country. We have a colonization of our Nation by other nations, and we 
watch it and do very little. You know, this lawlessness on our borders 
breeds more lawlessness, and it is only getting worse.
  Last week I was on this House floor, and I invited some colleagues, 
especially those down the hallway, to go with me to the south Texas 
border. I guess they could not go because they were on their yachts 
sipping wine off Cape Cod and found other things that they could do 
better.
  But I spent the last weekend down on the south Texas border at a 
place called Laredo, Texas. And on this map here, we have portions of 
Texas, Mexico, the Gulf of Mexico, and Laredo, Texas, is in this dark 
blue. That is Webb County, Texas. South of it is Zapata County, Texas.
  Webb County, just to give you some information, is bigger than the 
State of Delaware, and I spent the weekend there with the sheriff of 
Webb County, Sheriff Flores, and also the sheriff of Zapata County, 
Sheriff Gonzalez, Ziggy Gonzalez. And we found what occurs there on a 
daily basis is something that all Americans should be aware of.
  Sheriff Rick Flores, sheriff of Webb County, Texas, a place bigger 
than the State of Delaware, has 13 deputies patrolling the whole State, 
and when we went down to the border, he made sure that before we went 
to certain portions of the Texas-Mexico border, that we were armed with 
M-16 rifles, that we went with his small SWAT team that had body armor 
and helmets, because he said there are places on the Texas border with 
Mexico you do not get close to the river without body armor.
  Now, Madam Speaker, we are talking about the United States, being 
inside the United States. We are not talking about being in some 
foreign country. But yet our sheriffs are concerned about their safety 
and the safety of people who are near our southern border because of 
what is going on on the other side of the border.
  Madam Speaker, I spent some time years ago at Checkpoint Charlie in 
Berlin. You remember, that is the place where the American sector was 
separated from the Soviet sector. That Soviet sector looked into the 
grayness, the darkness, the bleakness of communism in eastern Europe. 
And how we had to patrol that border for America's safety. And when I 
was on the Texas border in Laredo, Texas, it reminded me of Checkpoint 
Charlie because of the violence that is occurring along our lawless 
southern border.
  Madam Speaker, Sheriff Flores, when he took us around, along with his 
deputies, also along with Texas Ranger Doyle Holdridge, he tried to 
explain to me in very simple matters that this is an American issue, 
this is not a partisan issue. This, as he said, is a red, white and 
blue issue, the importance of protecting the sovereignty of the United 
States against the illegal invasion of people coming across our border.
  And how many are we talking about in Texas alone? We are talking 
about 5,000 a day illegally coming into the United States. We are 
talking about in our country now, 11- to 14 million people who came in 
from Canada or Mexico illegally, without permission.
  And so he patrols that area. He does his regular duties, but he is 
concerned about three items, three things, and they all have to do with 
illegal activity. He is concerned about the illegal drug cartels that 
operate in Mexico and southern America and work their way up through 
the United States and to through Laredo.
  As you can see from this map, Madam Speaker, Laredo here is the 
center port in the United States. It is the busiest inland port in the 
United States. Every day 7,000 18-wheelers cross into the United States 
from this location. About that many go south as well. And they 
disseminate up to the Northeast and to the Midwest. That is why this is 
the battle for the border, because the drug cartels want to control 
this area. And we have got more than one drug cartel down there 
fighting among themselves as to who will control the border. So the 
first reason is for the drug trafficking that illegally comes into the 
United States is a concern to these sheriffs on the Texas border.
  The second concern is the illegal immigrants that come through that 
area, many of those people brought into the United States by coyotes. 
These are the people who, for money, make a profit off the human 
trafficking, bringing people into the United States illegally.
  And the third reason, and maybe the most important reason, is because 
Sheriff Flores and Sheriff Gonzalez are concerned about homeland 
security. They are concerned about those terrorists that wish to do us 
harm. The next terrorist that commits a crime in the United States 
probably is not going to fly over here, land at Reagan National 
Airport, get off the airplane and look around, do some damage. They are 
probably not going to do that. It is too difficult. They are just going 
to probably come across the southern Texas border as thousands of 
people do each day.
  So those are three reasons, Madam Speaker, that this Nation needs to 
have an immigration policy that works, an immigration policy that 
promotes legal immigration, and an immigration policy that says no to 
those people who wish to come here illegally.
  And to try to put things in perspective, let us talk about the drug 
cartels that come up through the southern border of the United States. 
Now, I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about the problems 
with drugs and how it affects Americans, but we know it does, from 
schoolyards from the east coast to the west coast. But their port of 
entry, like those 7,000 trucks coming into the United States at Laredo, 
is right here.
  The drug cartels have more money, they have better electronic 
equipment, they have better firepower, they have better intelligence 
networks than our local sheriffs do. Our local sheriffs, when we were 
down on the border, we used night vision equipment, but that was 
borrowed equipment. The sheriffs tell me that on the other side of the 
border, the drug cartels have the best night vision equipment that can 
be purchased. They also have better body armor than Americans do. And 
not only that, the drug cartels use satellite phones, and they track 
our peace officers with GPS. In other words, we have got a deputy 
sheriff out here on patrol in Webb County or Zapata County. He

