[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 80 (Tuesday, May 25, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H3814-H3821]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE BORDER SECURITY CRISIS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Murphy of New York). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms.
Giffords) is recognized for 60 minutes.
Ms. GIFFORDS. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to address the border
security crisis that is part of daily life in my southern Arizona
district in Arizona's Eighth Congressional District. I am really proud
to represent one of the most diverse parts of the entire country. I
represent a district that is over 9,000 square miles and is one of 10
U.S.-Mexico border districts.
The U.S.-Mexico border has changed a lot over the years. I am a
third-generation Arizonan. I represent a lot of people in my district
who are multi-generational Arizonans. After decades of building up the
U.S.-Mexico border in California and in Texas, there has been a
systematic funneling of illegal immigration, the flow of traffic,
illegally through southern Arizona. This has become the most porous
part of the U.S.-Mexico border.
So today, together, my constituents live in a situation on the front
lines of a national border security crisis. We live and breathe the
Federal Government's failure to secure the border with Mexico. Every
day my constituents are subjected to home invasions and to burglaries
and to cut water lines and to graffiti, an unbelievable amount of
garbage and trash that's left behind by illegal immigrants who are
crossing through the border, and by people increasingly who are drug
smugglers, people that are human smugglers, the cutting of fences, the
threats and intimidation by armed smugglers, and the violence that they
experience on their own land, on their own ranches, their own property.
In this hour, I am going to talk about action that I and others have
taken along the U.S.-Mexico border here in Washington. But more
importantly, I am going to talk about the lives of the constituents
that I represent, the people of Cochise County, the ranchers who live
on the U.S.-Mexico border.
It's always been my belief that if the decision-makers here in
Washington, if they could hear the stories, the impact that illegal
immigration has on the lives of my constituents, that there would be
greater action here in Washington, the decision-makers, elected
officials, people in the administration, policymakers, that they would
move to greatly enhance the security along the U.S.-Mexico border. So
that's what we are going to talk about tonight.
I think it's important to begin this hour with the most heart-
wrenching story of all, the tragic death of Robert Krentz, a fourth-
generation rancher whose family has been on his land for over a hundred
years. Actually, the Krentz family has had their ranch before Arizona
even achieved statehood.
On March 27, Rob Krentz, who was working on his ranch, was murdered
by an assailant who was later tracked to the Mexico border. He and his
dog were both ruthlessly murdered on his land. They were left to die.
They were shot. Law enforcement officials believe that Rob was killed
by a smuggler.
Next to me is a photograph of Rob and his brother Phil, the two
Krentz brothers. This was run on the front page of a local newspaper,
the Tucson Weekly. Frankly, the image tells it all. You see the two
brothers, you see them in the tack room, their hands, their boots,
their lives right there represented.
Reporter Leo Banks wrote the companion story in which he interviewed
Rob's family and the neighbors. Banks wrote the following:
``What has to be noted first is the inevitability of what happened.
Something like the Krentz murder was coming, and everybody knew it. The
stories residents told this newspaper, the frustration that they feel
trying to keep property and families safe in smuggler-occupied
territory were like a freight
[[Page H3815]]
train in the night. Down the tracks you see a faint light, coming
closer and closer. On March 27 in Cochise County's big country a mile
west of Paramore Crater, the train arrived. The aftershock has been so
powerful, because the killing exploded the lie about a secure border
that Washington, D.C., has been working hard to promote.''
On its front page, the Tucson Weekly asked the question, ``Will the
murder of a respected Cochise County rancher change anything on our
border?'' Mr. Speaker, tonight I ask the same question. Again, will the
murder of Robert Krentz on March 27, a respected rancher in my
district, change anything on the border? Well, it has changed, and we
know that today. The President has announced the deployment of the
National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border.
I knew Rob Krentz. I knew his family. He participated in the meetings
that I convened between ranchers and the Border Patrol. He was and is--
he was a family man. He was a good neighbor. And he was a friend to all
who knew him.
He was described as a humanitarian, who would give water and aid to
illegal immigrants who suffered from heat exhaustion and physical
injuries as they trekked from Mexico across his land. He was, like
fellow ranchers out in Cochise County, a straight talker. And he, like
them, saw their lives changed by the increased flow of illegal
immigrants and the drug smugglers.
{time} 2200
Tonight I will share additional stories about the ranchers in this
area, and I will call on my colleagues to join me in demanding that our
government step up and do more, the responsibility here in Washington
to help protect its citizens. The safety and security and the defense
of its citizens should be our primary focus in Washington, D.C.
Mr. Speaker, the very first speech that I made on this floor, the
floor of the House of Representatives in January of 2007, was precisely
about securing the border. In some areas, border security has improved
over time, and in many ways it has worsened. I've been proud to support
legislation and appropriations that funded the border patrol and the
Department of Homeland Security, including ICE, as well for increases
in personnel and technology.
Democrats and Republicans have worked together to give the Department
of Homeland Security the resources they need, and we have seen those
resources in the Tucson sector. I have fought to increase funding to
local law enforcement programs through the State Criminal Alien
Assistance Program, also known as SCAAP. When the President's budget
eliminated SCAAP, I led the fight to restore the funding.
And why this is important is that communities out in Cochise County
and Santa Cruz County and Pinal County, as well as Pima County, they
carry the brunt of this problem because the local law enforcement
agents are oftentimes required to respond when a resident calls in need
of help. They are responsible for a lot of the work that should be done
by the Federal Government. The Federal Government has very increasingly
not been able or not willing to reimburse the local law enforcement
agents for the cost that they incur. We were able to augment the
budget.
