[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 26 (Thursday, February 17, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H1074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        HOMELAND SECURITY: ``THE BORDER IS SECURE'' NOT SO FAST

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, according to the Secretary of Homeland 
Security, our southern border is secure.
  Well, not so fast with that pronouncement.
  According to the General Accounting Office--those are the people that 
we pay to actually give us the true facts on such matters--half of the 
southern border is not under the operational control of the Border 
Patrol. Forty-four percent is secure; the rest is not. So who operates 
the other 56 percent? And, further, a mere 15 percent of the border is 
considered airtight.
  Texas is the least secure border of all the Southern States. Our 
Border Patrol does a fine job but they need some help. The border 
sheriffs are superior lawmen, but they are overwhelmed with cross-
border crime. With 37 percent of the people in Texas border jails being 
foreign nationals, those sheriffs, like the Border Patrol, are out-
manned, out-gunned, and out-financed.
  There is a border war going on, and it's time to send the National 
Guard to the southern border to protect the homeland.
  Homeland Security should deal in reality, not myth and propaganda, 
and realize that over half of the border is the wide open spaces and 
that it remains porous to the drug bandits.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________