[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 20 (Thursday, February 16, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H354-H355]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
OUR NEW 51ST STATE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. NORWOOD. Mr. Speaker, there was a very subtle illegal guestworker
plan stuck in the budget the administration just submitted to Congress.
That budget calls for the United States to allow over one million new
illegal immigrants to infiltrate our borders during 2007.
As a matter of fact, last year's budget is allowing one million
illegal aliens to enter this year as well. That is how many immigrants
enter our country illegally each year under our current enforcement
plans.
We know it will happen because it happens every year under current
enforcement policy; and we are going right ahead with the same old
plan, knowing in advance that it will be a near total failure.
We continue talking about how we are adding 1,500 new border agents
in 2007. That won't be in the field until 2009, letting another two
million illegal aliens to walk across our border.
We talk about how we are adding technology and fencing, but that
won't be ready until 2010, allowing another million illegals in our
country.
Right now, with our current budget and reform plans, we are, by
default, agreeing to allow an additional four million illegal aliens
into our country. That is equivalent to the population of South
Carolina or Oregon.
Think about that. We are being asked to add a 51st state populated
entirely by low-income illegal aliens.
Mr. Speaker, I cannot find an excuse for this. We know right now how
to bring this flood of illegal immigration to a virtual halt, and I
think within the next 2 weeks. We need somewhere between 36 and 48,000
troops immediately deployed to the southern border.
Now, the Minuteman Project in April showed that with between 18 and
24 additional enforcement personnel per mile, we can effectively secure
our border for the first time. And it was not just the Minuteman
Project that revealed these statistics. The U.S. Border Patrol
conducted similar demonstration projects in 1993. Operation Blockade in
El Paso and Operation Gatekeeper in San Diego produced the identical
same results.
[[Page H355]]
We have a good idea on how much a deployment like this would cost.
$2.5 billion a year. But, you know what? That is less than 4 percent of
the minimum $70 billion a year we are currently spending covering the
health care, education and the different costs for illegal immigrants.
We already know how long it would take to get these troops on line
and end this nightmare. One week. That is how long it took NORTHCOM to
place 70,000 National Guard and regular Army troops on the Gulf Coast
in response to Katrina, and we are still railing about how that took
too long. One week.
If the burden of the National Guard is too heavy, we can ask our
governors to loan the Nation's 15,000 State defense forces to help. We
can call up the Coast Guard Auxiliary and the U.S. Air Force Civil Air
Patrol.
We have laws in place, thanks to changes we made in the 108th
Congress. Title 32, Section 9, U.S. Code now allows our governors to
call out their National Guard for homeland security missions such as
this at 100 percent Federal expense.
{time} 1215
Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona has supposedly made such a call
on the Department of Defense. Her State legislature voted earlier this
week to force her to follow up on that request.
Mr. Speaker, we need every Member of the House to urge their Governor
to deploy all necessary forces to combat this invasion. We need the
President to order the Department of Defense to fund this mission at
100 percent, and we need new legislation forcing the issue if action is
not forthcoming. We can solve this problem if only Congress has the
will.
____________________