[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 24 (Thursday, February 7, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H1432-H1438]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BORDER SECURITY
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Johnson of Georgia). Under the Speaker's
announced policy of January 3, 2019, the gentleman from North Carolina
(Mr. Walker) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the
minority leader.
General Leave
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
introduce extraneous material into the Record on the topic of this
Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from North Carolina?
There was no objection.
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, there has been a great deal of talk in the
last few months on border security, what it takes to secure our border
and what it takes to protect the safety and the security of the
American people.
Today, we are taking a few minutes with different Members to share
very powerful but very impactful stories from their districts. This is
not hyperbole or set up for histrionics, but sometimes the message of
actually what is going on in our country doesn't always cut through
with our media outlets.
So today, the different Members, many of them have special
relationships with these folks they will be referencing and talking
about today in this Special Order.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pence), our
first speaker, who represents Indiana's Sixth District and serves on
the Transportation and Infrastructure and Foreign Affairs Committees.
But even more impressive to me is that Mr. Greg Pence is a veteran of
our Marine Corps, and he is a successful businessman.
Mr. PENCE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge this body to act on the
national crisis that currently exists along our southern border.
This crisis plays itself out not only in the border towns of
California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, but in communities across
the Nation, including my very own, Indiana's Sixth District. The
statistics speak for themselves:
In my home of Bartholomew County, the sheriff's office booked 34
individuals with an immigration detainer 2
[[Page H1433]]
years ago. Last year, that number jumped to 132.
Hoosiers also feel the effects of the border crisis in the form of an
opioid crisis that now kills more Americans than car accidents, gun
violence, or breast cancer. This crisis is tearing families apart. The
Department of Corrections says one in three Hoosiers residing in State
prisons are battling addiction to opioids.
In the last year, Customs and Border officials have reported dramatic
increases in meth, heroin, and fentanyl along our southern border.
These are some of the very drugs that claimed the lives of more than
1,800 Hoosiers in 2017.
President Trump is right. We must create an immigration system that
is safe, lawful, modern, and secure. It is not just the border States
feeling the effects of illegal immigration; it is communities like ours
in the Sixth District of Indiana that are being ravaged by the massive
scourge of drugs coming across the southern border.
We must end this crisis. Mr. Speaker, it is time to secure the
southern border and build the wall.
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate Mr. Pence's words today and the
powerful expression of how it is impacting the State of Indiana.
One of our new Members, a very accomplished gentleman himself, an
aerospace engineer representing the First District of Oklahoma, has
also worked within the McDonald's system and owns multiple restaurants
throughout the different portions of Oklahoma and is actually on the
national leadership team.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Kevin Hern),
to share a little bit about his State of Oklahoma.
Mr. KEVIN HERN of Oklahoma. Mr. Speaker, my constituents have been
calling the office in overwhelming numbers. They tell me to stand with
our President to get the funding our Customs and Border agents have
asked for.
I got a call from a police recruit in Tulsa just this week who has
seen firsthand the impact that illegal immigration has on the safety of
our citizens. It places a huge burden on our law enforcement agents who
are already putting themselves in harm's way for our safety every day.
With unregulated borders, we open our country up to the tragedy of
human trafficking. Undocumented women and children are especially
vulnerable to traffickers. Ninety percent of the heroin in our country
comes illegally from Mexico.
With dangerous drugs like cocaine, methamphetamines, and heroine come
gun activity, violent crime, and the serious problem of addiction.
In December, Tulsa law enforcement officers found 2 pounds of heroin
and 16 pounds of methamphetamines in connection in the Sinaloa drug
cartel smuggled into the States from Mexico. These dangerous and
illegal drugs are finding their way into communities across the
country.
There is a fix for all of this: Build the wall.
A physical barrier--which I might add, most of my friends from the
other side of the aisle have historically supported--will stop illegal
entry in its tracks. There is no replacement for a physical barrier.
Last month, the President told the American people that we need a
wall, not because we hate the people on the outside, but because we
love the people on the inside.
{time} 1715
Mr. Speaker, I agree. How can we keep our people safe when we don't
know who is coming into this country? Let's start prioritizing the
American people and their safety.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to rise above partisanship for the
sake of our citizens. We can stop the human trafficking crisis. We can
catch the drug smugglers. We can keep our people safe. At the end of
the day, the only thing that will truly help us is to pass bipartisan
legislation to secure our borders and build a wall.
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Hern for coming, and I
appreciate his time.
Our next speaker today is Representative Brad Wenstrup. In some
circles, he is called Colonel Wenstrup. He is a great man and my
classmate. He has been awarded the Bronze Star, as well as the Combat
Action Badge, for his service.
In fact, it was on a baseball field a year and a half ago that that
Combat Action Badge showed itself off again when he was the only one
equipped to be able to put a tourniquet on Steve Scalise and save
his life.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup), my
fellow classmate from Ohio's Second District.