[[Page H9420]]

uses his cell phone to make a call. The drug cartels track where he is 
using GPS, and they can track his cell phone and know his location. 
They not only know where our peace officers are, they know where they 
all live. They know the names of their family members. They know the 
routine that they take each day.
  You see, these drug cartels are the enemy. They are the enemy to 
America. And yet our sheriffs, they make do with what they have got. 
You know, they would like night vision equipment so they can patrol 
that area, night vision equipment that they do not have to borrow from 
the Federal Government.

  They would like off-road vehicles, satellite phones. They have even 
suggested and asked while I was down there, you think, Congressman Poe, 
when you go back to Washington you can get us a Humvee for our county?
  Now, they do not want four or five. They want one Humvee for each of 
these 16 counties on the Texas-Mexico border so that they can track 
those drug cartels.
  Madam Speaker, I tried to make a few phone calls this week to see how 
difficult that would be to obtain some used Humvee that we brought back 
from the war in Iraq that we are never going to use, that this country 
will just put somewhere and let it rust and then melt it down to steel. 
And the bureaucracy, the red tape just to find the person who can make 
that decision, was not possible.
  But it would seem to me, Madam Speaker, that while we fight the war 
on Iraq, when we bring those vehicles, even those damaged vehicles, 
back to the United States that are no longer going to be used by our 
military, why can't the Federal Government just give a few of those to 
these border sheriffs along this border so they can protect and serve 
our Nation better? But so far that cannot happen because there is too 
much bureaucracy involved.
  Madam Speaker, I mentioned the sheriffs' deputies and how they are 
doing a great job, Sheriff Flores and Sheriff Gonzalez. But they, too, 
are concerned about their own safety. We know that one of these local 
sheriff's departments, they have to protect their own kids when they go 
to school; that they use peace officers to escort their children to and 
from school because they are afraid of the safety of their own 
children.
  Madam Speaker, this ought not to be. You know, the drug cartels more 
than anything else, they have more money than our local sheriffs, 
because it is all about money. Follow the money trail. And in here it 
is a tremendous amount of money that we are talking about. The drug 
cartels, these are the people who, that are the runners, for lack of a 
better phrase, that actually bring the drugs across from Mexico into 
the United States. Those people who do that make $30,000 a week. That 
is right, Madam Speaker, just drug runners make $30,000 a week bringing 
that dope into the United States.
  You know what a sheriff makes in Texas on this border? They make 
$40,000 a year. A deputy sheriff makes about $22,000 a year. A Federal 
peace officer in Mexico makes about $20,000 a year.
  That is right, Madam Speaker. These drug cartels have more money; 
they pay their drug runners about 10 times what our local law 
enforcement make. It is all about money. And they are willing to do it. 
They are willing to take that risk because of the amount of money that 
is involved in illegal drug-running into the United States.
  We know, also, that there have been many individuals that have, for 
whatever reason, been trained in the past in the United States for 
countries south of the border that have gone over to the other side. 
See, they can make more money. They can make more of that filthy lucre 
if they work for the bad guys, if they work for the outlaws. One of 
those groups happens to be Guatemalan-trained forces that are now 
mercenaries for the cartels.
  Madam Speaker, this is a photograph that was taken on the Texas-
Mexico border, this top photograph. It was taken with night vision 
equipment, borrowed, of course. This is the Mexico border. This is the 
Rio Grande river, and on this side is the Texas American border.
  Now, this photograph, you would think, maybe these are just some 
river rafters going down the Rio Grande river. Not so. We know now that 
this photograph is taken of Guatemalan mercenaries that have gone over 
to the other side and work for the bad guys, work for the drug cartel. 
They are all dressed in their camo outfits. They have obviously 
backpacks, probably drugs in bags in this raft. You see a person in 
front with his little AK-47 protecting the dope as they cross in from 
Mexico to the United States.
  This is our border. This is what takes place on our borders. And 
while some people in this House are so insistent on talking about the 
minute things that occur in this country, maybe we should be concerned 
about the sovereignty and invasion of our country by these outlaws that 
are bringing drugs into this country.
  The photograph below is a photograph we took last weekend. It is a 
difficult one to see, but you see two folks in here, down here by the 
river. This is Mexico on this side. Rio Grande River. We are standing 
on this side over here on the Texas American side. There is an 
individual getting ready to get into the river, come into the United 
States. But over here, the sheriff's department tells us this 
individual who has got his hand on his pistol in his holster is one of 
those drug cartel runners protecting his drugs. But that is just a 
typical scene, what it looks like, looking across the river.
  Now, remember, Madam Speaker, when we went down to this area of the 
Texas-Mexico border, we were armed. We were armed with M-16 rifles. We 
were armed with individuals who were from the SWAT teams of these two 
sheriffs' departments because you see it is not safe. And one reason it 
is not safe is because of the drug cartels that are bringing drugs in 
from other countries through our open borders.

