[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 8880-8887]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1615
                     EFFECTS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the Chair recognizes the

[[Page 8881]]

gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) for 60 minutes.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, the United States is under attack. And like 
December 7, 1941, we are asleep on a Sunday morning. The reason, Mr. 
Speaker, is because this Nation is under attack by another nation. We 
are being invaded, we are being colonized, and there are insurgents 
from the nation of Mexico and their allies further south.
  Mr. Speaker, in 1836, the State of Texas from which I hail from was 
invaded by Santa Ana and his Mexican Army, and they found those Texans 
who were seeking independence from Mexico in a beat-up old Spanish 
mission that was 100 years old at the time called the Alamo. They were 
led by a 27-year-old lawyer from South Carolina by the name of William 
Barret Travis. William Barret Travis knew the odds were against him, he 
knew that freedom was important, and he drew a line in the sand and he 
said, ``All of those who wish to die for liberty, cross this line.'' 
And they all did, save one individual who unfortunately hailed from the 
nation of France.
  Texas lost the battle of the Alamo, and Mexico continued its 
conquering of Texas. General Sam Houston, who hailed from Tennessee, 
Governor of Tennessee, came to Texas, led the Texas Army at the Battle 
of San Jacinto. Texas was liberated from the nation of Mexico and 
gained independence on April 21, 1836.
  I bring that history to the floor of the House because history is 
important for us to understand what is now taking place in the year 
2006 in our country. Texas remained an independent nation for 10 years, 
and then in 1845 became a State in the United States. This body, along 
with the body down the hallway, admitted Texas to the Union by only one 
vote. Some wish even now the vote had gone the other way. But be that 
as it may, Texas became a part of the United States. And in history, 
the Southwest was first and foremost claimed by the nation of Spain, 
and I have on this map over here this beige color on the southwestern 
portion. And Spain claimed what was Texas west and went as far as 
California, and of course claimed Mexico. And Spain claimed that area 
and was Spanish for 100 years or more.
  In 1810, Mexico decided to gain independence from the nation of 
Spain. They wanted their own country, and they fought from 1810 to 1821 
to gain their independence. Spain lost Mexico because they were at war 
with Napoleon over in Europe, and Napoleon was hammering Spain at the 
same time the Mexicans were hammering Spain here in the Americas.
  So Mexico became an independent nation, and Mexico claimed much of 
this area that was formally Spain's. Of course, in this same area lived 
those people that we call American Indians, mainly the Apaches and the 
Comanches. Now, they didn't really have towns; they just roamed that 
entire area that is in beige. So you have the American Indians and you 
have Mexico claiming this territory. And, of course, Texas was a part 
of Mexico at the time because it was settled under Spanish rule.
  Texas decided to gain independence from Mexico, because Mexico went 
from a democracy to a dictatorship. Sounds familiar, does it not? That 
dictator was by the name of Santa Ana. And when Santa Ana became the 
dictator of Mexico, he abolished what we enjoy as human rights, civil 
liberties. And that is why Texas gained independence and fought for 
independence, to have those basic rights that now all Americans have.
  Anyway, after Texas spent 10 glorious years being the Republic of 
Texas and joined the Union, Mexico was upset with that conduct, and in 
1846, invaded the United States of America in three places. One was in 
Matamoras, that is down here in the lower Rio Grande Valley as we call 
it, and came across the river. Also at that time they came in Palo 
Alto, Texas, in a place called Palma that no longer exists.
  Of course, the United States, seeing that we were invaded and Mexico 
