[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 23 (Wednesday, February 11, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H976-H979]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BORDER SECURITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2015, the Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. 
McSally) for 30 minutes.


                             General Leave

  Ms. McSALLY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Arizona?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. McSALLY. Mr. Speaker, I come before this body today, again, to 
talk about the very important issue of border security.
  My district is Arizona's Second Congressional District. I represent 
about 85 miles of the southern border. We have border residents and 
ranchers who every day are dealing with transnational criminal 
organizations that are trafficking drugs and people and weapons and 
money through their property, putting their lives at risk, often having 
them have to make difficult decisions, potentially life-and-death 
decisions.
  As we stand today, this administration has done nothing to secure our 
border. This is a national security threat. It is a public safety 
threat. The people of southern Arizona need to be heard, and that is 
why I am organizing some time to address this issue.
  I appreciate one of my colleagues, the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Valadao), joining this conversation. This is a serious issue. We do 
have a bill, Secure Our Borders First Act. I am a cosponsor of the 
bill, and I believe it is an important bill that should unite this body 
to move forward and address this issue. I don't want to play politics 
with it.
  I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao).
  Mr. VALADAO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative McSally. I had an 
opportunity to go to your home State a couple of weeks ago and spend 
some time with you on the border. I have spent quite a bit of time here 
in Washington over the last 2 years talking about immigration reform. I 
do believe that we have to fix the problem. We have to address the 
situation we have with immigration in general. But something that I 
learned a lot about on that trip which I knew before, until I really 
got to experience and see for myself, I didn't realize how bad the 
situation on the border was and what our border agents face on a day-
to-day basis, with people coming in with tools that I happened to use 
in my shop when I am building stuff, saws and torches and different 
types of equipment, just to get through the fence. When you see the 
situation we have got with the types of drugs and the types of people 
crossing the border on a daily basis, it is truly a situation that has 
to be resolved and looked at in a totally different way.
  Chairman McCaul came up with a piece of legislation to address this, 
going along the whole border in a piece-by-piece manner. It looks at 
each part of the border and how it needs to be addressed. From that 
tour and the time I spent on the border, I got to see how important it 
was; from the California portion in San Diego and how people are 
getting across the border and the type of tunnels they are digging to 
the type of aircraft that people are flying, the drones that you can 
buy for a couple thousand bucks online; and even down to your part of 
the border where we got to see people cutting through the fence and 
actually making ramps and driving over barriers that weren't able to be 
cut; down to Texas to the Rio Grande when we traveled the river and saw 
what the situation was there, where people can hide and how narrow that 
area is.
  The bill that was introduced helps secure the border because it looks 
at each portion of the border separately and individually and addresses 
it as a problem in itself. It puts technology in those places where it 
can truly make a difference. That border with this legislation can 
actually be secured--as much as we possibly can. Then we can move on 
with the rest of what has to be done. Obviously, fixing our guest 
worker programs and fixing our visa programs and the type of legal 
immigration that we welcome in this country because this country was 
built on immigrants. But we want to make sure that we secure the border 
first.
  I am thrilled to be here and spend some time with you this evening 
talking about such an important issue. I appreciate the invitation.
  Ms. McSALLY. Congressman Valadao, I appreciate you coming to visit my 
district. Twenty-one Members of this body came to southern Arizona to 
see what these border residents and ranchers are dealing with on a 
daily basis, to include our chairman, Chairman McCaul. I really 
appreciated your willingness to come see firsthand and listen to the 
ranchers and border residents.
  We have men and women in uniform in our communities that are doing 
the best they can. But the strategy that they have been given in our 
sector is just not working, and they need some better tools and they 
need a better strategy so that we can use intelligence-driven 
operations, we can use technology where it works, we can have barriers 
where they work. Ideally, we need to be detecting the illegal activity 
of the cartels well south so that we are able to then monitor and 
either deter the breaches or intercept them as soon as possible when 
they come over the border.
  Some of the additions that I added into the bill were to create a 
rapid reaction force so that they quickly intercept, and directing the 
Border Patrol to be patrolling at the border to the maximum extent 
possible. Right now there is a multilayered approach in these rural 
areas. It is called a Defense in Depth strategy. It relies on taking 
sometimes, what they say, hours to days to intercept illegal activity. 
The problem with that is, during those hours to days, these cartels are 
transiting over private property.
  Whereas in the past, sometimes, these ranchers, look, they have 
always had a humanitarian heart. If they saw individuals who were 
coming over illegally to find work, if they needed water, they would 
help them and then they would call border security. But now they don't 
know who they are. As the numbers have gone down, the cartel activity, 
the drug mules, the potential violence, the violent history of the 
individuals who are apprehended have gone up. So they don't know who it 
is that is crossing their property right now.

