[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 95 (Tuesday, June 10, 2008)]
[House]
[Page H5176]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1800
                      MAGINOT LINE OF INDIFFERENCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Madam Speaker, the United States has gone to war numerous 
times to protect the sovereignty of nations. Sixty-four years ago on 
June 6, thousands of GIs went ashore in France because its borders were 
invaded by the Nazis. In fact, most of the European countries and north 
Africa had their sovereign borders overrun by the Nazis.
  In the Pacific, the United States fought the Japanese because they 
had invaded the borders of our territories and the borders of China and 
Indochina. Americans died. Over 400,000 died protecting all of those 
borders during World War II.
  After World War II, the United States defended the borders of Western 
Europe nations against that ``evil empire'' of the Soviet Union and 
Soviet Communism. In fact, we still have troops in Western Europe. 
Sixty years later, we still defend those borders. And that is a long 
time. Then there was the Korean War. In its aftermath with 50,000 
Americans killed, we fulfilled our commitment to defend South Korea, 
and we still have 30,000 troops on that border with North Korea, 50 
years plus defending someone else's border. We defend the borders of 
Iraq and part of the Balkans even to this day.
  But Madam Speaker, I wonder why we don't have the same commitment to 
America's borders? Doesn't that bother anyone? Having been to the 
southern border of the United States numerous times and seeing the 
``Maginot Line of Indifference,'' I am puzzled why we seem to ignore 
the thousands of trespassers, or invaders, if I can use that term, that 
come from all nations and cross our border without permission.
  When Mexico invaded the United States at Brownsville, Texas, in 1846, 
we went to war to defend the southern border. When the outlaw, now folk 
hero, General Pancho Villa and his bandits came into the United States 
from Mexico to commit crimes in New Mexico, the United States sent 
General Blackjack Pershing to go after him, even if it meant going to 
Mexico.
  That was during a time when our sovereignty was important to the 
Nation and to the Federal Government. But the invasion now is much 
worse. Some estimates put the number of illegals in the United States 
between 15 and 35 million people. Why don't we have the same moral 
resolve we had in World War II and Korea to defend our borders from 
this stealth invasion? It is the duty of government to protect the 
citizens of this Nation and the States.
  I will read from the Constitution, something we probably ought to do 
more of in this Congress. Article IV section 4 of the United States 
Constitution says, ``The United States shall guarantee to every State 
in this union a Republican Form of Government and shall protect each of 
them against invasion.'' Invasion means intrusion or encroachment. Why 
doesn't the Government just simply follow the Constitution and prevent 
invasion into the United States?
  Now some Chamberlain appeasers want to just tell the illegals they 
can stay. After all, we can use the cheap plantation labor, the 
appeasers say. Never mind the crimes some of them commit, never mind 
how they take some social services without paying for them, never mind 
how some live off Americans and lawful immigrants. Never mind it is 
illegal to be in the United States without permission.
  So why, Madam Speaker, do we defend the borders of other nations but 
not our own? The Feds say they are trying. But the proof, or the lack 
of it, is in the results. The border with Mexico is violent. The border 
is porous, and the border is being invaded. The most powerful nation in 
the history of the world can stop the secret invasion if it first had 
the moral resolve to do so, and second, the courage to do whatever is 
necessary to stop the onslaught of invaders.
  Maybe we should even use the National Guard or returning troops from 
Iraq on our southern border. But doing so would take leadership that is 
committed in word and deed to protecting the sovereignty of this 
Nation.
  The United States is worth it, Madam Speaker, even if the amnesty 
crowd and Mexican President Calderon doesn't like it.
  And that's just the way it is.

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