was trying to reconquer the Southwest, actually declared war on Mexico. 
Thus, the Mexican-American war.
  And just so we understand, Mr. Speaker, what the intentions of Mexico 
were in 1846, the President of Mexico, President Paradas, spoke of 
occupying not only Texas, but taking Louisiana, New Orleans, and even 
going as far as Mobile, Alabama. Well, his desire to conquer the 
Southwest and part of the South never materialized, because American 
troops along with Texas Rangers went into Mexico and defeated the 
Mexican Army at Vera Cruz, occupied Mexico City; civil war broke out in 
Mexico, the government was replaced.
  California is declared an independent republic for a period of time, 
and the American forces conquered this entire area of the Southwest, 
California, New Mexico, and Texas, once again. And the treaty of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed, and Mexico ceded California and New 
Mexico to the United States. It also recognized the boundary line of 
Texas and Mexico as the Rio Grande River. That was already done in the 
previous treaty that Mexico signed when Texas became an independent 
nation.
  So the second time Mexico reaffirmed the border of the Southwest 
being the Rio Grande River. Mexico got 15 million for this acquisition 
along with forgiveness of all of the debts that were owed to American 
citizens in Mexico. And then in 1853, the United States bought more 
land from Mexico called the Gadsden Purchase, and in that document 
reaffirmed for the third time that the border between the United States 
and Mexico was the Rio Grande River.
  Now, the reason I mention all of that, Mr. Speaker, is because now 
today, the year 2006, there are some who still want Mexico to occupy 
this entire land. And it is obvious from the actions from Generalissimo 
Fox in Mexico that this is his intention. In fact, let me give you some 
examples.
  The nation of Mexico has furnished school books to the school 
districts in Los Angeles. Of course, they are in Spanish. And in those 
books they teach that this land, Los Angeles, still belongs to Mexico. 
We even have people who live in the United States of Hispanic descent 
that teach the same thing, that California really belongs to Mexico and 
they wish to reconquer it.
  You know, Vicente Fox, Generalissimo Fox, is really a fox in fox 
clothing. Unlike his ancestor, Santa Ana who invaded the United States, 
he won't bring troops into this country. He stays behind the border and 
sends his people here and expects them to colonize and invade the 
United States. I will give you an example of that, Mr. Speaker.
  We have here on this chart part of a document, a coloring book that 
is published by the Mexican Government, Vicente Fox's government, and 
this is handed out to Mexican nationals before they come into the 
United States telling them how to get into the United States illegally. 
And this is a portion of the book that I have put for you on this 
chart, Mr. Speaker; and it is a guide for the Mexican migrante. Here it 
shows illegally crossing the border. This other panel shows what 
happens when you come in contact with those mean old border security 
agents in the United States, what to do about a human smuggler or a 
coyote and how to pay those individuals, and then this last panel shows 
another place of where to cross or not to cross.
  This whole booklet is given to Mexican nationals so they know where 
to cross so they can avoid places where the border security is, avoid 
places where maybe the wall will be built like Mr. King is proposing to 
do.
  But in any event, it is an insurgency in the United States that seems 
to me to be sponsored by Generalissimo Fox. You know, it appears to me 
that Mexico is at war with the United States and we don't even know it. 
We have 5,000 people a day illegally crossing into the State of Texas. 
As Mr. King pointed out earlier, we have 11,000 coming across the 
entire southwestern portion of the United States every day, and they 
are not all coming here to work. There are three types of people.
  We know that the drug cartels are bringing drugs in this country like 
never before. We also know that those people that want to do us harm, 
we