Mr. WENSTRUP. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Walker for yielding me the
time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to support the security and the safety of all our
fellow Americans. The fact of the matter is that border security isn't
or shouldn't be a partisan issue. That is why many of my colleagues
from across the aisle have actually supported border security and
fencing in the past.
The fact is, this is an American issue that affects every part of our
Nation, sometimes in very visible ways, sometimes in ways less visible.
I represent southern and southwestern Ohio, not a border State, but
it is deeply and tragically impacted by the lack of border security.
In the last couple years, there was a woman from my district area who
was being deported. The archbishop called the Senator on her behalf,
and he has every right to do that. This is someone who was being
deported under the Obama administration. They set a date. When the date
came, she didn't adhere, and she was deported.
The archbishop had every right to engage in that act, if he felt like
he should reach out to the Representative. But I met with the
archbishop and I asked him: Where were you in the case--such as I am
about to tell you about--where were you when someone was in need
because of the actions of someone who was here illegally?
Last year, I met a mother of a 15-year-old girl. The mother told me
about their neighbor, the neighbor that they trusted, that they had
picnics with. They told him: You have nothing to worry about. You are
here legally.
It turns out, he was a 41-year-old illegal immigrant who had
previously been deported from this country but reentered the U.S.
illegally and gained employment by using the Social Security number of
a 69-year-old woman from Arkansas.
One day, he knocked on their door, and since their daughter knew him,
she opened the door, and he went in and beat and raped her.
Her innocence was taken forever. Her life changed forever. He got 8
years. She got a life sentence, and it didn't need to happen.
Tragically, one of my local prosecutors tells me there have been
multiple cases like this in our area over the last few years. These are
the families I think about when someone calls a border wall immoral.
As President Trump said in his address, we don't build walls because
we hate the people on the outside. It is because we love the people on
the inside. But, really, we also love the people on the outside who
want to come here legally to be part of our American family.
This isn't about keeping people out of our country. This is about
controlling access, so we know who and what is coming into our country.
Sitting idly by and making no effort to resolve these problems is
wrong. It is a disservice to those who have suffered violence at the
hands of criminals who have entered our Nation illegally. These victims
are real, and so is their pain. We owe it to them to enforce our laws.
To my colleagues, I say: Come to the table. Let's negotiate a
solution, smartly enhance our security, and drive on for the betterment
of all Americans, so that, rather than being a borderless and lawless
country, America will be the beacon of hope for those who desire to
come to this great country of ours legally.
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments. It
is my belief that that kind of common sense will prevail with the
majority of the American people, knowing our job and continuing to work
to keep the safety and security of the American people as a high
priority.
Our next speaker tonight is a Member in his sophomore term but who
already has many accomplishments in the political arena.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Jodey
Arrington, who
[[Page H1434]]
served under President George W. Bush and as chief of staff to the FDIC
Chairman, representing Texas' 19th Congressional District.
Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North
Carolina, Representative Walker, for his service and his leadership,
not just to this body, but myself personally.
He is a spiritual leader and mentor for so many. We have a lot of
ways to measure success in life and in this job, but I can tell you,
one of them is to maintain a healthy relationship with our Lord and
savior, and I want to thank him publicly.
This is a serious issue, and it is one that we in Texas have a lot of
knowledge about and experience with, unfortunately, and that is border
security. It is also a humanitarian crisis.
Mr. Speaker, we are on the front lines, and we see the drugs, gangs,
and criminal activity pouring into the great State of Texas, not just
along the impact zone immediately across from the southern border, but
in communities in west Texas, in the 19th Congressional District, and
not just my population center, but in rural communities as well.
Here is a statistic that is pretty startling. Since 2011, 180,000
illegal immigrants were charged in the great State of Texas with
290,000 crimes.
I talked to local law enforcement officers, sheriffs, police chiefs,
and others in my communities over the last few weeks. They are telling
me that the volume of drugs coming into our communities is off the
charts and that the crime has increased exponentially--not just
property crime, but violent crime.
They are telling me that gangs, not just the shoestring gangs, as
they call them, but the very violent gangs and cartels, the Sinaloa
cartel and the Los Zetas cartel, are in my district in west Texas. They
are showing up in our backyards and our neighborhoods, and it is scary.
Here is the sad fact: This country has the resources and tools to do
something about it. Our President has asked for those resources and
tools. He has a comprehensive border security plan, and we have to have
political will. We have to be able to put our country first, especially
when it comes to the safety and security of our people.
Mr. Speaker, I have heard people say that drugs are coming through
only ports of entry. You can tell from this map, they are coming across
the border at various places.
Just a month ago, there was 700 pounds of cocaine caught at the
border, and we had our largest drug bust up in my district in a little
town called Denver City, about 22 kilos of cocaine. So we have to do
something about it.
