[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 70 (Tuesday, May 11, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H3301]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                ACTION NEEDED NOW AT OUR SOUTHERN BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, Mr. Poe of Texas comes down 
here quite frequently and talks about the problems along the border 
between the United States and Mexico. Yesterday I received an email 
that I would like to read to my colleagues. The subject is ``The Wild 
Southern Border.'' And it starts off, and it says, ``A lesson: Don't 
leave your weapons in the car, don't turn your back on strangers who 
are somewhere they don't belong, use your cell phone with your off 
hand, not your strong hand.'' And the reason they start off with that 
lesson is because of what is said in this email, and I would like to 
read it to you.
  ``As you know, one of the local ranchers was murdered in Douglas, 
Arizona, 2 weeks ago. I received three messages similar to the one 
below from different officers within the Rangers and law enforcement. 
Yesterday afternoon, I talked to another rancher near us who is a 
friend of ours and whose great grandfather started their ranch here in 
1880. These are good people. He told me what really happened out at the 
Krentz ranch and what you won't read in the papers. The Border Patrol 
is afraid of starting a small war between civilians here and the drug 
cartels in Mexico.
  ``Bob Krentz was checking his water like he does every evening and 
came upon an illegal alien who was lying on the ground, telling him he 
was sick. Bob called the Border Patrol and asked for a medical 
helicopter to evacuate the gentleman. As he turned to go back to his 
ATV, he was shot in the side. The round came from down and angled up, 
so they know the shooter was on the ground. Bob's firearm was in the 
ATV, so he had no chance. Wounded, he called the Cochise County Sheriff 
and asked for help. Bleeding in the lungs, he called his brother, but 
the line was bad. So he called his wife, but again the line was bad. 
Several ranchers heard the radio call and drove to his location. Bob 
was dead by this time. The ranchers tracked the shooter 8 miles back 
towards Mexico and cornered him in a brushy draw. This was all at 
night.
  ``The sheriff and Border Patrol arrived and told him not to go down 
and engage the murderer. They went around to the back side, and if you 
can believe it, the assassin managed to get by a B.P. helicopter and a 
sheriff's posse and back into Mexico. So much for professional help 
when you need it.''
  And I would like to say that I think the Border Patrol and the 
sheriffs do a great job with what they have down there. Nevertheless, 
this is what he says in his email. ``One week before the murder, Bob 
and his brother Phil, who I shoot with, hauled a huge quantity of drugs 
off the ranch that they found in trucks. One week before that, a 
rancher near Naco did the same thing. Two nights later, gangs broke 
into his ranch house and beat him and his wife and told them that if 
they ever touched any drugs they found, they would come back and kill 
them.
  ``The ranchers here deal with cut fences and haul drug deliveries off 
their ranches all the time. What ranchers think is that the drug 
cartels beat the one rancher and shot Bob because they wanted to send a 
message. Bob always gave food and water to illegals, and so they think 
they sent the assassin to pose as an illegal who was hungry and 
thirsty, knowing it would catch Bob off-guard. What is going on down 
here is not being reported. You need to tell the people how bad it is 
along the border. Texas is worse. Near El Paso, it's in a state of war; 
5,000 people were killed in Ciudad Juarez last year, and it's over 
2,000 so far this year. Gun sales down here are through the roof, and I 
get emails from people wanting firearms training. Something has to be 
done, but I don't hold out much hope. These gangs have groups in almost 
every city in the United States. Please read below. This is serious 
business. The Barrio Azteca and their subgangs are like Mexican 
corporations and organized extremely well. If this doesn't get dealt 
with down here, you guys''--meaning us up north--``will deal with it on 
your streets.'' And it's signed Bud.

  All I can say is that Mr. Poe and others have come down here day 
after day, week after week, month after month, talking about the 
horrible problems on the border, and this government, the Federal 
Government, is not doing anything about it. They're not approaching 
this as it should be approached. We need to send the National Guard 
down there. We need to continue with the border fencing and stop the 
illegal aliens from coming across, number one, and stop the drug 
traffic and the terrorists who are coming across. This is a war down 
there. We're fighting wars in other parts of the world. This is our 
border, and we need to address this problem.

                          ____________________