                              {time}  1530

  So it is important that we first secure the borders because of the 
illegal invasion of people who wish to not only come here illegally but 
to bring that cancer into the United States and sell it for a profit, 
these people who wish to make a profit off the weaknesses of other 
individuals, and I am talking about drug dealers.
  We also notice down here on the Texas side of the Rio Grande River 
where the entry places would be for those individuals who want to come 
in here illegally, not necessarily drug runners, but some of them were. 
The way they do that, Madam Speaker, many times they will cross the 
river, they will swim across the river without any clothes on. They put 
their clothes in a plastic bag and when they get across the river they 
dry off and then put their clothes on. Of course, they dispose of the 
bags and any other trash throughout that entire area. We saw numerous 
trash bags where people had disposed of the bags and other litter all 
along that Texas border, especially on those routes that come into the 
United States.
  I talked to a rancher down in Zapata County not too long ago, and he 
was telling me that his ranch down in Zapata County, right next to the 
border, is like, as he said, Sherman's march to the sea. I asked him to 
explain that. He said, you remember General Sherman, that Union general 
that invaded the South and burned everything he came across until he 
got to Atlanta. He said, that is what my ranch looks like in parts, 
where people have come in across the border into the United States 
illegally and they have destroyed everything in their path just to get 
farther inland.
  We are talking about American property, property rights, something 
that probably we ought to be concerned about, the property of Americans 
along our border.
  However, our ranchers do not have it that easy. They have been warned 
by the drug cartels to be their friend, because they do not want them 
to be their enemy. Veiled threats. Some ranchers have been promised 
money or they will be harmed. They say, it is either silver or lead. 
What that means is we will pay you to let us cross your land or there 
will be lead, which is a bullet. Idle threats, I do not think so. 
Threats to ranchers to let those drug cartels and those human smugglers 
come across their land, but this is the way these people must live.
  Sheriff Flores made a comment near the end of our trip with him and 
his

[[Page H9421]]

