[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 61 (Wednesday, April 28, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H2987-H2988]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       MORE NEWS FROM THE BORDER

  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. I bring you news from the third front--that being 
the southern border of the United States with Mexico. The first front, 
of course, is that engagement in Iraq; the second, in Afghanistan; the 
third, on our violent southern border. People are coming into the 
United States from all over the world through the country of Mexico. 
Because Mexico has a vast coastline in the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
people go to Mexico, sneak into Mexico, and then sneak into the United 
States through our southern border. Part of those people that are 
coming in are called drug cartels. They're coming in to sell 
narcotics--a profit of over $40 billion a year to the drug cartels that 
smuggle dope into this country. But also other people are coming into 
the United States.
  Here's a photograph that was taken in Zapata County, Texas. I'm sure 
you've never been there, Mr. Speaker, but it's down on the Texas-Mexico 
border. It's a small county. This is an RV parked near the border. But 
this happens to be a helicopter. It turns out it's a Russian-made 
helicopter with Mexican markings on it. It's about a mile and a half to 
two miles into the United States across the border.
  Now, the border with Mexico and Texas is not a land border. There's a 
river there. So there is no way somebody can be mistaken when they 
accidentally, they say, come into the United States. We don't know the 
intentions of this helicopter. Two weeks before this photograph was 
taken, other photographs were taken of either this helicopter or a 
similar helicopter, once again, coming into the United States--
intentions unknown. Are these folks guarding a shipment of drugs? Are 
they working with the drug cartels? Are they looking for bad guys, or 
what are they doing? We don't know.
  The problem is the border is porous. The southern border of the 
United States is porous with that border of Mexico. The violence in 
Mexico is escalating. Of course, it comes into the United States. There 
are 14 border counties in Texas that border Mexico. I recently talked 
to the sheriffs of those counties on the same day and asked them this 
question: How many people in your local jail are foreign nationals 
charged with crimes that are not immigration violations? The total 
number was 37 percent. That's right, 37 percent of the people in border 
county jails in Texas are foreign nationals charged with misdemeanors 
and felonies. That's a lot of folks. That costs somebody a lot of 
money. And that is because the crime problem goes back and forth across 
the border. It's in Texas and it's also in Mexico. It's because the 
borders are porous.
  We have down on the border with Mexico the Border Patrol. They're 
doing as marvelous a job as they possibly can, but they need some help. 
Here's a photograph, Mr. Speaker, that was also recently taken. This is 
a Border Patrol vehicle. It has been improvised. It's a pickup truck. 
They call these things the ``war wagons.'' Now why do they do that? 
Because they think they may be in a war zone down on the border. If you 
notice, Mr. Speaker, there's a mesh steel wire across the windshield, 
across all of the windows.

[[Page H2988]]

There's even a mesh cage that protects the emergency lights on top of 
the vehicle.
  The question is, Why do they have that stuff on their Border Patrol 
vehicles? Well, you see, when they patrol the border with Mexico, 
people who wish to come into the United States illegally pelt rocks at 
our Border Patrol. And so they have to protect themselves and their 
vehicles by putting this wiring, this cage, around their own vehicle. 
Now, if somebody threw rocks at a police officer in the United States, 
normally those people get arrested and go to jail. But it doesn't seem 
like that is what is occurring, and so they have to protect themselves.
  This is just one example of the violence that is occurring. Border 
Patrol in the Tucson area, assaults against them this year are up 300 
percent from last year. That's right, assaults on our agents who are 
trying to protect the border, protect us. So we have to do more than 
that. We have to support the Border Patrol, the sheriffs that work 
along the border; and we have to do what the Governors of some of those 
States have asked for, and that's send the National Guard down to the 
border.
  We protect the borders of other nations. Why don't we protect our 
own? We don't know. I think it's politics. It's time that we have the 
moral will to secure the dignity of the United States. It's about 
border security. It's about national security. It's not an issue of 
immigration. It's an issue of whether or not people can come into the 
United States legally or illegally. We must have the moral will to keep 
the criminal gangs, the drug cartels, the human smugglers out of the 
United States. They know our borders are porous. People in other 
countries know our borders are porous. They go through Mexico and come 
into the United States.
  The Federal Government has been missing in action. It's time that 
they show up on the border and send the National Guard to support our 
troops, support the border sheriffs, and support the Border Patrol.
  And that's just the way it is.

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