[[Page 8882]]

still call those people terrorists, they are coming across the southern 
border of the United States. And there are other people coming here 
illegally. And what are we doing about it? Well, we have a place called 
Maywood, California where the public officials have decided that this 
town in the United States is going to be a sanctuary for illegals. In 
other words, if you are an illegal from another country, you can go to 
Maywood, California, and they will make sure that the local police 
don't arrest you for being in the country illegally. They even want to 
name a new elementary school there in Maywood, California, U.S.A. by 
the name of President Benito Juarez. Of course, he happened to be 
President of Mexico at one time. Colonization of the United States, Mr. 
Speaker, is taking place.
  And to carry it further, last week when it was reported that the 
National Guard may go down on our borders, the Mexico City newspaper 
was outraged about this and quoted a lot of locals about what they 
thought about it. One Mexican national said in the Mexico City 
newspaper, ``No wall, no fence will keep us out. For Mexico, there are 
no obstacles.'' It sounds to me like folks are coming over here 
uninvited and appears to be an invasion.
  You know, certain groups in the United States want Mexico to retake 
California and the Southwest, and they advocate such. Two of those 
groups, Aztlan and MEChA, both are groups that you can see are in favor 
of colonization of this country and turning it back over to Mexico.
  To give you an example of that, we have one elected official in Baja, 
California, a reported Gloria Vargas, that says, ``Many Mexicans are 
nourishing the ground in the United States. This was once our land. 
Those same lands we are reconquering for our country, Mexico.''
  It seems a bit odd we have American elected officials preaching and 
advocating that this country, part of it, ought to go back to Mexico.
  So apparently there is a movement to conquer the United States. And I 
wonder, Mr. Speaker, are we going to cross the line and fight for our 
Nation, or are we going to remain asleep on a Sunday morning while the 
invasion takes place? The line obviously is drawn in the sand.
  I want to mention those three types of groups that are coming into 
this country. Now, I hail from Texas, southeast Texas. Where I come 
from is right on the Gulf of Mexico and it borders Louisiana, and so I 
have been very familiar with the outbreak of folks coming in the United 
States illegally from all nations. I have spent some time down on the 
Texas border with our local sheriffs all the way from Roma, Texas, up 
to Langtry, Texas. Probably no one in this House has ever heard of 
either one of those places. There was a favorite judge of mine by the 
name of Judge Roy Bean who used to hold court in Langtry, Texas.
  But be that as it may, I was down on the border with some of our 
Texas sheriffs, and at one time I was there with Rick Flores from Webb 
County and Ziggi Gonzales from Zapata County, and I wanted to see how 
the drug dealers were bringing dope into the United States. Now, Webb 
County is where Laredo, Texas is; across the river is Nuevo Laredo. And 
so the sheriff said, Okay, I will take you to portions of the Texas-
Mexico border, but I am not taking you down to certain portions of the 
border unless you go with my SWAT team and you are wearing a bullet-
proof vest. And I said, Why do I got to wear a bullet-proof vest for? 
And he says, You go down to the river in certain parts, those drug 
dealers are going to shoot at you, not from the American side, but from 
the Mexican side.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I have got a problem with that. I have got a 
problem with being on sovereign U.S. soil standing on the border 
getting shot at from the other side. Now, I wonder if that offends 
anybody besides myself.
  Anyway, we went down to the border. We saw what takes place on the 
Texas-Mexico border, because the drug cartels are fighting every inch 
to bring that dope into the United States. It is a very well-organized 
movement. Nuevo Laredo, as I mentioned to you, used to be a town which 
shared common interests with Texas and Mexico, frequent border 
crossings, legal border crossings, and tourists would go to Nuevo 
Laredo. Nuevo Laredo now is a war zone. It is run by the corrupt 
officials and the drug cartels. Over the past 2 years, the murder rate 
in Nuevo Laredo is the highest in the world because the drug dealers 
are killing off the police and they are killing off the citizens and 
they are fighting with each other. There have been 44 kidnappings in 
Nuevo Laredo and Laredo of American citizens; and yet of those 44 
kidnappings, not one, Mr. Speaker, not one has been solved.

                              {time}  1630

  All of those murders in Nuevo Laredo of the police and of the 
citizens and of the good people in Mexico, not one have been solved. 
That is what is going on because of the drug cartels using Nuevo Laredo 
as the staging area to bring that dope into the United States and sell 
it among Americans.
  It is an epidemic, it is organized, and these folks not only have the 
narcotics, they have the money and they have the fire power.
  I was talking to Sheriff Flores of Webb County. Webb County is about 
the size of Rhode Island, and he has about 27-30 deputies. At any given 
time, he has seven deputies on patrol in a county the size of Rhode 
Island. He was telling me, you know, the drug dealers, they have got 
more money than we do. And let me give you an example: he said, I make 
$44,000 a year. My deputies, they make about $27,000 a year. A drug 
dealer, he makes $30,000 a week bringing drugs into the United States. 
So there is more money in lawlessness than there is in following the 
law.
  Anyway, he said they had better equipment and they have better fire 
power and better communications. He said that, you know, when we are 
out on patrol and we use our cell phones, those drug dealers in Mexico 
track us with GPS; they know exactly where we are, and they have better 
vehicles than we do as well.
  So that is the armed invasion that we are fighting on the border, and 
not just in Texas, but it occurs in Arizona and New Mexico and 
California as well. So it is important that we take care of business 
and protect the dignity of the United States, to keep the drug dealers 
from bringing those drugs into the United States for money.
  You see, it is all about money, and we will get to more about that in 
a minute, but you follow the money trail and you will see why people do 
what they do when they invade the United States.
  On the second trip down to the border, I was with other Texas 
sheriffs, and we saw the same thing where the drug dealers sneak into 
the United States, and they have paths into our country and they know 
what we know. Let me explain to you that.
  The Border Patrol of the United States patrols the first 25 miles 
from the border inland. So the drug dealers make sure that they get 
that dope 30 miles inland because once it is 30 miles into the United 
States, they can take it anywhere else they want to in the United 
States. This is all they have to do is avoid the Border Patrol for the 
first 25 miles because that is all the Border Patrol is allowed to 
patrol by law. That is why we need not only the Border Patrol but the 
sheriffs, the Texas sheriffs, the Arizona sheriffs and the California 
and New Mexico sheriffs, all involved in border security.
  So that is the first group that we have to protect ourselves against. 
That is the duty of government, Mr. Speaker, is to protect the public, 
protect the people. In this House, we pontificate every day about what 
government ought to be involved in. Let me tell you something, the 
first duty of government is national security, protect the people of 
these United States. Oh, programs and building bridges and that kind of 
stuff may be important, but it is not as important as the number one 
duty of government which is to protect us, and our government has the 
duty to protect us from those criminals who are vicious that are 
bringing dope into this country.