deputies and Sheriff Gonzales. He said, our biggest concern is national 
security. He said these people will take money to smuggle people across 
our border. They will take money to smuggle drugs across our border, 
and they will take money to smuggle terrorists across our border. It is 
an issue of national security.
  Let me continue a little bit about how much we are talking about 
besides drugs. Without demonstrating all the packages of narcotics, let 
me just show you two photographs. These were taken by the local sheriff 
departments down in south Texas.
  This cache of weapons up here, you might think these were found in 
Iraq somewhere. Saddam Hussein's outlaws might have had these. Not so. 
This cache of weapons was found by a local sheriff department stopping 
a vehicle coming in, yes, to the United States from our southern 
border. And you see the automatic weapons at the top. You see a couple 
of pistols here, and then you see grenade-launching weapons at the 
bottom: an invasion into the United States of illegal weapons.
  Just a brief moment about terrorist activity and how simple it is. I 
mentioned 7,000 trucks a day coming into Laredo. This is no secret. You 
can find this kind of information on the Internet. Right here we have 
about six or seven hand grenades. If you look closely, you will see 
that the pin has been pulled from the hand grenades. All of these here 
are just non-detonated bombs.
  Each hand grenade is wrapped in a plastic. The pin is pulled. And you 
can put one of these hand grenades near a vehicle's engine. It will 
melt the plastic and thus detonate the hand grenade. These were found 
before they were ever used by local law enforcement down on the border. 
Just a simple way how terrorists can bring weapons into the United 
States, weapons that their purpose is to do Americans harm.
  So I would hope that we as a Nation understand that our first 
responders are the people who know the communities, and part of those 
people are the sheriffs and the local police agencies. While it is true 
I have not said much about the Federal agents that are on the border, I 
think we must be concerned equally as well in helping our first 
responders because they are in this battle too. They know the 
territory. They know the people, and they know who the outlaws are 
because most of these individuals, most of these first responders were 
raised in this entire area.
  We have 11 to 14 million people living in this country illegally. 
Amnesty, of course, is not the answer. We also have reports, Madam 
Speaker, that members of al Qaeda reside down here south of the 
American border in parts of Mexico. They infiltrate Mexico, of course, 
illegally. They assume the identity of Hispanic individuals. They learn 
the Spanish language; and then when time is appropriate, they come 
across the American border and assimilate as some down-trodden illegal 
immigrant into the United States.
  We know that is occurring, and so that is why I make the comments 
about those terrorists who wish to do us harm. They are going to come 
from south of the border.
  As the battle for Iraq races on, the battle for the border, the 
battle for Laredo continues. Let me mention what has occurred across 
the border from Laredo. Laredo is a little over 100,000 people, right 
here between Zapata County and Webb County. Across the county or across 
the American line into Mexico is Nuevo Laredo. It has about 400,000 
individuals, at least it used to because now people are leaving.
  This year in Nuevo Laredo because of the violence of the drug 
cartels, 155 people have been murdered. Sixteen police officers in 
Nuevo Laredo have been murdered. We know that one of the police chiefs, 
recent police chiefs, 6 hours after he was sworn in as police chief of 
Nuevo Laredo was gunned down and he had 35 bullet holes in him, 
because, you see, he was not going to work with the drug cartels.
  We know that 44 Americans have been kidnapped out of the United 
States and taken across the border, and in all of those cases, Madam 
Speaker, not one case has been solved. Not one of those murders has 
been resolved. Not one of those kidnappings has been cleared. 
Interesting, Madam Speaker. This is the world we live in, a world that 
we should be concerned about. The world south of the American border.
  We know that Nuevo Laredo, because of the drug cartels, because of 
location into the United States or near the United States and where the 
drugs can go has become a haven for drug traffickers, a haven for gun 
running, and a haven for those coyotes that bring people into the 
United States illegally. Just to give one example, because there are 
numerous examples of the violence and the victims that occur both in 
Mexico and the United States because of this illegal drug activity: A 
couple of years ago there was a young teenage girl in Laredo, Texas, 
who met a guy from Laredo who had a Mercedes. And he had a lot of money 
in his pocket and he was a teenager as well. The girl's mother told 
her, Do not get caught up with him. He is up to no good. Stay in 
school. Get an education.
  Well, what happened was he was one of those individuals who worked 
for the drug cartel, but he was working on the American side; and he 
owed some money to that drug cartel. So one evening both of those 
teenagers were kidnapped, taken back across the border. They were 
beaten, bags were puts over their heads, and both of those teenagers 
were buried alive. It is just one example of what happens down on the 
war for the border.
  Madam Speaker, one thing that I have done to try to put some progress 
in our immigration policy is to introduce the bill requiring passports 
for all people who enter the United States.
  The 9/11 Commission and its extensive report made recommendations 
that the United States require passports for everyone coming into the 
United States from south of the border and north of the border. Now we 
give people a pass from Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean Islands. They 
do not have to present a passport. All they have to do is show up at 
the border, present one of hundreds of different types of documents 
including old baptismal records. Sometimes all they have to say is 
state the country that they are from and they come into the United 
States.
  This passport bill will require some documentation, that people 
coming into the United States, if they want to come in here legally, 
they have to do it the legal way. They have to have a passport, a 
passport with a bar card, a passport with a bar card that can be 
scanned so that we can record who comes into the United States.
  Madam Speaker, do you know we do not record the people who come 
across our border, the Canadian border or the Mexican border? Why is 
that? I do not know. Maybe it is best for Canada, maybe it is best for 
Mexico; but it is not best for the United States.
  Passports do not discriminate against any individual. They treat 
everybody the same way. Of course, we can ship a package from Honduras 
to the United States. It is recorded by UPS on a bar card scanner at 
least 10 times. We know the places that package went before it is 
opened up here in the House of Representatives. But yet we do not do 
that for people who come into the United States.
  So this passport act is nondiscriminatory, and it will require 
individuals to have a passport to come into the United States. 
Otherwise they cannot enter. Therefore, it helps businesses as well, 
because a person then is legally in the United States and has a legal 
visa with a photograph on that visa that they obtained from their 
government and our government. When they go to get a job, the business 
does not have to check Social Security cards and all these other 
documents. They look on that passport to see how long they can stay in 
the United States.
  So this is one step I think we should progress and look forward to 
having a passport for all individuals who come into the United States.
  Now, Madam Speaker, we have gotten some criticism about this. When I 
introduced the Passport For All bill, the criticism came from our 
northern representatives and some of our Canadian friends because they 
want open borders between Canada and the United States. They do not 
want to have to pay that $100 for a passport. Let us think about that. 
$100 for a passport that lasts 10 years. That is $10 a year, 80 cents a 
month. That is less than a cup of Starbucks coffee.
  So this argument that we do not want to pay the $100 is ridiculous. 
For our national security that is not asking too much for our Canadian 
friends,

