[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 115 (Tuesday, July 22, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H6648-H6650]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   THE CRISIS AT OUR SOUTHERN BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Byrne). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is 
recognized until 10 p.m.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank my friend from South 
Carolina. He understands what is at stake here. I would like to ask him 
a question if he has got time to answer one question, Mr. Speaker.
  I would like to ask my friend from South Carolina what it would mean 
to the people of South Carolina if we could get back to $2 a gallon 
gasoline or less.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. I thought the gentleman from Texas 
wanted to talk about energy because I have had the conversation with 
the gentleman from Texas. I understand it is a passion of his.
  Mr. GOHMERT. It is.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. But I know the issue you are going to 
talk about tonight, and that is on that southern border. I know that is 
on that gentleman's mind because that southern border is porous, and we 
have no idea, America, who is coming in our country. You are only 
seeing the 1 to 2 percent of the folks that have actually violated our 
national sovereignty by crossing our border illegally, and that is the 
children. But the other 98 percent of the people are not children, and 
they are not all Hispanics. Some are African and some are Middle 
Eastern.
  I just got a notice a little while ago from Randy Weber from Texas. 
He showed me on his phone. He was with the Border Patrol this weekend, 
and they caught someone from Asia who couldn't speak Spanish and 
couldn't speak American. What is he coming for? Is he coming because 
there is violence in Guatemala or Honduras? I don't think so. What is 
he coming to this country for?
  I want to thank the gentleman from Texas for his leadership on 
focusing on this border. Let's keep America secure. Let's secure our 
border. God bless Texas and Governor Rick Perry for putting the 
National Guard down there and taking matters into his own hands, 
because the guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has failed America and 
failed us in securing our border.
  So I want to thank the gentleman for his time, and I want to 
encourage him to keep pounding that rock because you crack a rock--a 
big rock--by hitting it in the same spot over and over and over. 
Eventually, it will crack. I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. GOHMERT. I thank my friend from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan), and 
I do appreciate the hour spent on talking about energy, because if you 
hit a big rock in the right way, you just might get oil or gas out of 
it, and it would bring the price down in no time.
  I do wish to talk about our southern border, but I was inspired by my 
friend, Mr. Duncan, and it brought back a history lesson from east 
Texas where I live.
  In 1930, a man named Dad Joiner--``Dad'' was not his given name. His 
parents didn't give it to him. But, anyway, that is what he went by, 
Dad Joiner. He just knew there had to be oil in east Texas. He tried 
and he tried and he tried. He ran out of money. He had no more money, 
and he had the men. He could drill one more well. He thought he knew 
geology. He thought he had figured out there had to be an east Texas 
oilfield, and since he knew he could only drill one more time, Dad 
Joiner set his sights on the one place there had to be oil because he 
knew if he didn't strike it there--he was broke--he probably would 
never have another chance to do anything and be broke rest of his life.
  This big old rig was on wooden skids, and they were dragging it 
toward the spot where he knew there had to be oil. The people in my 
district there in east Texas, they are praying people. They were 
praying people back in the 1920s and the 1930s. The Depression had just 
begun, and here you had Dad Joiner just sure there had to be oil.
  Well, one of the skids broke. He didn't have money to fix it. He knew 
he couldn't get to the perfect spot there had to be oil for his last 
attempt, so he didn't have any choice. He had to drill where the rig 
broke, where the skid broke, broke down, so he drilled there and he 
struck oil. He found the East Texas Oil Field that, until North Dakota 
and west Texas got so productive, for a while during World War I, it 
was the largest known oilfield in the world, and then the second 
largest for a long time after that. But it turned out if he had gotten 
to that spot he thought there was sure oil, he would have missed it, 
would have missed the big East Texas Oil Field. It would have been 
American tanks and vehicles running out of gasoline in Europe during 
the Battle of the Bulge instead of German. But we had gasoline, and we 
had the oil we needed because east Texas was producing.
  But if that skid hadn't broken where it did, none of that would have 
happened. And so as it turned out, all through the 1930s, when people 
were looking for jobs, many people were told, well, they found oil down 
in east Texas. There have got to be jobs there.
  People flooded down to east Texas, and they got jobs. They didn't go 
to the government. They didn't look for government to dictate what to 
do in their

