[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 58 (Wednesday, April 11, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H3101-H3102]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         PATROL THE RIO GRANDE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Poe) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, national security is border security. 
Recently, I visited my friend Congressman Cuellar's hometown of Laredo, 
Texas, on the Texas-Mexico border.
  Being from Texas, I have been to the border about 20 times since I 
have been elected to Congress. The border is actually the middle of the 
Rio Grande River, not the shoreline.
  I toured the river with our Border Patrol, Texas State law 
enforcement officers, and the National Guard. It is a long border. From 
El Paso to Brownsville, Texas, it is about 900 miles--a river border. 
Laredo is right in the southern border of Texas.
  Standing on the United States side of the border near Laredo, I 
looked across straight into Mexico. A seemingly innocent stark-white 
water plant peeked out over the thick brush. Looking closer, a figure 
appeared, having a radio and binoculars in his hand. Why? He was 
waiting for the Border Patrol to pass; ready to send a ``go'' signal to 
another group of illegals waiting to rush across the Rio Grande River.
  The drug cartels, Mr. Speaker, control border crossings, whether they 
are smuggling drugs, people, or criminals. The cartels have an advanced 
system in place, a sophisticated criminal network. They have scouts on 
both sides of the border with cell phones and surveillance equipment. 
They have stash houses on both sides of the border where they hide 
drugs and people so they can move them closer inland to America.
  Everyone pays to cross. In the Laredo sector, the violent Los Zetas 
cartel is in control. No one crosses into the United States without 
their permission. The cartels, the Zetas, for example, hide in the 
bushes, ready to stop anyone who tries to cross without their 
permission and without paying the money. How much it costs depends on 
where the person is from. But everyone pays, whether a person is from 
Central America, China, or Mexico.
  Make no mistake about it: the cartels are the ones that make money 
off of illegals crossing into the United States.
  President Trump has authorized State Governors to use the National 
Guard to help secure and protect the borders. Our Border Patrol agents 
do the best they can to apprehend illegal crossers, but they are 
outmanned, outgunned, and outfinanced. Technology helps, but there is 
far too little of it.
  The cameras operating in the Laredo sector are from the 1990s. A cell 
phone camera is better than the cameras that they have. We need to have 
high-tech cameras along the entire border. Cameras help spot illegals 
as they slip over the river and through the tangled brush on both sides 
of the river.
  The National Guard will take over monitoring these cameras, 
monitoring

[[Page H3102]]

sensor activations, conducting surveillance on skyboxes or other 
observation posts, and operating vehicles. This will free up law 
enforcement resources to patrol the border and make arrests.
  We must have a mix of both physical and virtual barriers on the 
Texas-Mexico border. For example, Laredo needs about 30 more camera 
towers to actually secure the border. Border Patrol needs to see the 
illegals and adjust manpower needed for the threat.
  The United States needs to prevent people from crossing into the 
United States in the first place by having boats in the Rio Grande 
River. Remember, the center of the river is the international border, 
not the shoreline in the United States. Once a person crosses and they 
are on the shore, they are in the United States. They are not on the 
border. Boats from Customs and Border Patrol, the State of Texas, and 
the Coast Guard should patrol the border.
  I have traveled the Rio Grande River with Texas law enforcement, and 
where there is a boat present, illegals do not cross. Our longtime 
policy was to let people cross into the United States, then apprehend 
as many as we could and send a few back to their native country. That 
philosophy needs to change by keeping illegals, drugs, and gangs from 
crossing in the first place.
  Patrol the river.
  Also, we must use more aerostats. Those are small blimps that have 
cameras that look 20 miles in each direction. We must further use the 
new high-tech fiberoptic lines that run under the shoreline that detect 
any movement crossing that line, whether it is human, whether it is an 
animal, whether it is an airplane, whether it is a tunnel beneath or 
even a bullet.
  Our Border Patrol agents are on the front lines and the number of 
agents is dwindling. There are more officers in the city of New York 
than there are in the entire Border Patrol. There is no doubt the 
National Guard deployment will be a welcome relief for our Border 
Patrol agents.
  The greatest country on Earth, Mr. Speaker, must have the moral will 
to stop illegal entry into the United States. We must address America's 
border security because it is a national security issue. Secure America 
first.
  And that is just the way it is.

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