[[Page 8883]]

  The second people that we need to be concerned about are terrorists; 
and, Mr. Speaker, I serve on the International Relations Committee and 
the Subcommittee on International Terrorism and Nonproliferation, and 
we understand that terrorists want to do us harm. We forget our history 
too quickly. September 11 was not that long ago, but the next terrorist 
attack that occurs against us is probably not going to be because 
somebody gets on some airplane and flies into Reagan National over here 
and gets off the airplane and says I wonder what damage I can do to 
Washington D.C. It is not going to happen that way, even though we are 
doing the best we can in the airline industry.
  It is going to happen that somebody crosses the border into the 
United States because this country still has porous, open borders. It 
is easier to cross the border, and we know that has already occurred, 
Mr. Speaker. How many of those people that are here are going to do us 
harm? We do not know, but we do know that there are people who wish to 
do us harm that are forming cells in Mexico, assimilating into the 
Mexican population, learning Spanish and then sneaking into the United 
States as migrant workers and setting up cells in this country and some 
day hoping to do us harm.
  We have an obligation to fight the war on terror at our borders. We 
are protecting the borders of other nations. Why are we not protecting 
our own border against terrorists? That is the second group of people 
that we have to demand that we keep out of this country, and those are 
the terrorists.
  Then the third group of the people are those human traffickers. We 
call those people coyotes because that is what they are is a bunch of 
coyotes who bring people into the United States for money, and the 
human smugglers work with the drug dealers. That is what we have got to 
understand; and that little group of terrorists, we know they are kind 
of involved in all of that, too. You see, these three groups all work 
together because they know the routes into the United States to bring 
drugs, damage or weapons and bring human beings, and for those reasons, 
we have to protect the dignity of our country.
  We know, of course, that the Mexican Government, Generalissimo 
Vicente Fox is not doing anything to stop this, contrary to what he 
says, contrary to the comments he makes, that apparently he is not 
doing anything to stop this nonsense.
  We recently understand that in Hudspeth County, Texas, an armed group 
of military from Mexico, in other words, Mexican soldiers, were on 
American soil helping drug dealers. The Hudspeth County sheriff so 
relates this event; and we know that in the last several years, since 
1996, there have been 200 recorded incidences of Federal military from 
Mexico on the American side of the border. Why are they here? Well, 
they are not over here looking for work, Mr. Speaker.
  So now we use our military to go down to the border, the proposal to 
use the National Guard to enforce the border, enforce the rule of law, 
to help our border sheriffs, to help our Border Patrol. So what is 
Mexico's response? They are going to sue us. Well, we are going to take 
you to court in your own court and try to prevent those military, those 
American soldiers, from being on our side of the border, protecting us 
from them. How outrageous is that, going to sue to prevent that from 
occurring.
  Not only that, you know, over in Maricopa County in Arizona, the 
sheriff there is trying to enforce the rule of law and arrest folks 
that are illegally in the United States. They threatened to sue him, 
too, because you do not have the authority to do that says the Mexican 
Government, and so they are going to take him to court, trying to 
prevent local law enforcement from enforcing American law.
  So how have we allowed ourselves to get in a situation where we have 
a foreign nation taking us to court in our own courts, preventing us 
from protecting our borders? Just like in 1836, when William Barret 
Travis and those volunteers at the Alamo, volunteers from every State 
in the United States and 13 foreign countries, including Mexico, 
fighting for dignity were under siege of Santa Ana, it appears that the 
United States, at least on our southern border, is under siege by 
Generalissimo Santa Ana Vicente Fox.
  The invasion, of course, benefits Mexico and its allies--$20 billion 
a year in remittance go to Mexico since Mexican nationals working in 
the United States send that money south of the border. The number 
happens to be $20 billion. That is just a number. You know, here in 
Washington, $1 billion here, $1 billion there, does not mean anything; 
but to Mexico, that $20 billion of money going south of the border into 
the coffers of Mexico is the second largest amount of foreign income 
into Mexico, save only the crude oil that they sell on the world 
market.
  We also now understand the population of the northern states of 
Mexico has declined 35 percent. Well, where are those people? They are 
all in the United States. When I was down on the Texas-Mexico border, 
the sheriffs were explaining to me, the border towns across the river, 
many of which you could see, are almost totally empty of the male 
population. The only people there are kids and women and older 
citizens. Well, where is the male population? They are all in the 
United States, sending money back to Mexico. Mexico, the border towns 
in Mexico have become ghost towns because those people have come to the 
United States.
  President Fox is making his problem our problem. His failure to get 
rid of corruption in Mexico, his failure to have a stable economy, his 
failure to take advantage of the workers in Mexico and the natural 
resources in Mexico to make that nation a prosperous country, he is 
making his problems our problems.
  Let me at this time, Mr. Speaker, recite to you an immigration 
policy: number one, if you migrate to this country, you must speak the 
language. Two, you have to be a professional or investor; no unskilled 
workers are allowed. Number three, there will be no special bilingual 
programs in the school, no special ballots or elections, and all 
government business will be conducted in just one language. Four, 
foreigners will not have the right to vote. Five, foreigners will never 
be able to hold public office. Six, foreigners will not be a burden to 
taxpayers; there will be no welfare, no health care, no government 
assistance. Seven, if foreigners come and want to buy land, this is 
highly restricted. Eight, foreigners may not protest; no demonstration, 
no foreign flag, no political organizing and no criticizing the 
President or the policies. Nine, if you come into the country 
illegally, you will be arrested by our Federal police, sent to jail and 
then deported.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not the U.S. immigration policy, but this is the 
alleged policy of President Vicente Fox in Mexico. It appears to me 
that the immigration policy of Mexico is quite hypocritical because 
they have a policy that they do not want us to have in this country, 
and it is ironic that Mexico defends its southern border from illegals 
coming in from the South American countries and from Central American 
countries, has an immigration policy like this, and the United States 
is harassed, intimidated and criticized for trying to have a simple and 
fair immigration policy.
  Let me continue to show you how absurd this problem has become.
  There is this little document called the matricula consular card. 
Now, what that is, is a card that is issued to people illegally in the 
United States. That is an identification card, and that matricula 
consular card is not just used for identification, but it allows 
people--illegally in the United States--to go and open a bank account. 
Then the bank, working with the illegal that is in the United States, 
can ship that money that they are earning here back home to whatever 
country they come from. Some say there are 11 million people here 
illegally. Others argue that there are 15 million, maybe 20 million 
people illegally in the United States.
  Let us talk about immigration. Let us talk a little bit about the 
guest worker program. Oh, how the United States has been criticized by 
certain countries because we do not let people