[[Page H6649]]

lives. Many people went to east Texas, and they found jobs.
  The sad thing is there are areas all over the country that could be 
doing the same thing, including New York upstate where they have got 
some of the same gas formations in Pennsylvania where things are going 
much better than their areas of New York, because New York doesn't 
allow that drilling and, therefore, they have condemned people to 
suffer a desperate economy instead of allowing it to thrive and 
flourish.
  In the meantime, you look across our border at our neighbor Mexico. 
Mexico has tremendous natural resources. We import a good bit of their 
oil. Canada has oil. We import oil from there--not as much as we would 
if the XL pipeline had been constructed giving more people jobs, giving 
more in the world a chance to have North American oil, but the 
President stands in the way for political gain, it would appear, 
because what else is there? What else is he gaining from keeping people 
from having jobs and cheaper oil and gas?
  But in Mexico, we also know they have got hardworking people. We know 
because I am told constantly, if you want somebody that is really 
willing to work hard, long hours, do whatever it takes to finish the 
job, then you do well to hire a Hispanic. Generally speaking, some 
people say, oh, you are a Hispanophobe or whatever they say. I look at 
the Hispanic culture, generally one that loves God, is devoted to 
family, and has a hard work ethic. That is what America used to be. 
That is what America used to be. It is what I would love to see America 
doing again, back loving family and not saying that fathers are 
unneeded, unnecessary, and unwanted, not saying that the village is a 
better family than the foundational family of father, mother, and 
children that nature designed--and some of us believe nature is God.

  But there are, in Mexico, incredible natural resources. So why is 
Mexico not one of the top economies in the world? Or at least it could 
be top 10, if not top 5, because they have got hardworking people and 
they have natural resources. Well, the answer is pretty clear. It is 
because the law is not enforced fairly across the board. There is graft 
and corruption. Capital, as it is said--that is money that is being 
invested--capital is a coward. It goes to where it feels safest.
  There is money being invested in Mexico, but because of the drug 
cartels, because of graft and corruption, and because of the way people 
are seeing mistreatment even of police, capital is not flowing like it 
should to Mexico. The jobs are not in Mexico as they should be.
  Mexico ought to be one of those shining lights on a hill where people 
are struggling all over the world wanting to get in. Of course, if you 
try to get into Mexico illegally, unless, of course, you are coming to 
the United States, you certainly don't get treated very well. If you 
try to buy land in your own name as a foreigner in Mexico, you are not 
going to be treated very well. You have got to have someone from Mexico 
buying with you. There are a lot of things in Mexican law that, if we 
placed it in American law, many Mexicans would be just insanely furious 
because we dared to put in our laws what Mexico has in its laws.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I pose the question: Who is the better governmental 
neighbor? A government that forces lawful gun dealers to sell 2,000 or 
so guns--weapons--to people that they know will have them in criminal 
hands in no time in Mexico? Who is the better neighbor? One that is a 
government neighbor who throws a little money here and there but never 
really comes in and helps deal with the drug cartels that are a threat 
to its own existence as well as Mexico's?
  Mr. Speaker, I heard Bill O'Reilly just before I came over here 
tonight debating with an individual who was saying that we should let 
everyone in that wants to come, basically. As Bill O'Reilly properly 
pointed out, there are children all over the world--South America, 
Africa, Asia, islands all over the world--who are in poor conditions, 
even squalor, and would love to come to this country.
  We had a rally just out here on the west side last week by hundreds 
of North Koreans. They didn't come over here and say: We demand that 
you allow us to come into your country illegally because we have it so 
bad in North Korea. No. What they were saying is that America can bring 
great pressure to bear on an evil government in a place like North 
Korea. They are begging that, since there is not room in the United 
States for every child living in difficult circumstances to flood into 
America, they are asking an appropriate thing: put pressure on North 
Korea's Government so that we can help them make a more free North 
Korea. Help them by putting pressure.
  But if you look at the record of this administration around the 
world, what has happened? It broke my heart to see, in the last few 
days, Mosul there in Iraq, where so many Americans gave their lives 
fighting for the freedom of the Iraqi people, fighting for freedom in 
that area, now the last known Christian in Mosul after nearly 2,000 
years, going back nearly to the time of Jesus Himself, has had to 
leave.
  The country that we, Americans, freed at the price of great treasure 
and American lives and limbs because of the poor foreign policy 
handling, the bungling of this administration, the failure to reach a 
status of forces agreement which was basically teed up and handed to it 
by the last administration, was fumbled, and now, as a result of this 
administration's ineptness, Christians around the world are being 
persecuted in greater numbers than ever before.