  Rancher Rob Krentz, in 2010, went out to help someone, and that is 
the last we have heard of him. He was murdered on his own property. 
They still don't know who did that as he was out there responding.
  We have stories of individuals in my district. You have heard some of 
them. We hear more every single day where, generally speaking, they are 
on alert. They usually don't go out of their homes unless they are 
armed, and they often don't go out unless it is in daylight hours. So 
it is impacting their lives and their livelihood, and they are 
constantly dealing with cut fences and loose cattle or killed cattle 
and all of the implications that come with these cartels that are 
trafficking across their property and around their homes, like break-
ins and other things that come with that.
  So I really appreciate your willingness to come down and see that 
firsthand.

[[Page H977]]

  For those who are listening and watching, I want to make sure they 
know: Call your Congressman. This is a good bill. We have to get this 
thing passed. If we can't unite this body around securing our border, 
what can we unite around? This is something that we need to get done. 
It is what we have been asked to do. On our side of the aisle, as 
Republicans, we always hear our colleagues say to secure the border 
first. Well, this is an opportunity to do that. I stand today to 
support that bill again.
  I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis) to join the 
conversation.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank one of my 
newest colleagues, Congresswoman Martha McSally, who has shown true 
leadership on this issue because it is personal. It is your district. 
Just like many issues that we face in the Midwest are issues that you 
and I will talk about but you don't have to experience, but these are 
issues that you see and we hear about. You see many cases where the 
border is not secure, where drug cartels are coming through private 
property. We in Illinois cannot imagine someone walking through our 
backyard hauling drugs and criminals. These are things that we don't 
experience, but we have to experience as Members of this institution 
because every vote we take impacts every single citizen in this great 
country.
  I just am proud that you are willing to stand up and talk about the 
issues that matter most to this debate, and that is how we secure our 
borders, because once we do, we can fix our broken immigration system. 
We can fix the process that we already have, called the naturalization 
process, and ensure that we have a system that is going to work.
  My fear, though, is that many in this debate, they don't want to see 
this problem fixed because they want to use it as a political hammer.
  I will tell a personal story very quickly. I can remember doing one 
of my public meetings and having an organization come in and talk to me 
about their view of how we make our border more secure. As I was going 
to another public meeting, this organization decided to send members to 
my house and send the same message to my then 12-year-old son. Bullying 
tactics like that are not conducive to solving problems, not just in 
this institution but in this great country.
  That is why I am so proud to be able to stand here with both of you 
today and talk about the issues that are important, and the fact that 
we are willing to talk about it and find solutions and begin our 
address towards making those solutions real is the reason why we came 
to this institution.

