[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 3]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 3689]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         OFFICER EUGENIO SOLIS

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. SOLOMON P. ORTIZ

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, February 11, 2003

  Mr. ORTIZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to a retiring 
lawman, Agent Eugenio Solis, a unique patriot who has enforced our laws 
and chased the bad guys his whole career. I am enormously grateful to 
him for his life's work.
  Eugenio Solis has served South Texas with 32 years of law enforcement 
altogether, both as a patrol officer and as a narcotics agent. He has 
over 27 years with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
  His superiors say he is one of the best undercover agents we have. 
Undercover work is dangerous, dirty work, and doing it well takes a 
special talent and untold bravery. Agent Solis can make a deal on the 
street happen quickly; he has a nose for nasty business. He can 
expertly hook a bad guy, buy drugs * * * and either get out of there 
fast, or arrest the bad guys.
  Over the years he has established relationships and made contacts 
with all manner of federal and local officials, offering him sundry 
resources and contacts that make him effective on the streets.
  His legendary exploits are so well known around South Texas that he 
has even been recruited by other law enforcement agencies to do 
undercover work. In his undercover capacity, he has been fortunate; he 
has never had to draw his gun.
  You cannot work undercover and not have a good sense of humor, and 
Eugenio Solis indeed possesses that. He is a famous kidder and 
practical joker, which can often mean that when he's swept up with the 
druggies to avoid detection, his fellow officers will leave him 
handcuffed for several hours in good-humor retribution.
  Even in his retirement, he continues to work--currently with a drug 
task force in Kingsville. Mr. Speaker, the men and women on the front 
lines in our drug war are necessarily in the shadows, their faces 
unseen and their names unknown * * * because that is the way the 
business works.
  He has a strong, loving family to support him. That support is 
vitally important to an agent whose business requires him to deprive 
his family of his time and attention. Druggies do not keep a schedule. 
His wife, Sylvia--and their children: Eugenio III and Eduardo, and 
granddaughter, Shelby--have been his greatest support network.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in commending Eugenio Solis for his 
years of dedication to law enforcement, for standing on that thin blue 
line that protects our neighborhoods from the bad guys.

                          ____________________