[[Page 8884]]

come here. The United States is a Nation of immigrants, we all know 
that. It still has the most liberal immigration policy in the world. We 
let more people in legally in the United States every year than all of 
Europe does, and let me give you an example of how many people.
  This chart shows since 2000 how many people we legally let in the 
United States each year: 2000, it was about 1 million; 2001, 1.1 
million; 2002, 1.1 million; 2003, 1.2 million; 2004, 1.1 million. These 
are people legally allowed into the United States; and you notice, most 
of these people stay in the United States. They have a legal permit to 
be here. Under whatever system they come here legally allows them to 
stay 3 to 5 years. So we have several million people already in the 
United States legally. We also know that 40 percent of them that come 
here legally, when they are supposed to go home, they do not do it. 
That is another issue.
  So this business about we do not have a guest worker program is 
nonsense. What has this done? Has allowing 1.1 million people legally 
in the country every year stopped illegal entry into this country? 
Absolutely not. In fact, all it has done is encourage more people to 
come here illegally because people are going to come here whether we 
let them in or not, and that is just the way it seems to be. So the 
guest worker program does not stop illegal entry into this country.
  This body down the hallway from us who want to increase the number of 
people legally coming here under a guest worker program must understand 
that that will do nothing to stop the illegal entry into this United 
States.
  We hear that they are taking jobs away from Americans. I think that 
is nonsense. That is just an excuse to let people who come here 
illegally and come here legally as an excuse to pay them subpar wages. 
It appears to me that the United States is sort of staring down the 
barrel of this big battle and embracing the enemy.