                              {time}  1945

  Thank you for your leadership, both of you, on many issues, 
especially this one. I hope, some day, I can follow in the footsteps of 
my colleague from California and visit your district and see the same 
things he did.
  Ms. McSALLY. Well, you can come down any time. The door is open. We 
are ready to show anyone, really, from this body, so that they can see 
firsthand what we are dealing with.
  I want to thank the gentleman from Illinois for his comments and his 
encouragement and his support to this bill in this initiative. We have 
got to find like-minded individuals to move this forward because that 
is what the American people are asking us to do.
  When we were hosting the CODEL down at the Ladd ranch, Jack Ladd and 
John Ladd, just amazing and wonderful Americans and hardworking people 
who gave us their perspective, along with many other ranchers. If you 
remember, one of the ranchers said: Look, these mules are just 
trafficking through our neighborhoods, but they are going to yours.
  Once they hit the highway and they are able to get around, they are 
moving on to Phoenix, they are moving over to California, they are 
moving up to Illinois. They are bringing their drugs to all over the 
United States. There is cartel presence in many of these States. This 
is a very sophisticated criminal organization. Even though it starts in 
my district, it is impacting everyone in the country, related to their 
presence in everybody's district.
  This is the time. We have been talking about border security for a 
very long time, and there have been efforts. With putting up some of 
the additional barriers, we have seen the efforts and how that has 
delayed activity, for sure. We have seen how the San Diego sector has 
really done a fantastic job in order to go from what was literally just 
an open border to having much better control.
  But this is a sophisticated organization, these cartels, and they 
adjust. What do they do? They adjusted into my sector. Even as we put 
up some barriers, it basically funneled them into these rural areas, so 
that these criminals were trafficking through the ranchers' 
neighborhoods and border residences.
  Again, we were the highest sector since 1998 until last year, as far 
as the number of apprehensions, but as we said on the trip, we don't 
know what the denominator is.
  If all we are doing is measuring the numerator of how many 
individuals we have caught or apprehended, but the Border Patrol does 
not have situational awareness to be able to see all activity and then 
intercept the activity, we don't even know what those numbers are.
  We have got to have the political will now to address this very 
important issue, so that we can bring the promise home to the people 
who live in my community and then in the rest of the country.
  This is not hard. This is a good bill. In our sector, it provides 
additional resources, it provides additional technologies to increase 
the situational awareness. It holds Border Patrol and the senior 
appointees in Homeland Security accountable for securing the border, 
and it provides the resources and the capabilities that they need in 
order to gain situational awareness and operational control.
  I have heard many of our colleagues--and if you all want to join on 
this discussion--say, Just build a fence, just build a fence. Look, we 
have built some fences in southern Arizona, and those fences and those 
vehicle barriers and the pedestrian fences, they are delaying activity, 
for sure.
  What we have seen is these sophisticated cartels have got scouts on 
hilltops, they have got good communication devices, they have got 
incredible equipment, and they are across those fences. They either go 
over it, through it, or under it; and they do it in very fast time.
  A barrier is certainly one element of a strategy in order to slow 
down the activity, but that is not the only answer. It is very costly, 
about $5 million a mile for some of this fencing, so where it is 
appropriate, it definitely needs to be put up.
  But if we don't actually have Border Patrol actively monitoring where 
the fence line is, using intelligence-driven operations, and then 
intercepting the activity, patrolling right at the border on the south 
of John Ladd's ranch, not on the north side, then we are still not 
going to be able to stop these breaches because they will happen.
  For those who don't understand that, I welcome them to come to 
Arizona and see that.
  I yield again to the gentleman from California (Mr. Valadao), my 
colleague.
  Mr. VALADAO. I appreciate the opportunity again.
  But, no, that is something we hear about a lot in the district. 
Everybody just says: Build a fence, follow the existing law.
  Most people don't know the technology out there. Like you said, they 
literally have scouts. They have got people every so often, every so 
many yards or 100 yards, whatever the distance, spotting where the 
Border Patrol agents are. They know everything about these Border 
Patrol agents.
  I heard a story that one of the people crossing the border actually 
had a booklet with all the names, addresses, and the tendencies of each 
and every Border Patrol agent.
  They knew if they chewed gum, if they chewed tobacco, if they read a 
book while they were sitting there. They knew how slow they drove from 
checkpoint to checkpoint. They knew everything about this person. They 
knew exactly how long they would have those openings to get across.
  They knew how to dig a tunnel. There was a tunnel they found that was 
90 feet underground, 700 yards long, and the only reason they found 
that wasn't

[[Page H978]]

because of technology--because they don't have the technology to find 
that--it was because they found an informant that opened their mouth 
and told them where it was at, and they were able to stop that.
  It is amazing how much is out there and what these people are doing, 
and anyone that believes just building a fence is going to work--they 
are going to go under it, they are going to buy those drones to go over 
it.
  I heard stories of cannons that are literally firing bales of drugs 
over the top. There are so many opportunities out there. For anybody to 
believe that just enforcing the law the way it is written today, it 
will never work--it just won't--because the technology is out there.
  If you ask any police officer on the street or any parent out there, 
you can't do everything the same you did 50 years ago because your 
children have way better technology to do stuff, our prisoners in our 
prison system have much more opportunity, and now, these folks have 
unbelievable amounts of technology out there to get across or to bring 
their drugs across.
  Like you mentioned earlier, the problem has changed. What the folks 
in your district had mentioned to me was 20 years ago, 15 years ago, it 
was a large number of people--it was families, it was those that we see 
typically working on farms--who are out here just looking for an 
opportunity.
  The folks coming across today are dangerous. They are cartels. They 
are trying to bring drugs. They are bringing problems into this 
country. A lot of times--like one of your constituents--someone's life 
was taken. It is a truly sad situation.

