[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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