[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 60 (Tuesday, April 27, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H2925]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       NEWS FROM THE THIRD FRONT

  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. Madam Speaker, I bring you news from the third 
front. The third front is the border that the United States has with 
Mexico, almost 2,000 miles long. The first front, of course, is the 
battle in Iraq. The second is the one in Afghanistan. The third front 
is the violence that occurs on our southern border with our neighbors 
in Mexico.
  Tonight I would like to talk about one specific group, and that's our 
Border Patrol agents who are doing a noble job on the broard southern 
border with Mexico. Some people don't realize this, but our Border 
Patrol agents, Madam Speaker, are under constant attack, daily attack, 
and it's from people that are coming into the United States illegally. 
The assaults against our Border Patrol officers have increased up to 16 
percent more than last year. Just in the Tucson area, assaults against 
Border Patrol agents in the first 2 months of this year have increased 
300 percent from last year. Over 108 Border Patrol agents in a 2-month 
period have been assaulted in the Tucson area.
  Let me show you a photograph, Madam Speaker. I'm not sure you can see 
this. Let me hold it up. This is a Border Patrol vehicle. It's a pickup 
truck. But you can see that there is mesh steel across portions of this 
Border Patrol vehicle. The Border Patrol calls this vehicle and others 
like it a ``war wagon.''
  Now, why would they have this mesh steel across their windows, across 
the front windshield, on the roof protecting the lights, the red 
lights? Why would they have this? Well, it's to protect themselves. You 
see, when these Border Patrol vehicles go up and down the U.S. border 
with Mexico, those people who want to come into the United States 
illegally are waiting for them in different parts of the border, on our 
side right on the border, and throw rocks at our Border Patrol, and 
that's how many of the assaults have occurred against our Border Patrol 
agents in recent years.
  So thus they have to build these war wagons, something that you might 
want to see in Afghanistan or Iraq, to protect themselves from those 
who enter the United States illegally because they are constantly 
throwing rocks at them to divert the attention of our Border Patrol.

                              {time}  1800

  The rocks are a weapon of choice by those who want to come into the 
United States illegally and who confront our Border Patrol. It's not 
just the weapons of choice by them, our cartels, of course--the drug 
cartels. They use other weapons. A little more firepower. Border Patrol 
is out-manned, out-gunned, and out-financed by the vicious border 
cartels who bring drugs into the United States and make money off of 
the illegal use of narcotics in bringing those drugs into the United 
States.
  Now, finally, we have started hearing something about what is taking 
place on the border. It's because of the folks in Arizona; that's where 
Tucson is. That's where Border Patrol assaults on Border Patrol agents 
have increased 300 percent in 2 months. They have so desperately taken 
matters into their own hands and made it illegal to be in the United 
States if you do not have a passport or a legal document. They have 
taken the Federal law and allowed police officers, when they have 
reasonable suspicion, to arrest somebody that's illegally in the United 
States. In other words, they catch them for doing some other crime, 
they find out they're illegally in the country and it becomes a crime 
in Arizona.
  They had to pass that law because the Federal Government, who's 
supposed to protect the sovereignty of the country and protect citizens 
from people who throw rocks at our Border Patrol, for example, it's the 
Federal Government's job to do that. But the Federal Government--
because we're too busy, like today. We honor on the House floor all the 
assistant principals in the United States. Now I'm sure that was an 
important piece of legislation that we passed today, yet we're honoring 
assistant principals and naming post offices while we ought to be 
securing the borders of the United States.
  We secure the borders of foreign countries better than we secure our 
own borders. We secure the borders of Iraq and Afghanistan and Third 
World countries, but not our own border. So we have to leave our Border 
Patrol on patrol, driving these war wagons to protect themselves when 
they're trying to enforce the rule of law.
  I recently asked a Texas Ranger down in the Laredo area, I said, 
What's it like after the sun goes down? He said, Congressman Poe, it 
gets western. It gets western. What he meant by that, it gets violent. 
And it does get violent. The gunfire, the violence, the kidnappings, 
the murders all take place down there because the drug cartels are 
trying to bring drugs into the United States. And they out-man, out-
gun, and out-finance our Border Patrol agents.
  Our Border Patrol agents are doing as good a job as we'll let them 
do, and we need to help them all we can. Several Governors on the 
border States have asked that the President send the National Guard 
down there. That's probably a good idea. Let's send the National Guard 
to the border, secure the border, and make sure that our Border Patrol 
agents and our sovereignty is protected.
  And that's just the way it is.

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