[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 168 (Friday, December 17, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H8770-H8771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        MEXICAN-AMERICAN 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, last Tuesday, north of the 
Mexican-American border, a number of our Border Patrol agents were 
trying to stop some bandits, Mexican bandits who were stealing and 
killing people who were coming across the border illegally. One of the 
people that was involved in this and was shot was a fellow named Manuel 
Arianes, AKA Manuel Arellanes Osorio. He is a Mexican in the United 
States illegally. He was convicted in 2006 for aggravated assault. He 
had been deported to Mexico twice, and he was in the United States with 
his colleagues committing more crimes. And a Border Patrol agent, Mr. 
Brian A. Terry, was shot to death on the border in that area last 
Tuesday night.
  Now, the reason I bring this up--and my good friend, Mr. Poe of 
Texas, who will be talking about this and probably some other things 
related to it later--we wrote a letter, Mr. Poe, myself, and Ed Royce 
of California, Ralph Hall of Texas, and Pete Olson. All of us wrote a 
letter to the President of the United States, and this was in October. 
We said, Mr. President, you know, we sent 17,000 National Guard people 
to the Gulf during the Gulf oil spill because it was a threat to the 
environment and to the people's livelihoods who live down in that area. 
And yet the Mexican-American border is 1,980 miles long, and when the 
President decided to help augment our Border Patrol agents, he sent, I 
think, 1,300 or 1,400 National Guardsmen down, went down there and only 
for a short period of time, and they were not right on the border.
  We have a war going on on the Mexican-American border. Today, we 
talked about the spending bills. We talked about taxes. We talked about 
tax extenders. And all of those things are extremely important, but we 
have a war going on on the Mexican-American border with drug dealers 
and thieves and terrorists coming in from Mexico. And now we understand 
that we're training, down in Central America, some of the local law 
enforcement and military with our military people to stop them from 
moving into places like Costa Rica. We are talking about the drug 
dealers.
  We have a major problem in our hemisphere that threatens the 
stability of the entire southern part of the United States--Texas, New 
Mexico, Arizona. And as we know, the Arizona Governor has tried to do 
everything she can to deal with the problem, and nothing is happening. 
In fact, the President of the United States and the Justice Department 
have been fighting her. It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
  We need to get on with doing what we promised to do, and that is 
build that border fence and put enough border agents down there and 
National Guardsmen to deal with the problem and, if necessary, to work 
with the President of Mexico to put military personnel on both sides of 
the border to stop these terrorists, drug dealers, and the people that 
are disrupting what is going on here in the United States.
  And you say, Well, that's the border. That doesn't deal with us.
  There are signs in Arizona 80 miles north of the border, 80 miles 
into the United States that say to American citizens, Don't go south of 
here because it's not safe. We have got ranchers and farmers that have 
been beaten up and killed in the United States by these drug dealers 
and these terrorists that are coming across the border.
  So we wrote to the President on October 26, Mr. Poe and I and my 
other colleagues, and we followed up with another letter on November 4. 
And you know what we have heard from the President? Not a darn thing. 
Nothing. And it's been, what, a month and a half, 2 months.
  The President is ignoring this problem and people are dying, and the 
security of the southern part of the United States--in fact, the entire 
United States is at risk.
  So if I were talking tonight--and I know, Madam Speaker, I can't talk 
to the President because we are not allowed to talk to people outside 
the Chamber. But if I were talking to the President, I would say, Mr. 
President, answer our letters. Pay attention to what's going on, and 
secure that border. Go talk to the President of Mexico and the others 
in Central and South America and make sure we stop these drug cartel 
terrorists from disrupting the United States and threatening the 
security of our border. This is a war, Mr. President. Get on with it.


[[Page H8771]]




                                Congress of the United States,

                                 Washington, DC, October 26, 2010.
     Hon. Barack Obama,
     President of the United States of America, The White House, 
         Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. President: We are writing to you today to express 
     our extreme concern regarding the deteriorating security 
     situation along our Nation's southern border. It seems that 
     every day brings a new report of some atrocity; the most 
     recent being the apparent murder of a U.S. citizen at Falcon 
     Lake, Texas; yet little if anything appears to be being done 
     by our government or the Mexican government to stop the 
     bloodshed and bring the perpetrators to justice.
       Protecting our borders and our citizens is a paramount 
     responsibility of the Federal government; enshrined in the 
     preamble of the Constitution. It would be an unforgivable 
     breach of our constitutional responsibilities if we do not 
     take stronger measures not only to prevent the upward spiral 
     of violence from further spilling over into the United States 
     and threaten the safety of U.S. citizens on American soil but 
     to reclaim those areas of our border already overrun by 
     smugglers and criminals. We can no longer pretend that this 
     is simply Mexico's problem. The time has come to recognize 
     that the drug violence along the border is a direct threat to 
     the United States and act accordingly.
       First, it has become apparent that the Mexican government 
     and law enforcement authorities are either unwilling or 
     unable to address this problem unilaterally. Therefore, we 
     believe it is imperative that you immediately begin serious 
     dialogue with President Calderon on building a comprehensive 
     framework, in the spirit of Plan Colombia, that will better 
     coordinate a more aggressive and proactive strategy to turn 
     the tide of this conflict.
       Second, we must complete construction of the border fence. 
     Any responsibility we have to minimize the impact of the 
     fence on the physical landscape or native species in the 
     region pales in comparison when measured against the value of 
     human lives that will be lost if we do not seal the border.
       Finally, we believe it is critical that we deploy 
     additional National Guard troops to the border. Media reports 
     indicate that 17,000 National Guard troops were deployed to 
     the Gulf region to respond to the recent oil spill. Yet, you 
     have only pledged 1,200 National Guard troops to protect the 
     border--and according to media reports only a small fraction 
     of those troops have arrived to date. It is unrealistic, if 
     not pure insanity, to believe that a mere 1,200 National 
     Guard troops, even with the support of the Border Patrol, can 
     effectively cover the nearly 2,000 mile long Southwestern 
     border of the United States. We must put additional bodies on 
     the ground and we must give them the weapons and specify 
     rules of engagement that give them the authority to do 
     whatever is necessary to secure the border. A National Guard 
     trooper armed with only a pistol and given no authority to 
     engage the enemy is useless against a criminal armed with 
     military grade weapons and ammunition.
       Mr. President, we implore you to view this situation for 
     what it is, a war and to act accordingly.
           Sincerely,
     Dan Burton,
     Ralph M. Hall,
     Edward R. Royce,
     Ted Poe,
     Pete Olson.
                                  ____

                                    Congress of the United States,


                                     House of Representatives,

                                 Washington, DC, November 4, 2010.
     Hon. Barack Obama,
     President of the United States of America, The White House, 
         Washington, DC.
       Dear Mr. President: On October 26th I and four of my 
     colleagues, sent you a letter expressing our extreme concerns 
     regarding the deteriorating security situation along our 
     Nation's southern border. Since that time five more Americans 
     have been killed along the border region. Protecting our 
     borders and our citizens is a paramount responsibility of the 
     Federal government; enshrined in the preamble of the 
     Constitution. I strongly urge you to consider the proposals 
     laid out in my letter from October 26th. Americans are dying; 
     it is time to recognize that the drug violence along the 
     border is a direct threat to the United States and act 
     accordingly.
       Thank you for giving your personal time and attention to 
     this critically important issue.
           Sincerely,
     Dan Burton.

                          ____________________