I also worked to establish Operation Streamline. It's a program that
finally reversed many years of the catch-and-release situation that we
had down in southern Arizona. So instead of just apprehending illegal
immigrants and then immediately deporting them back to the border to
find them crossing over the next day, back and forth and back and
forth, we are now in a situation that instead, we charge these
individuals and we incarcerate illegal immigrants for 30 days, which is
a big deterrent for someone who's trying to pass north.
Last year and again this year, I introduced legislation with
Congressman Sam Johnson from Texas to create a new mandatory electronic
employment verification system for hiring employees. Our system would
be a national employee verification system that would protect American
citizens from identity theft and hold employers accountable for hiring
illegal immigrants. The State of Arizona was the first State to
authorize E-Verify, making it mandatory for all employers.
But we've seen a lot of problems with E-Verify, plus the fact that
this situation of employee verification should not be a State-by-State
situation. We need to have a national solution, and that's why
Congressman Sam Johnson and I have introduced legislation NEVA.
Recently, with Congressman Brian Bilbray, I introduced a bill to
crack down on the use of stored value cards, which drug cartels are
using increasingly to launder money. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I have an
example right here. This is an example of a stored value card that you
can buy basically at any retailer. These stored value cards do not
require any formal banking agreement. The threat assessment by the U.S.
Department of Justice, the National Drug Intelligence Center, dubbed
the cards an ideal money laundering instrument citing loose regulation,
cardholder anonymity, and liberal limits on value reloading, withdraw,
and spending on certain types of these cards. And again, you can go to
a store and anyone can buy these stored value cards.
We're also seeing more stored value devices like cell phones where
money can be transferred, hundreds of millions of dollars, through
these types of devices.
According to a March 7, 2010, article in the Arizona Daily Star, the
average amount of the 415 seizures on the southwest border in 2009 was
$89,565, more than double the average seizure 5 years ago. That is why
this legislation, the Stored Value Device Registration and Reporting
Act of 2010, is so important. This is legislation that will include the
stored value devices--either the cards or the cell phones--under the
definition of a monetary instrument under title 31 in the United States
Code. This will require cardholders to declare if they are carrying
$10,000 on a stored value device to customs officers, because currently
the Federal officials have absolutely no way of tracking whether or not
this money is coming into the United States because individuals are not
required to declare whether or not they have money on a stored value
device.
Mr. Speaker, at 6:20 early Sunday morning 2 weeks ago, the North
American Aerospace Defense Command, also known as NORAD, detected a
low, small-flying aircraft in southern Arizona near the border with
Mexico. NORAD immediately scrambled two F-16s to intercept the
ultralight aircraft, shadowing it for 30 minutes until that small plane
returned to Mexico. This is just another example of how the drug
smugglers are getting ahead of us by using these small homemade planes.
They stealthily enter our country illegally.
Right before that, Congressman Dean Heller and I introduced another
bill that will dramatically increase the penalties for the newest way
to smuggle drugs, flying them in by ultralight aircraft. These single-
pilot aircraft are capable of flying low and can land and take off
quickly. They are very difficult to detect. We have reports of them
flying up to 200 miles into our country from Mexico. They are being
used to bring drugs into our communities and represents the latest
threat to border security. And if they can bring in drugs, they can
also bring in other materials that can threaten our national security.
I first learned about the illicit use of ultralights in a briefing by
the United States Border Patrol. They told me that we needed to take
action to crack down on the ultralight drug smugglers, and that's why I
introduced the Ultralight Smuggling Prevention Act. Ultralights are
typically used by people for sport or recreation and, as a result, are
currently not categorized as an aircraft by the Federal Aviation
Administration.
In the 2010 National Drug Assessment released by the National Drug
Intelligence Center, they identified ultralights as one of the newest
ways drug cartels are using to smuggle drugs into our country. And
according to the CBP Air and Marine Operation Center, or AMOC, based in
Riverside, California, there were 193 suspected incursions into our
country and 135--make that 136 with the incursion 2 weeks ago--by
ultralights from October 1 to the present time.
[[Page H3816]]
In October of 2008, AMOC detected an unidentified northbound low-
flying aircraft 12 miles west of Nogales. A CBP surveillance helicopter
was launched from Tucson and the low-flying aircraft was identified as
an ultralight. The pilot landed southwest of Marana, Arizona, with 223
pounds of marijuana on board where Border Patrol was waiting to
transport the pilot and the marijuana to another location.
In November of 2008 near San Luis, field workers arrived for work and
discovered a crashed ultralight, a dead pilot, and 141 pounds of
marijuana. And in December of 2008, the pilot of an ultralight collided
with power lines and crashed southwest of Tucson. The pilot had been
carrying, this time, 350 pounds of marijuana when he crashed.
It is time for the Federal Government to get ahead of the drug
traffickers. We need to pass this legislation to outmaneuver these
individuals who are trying to bring drugs into our country and to do us
harm, and the Ultralight Smuggling Prevention Act will amend the Tariff
Act of 1930 to include ultralight aircraft under aviation smuggling
provisions.
There is an unintended loophole that needs to be closed. We have to
get law enforcement the tools that they need to crack down on the drug
smugglers. And because ultralights are not currently technically
considered aircraft, they do not fall under the smuggling provision.
So under my legislation, individuals caught smuggling on ultralights
can be prosecuted for using the aircraft in addition to being
prosecuted for the drugs in their possession. When they are convicted
of this new offense, they can receive a maximum penalty of up to 20
years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The bill will establish the same
penalties for smuggling drugs on ultralights as for smuggling on
airplanes and in automobiles.
Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier, today is a good day for the southwest
border. It's a good day for Arizona and the people of this country.
President Obama has finally agreed to my repeated requests to deploy
the National Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border. Today, the President
announced that he will authorize 1,200 National Guard troops to be
deployed to the southwest border. He will also request that $500
million be included in the supplemental spending legislation for
enhanced border protection and law enforcement activities.