  But it has to be addressed in a way that actually solves our 
problems. We don't just take votes here because of sending out a press 
release. We solve problems. Legislation that we introduce and that we 
pass and that we vote on has to solve problems for the American people. 
That is what we are responsible to do, and that is what I want to do.
  So again, I thank you for the opportunity.
  Ms. McSALLY. Thank you. Again, I appreciate the gentleman from 
California. Thank you so much for your perspectives.
  I agree. If anyone thinks, if anyone in this body thinks, let's just 
build a fence, I would invite you to please come to southern Arizona 
and see the doggy doors that are cut--even in California, the doggy 
doors, as they call them--that get cut out in less than 60 seconds and 
where individuals are still coming through.
  So those barriers are helpful, but they are a speed bump. We are 
dealing with sophisticated organizations that are much more nimble than 
we are. When we come up with a different strategy, they are able to 
react much more quickly.
  But we have got men and women in Border Patrol right now that if they 
are able to detect any sort of activity, they just start tracking them 
sometimes by themselves, they are out there tracking them, without any 
situational awareness as to what they are tracking, who they are 
tracking, what do they have on them, are they armed, are they not 
armed, what is their intent.
  Some of the other things in this bill actually help provide them with 
the situational awareness that they need. Some of it is bringing 
technologies back that we have used overseas so that we can just have 
motion sensing and know what is moving and what is not moving so we 
don't have to bother lining agents up on the border, but we can respond 
and react with intelligence.
  Mr. Davis, would you like to join us again and provide some more 
comments? I yield to you.
  Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Absolutely. And it relates to the fact 
that sometimes the policies that are put in place through 
administrative rules or by this body hinder our ability to achieve the 
goals that Americans want us to achieve.
  We could build fencing, but you know there are many times people will 
find a way around that fence. And that doesn't mean let's not do it, 
but what it means is let's also enact policies that will not hinder our 
Border Patrol agents from actually doing their job.
  One of my colleagues from Illinois flies National Guard duty over the 
southern border and talks about how different groups will overwhelm a 
single Border Patrol agent. And understand that a majority of those who 
are trying to cross into America will get in. Some won't, but a 
majority will. And it is worth the risk to many.
  Frankly, if we weren't living in this great country, we would 
probably want to be here too. This is a wonderful country that is the 
beacon of hope for so many throughout this globe.
  But we also have to take into consideration the impact that it has in 
this country. And we need to make sure that we put policies in place 
that allow our border to be secure by making sure our Border Patrol 
agents have the tools and the ability to address the problem that both 
of you have addressed so well this evening.
  So thank you again for being here. Thank you again for being willing 
to stand up, because it is not an easy issue to talk about. It is not 
an easy issue because it has become so politicized. But I commend you 
for that because we have to stand up and take courage. We have to take 
courageous stances, and we have to take courageous votes that may not 
make all of our constituents happy. But these are opportunities to 
lead, and that is exactly why we all came to Congress.
  Again, thank you to my colleague.
  Ms. McSALLY. Thank you, Mr. Davis, for your kind words and your 
support.
  I come from a very diverse district and a very split district. I won 
by 167 votes to get here. So we are a very diverse and split district.
  But I will tell you, this is a unifying issue, even in my district. 
When I look at the things that are going to unify us, it is making sure 
that we are safe and secure and have economic opportunity. Throughout 
my district, people agree we need to secure the border.
  Now, they also want to look for thoughtful solutions to modernize and 
revamp our legal immigration system so that those who want to come here 
to work and are going to contribute to our economy have a legal way to 
do that. We need to work on those challenges as well. As we talk about 
it in southern Arizona, we need a high fence and a wide gate, sort of 
metaphorically.
  What that means is, let's focus our border security on transnational 
criminal organizations and the public safety and national security 
threat, but we also need to make sure we have got good economic 
development and opportunities for individuals to come here legally, and 
also for commerce to be able to flow, which is a separate issue. They 
often get lumped in together and oftentimes these issues get hijacked 
by others who have other intentions that are trying to politicize it.
  But I think every American--Democrat, Independent, Republican--can 
agree that they want their families to be safe and secure from 
transnational criminal organizations. I can't find anyone who doesn't 
agree to that.
  So why is this not an issue that would unify this body? Why is this 
not an issue that we could work together on within our party and then 
across to the other side of the aisle to actually get the job done, to 
use commonsense solutions, to give the situational awareness, the tools 
they need, to hold Homeland Security accountable, to secure our border 
once and for all, direct a better strategy sector by sector, to provide 
that situational awareness and operational control?
  I strongly support this bill. I appreciate the leadership of Chairman 
McCaul, my colleagues who have joined me here tonight, and others who 
have gotten behind this bill. And I want to urge those who are watching 
and listening to please call your Congressman, tell him to support the 
Secure Our Borders First Act, and let's get this thing through the 
House, through the Senate, and signed by the President.
  This is not time to play politics with border security. The residents 
and the ranchers in my community cannot wait any longer in order to 
have that fear go away so that they can feel like they can sleep well 
at night and their livelihood is not at stake and their families are 
not at risk. We owe it to them to take action.
  Let's figure out how to unify, work through any sort of solutions 
that we need to in order to get to a commonsense agreement, and let's 
pass this bill.

[[Page H979]]

  Mr. Speaker, with that, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________