[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 125 (Friday, September 29, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S10575-S10576]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BORDER SECURITY

  Mr. KYL. Mr. President, I shall not take that much time, but I do 
think it is important to speak to the issue before us, which is 
adoption of the House bill which takes another step toward securing our 
border. This is something the American people have been wanting us to 
do for a long time.
  What we will also be doing today, in fact, some of our actions in the 
past weeks have also supplemented, is to pass the money, the 
appropriations bills that we need to fund all of the things that we 
need to be doing to secure the borders. I will speak to both of those 
items.
  The key to the House bill is to state a commitment that we are going 
to put the kind of infrastructure on the border that we need to secure 
the border. It starts with fencing, but it doesn't end with fencing. It 
includes vehicle barriers because much of the illegal entry into the 
United States now is accomplished by vehicles. It includes technology, 
such as cameras and sensors and other means of identifying people who 
are crossing our border illegally.
  Some people say that we don't need a fence or these infrastructure 
barriers because someday we are going to adopt comprehensive 
immigration reform, and when we take away the magnet of illegal 
employment, then we are not going to have the problem anymore. That is 
my fervent hope with respect to the people who cross the border to gain 
employment here. But the sad reality is that even if we solve that 
problem--and we haven't gotten very far down the road because we 
haven't adopted comprehensive immigration reform yet--even if we were 
to accomplish that in the future, we still have a very high percentage 
of people coming across the border whom we don't want here no matter 
what.
  What am I speaking of? I am speaking of drug dealers, drug cartel 
members, gang members, and criminals, people wanted for crime, people 
who have committed crime, much of it very serious crime. As a matter of 
fact, before the subcommittee I chair on terrorism and homeland 
security, the head of the Border Patrol testified a few months ago that 
over 10 percent of the people apprehended for crossing our border 
illegally have criminal records, and many of these are serious criminal 
records.
  In fact, the statistics for this fiscal year, which is almost over, 
show that the percentage is closer to about 13 to 14 percent, and of 
those a significant number have committed serious crimes.
  Here are the statistics year to date: Over 1 million illegal 
immigrants have been apprehended on the southwest border. Of that 
number, almost half have come through Arizona, the Yuma and Tucson 
sectors, so far about 475,000. And of the illegal immigrants 
apprehended crossing our border to date in this fiscal year, 141,000-
plus have criminal histories. Of that number, well over 20,000 are 
considered to have committed major crimes such as homicide, kidnapping, 
sexual assault, robbery, assault, dealing in dangerous drugs, and the 
like.
  A fence, barriers to illegal entry into this country are important 
not just to ensure that we enforce our laws with respect to employment 
but to keep out people who would do our citizens harm. The papers in my 
State are full of stories every week of people who came to this country 
illegally and then committed crimes on citizens of the United States 
and on other illegal immigrants. It is not at all uncommon to see 
stories

[[Page S10576]]

of crimes committed against people who just came here for a better way 
of life but who were assaulted, who were robbed, who were kidnapped for 
more ransom so their families back home would have to pay money to 
these coyotes, or kidnappers, and all manner of heinous crime that we 
have to stop, we have to prevent. And the best way to do that is to 
have barriers to illegal entry into this country.
  I mentioned vehicle barriers. Fencing is important and this 
legislation from the House requires the Department of Homeland Security 
to begin building fences. I talked with the Secretary this morning. 
That project has already started. They are well on their way in 
constructing fencing, and we will be appropriating the money for even 
more of that construction in the future.
  But we also have to put up vehicle barriers because more and more now 
with the territory contested, the illegal entry into this country 
either to bring drugs in or the human smugglers to bring their cargo, 
as they call it, requires the use of vehicles.
  Here is the problem from the Border Patrol perspective. When they see 
a vehicle, they know they have trouble because it is a more valuable 
cargo. One can carry more in a vehicle than in a backpack and, 
therefore, it is more valuable and they are probably going to protect 
it. If they are going to protect it, it is probably going to be 
with weapons.