Just yesterday, I communicated with my two Senators, Senator McCain
and Senator Kyl, as well.
{time} 2210
I thought it was important that the Senate stand up for border
security and include the $500 million in additional funding in the war
supplemental making its way through the Senate this week. The
fulfillment of my request is a clear sign the administration is finally
beginning to take border security seriously.
I first called for immediate deployment of the National Guard after
the March 27 murder of Rob Krentz. Arizonans know that more boots on
the ground, even if we are starting with 1,200, I requested 3,000, but
this is a start, and just because this is our first step doesn't mean
it's the last step.
Washington has clearly heard our message. Republican Congressman Ted
Poe and I sponsored a resolution calling on the President to send the
National Guard to the border many weeks ago. We did another press
conference today. This goes to show this is not a Republican or a
Democratic issue. This is an issue that affects all of our constituents
and all Members of Congress. It's an American issue.
Tonight, again, I reiterate my request to the House, the Senate, and
the President to step up and do more. We need to secure our U.S.-Mexico
border, period.
The Tucson sector, as we see on the map here, this is my district,
and this includes the Tucson sector, which goes all the way over to the
farther west part of the State, has been an area that has been
confronted by narcoterrorists who have killed thousands of people in
Mexico and have brought their violent ways to the United States and, in
particular, to our area.
My district has over 100 miles of border with Mexico, and the drug
smuggling and the traffic has systemically been funneled through this
area. Again, as we have closed off California and Texas, we have been
funneling all of this activity through southern Arizona. And, as you
can see, the more urban areas, the dense part like Tucson and Sierra
Vista, are away from the border.
But here along the line, you see an incredible vast amount of open
space. And this is where the ranchers of Cochise County live. These are
individuals who have had their ranches for hundreds of years, some of
them, who are not being protected.
The Tucson sector, and I would like to put up a chart here of the
Tucson sector of the Border Patrol, because it accounts for almost 50
percent of all the apprehensions of illegal immigrants and the drug
seizures across all Border Patrol sectors in the Nation. This is to
represent what we are actually dealing with in southern Arizona in my
district.
So as you read the chart from fiscal year 2005 up to fiscal year
2009, in fiscal year 2005, there were 439,000 apprehensions in that
year. And for every individual apprehended, we believe, possibly, one,
or two, or maybe three, or maybe more get away. In fiscal year 2006,
392,000 apprehensions; in fiscal year 2007, 378,000 apprehensions; in
fiscal year 2008, 318,000 apprehensions; and in fiscal year 2009,
241,000 apprehensions.
We have seen almost a 50 percent decrease in the number of people
that are being apprehended, which is a good sign. It shows that the
border security measures that we put on the border are working.
But it's an interesting story when you look at seizures in terms of
marijuana. In fiscal year 2005, 488,000 pounds of marijuana were
seized. And then it increases. In 2006, 616,000 pounds; in 2007,
897,000 pounds; in fiscal year 2008, 816,000 pounds; and a banner year
last year, fiscal year 2009, 1.2 million pounds of marijuana seized in
the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol.
When you look at cocaine seizures, fiscal year 2005 was an anomaly.
We had 1,200 pounds seized. And then in fiscal year 2006, we had about
100 pounds; fiscal year 2007, 177 pounds; up to 2009, 524 pounds of
cocaine.
You see, again, a decrease in the number of illegal immigrants and an
increase in the amount of drugs, marijuana and cocaine, seized in the
Tucson sector of the Border Patrol.
Personnel in fiscal year 2005: The United States Border Patrol had
2,339 Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector. We have vastly
increased that to fiscal year 2009. We are almost at 3,700 boots on the
ground Border Patrol agents in the Tucson sector.
In terms of prosecutions, in fiscal year 2007, there were 5,447
prosecutions. That number has more than tripled in fiscal year 2009,
with over 17,000 prosecutions that are now taking place in the Tucson
sector because of the increased and enhanced enforcement activity that
we have there.
Operation Streamline, I talked about this earlier, making sure that
we are actually detaining for 30 days illegal immigrants who are
crossing into our border illegally. As we started up a couple of years
ago, this is the work of many hardworking individuals. In 2008, 9,638
prosecutions, and in fiscal year 2009 over 15,000 prosecutions with
Operation Streamline. That sounds like a lot until you go back and look
at the number that in 2009 we had 241,000 apprehensions.
I would like to now relate in the words of my constituents what we
are actually dealing with along the border. And I really believe that
the ranchers out in Cochise County speak for themselves the best, and I
asked them to submit stories to me of real accounts. And I have
collected their letters over the days and the weeks and the years that
I have served in this capacity.
This is a letter that was sent to me following a community meeting
that I convened at the Apache schoolhouse 4 days after Rob Krentz was
murdered. The author wrote, I am angry. I had been operating at a slow
simmer for some time now. Then last Saturday, when he was working on
his ranch, Rob Krentz was murdered in cold blood. He was shot along
with his dog. Now I am more than angry. Rob was a fourth-generation
rancher in Cochise County. Friends and family, some with hunting hounds
and horses and every kind of law enforcement official that we have,
went into an all-out search mode for his killer, but the killer had a
nearly 24-hour headstart on them by the time they found the body.
[[Page H3817]]
They followed his tracks to the new fabulously wonderful,
multibillion dollar and completely ineffective fence at the border and
then into Mexico. They returned to their homes and jobs sick that they
could not catch this killer before he made it back across the border. I
have known Mr. Krentz and his family for many years and considered them
friends. We are not close but have become friends largely because of
common beliefs and issues that arise from living in these huge arid
landscapes. Most of us here have what the general population would
consider conservative leanings when it comes to politics. We prefer and
have to take care of ourselves for the most part. We do not have the
option of calling for help in emergencies much of the time because we
do not have phones, radios, or cell service when we are out in the
landscape or on isolated roads. When you live here you have to be
prepared to handle your own emergencies. It is expected that may
include a snake bite, a car wreck on an isolated stretch of the
highway, a neighbor with car trouble. That sort of thing.