Mr. Speaker, I beg of my colleagues to do the right thing and put
their country before politics. I thank the gentleman for yielding to
me.
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Arrington for coming,
and I appreciate his kind remarks, and sobering ones, at the same time.
We do have a problem at the border with drugs. We do have a problem
with violence of illegal aliens. That is why we continue to message
through this.
Just 2 nights ago, sitting right about there was my sister-in-law
whose brother was a United States Army veteran and a good friend of
mine who one day messed up his knee. He had surgery, and the next thing
you know, he was addicted to pain killers, opioids. Opioids led to
heroin, and then, unable to come off heroin, it led to him committing
suicide 3 years ago.
This is a real problem. If we were able to cut down only a small
percentage of the drugs, and if we were able to reduce only a small
percentage of the murders, the sexual assaults, and the human
trafficking, my question is: Would a border structure still not be
worth it?
To me, that is a very commonsense question. How much does it need to
be reduced before it is relevant to all of us?
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Guest),
our next speaker this afternoon who is a solid new Member, a former
district attorney from the State of Mississippi who is already serving
on the Foreign Affairs Committee and Homeland Security Committee.
MR. GUEST. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
As a former district attorney, I have seen firsthand how damaging
narcotics and synthetic drugs can be to individuals, families, and our
communities.
In 2017, drug overdoses killed 72,000 Americans, more than car
crashes and gun violence combined. The most dangerous of these drugs,
fentanyl, is 50 times more potent than heroin and accounted for almost
twice the number of fatal overdoses in 2017.
Last year, law enforcement officers in Mississippi seized more than
800,000 dosage units of fentanyl. The fentanyl seized was enough to
kill nearly 14 percent of the population of Mississippi.
This lethal narcotic is smuggled into our country by transnational
criminal organizations or drug cartels. Just last month, Federal law
enforcement officials seized more than 250 pounds of fentanyl at the
Nogales port of entry on the United States-Mexico border.
As we continue to aggressively police our points of entry, drug
cartels will attempt to gain access through the areas of the border
that are not secured, forcing us to devote manpower to police these
unsecured sections of our border.
It is apparent that drug cartels want to profit from the addiction
and the destruction that these drugs have on American lives. This
Congress has not only the opportunity but also the duty to act, to help
limit the flow of drugs into the country and to protect our citizens by
securing our southwest border.
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Guest for his
comments. I appreciate his passion in sharing some of the firsthand
experiences that he is seeing in the great State of Mississippi.
Our next two speakers are from border States that certainly have a
perspective on what is going on as we see even right now.
One is an accomplished medical doctor who served and practiced there
in the State of Texas for nearly three decades. He is not one of the
louder Members, but he is often considered one of our more effective
Members.
It is my privilege to yield to the gentleman from Texas,
Representative Michael Burgess.
Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina
for yielding.
Let me just say, I spent the last several hours in a hearing in the
Energy and Commerce Committee, a hearing called by the Democrats on the
Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. The hearing was evaluating
the failures of the Trump administration on the child separation
policy.
Let me just share with you some of the statements of the witnesses.
These were pediatricians. These were ACLU lawyers. Statements like the
Trump administration policy was intentionally hurtful, that it was an
incredibly difficult position that people were in, that parents have a
right to keep their children safe, and that this was nothing more than
government-sanctioned child endangerment.
Mr. Speaker, I want to share a story with you. Just like Mr. Walker,
I had a guest here at the State of the Union the other night when the
President was here. My guest was Chris from Keller, Texas, and he sat
up in the gallery right behind us here.
I met Chris probably a year and a half to 2 years ago. He came to see
me one day, brought in, actually, by his mother. His mother was
concerned because he had suffered an injustice in his life, and he was
upset, and he couldn't get over it. He just needed to talk to someone,
and a Member of Congress is the last person I can think of to talk to,
but maybe it can help.
So Chris told me his story. I practiced medicine for 25 years, and I
heard some sad stories. I have been in Congress for 15 years, and I
have heard some sad stories. But I will tell you, this was the saddest
story that I can recall ever having heard.
Chris was serving his country in Iraq. In fact, he was in Iraq in
2005 when they had the big election where everyone was going down the
road with an ink-stained thumb, and he helped make that happen. He
helped pull that off.
Chris continued his service in various forms and was in Iraq when he
got word that his wife was ill. His wife was, as it turns out, very,
very ill, and he had to come home. He cared for her for the last few
months of her life before she succumbed to breast cancer.
{time} 1730
He said he made her a promise right at the end of that illness that
he would
[[Page H1435]]
always, always, always take care of their daughter. Now Chris is a
single dad. He has got an only child. The child was 12, 13 years old,
the light of his life. Everything in Chris's life was wrapped up in his
daughter.
His daughter came home one day and said she wanted to go spend the
night at a friend's house, and Chris said no.
