[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5363]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                       SECURING AMERICAN BORDERS

  Mr. TANCREDO. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I brought forward to the House a 
picture and a little story about an individual who died on the border 
last August. His name was Chris Eggle. Mr. Eggle was an employee of the 
United States Government acting in the capacity of a park ranger down 
in the Oregon Pipes National Park in Arizona. He was killed in the line 
of duty by people who had come across the border after being involved 
in some sort of drug altercation where three others were killed in 
Mexico.
  The point of my presentation yesterday was to explain to the Members 
of this body that we have, in fact, a war zone on our southern border, 
and to a certain extent, on the northern border.
  Today, unfortunately, I have the sad occasion to bring to Members' 
attention another young man named Jorge Salomon Martinez. Mr. Martinez 
was brutally murdered in Mexico just a short time ago. He was a Border 
Patrol agent working for the United States. Mr. Francisco Javier Rosas 
Molina, who is 18 years old, is in custody, and the Mexican authorities 
continue to search for others that they say have probably fled across 
the border into the United States.
  Mr. Martinez had apparently met Mr. Rosas Molina earlier in the week 
near the border town of Naco. They began to party together and 
converse, and Salomon had originally identified himself to the group as 
a member of the Border Patrol, as employed by the Border Patrol. Then 
they met some other people and Rosas Molina evidently told the other 
members of the group that Mr. Martinez was indeed a Border Patrol 
agent, and what happened next is described as the following.
  He said that is when Rosas Molina identified him to the others as a 
Border Patrol agent, and that appears to be the reason that they killed 
him. Martinez was beaten and his head bashed in with rocks. His Ford 
pickup was stolen along with other belongings, including a gold chain 
and a medallion. A passerby discovered the body early Wednesday and 
notified Mexican police. Later police received a tip about the slaying 
and robbery of a U.S. Border Patrol agent. The caller led agents to 
Rosas Molina, who had the agent's truck and medallion. Rosas Molina has 
admitted involvement in the slaying.
  The purpose of the slaying, as it appears from the evidence gathered, 
is because Mr. Martinez was a Border Patrol agent. He is not the first 
Border Patrol agent to be killed in the line of duty on the border, he 
is not the first Border Patrol agent to be accosted. It happens all too 
frequently. It is because our borders are war zones. We are in the 
process of debating whether or not, and the President is in the process 
of determining whether or not to send Americans off to fight a war in 
the Middle East. Without discussing the merits of that particular 
decision, I will tell Members there is a war going on on our borders. 
People are being killed on our borders. Troops are needed on our 
borders.
  Our homeland needs to be defended. These people need to be defended. 
They need to be trained, and they need to be protected. We have to make 
a decision as a Nation as to whether or not we want borders or not. If 
we choose not to enforce our borders, we should move away from them and 
let people come into this country at their will. We should stop this 
process of sending a few people down to our border, put them into 
harm's way, and then refuse to actually secure the border.
  Mr. Martinez, before him Mr. Eggle, and others, are examples of this 
kind of policy, this policy that puts people at risk without really 
having a desire on the part of this Nation to defend those borders or 
to protect our people on those borders.
  Mr. Speaker, our hearts go out to the family of Mr. Martinez. Our 
prayers go out to that family. I hope that we will not forget his face 
or his story.

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