But for the last 4 years or so, that has included illegals that carry
fully automatic weapons. That is a little tougher to prepare for,
especially when official response time is 1 to 4 hours and the official
that does respond is usually alone and only allowed to carry a measly
pistol to respond with.
Two years ago a Bureau of Land Management fire crew was pulled off a
fire when a fire they fought flushed 17 illegals out of a canyon, and
they were all carrying automatic weapons. Most of us have guns, as did
Rob Krentz. His was found in a scabbard on his Polaris Ranger where
they found his body.
The people who killed him, according to a garbled radio message his
brother received, appeared to be hurt and needed help. That bit of
acting may explain why Rob did not have his gun out and ready to use.
Just the day before Rob had helped Border Patrol officials with a
drug bust on his ranch. More than 300 pounds of marijuana was
confiscated. Was the killer one of the thwarted smugglers seeking
revenge? We do not know and probably never will.
The people that I represent have told in person and on phone and in
emails that this is the sort of situation that they are facing on their
ranches.
Like the story of Kelly Kimbro and the Glenn family. They have the
Malpai Ranch, very, very close to where Rob Krentz' ranch is. On May 14
of this year, a couple of nights ago, a half-mile east of Airport Road
in Douglas, 10 of the concrete filled 6-inch steel casings that serve
as uprights on the border fence were cut off at the ground with cutting
torches and that piece of fence removed for a drive-through.
{time} 2220
Our friend was called down to go down there yesterday with his boom
truck and try to hoist it back into place. I know how to use a cutting
torch. When you try to cut into something filled with concrete, it is
nasty and dangerous and very hard work. My point is that it would have
had to take hours or days to do this. It is on the border road, one-
half mile from Douglas. If the border was being patrolled . . . one
more instance when it is not. This is no longer a laughing matter. What
the heck is going on? Why did this have to happen?''
This is a story from May 16. This is a story from Wendy Glenn: ``Last
summer, our well on the border had a solar panel stolen from it right
between the border road and Geronimo Trail Road. The control box, float
and wire were taken also. It was taken and carried out by a fellow over
a mile on the border road before he went into Mexico. The fellow had to
climb up and unbolt it and let it down to the ground and then had to
carry it off. Surely he had to have been seen by some Border Patrol
people as all this happened.''
Other reports coming from Susan and Louis Pope on May 18: ``Last
night, there was a large group that crossed our lower place on the
State line between Arizona and New Mexico. As far as we know, they are
on their way north. Tonight, we had the illegals talking on the radio;
they're making plans about tomorrow morning.
``There are at least two groups coming up the west side of the
Pelloncillos Mountains. There are also groups on the south end of the
Chiricahuas.''
Here is an email from May 19: ``Today resulted in recovering several
bundles of dope, but since air support was not available, the mules got
away. Just as soon as the Border Patrol left the area, the spotter was
on the radio again guiding and gathering the group back together. Two
loads of dope came down the highway. They crossed out of Arizona into
New Mexico, and the Hidalgo County Sheriffs Department caught one and
the other got away. We understand that the Lordsburg Border Patrol will
get two helicopters next week from the New Mexico National Guard, but
they cannot cross into Arizona to help with the Border Patrol here.
``Now guess where all the illegals will wind up? Yes, you are right,
in our back yards. We want everyone to know that there is not a road on
the border in the Pelloncillos Mountains. The horse patrol has a vital
part in helping stop the crossers, but air support is absolutely
critical.''
Another email from May 19: ``It is 9 p.m., Sunday, May 19. I just
found out that there are no night scopes available for the area from
the New Mexico line to Douglas, 50 miles, tonight. Just one mobile
surveillance system in New Mexico, another mobile surveillance system
five miles north of Douglas, and one MSS, as well, close to the border,
about 15 miles east of Douglas. The Border Patrol is just about blind
tonight. There are supposed to be four units, but not tonight. We need
to get these people some help.''
I'd like to show an illustration of, again, what some of the
situation looks like in terms of having illegal immigrants that are
coming into the area. The following email comes from the Stroller
family, who are winter visitors in my district. Given the dangers that
they now face on their land in Arizona, they have made the difficult
decision of not returning to our State. This is from May 18: ``Hello,
friends. It is with great regret that we've decided to leave our little
Arizona winter retreat. It has been with much thought that we have
decided not to return. We worry about you, our friends, and wish that
you had the flexibility that we have to not be there during this
dangerous time.
``Whether you are fearful for your safety or not so much is of little
consequence as to how we are feeling. We worried when hunting this
winter or just walking next door on our 160 acres, will we be
confronted by a camp of illegals? What will we do with one shotgun, one
camera, and four dogs? Will Louis, that just dashed out of the doggy
door at midnight barking madly, will he come back, or will we find him
in the morning with a bullet in his head?
``Guess what we're trying to say to you is we don't want to do this
anymore. It isn't worth the possible consequences. We will miss the
magnificent views, but even more, we will really miss you. Thank you
for the wonderful years.''
Another story that I heard at the Apache Schoolhouse, the ranchers
and other residents of this beautiful part of the country have seen
terrible changes over the past few years, and they have been calling on
their government to take action to protect them and to finally secure
the border. Their plea was well summarized in a letter that was
recently personally delivered to the Governor of Arizona and to us, the
congressional delegation. In the email he said: ``Over the past 8
years, we have experienced many break-ins, burglaries, and attempted
home invasions. Two of the attempted home invasions occurred just last
month.''