She said: Please, Daddy, you never let me do anything. Please let me
go.
After multiple entreaties, Chris agreed. She could go over to this
friend's house and spend the night.
At some point during the evening, the girls went out to a convenience
store that was across the street. She drops her cellphone, goes back to
retrieve it, and she was hit by a car. There were a number of cars
coming down the street at that point. One was going faster than the
others. All of the other cars stopped, but the car that hit Chrishia
inflicted substantial injury upon her.
The driver of that vehicle did stop, and the police were called. The
driver of that vehicle was in the country without the benefit of
citizenship. So the driver of that car was taken down to the police
station. Drug and alcohol tests were administered. A search of the
records revealed a previous infraction with Customs and Border Patrol
or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He had come into the country
illegally before, so there was that. He had speeding tickets, and he
had been arrested for driving without a license. In fact, this time the
only citation that he received was driving without a license, and he
was released after 35 minutes.
Chris came in to see me several months later, literally at the end of
his rope. I will never forget as he told me this story and he looked at
me with tears in his eyes.
He said: Congressman, I put on the uniform of my country. I served my
country. I did my job. Mr. Congressman, if you had been doing your job,
my daughter would be here today.
I have to tell you, as I was walking Chris back to where he could get
a cab to his hotel after the State of the Union Address--we have
actually corresponded on a fairly regular basis, and he is a very
likeable individual--as we walked off the Hill to get to where he could
catch a cab beyond the Capitol Police barrier, he said: I really have
enjoyed meeting you, Congressman. You have been great to me.
I said: Chris, I would give anything if we had never met.
This is not a manufactured crisis. This is a real crisis affecting
our citizens and our constituents. The people on the panel today were
very concerned about the Trump administration's policy from last June.
But this is not a new deal. There has been a problem on our Texas
border, particularly in the lower Rio Grande sector for years. The
previous administration had problems. The Clinton administration had
problems. The Carter administration had problems. It is a difficult
problem, and it does need to be solved.
President Trump has outlined a reasonable approach that, yes,
includes sensors; yes, includes increased personnel; yes, includes all-
weather roads in areas; and, yes, it does include a barrier. Without
that, there cannot be success in securing our southern border, and as a
consequence, our citizens cannot be safe and secure in their homes.
I thank the gentleman for providing the time tonight and leading this
hour.
I hope Chris does get some measure of peace eventually, but, clearly,
this is a problem that has affected a great many lives of people in our
districts. I think we each can find someone in our district who has
suffered from a similar loss.
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I will not soon forget those lines: I did my
job putting on my uniform every day. Congressman, if you had been doing
your job, my daughter would be here today.
I hope that message resonates in all 434 Members who are currently in
the House.
Mr. Speaker, if Congressmen and Congresswomen would do their job,
these children, these daughters, these sons, these mothers, and these
wives and husbands would still be here today.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Biggs).
Andy Biggs is one of the truth tellers in this House. He is from
Arizona's Fifth District. He is a retired attorney who also served in
the Arizona legislature for 14 years, and he is a bold voice in the
United States House.
Mr. BIGGS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Walker for holding this
Special Order.
Mr. Speaker, I want you to know I continue to be astonished that our
Democratic Members--our colleagues--turned a blind eye to what is
happening in this country because of what is going on on the border.
Unlike many in Congress, I have been down to the border multiple
times. I grew up just a number of miles--60, 70 miles--from the border
myself. I have been down there many times. A couple of weeks ago I took
eight Congressmen with me. We toured the border. We met with multiple
ranchers, and their story is very similar. We got to talk to one guy--
four home invasions, more than 15 burglaries, endless vandalism, and
trespassing daily. He was not unique.
Another family has set up their own cameras and sensors so they can
see. We watched them. We watched the people coming across. This is hour
after hour of footage. Do you know what? These were young men coming
across with carpet slippers so you couldn't see their footprints. I
didn't see the moms and children coming across. I saw the young men
carrying bundles of drugs across.
On Monday the ``Washington Examiner'' published an article detailing
the fear of border residents living in New Mexico. They, like those in
Arizona, Texas, and California have been burglarized. They find groups
of illegal aliens squatting in their barns with bundles of drugs on
their land. But they won't call the authorities because they fear
retaliation from drug cartels.
Many of the people we met with said: we will meet with you on
condition that you don't reveal us meeting to the press because every
time the press reveals something, we are retaliated against by drug
cartels.
Yesterday at the end of a Judiciary Committee hearing about gun
violence, after going on a screed--a demagogic tirade--about the
importance of protecting every life, this Member said that every life
is valuable. I agree with that. But she is valuing some over others.
Why wouldn't she focus on policies that would help the lives of all
Americans through border security?
In 2015, a young man from my Congressional District, Grant Ronnebeck,
was shot and killed by an illegal alien. Not only should that murderer
not have been in possession of a firearm, he shouldn't have even been
in the country. He had been deported before, yet he comes back because
the border is porous.