[[Page H9422]]

American, or people south of the American border. This is something we 
should do. We should proceed with the recommendation of the 9/11 
Commission.
  Some have asked, if the 9/11 Commission recommended it, why do we not 
have it already? It is because of bureaucracy. It is because people who 
do not want that recommendation enforced ignore it, and so therefore it 
has not occurred, and Congress is going to have to pass a law to 
require it.
  One other matter that I would like to mention about our Texas border, 
some have talked about the only way we can keep people out is to build 
a fence. I am not sure about that, Madam Speaker. I think we should at 
least debate that issue on the House floor. One thing that is 
occurring, we are finding out that there are electronic cameras on the 
United States side that do a pretty ample job of watching the river.
  The problem is when that camera spots someone coming across the 
river, there is no one down there in the area to go down there and stop 
that illegal traffic, whether it is a drug smuggler, gun runner or 
someone coming into the United States illegally.
  We need to use some common sense in immigration. And the first thing 
we do is to make people who want to come to the United States legally 
have a simple process for them to do so and use passports to do that.
  There are some absurdities that occur in our immigration policy, 
Madam Speaker, and I would like to mention a few of those. When our 
border agents capture people crossing into the United States from the 
southern border into the United States, the Texas portion, many of 
those individuals are not from Mexico. A lot of times we assume that 
all the people illegally coming into Texas and the United States are 
from Mexico. That is not true. We do a disservice to Mexico when we say 
that, because over half the people that came into the United States 
illegally from the south last year they were not from Mexico.
  They are called OTMs, other than Mexico. Over 50 percent were from 
some other nation other than Mexico. They are from South America. They 
are from Central America. They are from Asia. They are from China. They 
are from Europe. But they are not from Mexico. These people are called 
OTMs, because, you see, everybody in the world except maybe some 
Americans, all these people in the world know that the southern border 
of the United States is an open border, and you can cross here in Texas 
or in Arizona or New Mexico and in California.