He says: ``As someone who actually lives on the U.S.-Mexico border, I
am here today to share with you a partial account of my family's
experiences living near the Arizona-Mexico border for the past 10
years. We are a fifth-generation Arizona ranching family. By no means
is this account all inclusive, but is intended to give you an
understanding of the mayhem and the trepidation we are going through
every single day on the borderlands.
``My words are offered to you in good faith and are not intended to
be inflammatory toward any culture, nationality, group, or agency, but
I refuse to weave political correctness into their meaning, which has
so far distracted from the important work of credibly securing our
borders first for the citizens of Arizona and the United States.
``Border security has been promised for so many times over the past
30
[[Page H3818]]
years without delivering security and safety to our families. These are
my opinions on the matter. The U.S.-Mexico border is out of control and
has been for a very long time. We laugh out loud when we hear the
politicians claim that the border is more secure. This uninformed view
is a political fairytale. People in Washington making these statements
don't live here. And if they did, they would have a far more different
view from the remedial policies which need to be immediately actioned
on our and the country's behalf to secure the Arizona-Mexico
international boundary.
``Our small ranch is located adjacent to the Chiricahuas National
Wilderness. Presently, I'm sitting in my new ranch house, which looks
more like a fortress than a home. Day and night we suffer home
invasions, burglaries, multi-thousand-acre fires, some as large as
20,000 acres, ranching infrastructure and personal property destruction
perpetrated by both illegal aliens and drug smugglers. They break into
our homes and ranches, they steal jewelry and firearms, ammunition,
money, small cartable electronics to fence in U.S. interior cities and
Mexico, maliciously vandalize our property. They destroy our livestock
and so on.
``In 8 years, our home has suffered over 15 illegal alien and
smuggling burglaries and four attempted home invasions; intolerable
when you consider that I'm here most of the time. I gave up filing
police reports. Why bother?
``The latest attempted home invasion occurred last Saturday when we
were invaded in the early morning by an illegal alien and an accomplice
while my wife was asleep. The perpetrators were about to enter and
burglarize our house and who knows what else. They were later caught by
our hardworking Border Patrol and the Cochise County sheriff. We
understand their backpacks were full of stolen items from burglarized
homes in Portal, and some, if not all, had prior arrest records.
``Last month, another smuggler entered our home and confronted my
wife in her utility room before he was run off. And as I write this
account, the Border Patrol and the Cochise County Sheriff's Department
are on the mountain searching for several groups of illegal aliens.
``How many American citizens would tolerate a situation like the ones
that we experience every single day? Why are we not able to live in
safety and in security in our own homes like the rest of you in Tucson
and in Phoenix and in Washington, D.C.?
``Many of the homes and ranches in the Portal area stretching to
Douglas have been burglarized, vandalized, and invaded by illegals. No
one, and I mean no one, dare leave their homes unprotected for longer
than a couple of hours at a time. Can you imagine worrying about
leaving your home to attend your son's out-of-state wedding for fear it
is going to be burglarized and trashed upon your return? Not a pretty
picture missing such important parts of your family's lives.
``As I read my statement upon a risk of attending this meeting, I
wonder what I will find or face upon my return to our ranch later this
evening. There are hundreds of these people illegally crossing through
our valleys 24/7. It is a very scary situation when they're kicking in
your door and the sheriff is located over 70 miles away and the Border
Patrol is undermanned and under-equipped, and they can't respond in a
timely basis to your call; when they're pursuing multiple illegal
immigrant groups through the mountains 24 hours a day--yes, a very
dangerous job we've asked them to do.
``From personal experience, illegal immigrants and smugglers have
absolutely no fear of law enforcement, Border Patrol, nor State or
Federal officials; in fact, U.S. citizens seem to be held to a higher
enforcement and prosecutorial standard than illegal immigrants arrested
for the same criminal activity.
{time} 2230
You will appreciate the cynicism this creates for border residents
when the same illegal aliens and smugglers are caught time and time
again after being released back into Mexico.
If apprehended, one of the first questions they often ask the Border
Patrol is: ``Which State am I in--the Ninth Circuit Court or New
Mexico?'' They sure hope it's Arizona.
The large numbers of undetected illegal aliens and north-southbound
smugglers using our vast, remote desert mountain country are never
counted in numbers Washington is using. You can't count what you can't
catch, and if Border Patrol apprehends 300,000 annually in the Tucson
sector alone or if collectively they catch one in four, maybe over
800,000 or 850,000 have entered into the country illegally.
I must ask if this is really a border which has never been more
secure. I don't think so, and neither do the majority of the American
people.
This letter goes on. It talks about what's happening with the Border
Patrol. Yes, it's true that we've had a lot of press on this, but
unfortunately, up until today, we have not had a lot of action. The
Arizona Cattle Growers have put together an 18-point border security
plan. It's available on my congressional Web site. It's available on
the Arizona Cattle Growers' Web site. It mandates that crossing the
border illegally the first time is a felony charge for breaking into
our country and that it prevents, for any reason, one from gaining U.S.
citizenship or residency.
The individual ends by saying, ``For those of you who worry about
`militarizing the border,' I can only say you're too late.''
There are a couple of additional stories, one being of Ann and Paul
Palmer.
They say here, ``Let me give you yet another perspective from a
farming family.''
On May 21 of this year, our confidence in the sheriff's department
and in the Border Patrol is right at 0 percent. Within the last 8
months, we've had two different vans abandoned on our farm. The first
time, they were running from the sheriff's department. On that
occasion, the van ran through several fences and way out into a field
of growing corn before it got stuck in the mud. At that point, the
fugitives were on foot. The sheriff's department and Border Patrol were
too scared to go into the cornfield to get them. They said they didn't
feel safe leaving their vehicles and looking for people in the dark. So
they left. This all happened 200 yards from our homes.