For some reason, no Democrat is willing to ensure that criminally
violent aliens like Grant's killer aren't released back into our
community. I introduced a bill called Grant's Law to ensure no criminal
alien can be released from custody. I can't get a single cosponsor from
the other side of the aisle.
Two weeks ago 250 pounds of fentanyl and 400 pounds of additional
drugs were interdicted in Nogales. That is the number one sector for
drug seizures in this country. Forty percent of all drugs that are
interdicted are in the Tucson sector. Just today, in the Ajo region,
300 people crossed--today--2 hours ago.
I am told by experts that we only interdict 15 percent of dangerous
drugs and fewer than 50 percent of the people who are crossing.
Mr. Speaker, I call out for my colleagues across the aisle: Help us.
Help this country. I am telling you: Walls work. We have to stand with
the President.
I stand with the President. I stand with the people of America. I
stand with people in my district. I stand with the people who believe
and understand that we have to get border security and the most
foundational and fundamental thing we can do is build a wall.
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, we acknowledge there are problems with ports
of entry. We have no problem in increasing training or border agents.
We are not opposed to that at all. What we don't understand is why
there is not an all-of-the-above approach, a commonsense approach that
would allow us to continue to reduce and sometimes eliminate some of
the issues that we are seeing.
My next speaker is a classmate of mine serving faithfully on the
Agriculture and the Education and Labor
[[Page H1436]]
Committees. He is a business owner who is responsible for creating
thousands of jobs from the land that he comes from, Augusta, Georgia,
representing Georgia's 12th District.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen).
Mr. ALLEN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Walker for his work here
today and telling the story.
We have heard so many stories about people who have been affected by
this problem at our southern border.
My friends and colleagues continue to fight to resolve the crisis at
our southern border, end illegal immigration, and save innocent
American lives.
I would like to share the story of Eliud Montoya, a naturalized
American citizen, a hard worker, and a Georgia resident. He was
violently shot and killed in 2017 at the hands of three illegal
immigrants living just south of Georgia's 12th District.
Mr. Montoya, who worked for a tree service company, reported some
suspicious activity to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
alleging that illegal workers were being employed as a part of a scheme
to defraud that company. By doing his duty and reporting this illegal
activity to the proper authorities, Mr. Montoya was senselessly
murdered by illegal immigrants who reportedly collected more than $3.5
million of illegal profits.
Mr. Speaker, this is a very real crisis we are facing at our southern
border, and we simply cannot allow lawlessness to consume this nation.
In his State of the Union on Tuesday, President Trump said it best:
``The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety,
security, and financial well-being of all Americans. We have a moral
duty to create an immigration system that protects the lives and jobs
of our citizens.''
Think about this, if you put in the most advanced security system in
your home, would you take down the front door?
I am 100 percent with the President.
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's sincere words.
Mr. Speaker, one of my friends is another Member from Georgia who
serves on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, actually owns Carter's
Pharmacy, a pharmacist by nature, and actually became a mayor and was a
general assembly member. He is one of the hardest working guys in this
House. It is my privilege to acknowledge Representative Buddy Carter
from Georgia's First.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter).
Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for
yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss an important topic to our
Nation's homeland security, the crisis at our southern border. And it
is, indeed, a crisis.
In its most simple form, it is paramount that we know who is coming
in and out of our country in order to keep our families and our fellow
citizens safe. However, it is impossible to do so when individuals are
traversing across our border avoiding checkpoints and bypassing our
immigration laws.
Mr. Speaker, I have been to our border. I served on the Homeland
Security Committee my first session here. We took a trip to the border.
We went to California. It was the first time I had ever been to
California. We went to San Diego. In San Diego you need a barrier, you
need a wall, and you need a fence. You have got 3 million people in San
Diego County, 3 million people in Tijuana separated by a highway. It
makes perfect sense to have a barrier there, a fence.
Then we went to Arizona, rugged terrain, mountainous terrain. There
you need technology, you need boots on the ground, you need blimps, and
you need drones, all of those things. When we were in Arizona, we
visited a farmer, a rancher there, who showed us an area where they had
a fence. In that area where they had that fence, they had cut it off.
It was a 10-foot fence, and they cut it off at 5 foot, put ramps on it,
and they had driven a truck over it.
You have to have a fence, and you have to have technology.
We went to McAllen, Texas. It was the first time I had ever been to
that part of Texas. We went to the Rio Grande River. Now, I grew up in
south Georgia; to me the Rio Grande River was this giant river that you
saw in a John Wayne movie. It is anything but. It is a narrow, winding
river that in some areas is knee deep. People walk across it. You are
going to have to have barriers in some of those areas. You are going to
have to have boots on the ground. You are going to have to have
technology, blimps and drones, all of those things.