  The number of assaults on the border are up dramatically--108 percent 
last year according to the U.S. attorney for the District of Arizona. 
The reason for that is that the Border Patrol is finally beginning to 
gain control of parts of the border. They are contesting the territory 
of the drug cartels and the coyotes and dangerous gangs from places 
such as El Salvador. As a result, there is much more violence, and it 
is causing real problems for the Border Patrol.
  That is the bad news with the good news. We are gaining more 
territory, more control, but with that comes more violence. Eventually, 
of course, the control will be consolidated and the violence will go 
down. But the point is that it is important we demonstrate to the 
American people that we are serious about gaining control of our 
border, and it can't be done without more fencing.
  Let me describe just a little bit what we mean by this fencing 
because there is some misinformation about it. In Arizona right now in 
the urban areas south of Yuma, around San Louis, in Nogales, Douglas, 
and some of the smaller communities, there is some fencing. Much of it 
is a very old and ugly barrier. It is steel plates that were used in 
World War II and, I suppose, Vietnam for landing mats in the jungle to 
make temporary landing strips for aircraft.
  They stand those steel plates on end and imbed them in concrete. It 
is a very ugly wall. You can't see through it, obviously, and that is a 
problem for the Border Patrol. They would like to see who is massing on 
the other side and what is going on so they can prevent it.
  Part of the money we will be appropriating will be to replace that 
wall. It is hard to maintain it, and it is better to build with more 
modern technologies, sensors embedded in them, and the like. Part of 
this will be to replace this deteriorating and ugly fencing. Another 
will be to imbed sensors in the fence so when we have fencing 20, 30 
miles outside a community--most of the fencing is in the urban areas 
where most of the people are. But if we extend it to some of the 
smuggling corridors, let's say 20 miles outside of town, we are also 
going to want to get the Border Patrol to a site of a breakthrough or 
an attempted crossover of the fence.
  No fence is impervious to people getting through if they have enough 
time and equipment. That is the key. It slows them down. What we have 
to have is Border Patrol units that can get to anyplace along the fence 
in a reasonable period of time, perhaps 10, 15 minutes, or else it will 
not do any good. If the fence is being tampered with or someone is 
trying to go over or under it and the Border Patrol is no more than, 
say, 10 minutes away, that fence stops people long enough for the 
Border Patrol to get to the site and either prevent the illegal entry 
or apprehend the people coming in.
  So we have to have Border Patrol along with fencing, and that means 
we also have to increase Border Patrol. What are we doing in that 
regard? We are appropriating enough money for another 1,500 Border 
Patrol this year, which will take us up to well over 14,000, 
approaching 15,000, and that is another critical component of this 
legislation.
  Vehicle barriers, fencing, sensors, Border Patrol units, and in those 
places where it doesn't make sense to have a physical fence, we can 
have cameras--one person stationed in a control room which can monitor 
maybe 20 different cameras, and any time they see people massing on the 
other side of the border, they can simply call up the Border Patrol in 
the area closest, making sure they get to that site in time to 
apprehend the individuals crossing illegally or to prevent the 
crossing.
  All of this can be done. We simply need to appropriate the money and 
to grant the authority and the direction to the Department of Homeland 
Security to get the job done.
  I am advised by the Secretary that this fencing is already under 
construction and that he can move to a much more aggressive schedule. 
Obviously, we need to do it in a cost-effective way, and he needs to 
have the discretion of sequencing what fencing goes where when, when 
vehicle barriers are better than fencing, or cameras would do the job, 
and so forth.
  With the direction of Congress to get this done, and his commitment 
to get it done, I am persuaded we can make a big dent in getting 
control of our borders. That is what we committed to the American 
people we are going to do.
  The key point I want to say today is that I am going to be very 
pleased when we are able to adopt this legislation. No one should think 
that it is the end; rather, it is the end of the beginning. The 
beginning step is to secure the border, and with this direction, with 
this bill, we will have nailed in place the direction to the Department 
of Homeland Security. If we continue to adopt the appropriations that 
we have begun to adopt to spend the money on all the different items I 
talked about, if we put our money where our mouth is--and we are doing 
that--then we will be able to demonstrate to the American people that 
we care, that we have answered the basic question that they always ask 
me, which is: Why should we adopt some new legislation when the Federal 
Government isn't enforcing the laws we have? This demonstrates to them 
that we are enforcing the laws we have, that we are committed to that 
enforcement. Then we can go to the American people and ask for their 
support and their consensus on the next step, which will be 
comprehensive immigration reform to deal with the problem of illegal 
hiring, to have electronic verification of employment, to have a 
temporary worker program that really works because it is for temporary 
employment only, not permanent employment, and finally, to deal with 
the illegal immigrants who are here already.
  All of those items need to be done, and the sooner we get about it 
the better. But the place to start is by securing the border, and the 
place to start with that is the construction of fencing and other 
barriers to prevent illegal entry.
  I am pleased the House has passed the bill. I am pleased that we are 
going to be passing the bill tonight. I urge my colleagues to support 
this measure whenever the hour comes that we actually get to vote on 
it.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma is recognized.

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