                              {time}  1545

  So that is why people all over the world are working their way to 
Mexico and coming across illegally into the United States.
  In any event, what happens when border agents or sheriffs capture one 
of these individuals? Well, if you are from Mexico, here is what 
happens. They are usually put in some kind of detention facility and 
shipped back across the border if they are caught near the border. That 
does not occur once they make it into the inland, but if they are 
captured near the border, they are taken back after they are put in 
some detention facility for a short period of time.
  If you are not from Mexico, that does not occur. They are taken to a 
local magistrate in one of our Federal courthouses on the border. The 
person is standing before the Federal magistrate. They do not live in 
Mexico. They are from some other Nation. So because our detention 
facilities are so full and we do not have near enough detention 
facilities, this person is released back into our country with the 
promise to appear in court in 6 months for their deportation hearing, 
and then some of them are actually moved up further into the United 
States by our own Federal authorities.
  Think about this. This is catch-and-release. We catch them and then 
we release them. How absurd is that? This occurs with individuals who 
are from Nations or Nations other than Mexico.
  People understand that. So much so that many times when these OTMs 
cross the border, once they make it to a major highway, they stand in 
the middle of the highway waving their hands. They want to be captured 
because, as soon as they are captured, they are released with that get-
out-of-jail-free ticket that allows them to roam the United States for 
6 months before appearing in court for their deportation hearing. This 
ought not to be.
  Not only that, Madam Speaker, 85 percent of these people never appear 
in court. Are we surprised? Of course not. So when people come to the 
United States, illegally, for whatever reason, and they are captured, 
they must understand that our government has the fortitude and the will 
to send them home, no matter where they come from.
  We must find the resources, use old military bases, it does not make 
any difference, find a place to house those individuals until their 
quick deportation hearing. When I say quick, it should not take 6 
months. It should be resolved within a week, ship them back where they 
came from because they have invaded the United States. This ought not 
to be.
  Of course, we know many of them come from the Laredo, Webb County, 
Zapata County. Just for your information, Madam Speaker, down here on 
the Gulf of Mexico, we have Brownsville, Texas, on the American side 
and across there we have Matamoros, Mexico. It just so happens that 
people who are from China, the Chinese are illegally entering the 
United States from that area. That is the area of the country they have 
picked to illegally come into the U.S., and the same is true there. 
Once they are captured, they are released on their word to appear back 
in court, and many of them, most of them, do not appear.
  So we did not change this policy, the catch-and-release. It is no 
longer catch-and-release. It should be catch-and-deport and deport 
immediately if you are illegally in the United States.
  We also have policies in some of our major cities that do not make 
much sense, and I call these policies the sanctuary hideouts. These are 
laws in major metropolitan areas that prevent local law enforcement 
from arresting people who are in the city, in the United States, 
illegally. Let me give you an example.
  Unfortunately, this is one of the policies we have had in the city of 
Houston down in Texas where I am from. A Houston police officer can 
arrest somebody for jaywalking, but a Houston police officer cannot 
inquire into the legal status of a person that is arrested for 
jaywalking. In other words, you can be confined or arrested for 
jaywalking, but this peace officer cannot do anything about the fact 
the person is illegally in the United States, cannot even ask the 
question. The police officer will be disciplined.
  This sanctuary policy, this sanctuary hideout is a policy of our 
major cities. So we allow different pockets of people who are illegally 
in the United States, we give them sanctuary. Why do we do that? I do 
not know. It is not best for America. It is best for somebody else's 
own agenda, but it is not best for America.
  A police officer used to have the power to arrest somebody, find out 
if they are illegally in the United States, take them over to INS and 
INS would deport them. The local law enforcement worked very well with 
the Federal authorities. We should resume that policy so that we have 
individuals that are arrested here for one crime, they could be turned 
over to Federal authorities and be deported immediately, but now local 
law enforcement cannot even ask them the question of where they are 
from or they will be disciplined. Madam Speaker, this ought not to be.
  When a person comes to the United States, and a lot of people do, God 
bless them, they come here legally, we make it so difficult for those 
individuals to do it the right way that they are tempted to do it the 
illegal way. I will give an example.
  In my southeast Texas district down in Jefferson County, I talked to 
an individual that is a naturalized citizen from Mexico, came to the 
United States, did it the right way, proud American, loves our country. 
One of his sons is serving in the military, but he has got another son 
down in Mexico that he wants to bring to the United States, and there 
are ways you do that legally. It has taken him 15 years to get that 
second son into the United States legally. That is ridiculous. That is 
absurd. If we are going to let that individual in, let us let him in. 
If we are