What we are talking about is securing our borders. Everybody wants to
say: oh, he wants to build a wall.
Yes, you need a wall in certain areas, and you need a barrier. But
you need technology. But most importantly you need security.
My colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to deny the
President the ability to deliver on a campaign promise. That is not
what this is about. This is about securing our borders. We need to
focus. We need to focus about what we are talking about here. This is
real. This is serious.
Let me tell you how serious it is. I have seen examples of it. I have
seen examples that it creates in my own district, my own congressional
district in coastal Georgia.
{time} 1745
Just over a month ago, three illegal immigrants were charged with
conspiracy to murder a legal, naturalized citizen who threatened to
turn them in.
Now, folks, if you want to know how people feel about illegal
immigration, ask someone who has become a citizen, who has gone through
the process. Don't ask me; ask them. Ask them what they think.
I guarantee you, they are going to be opposed to it. They did it the
right way. And we invite them here. We need them here. We want them
here. But they did it the right way. They are as much opposed to it,
they are as much offended by it as anyone.
It is stories like these that inspired me to introduce H.R. 6333, the
Tax Identity Protection Act, in the 115th Congress. The Treasury
Department's inspector general noted that up to 1.4 million illegal
immigrants could be fraudulently using legal citizens' Social Security
numbers, but the IRS refuses to do anything about this, stating that
they can't accurately determine which numbers are mistakes and which
are fraud.
So I introduced the Tax Identity Protection Act. It would require the
IRS to find ways to better determine illegal immigrants using stolen
Social Security numbers. I will be reintroducing that bill shortly in
the 116th Congress, and I hope that my colleagues will support this
legislation that strengthens our national security and protects our
personal identities.
Immigration is important. It is important to the history, the
culture, and the progress of our country, but it is past time for us to
fix our broken immigration system and ensure that people seeking a
better life in America are coming through the lawful channels.
I want to thank my colleagues for holding this important and timely
Special Order today.
Folks, this is serious. This is important. We need to focus, keep our
eye on the ball here.
Mr. WALKER. I appreciate Representative Carter's passion on this
issue and laying out, really, a heartfelt case why border security is
so important.
So many times we hear the argument that there are as many and, in
some places, even a higher percentage of assaults or crimes, murders,
et cetera, in communities with American citizens as there are with some
of the illegal immigrants.
My question is: Does that make it okay? See, that is the thing that
we have to take a look at from a commonsense perspective is that, when
we do begin to reduce this, it allows us to have the resources to be
able to concentrate on some of the areas as well.
A class member from Arkansas has quite a distinguished history. Prior
to his congressional service, Mr. Hill was a commercial banker and an
investment manager for two decades. But, not only that, President
George H.W. Bush appointed Mr. Hill to be Executive Secretary to the
President's Economic Policy Council, where he coordinated all White
House economic policy. He does a great job and works hard on our
Financial Services Committee as well.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill), my
friend from Arkansas' Second District.
[[Page H1437]]
Mr. HILL of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from North
Carolina and appreciate his distinguished service on behalf of the
citizens of North Carolina, his leadership of our Republican Study
Committee in the last Congress, and his leadership as our Conference
leader for this Congress. And I greatly appreciate his personal
engagement to help continue this conversation with the American people
about the need for enhanced security along our southwest border.
Like my colleagues you have heard from, I have been to the southwest
border four times as a Member of Congress. I worked in Texas for nearly
a decade, so I am very familiar with the southwest border in Texas.
But, as a Congressman, I have gone four times to get at the root of
what is the balance that we want between border fencing, barrier, the
use of technology, screening technology, enhancements at our ports of
entry, and the manpower issue.
Mr. Speaker, we need all of that, and that is, in fact, what we have
produced time and time again on the floor. Just in the last year, Mr.
Speaker, we have proposed these kinds of commonsense border security
issues, and we have not gotten sufficient votes to pass them.
So this is why we find ourselves hearing from the Border Patrol and
our officials at Homeland Security that we need additional barrier
construction, additional boots on the ground, new judges, additional
screening technology--all of the things I hear about from county
judges, county sheriffs, Federal law enforcement--to make our border,
in fact, safe.
But tonight I want to reflect on the impact in my home State of
Arkansas. I see it every day. I have two young adults now, Mr. Speaker,
a 19-year-old and a 22-year-old.
When I was in high school, I didn't know anybody who had died of a
drug overdose. I didn't know anyone who had committed suicide among my
peers in my high school. And I am brokenhearted tonight, Mr. Speaker,
to report that my kids and their age group have seen deaths from deadly
addiction to these drugs that are coming over our border, our southwest
border. It breaks my heart to see them at funerals when they should be
at soccer games.
The opioid crisis has killed more than 100 Americans a day and caused
45,000 deaths last year, alone, almost as many as we lost in all of the
Vietnam conflict. A third of these deaths were attributable to
fentanyl, much of which is manufactured in China.
