[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 31 (Monday, February 23, 2009)]
[House]
[Pages H1638-H1639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LORDS OF THE STREETS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I bring you news from the front. This 
week, in one of our neighboring country's schools, an elementary 
school, there was a raging gun battle for over 2 hours between the bad 
guys, the Army, and of course the police were involved in all of this. 
I'm not talking about a battle that took place in Iraq or Afghanistan. 
I'm talking about a battle that took place just south of our border in 
Mexico--the border, the second front that we should be concentrating on 
as a Nation and be concerned about what's taking place there. In 
Reynosa, Mexico, right across the Rio Grande River from McAllen, Texas, 
is where this gun battle took place.
  The Gulf Drug Cartel, in control of Reynosa, was trying to move drugs 
into the United States, and they got involved with the Federal police 
and soldiers. This battle kept going on because both sides kept getting 
reinforcements. At least five of the gang members were killed and five 
peace officers, or Federal police, were killed. It is reported that 
teachers were shoving kids on the floor, blocking the windows with 
desks and tables, trying to keep down because of the ricochets that 
were taking place in the school.
  One third grader said this: ``We were all crying. We were so 
afraid,'' said this 9-year-old. She continued: ``They could have killed 
every one of us.''
  The gun battle took place on both sides of the school. Then it moved 
into a shopping area and other parts of Reynosa.
  The principal of the school had this comment. She said, ``The bad men 
think they're lords of the streets.'' Mr. Speaker, maybe they are.
  This is gang warfare in Mexico. Just last year, there were 6,000 
people killed in Mexico, most of them attributed to the gang fights to 
try to control the drugs that are coming into the United States. Six 
thousand people? What does that mean? Well, there have been 5,000 
Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, less than the total number 
killed just last year in Mexico. It's reported that one American a week 
is killed in Mexico, maybe more than one a week. The drug cartels 
murder police officers; they kill elected officials; they chop the 
heads off of police chiefs; and some now have said that Mexico may be a 
failed state because of the drug cartels and the violence that is 
taking place there.
  I don't know if it's a failed state or not, but it's a serious 
epidemic, and what is taking place that the drug cartels are in the 
center of this border war has to do with four commodities--with four 
commodities, Mr. Speaker. Two of those commodities go north, and two of 
those commodities go south. The drug cartels, of course, are running 
drugs and people into the United States. The two of those that are 
going south are the drug cartels that are helping to control, of 
course, the money and illegal guns going back into Mexico, most of 
those controlled by the drug cartels. We know that many of the drug 
cartels are working with the human smugglers, the coyotes, to have them 
bring drugs and people into the United States at the same time.
  So the drug cartels are the enemy of America. They're working in 
Mexico. If anyone thinks that they're going to stay south of the Rio 
Grande River, they've not been very attune to what has taken place. 
Much of Mexico, especially on the border, has been corrupted by the 
drug cartels. It is extremely violent. I've been down to the Texas-
Mexico border about 15 times, and every time I go, the situation is 
worse on both sides. Yet good folks on both sides live in fear because 
of the drug cartels and their violence, and nothing is happening.
  President Calderon has answered with 40,000 soldiers on the border. 
He says, ``Mexico confronts a historic challenge to become a secure 
country, a challenge to truly transform itself into a country of law 
and order.''
  Well, good for President Calderon. I hope he succeeds, but if we 
think it's going to stay south of the border, we're sadly mistaken.
  Just in 2007, in my hometown of Houston, in broad daylight, two rival 
gangs, smuggling gangs, were going up and down the freeway, shooting at 
each other, trying to fight over a group of illegals that one of them 
wanted to take away from the other. You know, that case, like many 
others, has gone ignored mainly by the mainstream media.
  This country, Mr. Speaker, faces a border war like we have never seen 
before, and so now I think we ought to take some action on this side of 
the

[[Page H1639]]

border. It's interesting that, in the last Presidential campaign, 
neither candidate, in all of that talk, ever said anything about the 
border--our border, the second front.
  It is time to reinforce the border with the National Guard, the 
military. If the Mexican Government is going to have the courage to 
have the military on the border to keep the drug cartels from crossing 
into our country, we ought to have the courage to have the border 
secured with our military to protect us and to squeeze those drug 
cartels dry. Send the military down there, and teach the drug cartels 
they will not have it their way, Mr. Speaker.
  And that's just the way it is.

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