[[Page H9423]]

going to tell him no, tell him no, but make a decision. All the red 
tape and all the paperwork, 15 years is ridiculous. This American 
citizen I was mentioning to you wants his son to come here the right 
way. He has encouraged him not to illegally come into the U.S.
  We have been told that there are some people that have been waiting 
to come into the United States on immigration status for 20 years and 
have yet to hear from our immigration officials as to whether they can 
come in the United States or not. So we can see why people come here 
illegally.
  We also know that the administration in Mexico encourages illegal 
immigration into the United States because they printed up a pamphlet 
that I have shown on this House floor before that explains how 
immigrants from Mexico can illegally enter the United States and shows 
them where to go, where to cross the border, what to do when they are 
confronted by American officials, et cetera. We know that a person can 
purchase fake documents at flea markets, get a forged Social Security 
card and come into the United States illegally, and this is encouraged 
by other Nations.
  American taxpayers pay each year per taxpayer $2,700 for the cost of 
illegal immigration. That is the cost we pay for those people who are 
here illegally, $2,700 a piece. That is how much Americans have to pay. 
Americans pay, Americans always pay.
  Just some specific examples, Madam Speaker. Health care. Oh, tonight, 
we heard so much about the cost of health care. Over here on the other 
side, we heard some moaning and groaning and weeping about the cost of 
health care in the United States, but I will ask my friends across the 
aisle, why do they not address one of the costs of health care costs in 
the United States, and that is, the cost that we pay for people who are 
in the system that are illegally in the United States, obtaining health 
care that Americans pay and they do not pay for.
  It has been estimated by some health care officials that over 20 
percent of the cost of health care is because of those people illegally 
in the United States obtaining health care that the rest of us have to 
pay for. That ought not to be.
  Why do we not want to address that issue in health care costs? 
Because it is political. We cannot make a political case out of health 
care costs. Well, maybe we should deal with the truth and the reality. 
We know that many illegal immigrants, when they want health care, they 
just show up at the emergency room, and because of our policies in this 
country, I am not saying it is right or wrong, I am just saying when 
they show up at the emergency room they are taken care of. Of course, 
emergency room treatment is the most expensive treatment in health 
care, but that is where those individuals go. The rest of us pay for 
it. Maybe we ought to be sending some of those bills down south of the 
border and letting those other countries pay for the health care costs 
that we are paying for, that health care cost that their citizens are 
taking from the rest of us.
  Something else we have heard a lot about in recent weeks is education 
and the cost of education in the United States. It costs a lot of 
money, not only with your local schools up through the 12th grade, but 
individuals who wish to go on to college. I had four kids and I know 
the expense of education. All of them have finished college but one. 
One is still in college, but let us talk about education.
  People in education tell us that part of the education costs is 
because of people who are illegally in the United States that we 
educate free. Let me explain that to you.
  Let us use this example. Let us say I decided to go to France, and 
some of the things I have said about the French government, they 
probably would not let me in legally. So I would have to sneak into 
France and I am going to take my whole family with me. So I sneak into 
France. I take my four kids. I show up someplace and say educate all of 
us and educate us in the English language because we do not speak 
French. If I did that, you would think that was absurd. Of course, the 
French government would not let that happen, would they? No country in 
the world would let that happen. They would get rid of me first.