It's plain to me the only protection for our families comes from my
son and I.
The following day, my son and I had to get the vehicle out of the
field. Then when the sheriff's department did come back in the
daylight, they gave it a cursory inspection. They told us that we
should check to see that there was no dope before we pulled it out.
Needless to say, this caused some serious economic damage to our having
this vehicle. I mean, not only was that crop destroyed in that area,
but there were deep ruts in the field and the labor and the materials
to rebuild the fences.
The second occasion was after harvest. Many of us pasture cattle on
our cornstalks, so there are large numbers of cattle in the cornfields.
Late one night, our neighbor called, informing us that a van had run
through several of his gates and was coming our way. He had three
separate herds of 500 head, and we had one herd of 600 head of cattle
that could have all been mixed up had our neighbor not been on the
ball. That would have been a several-day sorting job. We got the van
stopped before it went through the last fence. The people jumped out
and ran.
By the time the sheriff's deputy, who had been lost, got there, we
had tracked the people and knew which way they were going. This time,
the sheriff's department said that, if we could give them the van--a
1977 Chevrolet--they would pursue them, and if not, they would not. I
pointed out, by that time, that, if they got a record, the illegals
would be gone. The sheriff's department left. The Border Patrol was
supposedly coming with a tracker, but never showed up. There was no
interest at all in apprehending these individuals, and, once again,
labor and materials to rebuild the fences were expended by me and my
family. I could go on and on, but you get the point, he says. From our
standpoint, there is no will to do anything about the problem. The
Border Patrol should be on the border, not 40 or 50 miles north of the
border.
Willcox recently got a new Border Patrol station. That's 80 miles
north of the border. They keep horses near the Willcox station. What
are they doing so far north? The horse patrol comes in after a part of
a day because they don't
[[Page H3819]]
have enough horses to ride all day. A private company or an individual
simply cannot operate as efficiently as Border Patrol and stay in this
business. Throwing more money at a poorly laid-out plan just means that
you have a more expensive poor plan.
Here is another story by Ruth Cowan, a rancher near Tombstone,
Arizona. This account took place on June 7. Fence run through. June 9,
fence run through and cattle on the road. June 10, 20 arrests. June 13,
fence run through and 20 arrests. June 14, 60 arrests. June 15, fence
hit and two runners.
She talks about calls about cattle on the road both day and night,
personal damage in 1 day, including three $150 gates that were run
through, a float broken off losing 10,000 gallons of water in one spot
and a faucet I installed to keep them from breaking the floats left
open and the submersible pump pumping our precious desert water on the
ground all night, two gates left open and my bulls were gone.
Some additional complaints.
My travel trailer has been broken into, my truck stolen, and the one
they couldn't steal, which is a diesel, I had to get repaired. My
insurance rates have gone up. Field days for the most requested field
trip in Douglas, Arizona, cancelled due to discarded pornography,
weapons, feminine hygiene products, trash, and associated health
issues.
I believe we have an image of that.
The economic damage to my rangeland is devastating. Rangeland is
being trampled by thousands upon thousands of illegals. Native
vegetation can't grow.
Here we have images of the debris.
Lost income from cattle because they're now wild, and buyers give
less. My new $2,400 bull ate a plastic sack and died 4 days later.
Disease from my neighbor's cattle and broken fences resulted in my
animals' aborting their calves, and then the cows sold at half price. I
can't even get anyone to come look at the ranch because it's south of
I-10.
Invasive weeds have been introduced. One seed pod can produce over
200 seeds and then hang on the clothing and blankets of individuals who
are smuggling through. They can fall off vehicles if they travel off
road. On State trust land, I have been informed that it is the
landowner's/lessee's responsibility to control these weeds that are
being brought in.
The deer herds on my ranch have decreased as I have three drug and
illegal routes splitting herds and sportsmen very angry because I have
totally locked off my private property in an attempt to slow the
traffic.
All the trash left behind washes downstream to lower watershed into
the bird sanctuary. The Clean Water Act directs businessowners to
decrease nonpoint source pollution. Yet this trash problem I have no
control over. I had nine at-risk youth camps with counselors for 5 days
out to pick up the garbage. Within 2 weeks, it was right back there.
Who paid for this? The American taxpayer. We have sent our men and
women all over the world to protect others, and yet the same government
refuses to protect my rights as a U.S. citizen.
This is a story from John Ladd. The Ladd family is a very well-known
ranching family in southern Arizona. John Ladd has a ranch along the
border right where some new fences have been constructed.
John tells me that he can ride for hours along the fence without
seeing a single Border Patrol agent. He has shown us where smugglers
have cut through the new steel fence and have used a ramp to drive
their loads of drugs up and over the fence.
Imagine that.
He has filmed scores of people crossing illegally through his land,
and reports that there has been no less than 49 groups visible from his
kitchen window last year. The last group was seen just a few days ago.
The murder of Rob Krentz has brought a lot of attention to the border
in Cochise County, but it is important to note that the smugglers'
impact on ranchers north of the border and into Pima County is a very
unique situation.
A couple of additional stories.
This was sent to me by the Coping family, Robert and Cynthia.
They wrote, My husband, Robert, and I purchased our ranch northwest
of Marana, Arizona, in 1995. In 2000, President Clinton proclaimed the
Ironwood Forest National Monument, which now surrounds our ranch. We
spend six nights a week there, just the two of us. With the remoteness
and animals needing daily care, we sometimes travel separately and
leave just one of us alone on the ranch. Our nearest neighbor to the
northeast is La Osa Ranch, 8 miles away. To the south, the Silver Bell
Mine headquarters is about 10 miles distant. To the southwest, Queens
Well is about 25 miles. To the west is the Jet Ray Ranch about 10 miles
away.
This is a part of the district that is not directly on the border,
but it is impacted.
