[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 20, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H2672-H2673]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            MEXICAN MILITARY HELICOPTER INCURSIONS INTO U.S.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.

[[Page H2673]]

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, tonight I was going to talk about 
the health care bill, and how it's going to affect AT&T, $1 billion 
they are going to be out; John Deere, 150 million; Caterpillar, 100 
million; Prudential a 100 million. All these companies, their bottom 
line is going to be reduced by all this money because of the health 
care bill that wasn't supposed to hurt our economy at all. But it's 
going to. It's going to hurt the bottom line of all these companies, 
and it's going to affect the people who work for them. They are going 
to be laying people off. They are going to be offshore many of these 
companies because of this. And it's something that wasn't talked about 
during the health care debate. The American people were against the 
bill. And if they knew this, they would really be against the bill.
  But the thing I want to talk about tonight is my good friend, 
Congressman Poe, was just down here. And usually when I come down here 
to give a talk at night, I have a subject like this I am going to talk 
about, but he said some things during his 5-minute Special Order that I 
wish all of my colleagues who may be watching back in their offices, 
and if I were talking to the American people, I would wish that they 
could hear what he had to say.
  Mr. Poe, did I understand you correctly when you said that there is a 
bounty of $250,000 on our Border Patrol agents down there by the drug 
cartels?
  Mr. POE of Texas. Will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Yes, in the western part of Texas, near El Paso, 
the Juarez drug cartel operates bringing drugs into the United States. 
They have hitmen that are called the Azteca gang. And they have been 
specifically hired to target our Border Patrol agents, a $250,000 
bounty on their head for kidnapping or murdering of them; that is 
correct.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I wasn't aware of that. And I doubt if any of 
our colleagues were aware of that. Are the sheriffs and all the law 
enforcement agencies down there, they are aware of it as well?
  Mr. POE of Texas. Law enforcement is aware of the situation. All the 
law enforcement is aware.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Who in the world would want to be a Border 
Patrol agent or work on that border if they know that there is a 
$250,000 bounty on their head by the drug cartels?
  Mr. POE of Texas. I don't know. They are amazing people, the law 
enforcement, all of them, the Federal agents, the State agents, the 
sheriffs, local law enforcement. They are amazing people who work on 
the border because they are outgunned, outmanned, and outfinanced by 
the drug cartels.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. And you showed a helicopter, a Mexican 
helicopter that was in the United States airspace. And there is no 
explanation for that as well.
  Mr. POE of Texas. That's right. That helicopter was in Zapata County, 
into the United States a mile and a half, two miles across the border, 
the river border, and we are yet to find out why that helicopter was 
there. Another one was in the United States about 3 weeks prior to this 
one.

                              {time}  1945

  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. And no American troops, National Guard or 
military of any kind is down there augmenting the border patrol agents 
that are risking their lives every day.
  Mr. POE of Texas. That's correct. The border patrol are on their own 
working with the local sheriffs.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Well, you know, what I would like to do, 
Representative Poe, under your leadership, I'd like to work with you to 
get a letter signed to the President of the United States talking about 
this bounty that's on our border patrol agents' heads, and ask him and 
the Governors of those States to do whatever is necessary to protect 
that border and to make sure that our border patrol agents aren't at 
risk like they are today. That's just terrible. I can't believe that. 
And if we could get a bunch of Members to sign a letter like that, 
maybe we could wake up the administration to the problem and get some 
additional help down there because, as you know, well, you of all 
people know, they're coming across in droves and they're using all 
kinds of methods to bring drugs into this country. And they're killing 
Americans. Wasn't there an American killed a couple of miles inside the 
border just a week or two ago?
  Mr. POE of Texas. Yes, in Arizona a rancher was killed by people 
crossing the border into the United States, people illegally in the 
United States.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Well, I will be glad to work with you, if you 
would like to, to draft a letter to make sure that everybody knows in 
this body and the President knows that there is a bounty to kill 
American border patrol agents or to kidnap them and do whatever they do 
to them by the drug cartels. This is something that the American people 
need to know about. And I'm so happy that you brought this up tonight, 
and I'm going to do everything I can to work with you to make sure we 
do something to stop it. And I want to go down to the border with you 
to see this thing firsthand, and we'll be doing that pretty quick.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Be glad to work with you. Appreciate it. Be glad to 
work with you on that.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Everybody in this body owes you a debt of 
gratitude.

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