  Second, they sure would not let me go to school and would not pay for 
it or educate me in English or Texan, whichever, but yet a person can 
come to the United States, show up to one of our schools, take their 
kids there, and we educate them because we educate everybody that is in 
this country. I am not saying it is right or wrong. I just say we do 
it. We educate them in their language, and yet the rest of us pay for 
that.
  So maybe we ought to reevaluate the cost of education, the cost of 
medical health care in light of the fact that it costs Americans so 
much to pay for the education and medical expenses of people here 
illegally.
  Let me talk one more thing about education. I mentioned I have four 
kids and went to college. One of them is still in college working on a 
Ph.D. She will finish it, God bless her, but we have a policy in most 
State universities that if you are from the State that you go to school 
in, you pay in-state tuition. You go to one of our major universities, 
you live in the State of Texas, you pay in-state tuition.
  But if you from Kansas, let us use Kansas, and you come down to 
Texas, well, you pay out-of-state tuition because you are not from 
around here. You are from Kansas so you pay out-of-state tuition.
  Let us say you come from a foreign country and you have applied for 
an education visa. You came here to the United States the right way and 
the legal way. You got admitted to one of our good universities in 
Texas. Well, you pay out-of-state tuition because you are not from 
Texas; you are from somewhere else.
  But if you are illegally in the United States and you are illegally 
in Texas, you can apply to one of our State universities. If you get 
admitted, you pay in-state tuition.
  So we discriminate against Americans from other States. We 
discriminate against other citizens and other Nations who come here the 
right way, to the benefit of people who just show up illegally in the 
United States. This ought not to be.
  This is so ridiculous that there are some places in the United States 
that illegal immigrants can get State grants to go to college. That 
means they go free. I think maybe those State grants ought to go to 
citizens. They certainly should be considered ahead of illegal 
immigrants and legal immigrants ought to be considered before illegal 
immigrants.
  With the competition so tough in getting into our universities, all 
of them throughout the United States, some of these illegal immigrants 
are knocking American citizens, American kids that are just average 
students, out of a chance to go to college. Maybe we ought to 
reevaluate this policy of favoring illegals to the detriment of 
Americans.
  For a long time I was a judge in Houston, Texas, 22 years. I saw 
about, oh, 25,000 criminal cases, tough cases, everything from stealing 
to killing, rape, robbery, murder, kidnapping, child abuse, capital 
murder and everything in between.
  During that time, and most recently especially, I dealt with numerous 
cases of people who were from some other country than the United 
States, most of whom were illegally in the United States.
  It is estimated that about 20 percent of the people, 20 percent of 
the people incarcerated in the United States in our State prisons, our 
jails and our Federal penitentiaries are illegally in the United States 
to begin with.
  What that means is the criminal justice system, which we pay for, 
Americans pay, Americans always pay, part of the reason it is so 
expensive is we have got people in the system who are illegally in the 
United States to begin with. So we pay for that system for those 
individuals.
  But to carry it a little bit further, to show you how we do not 
follow through with enforcement of our laws, if I would send a person 
to prison that was convicted of a crime in Texas, sent him off to the 
Texas State penitentiary, you would think when they get out of the 
penitentiary, we would have a border agent waiting there at the gate to 
pick him up and take him back home, wherever they came from, whether 
they were legally or illegally in the United States, but that does not 
happen.

[[Page H9424]]

  What happens is when a person finishes their time in the 
penitentiary. They are taken back to the city in which they were 
convicted and released back in our community. So here we have a person 
illegally in the United States, commits a crime against someone in the 
United States, goes to our State penitentiary, does time in our pen. 
When they get out, rather than just automatically deport them, send 
them back home, wherever they came from, we release them back into the 
community.

                              {time}  1600

  This ought not to be.
  So we have to deal with the absurdities in our immigration policy. We 
have to be concerned about the illegal immigrants that come into the 
United States. We must expect and demand that those people who want to 
come here come here the right way. There is a reason they did not come 
here the legal way. Maybe we ought to find out what those reasons are. 
The rule of law must be enforced.
  Madam Speaker, lawlessness on the border breeds more lawlessness, and 
that is why it is increasing. That is why the drug cartels are doing 
what they are doing, bringing drugs into the United States to do harm 
to the rest of us. That is why those coyotes, those human smugglers, 
are bringing people into the United States for money, and that is why 
those terrorists who wish to do us harm, when they come to the United 
States, they will come the illegal way as well. We must be serious 
about enforcing the rule of law, enforcing what is best for America.
  About 100 years ago this statement was made: ``In the first place we 
should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith 
becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated 
on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to 
discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace or 
origin. But this is predicated upon the man's becoming in very fact an 
American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided 
allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else 
also, isn't an American at all. We have room but for one flag, the 
American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all 
wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any 
foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile. We have but room for 
one language here, and that is the English language, and we have room 
for but one sole loyalty, and that is the loyalty to the American 
people.''
  This was said by President Theodore ``Teddy'' Roosevelt in 1907, a 
great believer in immigration. An immigrant, a person who wanted people 
to come to the United States the legal way. Words of wisdom, maybe 
something we ought to listen to.
  Madam Speaker, we must win the battle for the border, we must win the 
battle for sovereignty, and we must win the battle against lawlessness 
that surrounds our country. That is just the way it is.

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