We have no cellular telephone service at our ranch even though our
provider, Verizon, advertises that we get coverage there. When we need
to make a call, I have to get in my truck and drive 5 miles just to get
a call to connect.
Our neighbor owns the grazing lease formerly attached to our deeded
property. His leases surround our property. The Tohono O'Odham Nation
borders the west boundary of his allotments, and the fence line is 10
miles west of our house.
From 1995 to 2003, the biggest problem we had with illegal
immigration was plumbing being destroyed and valves being left open at
water tanks so that some 30,000 gallons of water would be drained out
onto the ground. This can be deadly to cattle. It can drain entire
wells.
Illegal vehicle crossing from the Nation to the Ironwood monument
started becoming problematic and created environmental havoc in about
2003. Vehicles heavily overloaded with people began parading past our
house at all hours of the night--pristine areas filled with trash,
tremendous environmental damage from cross-country motorized traffic.
{time} 2240
The BLM has posted accountings of the cleanup costs online.
With the murder of Rob Krentz, our compassion for illegal immigrants
in distress has been compromised by our fear for our own lives. This
area is very deadly, he goes on. Chuck is out numerous times riding
horseback in the desert. I have come across trees with women's
underwear hanging from them. The threat to women that are crossing
illegally as well is something that is not heavily reported, but we
know it happens.
Drug smugglers come up north through the reservation. They steal
horses, in this case, two horses from different ranches on the
reservations. Then they travel north of a wash located about a mile
west of our house. They pass under a loose fence and then head north,
cutting a hole in the county ranch boundary fence.
Those were the early days of what now is major vehicular traffic and
drug smuggling through the Tohono O'odham Nation, of which the entire
eastern fence line runs across the western boundaries of now what is
the Ironwood National Forest. This individual writes that the smugglers
are now using stolen vehicles instead of stolen horses.
Mr. Speaker, I bring these stories forward, they are real stories,
they are from real constituents, they live in my district, to emphasize
to Members of Congress, members of the administration and to the
general public the real problems that we are having down in southern
Arizona.
Yes, it is true that we have increased the amount of resources in
urban areas. We have more fencing. We have more boots on the ground. We
have more surveillance. But out in the rural part, where the land is
vastly wide open, there is still a major problem.
Before the community meeting that we had in Apache, I met with a
representative group of ranchers and heard many of these stories
directly told to me. They also had some commonsense recommendations for
us, and these were recommendations that I included in two letters to
the President of the United States and to the Secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security.
At that time, I called for the immediate deployment of the National
Guard to the U.S.-Mexico border, and I asked that five additional
measures be
[[Page H3820]]
taken to address the increased amount of violence and to assure the
residents that we would step up to provide the protection that they are
entitled to receive from the Federal Government.
I urged the President and the Secretary to deploy more Border Patrol
agents. I looked at the budget being proposed by the administration to
cut agents, and that was absolutely wrong. Not only do we not need to
cut, we need to increase Border Patrol agents.
We also need to include more horse patrol, and I am very pleased that
the Tucson sector two weeks ago graduated another recent class of horse
patrol, because, as you can see from these images, in some of these
areas there are no roads. It is very difficult to access the remotest
part of the desert, and horse patrol is the only way.
I also urged the President and Secretary Napolitano to establish
Border Patrol forward-operated bases in the San Bernardino Valley,
again the most remote part of southern Arizona, right there on the
border.
As I was driving to that meeting, I was on the phone trying to
communicate with people here in Washington to find that my cell phone
service was completely cut out. Miles before I was even able to arrive
at Apache, I found there was no cell phone service. So I have urged the
President and the Department of Homeland Security to improve
telecommunications among law enforcement agencies and among residents
as well. We need more cell phone towers. We need to know the costs of
the cell phone towers. We are working to get that information. And then
I had submitted funding requests to make sure we can handle the cost of
those cell phone towers.
We also need to increase the deployment of mobile surveillance
systems. I understand we have three new mobile surveillance systems
coming to the Tucson sector today redeployed from other areas. That is
a good first step, but, frankly, we need more.
I also asked to form a joint agency task force to coordinate local
border security efforts, because what we see happening oftentimes, for
example, during an investigation, and I talked about some of the
criminal activities that have been reported in my area, you will have a
local law enforcement agent come out and do the initial investigation,
and then at that point there is a handoff. So many different entities
end up handling that case that we need to have a joint agency task
force to coordinate what is happening.
I have also since that time submitted a request for supplemental
funding to increase personnel and technology on the border. I was
joined by 52 other Members of the House of Representatives, Democrats
and Republicans, in making that request. Again, yesterday I wrote to
the two Arizona Senators asking that they support this request in the
United States Senate.
We know what we must do to secure the border. The people of Cochise
County and the residents of southern Arizona know exactly what they
need. So the time for talk is over. The people that I represent, the
people that are American citizens that live on the front lines of this
problem, they deserve an answer. We need to stop the drug cartels and
the violence that they bring, and this will in fact not just help my
constituents, but help everyone across the country.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about another story from
another constituent, Peggy Davis. She writes here, My name is Peggy
Davis. My husband Fred and I own a cattle ranch between Tombstone and
Elfrida on Davis Road. As you can probably assume by the name of the
road, Fred's family has been ranching this area for a long time. Our
grandchildren are the fifth generation to live on this ranch.
I have personally lived along the border for 37 years. I moved to
southern Arizona when Fred and I were married in 1972. Up until that
time, I had never encountered an illegal immigrant or even heard of
the Border Patrol. It didn't seem like something that citizens were
overly concerned about.
On our ranch, we encountered immigrants occasionally, but usually
they walked openly up to our home and asked for work or something to
eat. I always fed them. I gave them water, sometimes medicine, and
often gave them a few dollars for doing a small job for that day. I
always treated them with dignity and compassion, as did most people who
lived in that area.