This Congress, bipartisan, last year, decided to get screening
equipment to our postal service to interdict and try to stop fentanyl.
Senator Cotton and I want to increase criminal penalties for fentanyl
possession and dealing because, Mr. Speaker, in this small Sweet'N Low
packet that we are all familiar with, 1 gram has enough--if it were
fentanyl--to kill 500 Americans. That is what confronts our kids as it
is laced into heroin, pressed into pills, soaked into marijuana on the
streets of our country, coming across the southwest border.
So my kids have suffered from it. I have watched their faces. I have
hugged a lot of moms. And whenever I think of this issue, I think about
Nate Gordon, who lost his life, whose mom I visit with and who has
helped me in my roundtables on helping me cope with how to talk to our
parents about this deadly addiction that has overtaken our country.
Nate was a kid who got addicted, and he tried to beat it. And he beat
it. And then, one night, it took his life.
His mom doesn't have her son anymore, but she has dedicated her life
to helping parents to educate kids, to get people in treatment. And
that is what we need. We need an entire community to bond with this
Congress to fight drug addiction.
I spoke to our attorney general, my friend from North Carolina, and
she told me that over 1,000 illegals had been arrested in Arkansas
recently, tens of thousands of pills, and over 1,000 pounds of drugs.
So this is something that challenges our whole country, and we have
to work together. I commend our President for keeping it at the
forefront of the American people, and I commend Mr. Walker for inviting
us here to visit about it tonight.
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's work and his
friendship in this House as well.
A new Member from Texas, someone who represents the southwest Texas
area, I believe, represents portions of Austin, Texas, as well, someone
who is new but no less experienced, a former first assistant attorney
general and a former Federal prosecutor, Mr. Speaker, I yield to the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina for
yielding time, and I thank him for his leadership on this important
issue.
We are here because we are discussing the importance of border
security for the United States of America, a question of our
sovereignty, the basic duty of a sovereign nation to secure its
borders.
I had the great privilege of spending some time with the men and
women of the Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley sector in Texas
this past week--2 days--with my fellow Texas freshman Congressman Dan
Crenshaw. What I saw was alarming.
What we learned from Border Patrol is that there will be upwards of
400,000 people crossing the border through the Rio Grande Valley sector
this year alone. And of that 400,000 people, 200,000 of them, give or
take, won't even be apprehended because the men and women of the Border
Patrol don't have the tools they need, don't have the fencing and the
barriers they need, don't have the ability to drive a vehicle
parallel--lateral--to the Rio Grande River, don't have the radio signal
to be able to communicate on the border.
We found that, of the 200,000 people who will be apprehended, 90
percent of them will be captured and released because we have
judicially mandated capture and release today. We have judges who have
told us that we have got to capture people and then release them back
out into our communities without going through the proper processes to
truly vet asylum and truly vet what we are dealing with. The result of
that brings tragic consequences.
The Gulf Cartel in Mexico will make $130 million this year--$130
million--trafficking human beings across the Rio Grande Valley sector.
They are integrated with FARC. They are integrated with terrorist
networks. They have operational control of our border along Texas, and
we are just acting like there is nothing to see.
The Speaker of the House had us in session for less than 48 hours
last week with a handful of show votes. What do we have this week? More
votes just that are kind of plodding along, suspension votes.
We are not having a robust debate. This Chamber is virtually empty.
We are not having a robust debate about our border and our national
security and about the lives of American citizens and the lives of the
migrants who seek to come here.
There are migrants today who are endangered and enslaved to the
cartels. There were 54 people found in a stash house last Friday when I
was with Border Patrol, in a house in Houston, who are now being held
hostage by cartels to pay their money back because the cartels brought
them into the United States.
How is that compassion? How is that somehow beneficial to migrants?
That is the truth. Those are the facts when we talk to our men and
women in the Border Patrol.
Let's talk about the women, the young girls, who are abused on the
path. I was on the Rio Grande River, and I spoke to a 10-year-old and
an 11-year-old girl. My son Charlie is going to turn 10 this year.
These girls were traveling with no parents. They want to have a better
life.
I want to welcome folks to the United States of America, but you have
got to have legal channels to make it work, both for our safety and the
safety of the migrants who come here.
It is extraordinary that we are even having this debate. I cannot
believe that this body, the people's House, is ignoring this great
tragedy that is going on on our southwest border, with real human
lives.
And it is not just the migrants. It is American citizens like Jared
Vargas in San Antonio, Texas, which I represent and I am proud to
represent. Jared lost his life last July at the hands of somebody here
illegally. His beautiful mom, Lori, is still brokenhearted, having lost
her wonderful son. His twin brother, who goes to college in Kerrville,
in my district, lost his twin brother; and his sister lost her brother
because an illegal immigrant who was here, who was
[[Page H1438]]
caught, released, caught, released, stopped by law enforcement, let go,
2 days later murdered Jared Vargas.
