[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1836-1837]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                    DRUG SMUGGLING ALONG THE BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Hayes). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. BILBRAY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak of Alfredo De La 
Torre. Alfredo has served as the police chief of Tijuana-Baja 
California for the last few years. But this Sunday, after leaving 
church services with his family, Alfredo decided to do what he always 
does, to drive down to the police station to see how the operation was 
working. On the way to the police station, Mr. Speaker, Alfredo was 
attacked and was killed by professional hit people that fired almost 
100 rounds into his car and inflicted 57 bullet wounds into his body.
  Now, Alfredo is just one of many in Tijuana that have died over the 
last few years. This brutal murder, which occurred just a few miles 
from where I live in South San Diego in the Pearl Beach area is a 
reminder to all Americans of the sacrifices that are going on right now 
in the drug war.
  In January, there was an attorney named Mr. Hernandez who was not as 
lucky as the police chief. This attorney, Mr. Hernandez, who was a 
former judge, had the misfortune of having his wife and his son with 
him when they were sprayed with gunfire by the same drug and alien-
smuggling cartel that killed the police chief.
  On April 28 of 1994, another police chief in Tijuana was assassinated 
after the cartel publicized that he had turned down a bribe from them. 
This is just how blatant it is getting in northern Mexico.
  Not to think, Mr. Speaker, that we are insulated from the realities 
of this

[[Page 1837]]

violence, in 1996, a few miles north of where my family lives, a man in 
my district was gunned down while he was driving up a road called 
Silver Strand by two hitmen who had the gall to stop and finish him off 
at point-blank range and then throw the gun into the car and proceed to 
turn around and drive back into Mexico.
  This is a drug war that Americans have to wake up to. This month the 
President will consider about certifying Mexico and seeing if Mexico is 
doing enough. Mexico, Mr. Speaker, has sent troops to the border. They 
have armed military personnel at the border to fight the drug lords. 
They have disbanded their old police force and replaced them with a 
whole new system, because they are serious about drug interdiction. 
Mexico is intercepting guns and drugs every 50 to 100 miles in Mexico.
  What are we doing? The administration has only hired half of the 
authorized border patrol agents that this Congress has asked them to 
hire. The administration refuses to talk about doing on the American 
side what Mexico has done on their side, and that is to bring the 
troops into the works. We who have talked so much that we are serious 
about the drug traffic have not done as much as Mexico.
  Mr. Speaker, today there are 10,000 troops, American troops, in 
Kosovo and Bosnia for peacekeeping. What my family would like to know 
and my neighbors would like to know is when are we going to get some 
peacekeeping troops? When is our neighborhood going to be given the 
priority to fight the drug lords and the alien smugglers?
  It is time that we need to emphasize that American resources have the 
first obligation to defend Americans on American soil and also to 
protect them from, not only the violence of the drug smugglers, but 
also the drugs themselves. This is a war that we cannot stand alone on, 
and we cannot point fingers south of the border.
  I hope that the President certifies Mexico, not because they are 
doing as good as they should. They should do more. But I think we 
should certify it at the same time we point to ourselves that we need 
to do more. I hope the President joins with us.
  The gentleman from Florida (Chairman Mica) is going to have a hearing 
in San Diego, California, on March 7. I hope that a lot of my 
colleagues will consider coming to that hearing so they get firsthand 
experience of what is really happening on the frontline of the drug 
war.
  The gentleman from New York (Chairman Gilman) and the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. McCollum) have been very, very supportive on this. But, 
Mr. Speaker, let us remember Alfredo; and let us remember the people 
who are dying on both sides of the border, and let us not talk about we 
are willing to fight the drug war, but we are not willing to do half as 
much as our colleagues in the south.
  I ask us to make the commitment of using our military, using our 
resources, using whatever it takes to win this war so nobody else will 
have to be killed, no one else will be slaughtered, and America can 
look up and look at our neighbors to the south and to the north and say 
we are doing everything we humanly can to stop this problem.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to say sincerely my condolences to the De 
La Torre family. There is nothing that can cover up the pain and the 
suffering that they are seeing on their streets. Hopefully, we can keep 
it off our streets.

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