                              {time}  2145

  It was once thought that it may be the U.S. legacy. Mr. Speaker, just 
down the hall, you have seen it many times, the massive mural, the 
painting of the famous prayer meeting that the Pilgrims had in Holland 
before they went to England, and then from England came to America. You 
see the word ``Speedwell'' on the ship where the prayer meeting is 
being held, an open Bible where you can see the page is open to the New 
Testament of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You can read that on 
the page. It is exactly as that particular type of Bible read, the same 
print, and they were having this prayer meeting, asking for God's 
guidance and God's deliverance. They went to England. The Speedwell 
began taking on water, and so it didn't get to make the trip to 
America. It was a much smaller ship, the Mayflower, that ended up 
bringing Pilgrims to America.
  But even back then they were praying that this country to which the 
Pilgrims were coming would be a country where Christians would have the 
freedom to worship without persecution, and that Christians in this new 
country to which the Pilgrims were coming would be able to spread 
freedom, the freedom that our Creator, as the Declaration of 
Independence says, the Divine Providence, as it says, that blessing 
that was given to us by God as an opportunity to spread freedom and 
with freedom the chance to freely acknowledge God or reject him, not at 
the point of a sword, not at the end of a gun, but either freely accept 
or reject the promises of Jesus, because in true Christianity, it 
reflects the freedom that God has given each one of us. It can't be 
forced on anyone. It is a free choice. But with free choice comes great 
responsibility, and that is why in George Washington's resignation that 
he sent to the 13 governors, the last part has a prayer, and the prayer 
ends with the words from Washington that he hopes that we will follow 
the example of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, without a 
humble imitation of in these things, we can never hope to be a happy 
Nation. He signs it ``the humble servant.'' What an extraordinary man.
  This country has been so richly blessed that a good neighbor would 
make sure that in Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, all through 
Central America, South America, we would help any nation to help 
themselves, that we would help them to have that freedom. That is what 
America used to be about, although there are some who would say America 
has always been about being divisive, derisive, dismissive. Look, 
America has been an exceptional country because of the freedom that 
people recognize came from the Divine Author of our blessed religion, 
that came from our Creator, that came from Divine Providence, which is 
why our Constitution itself was dated in the year of our Lord 1787.
  This country is at a crossroads, and it is not a pretty one. Yes, I 
have spent

[[Page H6650]]

a lot of time on our southern border in the last couple of months. I 
have seen these beautiful children that break your heart, and I wonder 
why this administration will not help us by helping our neighbor rather 
than just throwing our borders open. And then this administration has 
the nerve to say, well, you know, the numbers are down in recent weeks.
  Well, gee, do you think, Mr. Speaker, it might be because Texans have 
realized they are going to have to pick up the slack that this 
administration refuses to do? Our Border Patrol is overwhelmed in some 
ways. And yet we read an article here from Ryan Lovelace that says--and 
it is dated July 21, National Review Online--that:

       President Obama is encouraging Immigration and Customs 
     Enforcement officers to slack off on the job, former border 
     cops tell National Review Online. Some ICE officials think 
     the Obama administration has intentionally neglected to give 
     them orders to support efforts to resolve the crisis on 
     America's southwestern border, says Ronald Colburn, former 
     national deputy chief of the U.S. Border Patrol. As a result, 
     the wave of unaccompanied children from Central America is 
     unfolding while ICE officials cool their heels.
       ``They are sitting still at their desks--reading 
     newspapers, playing video games on their government 
     computers--because they are not being tasked with work, and 
     they feel like it is coming all of the way down from the 
     top,'' Colburn tells NRO. ``These are guys that do want to go 
     out more, but basically they are not.