In the 1990s, something drastically changed. I began to notice that
many of the immigrants I encountered were traveling in large groups and
often had an attitude that left me feeling uneasy. She says, today I
still provide water for them when asked, but I never give food or
medicine, nor do I give them work. To do that would encourage larger
numbers to walk through my land, leaving their trash and threatening me
and my family.
My husband is away from home quite often for several weeks at a time,
leaving me home alone. In fact, he couldn't be here today because he is
gone now working to supplement ranching income. This is necessary due
in large part to the exorbitant costs to repair our land, our water
tanks, our fences damaged by immigrants daily. Everyone I know
experiences the same loss of value to their land and to their
livestock.
Peggy writes, I used to go for walks for exercise. I no longer feel
safe doing that. I am armed at all times, she writes. I can't even feed
my animals without having a firearm. And this is not unique. Most of
the ranch women that I know that live in this area know how to use a
gun and would use it to protect our families, make no mistake. She
says, I don't ever want to have to use it. In fact, the mere thought of
making me use it gives me anxiety beyond words. But what choice do I
really have? I could call 911, but we all know by the time they would
actually get to me, it would be likely too late.
She says, I know most of the people that live here, and literally all
of the people I know who live along the border area have at least one
personal story they could tell where they were threatened or their
animals or their property damaged. To go into all of them would take
days or weeks. But this is time-sensitive. We are being invaded now,
Peggy says, and something has to be done immediately.
However, I do feel compelled to briefly tell you, when our daughter
Marlo was in college, she was home alone. Fred and I were both in Texas
on business. Marlo had gone to the barn one evening to feed our horses,
and after coming back to the house and locking our doors, she heard our
dogs barking in a way that alerted her that someone was nearby.
When she looked out the window, she saw a man standing right outside.
She noticed that he was holding one arm behind his back, so instead of
opening the door, she merely cracked the window a bit so she could ask
what he wanted. He told her that he wanted her to give him a ride into
town. He said that he had a friend with him who was hurt and needed
medical attention.
When my daughter told him that she couldn't give him a ride, he got
angry. He still kept his arm behind his back. He told her to open the
door. And when she refused, he told her that he knew that she was home
alone. She replied that she wasn't alone, that her dad was on the ranch
and would be back at any minute. Apparently he believed her,
fortunately, and left.
When the Sheriff's Department arrived about 30 minutes later, they
did a search on the premises and they found a large butcher knife
missing from the butcher block in our guest house. The man's attitude
and words were confrontational, and I truly believe that he meant her
harm but was convinced that she really wasn't home alone.
The current administration has claimed that the border is secure. If
all of us here gathered up all of the trash, included the hypodermic
needles, the toilet paper, the dirty diapers, the countless other items
detrimental to our health, and took it here to Washington, D.C., and
put it on their front yard at the White House, perhaps then the
President would conclude that the border is indeed not secure.
My husband and I have talked at length with friends, with neighbors,
law enforcement, Border Patrol, Congressmen and Senators over the years
about this problem.
Rob Krentz, Peggy writes, was a personal friend of mine. He was a
kind and compassionate man, as evidenced by his final act as a citizen
of our country. He stopped to help someone who he thought was in need,
and he got repaid for his kindness by losing his life. Please don't
allow his life to be lost in
[[Page H3821]]
vain, but help us convince the government that we must solve the
immigration problem with swift and firm action. I do admit that many of
these people are desperate, but so are we.
{time} 2250
When you mix desperation and fear on both sides, you create a
volatile situation where violence endures.
Mr. Speaker, these are stories from the people that I represent who
feel that their government, frankly, has abandoned them. They're angry
and they're frustrated. I'm angry; I'm frustrated. We need action, and
we need it now.
We can spend billions of dollars on conflicts in other countries,
billions of dollars to secure other borders across the world to protect
other citizens from other countries in places and far-off lands. But if
this Congress is truly the people's House, then we must listen to the
people. And they are asking for our attention, and they are calling out
for help.
Mr. Speaker, I show you a sign here. It's a photograph of the Forest
Service. It's a warning sign that cautions the citizens of southern
Arizona. It's an official sign to warn hikers of the dangers of the
smugglers on public land.
When I think about citizens that have to see signs like this on their
property, of being warned about the possibility of the violence, of the
destruction, of the threats--it says: ``Caution, smuggling activity is
common in this area because of the proximity to the international
border. Be aware of your surroundings at all times.'' And then there's
information in case of emergency.
I would suggest that the Federal Government puts up these signs and
the Federal Government should actually do something about the problem.
And so I ask my colleagues to join with me for once and for all to take
the necessary steps that we need to take.
I applaud the administration today for taking action. The deployment
of the National Guard to our U.S.-Mexico border is a first start. The
$500 million in supplemental funding to the U.S.-Mexico border will be
greatly welcomed.
But we have no greater responsibility than to carry out the duty of
protecting our citizens. Hence, Mr. Speaker, I believe that we should
do more. This duty is embedded in the oath that each one of us took
when we were sworn into this great institution.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, again, I'd like to reference Rob Krentz; his
brother, Phil Krentz; the Krentz family--my constituents, southern
Arizonans, U.S. citizens. Rob Krentz is no longer with us for doing
nothing more than being on his own land.
The Federal Government has to take responsibility for the safety and
security of its citizens, first and foremost. This is a great
institution. The United States Congress can achieve great things. It is
important that we focus our national security efforts, first and
foremost, on homeland security, and that means border security and not
allowing a situation like the tragic murder of Rob Krentz to ever occur
again, to not allow the continued stories that we hear of the
destruction along the U.S.-Mexico border, to not allow that to
continue.
____________________