How can we allow this to happen in the greatest country and the most
powerful nation the world has ever known? How can we allow American
citizens to die at the hands of illegal immigrants who are here who
shouldn't be here, who have broken our laws previously? How can we
allow American citizens to die at the hands of the terrorists who are
moving drugs into and out of our country through cartels, die because
of dangerous fentanyl and dangerous heroin that are coming across our
borders at the ports of entry and, yes, between the ports of entry,
which the data fully backs up?
It is not just coming through the ports of entry. It is, in fact,
coming across on loads across the Rio Grande River, which is not
policed.
We have a duty to defend our border.
One last point: Fencing, walls work. In the Rio Grande Valley sector,
in the eastern section next to the Gulf of Mexico, there is 35 miles of
fencing. In the western section, in McAllen, there is far less fencing
and far fewer roads. Ninety-four percent of the traffic comes through
the McAllen portion of the Rio Grande Valley sector.
We have a duty to defend our borders. American citizens like Jared
Vargas, who lost his life, and the Vargas family, who is now without
their family member, and the United States of America deserve better.
The migrants who seek to come here deserve better.
{time} 1800
Mr. WALKER. Mr. Speaker, this evening, we have heard from Members
across the country about the devastating toll illegal immigration has
had on American families and American workers. The Democrats' divisive
and disconnected immigration agenda has real consequences and leads to
real victims.
What makes this such a calamity is not only the cost to Americans
that we have talked about tonight, but the fact that these tragedies
are completely avoidable if Congress, as we heard earlier, would do its
job and secure the border.
I want to tell you about Miss Sharon Gross from my district in North
Carolina. Just over a year ago, Sharon had finished a 5-mile bike ride
with her 18-year-old daughter in Creekside Park, where I have been, in
Archdale, North Carolina. They began their trip home in ``Roxie,'' the
vehicle her daughter received for her 16th birthday.
As her daughter was driving home, she saw a white SUV heading the
opposite direction and beginning to swerve from the outer lane. The
vehicle hit them head-on. Sharon described the next moment: ``The next
thing I remember was the sound of the metal crashing and twisting in
front of us. I vaguely remember everyone running to us and telling us
to get out because the car was about to explode. I couldn't get out and
could barely breathe.''
Sharon thanks God that her daughter was largely unharmed, but Sharon
suffered five broken bones in her back and a severely broken sternum,
leaving a large hole in her chest. She now has chronic pain that
impacts her daily life.
The driver of the white SUV was a man by the name of Mr. Rodriguez.
He had a blood alcohol concentration of .20, 2\1/2\ times the legal
limit in North Carolina.
Mr. Rodriguez is in our country illegally. He did not own the vehicle
he was driving, nor did he even have a driver's license, and this was
his third drunk driving charge. He then served only 11 months in prison
and has now been released.
Mr. Rodriguez's time in prison may have come to an end, but the
physical, mental, and emotional scars that Sharon has, well, they will
never fade. Making matters worse, Mr. Rodriguez was uninsured, leaving
thousands of dollars in medical bills, adding to the emotional and
physical and now financial pain for Sharon and her family.
Sharon stated: ``It is very difficult for me to have all this
constant pain and then deal with all the emotions I am feeling about
someone who comes into our country illegally and gets a little pat on
the hand when he breaks all our laws.'' She said: ``To say my life was
shattered is an understatement.''
You see, we can do better. We must do better for Sharon and for all
Americans who have been impacted by illegal immigration. That means an
all-of-the-above approach to border security, including construction of
additional physical structures and barriers. Border security not only
helps keep our families safe, but it also continues the American
tradition of being a welcoming Nation.
Many of us are proud of our legal immigrant heritage. Though it goes
underreported, America has the most generous legal system in the world.
Think about it. We proudly welcome 1 million legal immigrants into our
country every single year.
In fact, just last year, the first full year of the Trump
administration in 2017, the number was 1,127,167 new citizens whom we
welcomed. These are people from all over the world who have raised
their right hand, promising to obey the laws of our land and contribute
to our blessed Nation.
As President Trump said on this very floor just 2 days ago: ``Legal
immigrants enrich our Nation and strengthen our society in countless
ways. I want people to come into our country . . . but they have to
come in legally.''
You see, in America, we can do both. We can continue to be the beacon
of hope throughout the world, and we can do much better in protecting
the American people. After all, it is the first oath we take.
But the clock is ticking. We face another impasse this week. Will our
Democratic colleagues support commonsense policies to end this crisis,
or will they continue to disengage on solutions, suggesting ideas like
abolishing ICE and stopping additional funding for the Department of
Homeland Security?
It is time to put productivity over personality and people over
politics. Anything less would be immoral.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________