  Well, I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, down on the border, they needed 
help. They still need help. The Border Patrol a few weeks ago, driving 
on those dirt roads, as I was honored to take Glenn Beck down in the 
dark with some of his staff, people from Mercury One, as I told his 
staff: Unless you let me take him in the dark down these roads, you 
never really understand what is going on.
  One night some of us for an hour and a half we didn't run into Border 
Patrol, and we finally found out why. The drug cartels were told, the 
drug lords control different parts of the borders, and you don't cross 
without making sure that they get paid, or they will seek you out in 
America. So you make sure that you do things in accordance with what 
you are told, and that means making sure that the drug cartels get 
their money. And it means, as a border patrolman told me this past 
weekend--as a Hispanic, he speaks good Spanish--he is constantly being 
told: Well, we left Central America to get away from gangs.
  And as he said: I tell them, You may tell that to some people and 
have them buy it, but you and I know that is not true. You and I know 
that it was the gangs that brought you up here. The gangs got paid to 
bring you to the United States, so don't tell me that you fled Central 
America to get away from gangs when the gangs brought you here. He said 
90 percent of the time the people acknowledge that is true, but say we 
were told to say when we got here that we were fleeing gang violence.
  Well, not everybody in this government is ignorant of what is 
happening. The fact is there was not a spike in violence before the 
huge spike of people coming to America, to the United States. There was 
not a huge spike in violence in Central America, but they came because 
the President began promising, you get to stay if you come. The 
government should leave charity to the people. And in this country, the 
people are the most charitable of any nation in the history of the 
world. The government doesn't do charity very well. Look at what is 
happening in our Veterans Administration hospitals. That is not 
charity. That is medical assistance that was earned. It is not even 
charity. This is what was promised to our military. We will provide you 
good medical help if you need it, if you serve in this manner. And this 
government can't even keep our promises to those who have earned good 
medical care.
  So how much worse do you think it gets if we are trying to keep 
promises that were not even actually made, just one administration 
thinking they can turn Texas blue and the country blue if they bring 
enough people in here, promise them that they are the party that likes 
to give away things, and as a result get them voting their direction 
until they realize that is the kind of philosophy that wrecks a 
country.
  It is time Americans woke up. There is so much suffering in this 
world in Central America and South America, and a good neighbor would 
help them stop the violence where it is, help stop the violence in 
Nigeria, radical Islam, help stop the violence of radical Islam around 
the world. This President was perfectly willing to blow up al-Awlaki, 
an American citizen, in Yemen. How was he an American citizen? Well, 
his parents came over on a visa and had him while he was here. That 
made him an American citizen. They took him back home, taught him to 
hate America, and even though both the Bush and Obama administration 
tried to work with him, he was still radicalizing people, so they blew 
him up. Wouldn't it be just as well to blow up people who have sworn 
they are going to destroy America? Wouldn't it be just as well to blow 
up the nuclear technology being developed in Iran by people who have 
promised in effect it will be the new gas chambers; instead of at 
Auschwitz they will be in Iran, and they will be delivered to a theater 
near you.

  Mr. Speaker, it is time for Americans to wake up. We must secure our 
borders. I never said I want them closed. They should be secure so 
people come legally.
  And all this stuff that we have to fix the Wilberforce bill or we 
can't secure our borders is baloney. This administration can secure our 
border without any change in the Wilberforce bill. They have to provide 
additional hearings, but they can do that. But, Mr. Speaker, I want to 
finish tonight by directing your attention to an estimate from a group 
I am not always pleased with, but this administration generally is very 
pleased with them, and that is the Congressional Budget Office. I don't 
put a lot of stock in their estimates. And especially their estimates 
of what things are going to cost over time, but when they tell you how 
much a bill allocates to be spent this year, that is something you can 
trust. And so with all the talk about how important it is, we have got 
to have the House and the Senate pass our bill, it is an emergency, we 
have got to get this bill passed, oh, Mr. Speaker, you have to do this 
to help fix our problem at our border.
  Well, you know why that is all lies? It is right here in the CBO 
study, the estimate. It tells you exactly what this administration is 
saying it needs to spend between now and September 30, the end of the 
fiscal year. It says the budget allocation that is already done, it has 
already been appropriated, was $1.83 billion, but what it wants 
additionally to be spent this year by the end of this fiscal year is 
not the 3.7, is not the $4.3 billion that it is asking for, this 
incredible emergency this administration is saying it has to have to 
get this big bill that will save our border, it is asking for $25 
million, with an m, for this year. That is it. And it doesn't go to the 
border--it goes to Health and Human Services.
  Mr. Speaker, it is clear that all of this is a ruse. They don't need 
this bill and the $25 million for Health and Human Services. They don't 
need all of the money that they are asking for in 2015, 2016, 2017 to 
go to groups that no doubt will be the new ACORNs of the future. They 
say we don't need anything other than $25 million, and we are not 
giving a dime of it to Homeland Security. They have all they need.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a ruse. This administration can secure the 
border without this ridiculous claim for money. And if the 
administration needs help, we will get it. But in the meantime, they 
need to secure the border.
  With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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