                              {time}  1645

  And if we were at the Alamo, it would be similar to asking Santa Anna 
to come on into the Alamo for whiskey before he takes us over, because 
we do not seem to understand this problem and the affects on our 
Nation. If affects our country.
  Let us talk about education. Many States are looking for money to 
educate their youth. Education is one of the bedrocks of this Nation, 
educating the young to be all they can be. But most States, and I do 
not know any State that has more money than they need in the area of 
education, but part of their education problem is they have to educate 
people that are here illegally because that is the way it is. They have 
to educate those people. In some States, my State for example, up to 20 
percent of the cost of the education system in the State is based upon 
the fact they are educating people illegally in the United States.
  Why don't we talk about that? Why don't we deal with that issue? Is 
there any other country in the world that one of us in this room could 
illegally go into and demand an education in our own language and get 
it? I think not. But in the United States we do it, and we pay the 
consequences for the illegal entry into our country.
  The second one is health care. Every American is concerned about 
health care and the cost of health care. There are so many Americans in 
the middle class that are opting out of insurance because they can't 
afford insurance and they are concerned about health care for 
themselves and their families and what is going to happen to them down 
the road. It is one of the biggest concerns all of us in this House 
hear about every day, the cost of health care. Well, about 23 percent 
of the cost of health care is being paid by us because people who are 
in the system aren't paying for it.
  And I am not talking about the uninsured. I am talking about the 
people here illegally in the United States. Just a couple of weeks ago, 
a hospital down in my district just spent $250,000 on one patient, and 
he happened to be in the United States illegally. Because of an injury 
that he had, we paid for it because he certainly didn't have any means 
to take care of himself.
  We know illegals go to the emergency rooms. The highest most 
expensive costs in our health care system are the trauma rooms, the 
emergency rooms, and they go there to get taken care of because we 
don't turn anybody down. That is our system in this country. Does that 
make any sense at all?
  So what are the hospitals doing? They are closing their emergency 
rooms. Some hospitals are closing down because they can't afford to 
stay in business because they are treating people that don't pay their 
own way. And Americans are not getting health care because we are 
having to pay for the health care of those people who are here 
illegally in the United States.
  The third category, besides education and health care, is the 
criminal justice system. Before I came to this House, I spent all my 
time in the criminal justice system, first as a prosecutor, and then 22 
years as a judge down in Texas trying felony cases. And about 20 
percent of the people that come through our criminal justice system are 
illegally in the United States. So they are not only committing crimes, 
they are getting caught, then going through the justice system that 
taxpayers pay for, and then they go to our penitentiaries, if 
convicted, and we have to pay for that system too.
  So we get hit twice by criminals from other countries all over the 
world. First, it is the crime, and second, we pay for the crime because 
we furnish them the system and then we pay for their incarceration as 
well.
  The fourth category, of course, is social services, such as Social 
Security benefits. Our Social Security System was never designed to be 
a system that took care of people illegally in the United States and 
allowed them to send their Social Security benefits back home to the 
country they came from, and yet that is occurring. The Social Security 
System was never designed to be an identifying system that employers 
have got to check Social Security numbers.
  Social Security was never designed to be an identification for who 
you are. It is a retirement system. So we have abused the Social 
Security System, or allowed it to be abused by those people who don't 
even belong in the United States.
  Another category that I just cannot comprehend is how we allow folks 
that are illegally in the United States, and I am not talking about 
legal aliens or immigrants that are here legally, we will get to them 
in a minute, I am talking about folks who are here illegally in the 
United States, who graduate from one of our high schools and then want 
to go to college. Now, if one of these folks from some foreign country, 
any foreign country, illegally in the United States, gets admitted to 
one of our State universities in Texas, they pay in-State tuition. They 
pay the same tuition anybody else in the State of Texas would pay.
  Remember, we wonder, do we not, why are they going to school anyway 
if they are illegally in the country? But let's say you are from 
Oklahoma. We can talk about Oklahoma or Iowa, where Mr. King is from, 
and let's say one of those students, American citizen, legal immigrant, 
wishes to go to school in the State of Texas to a State school. They 
pay out of State tuition because they are not from around here. They 
are from some other place. So we make them pay out of state tuition.
  So I ask this question, Mr. Speaker: Why do we discriminate against 
American citizens in other States, legal immigrants in other States, 
make them pay out of State tuition and furnish an in-State tuition fee 
to a person illegally in our own State? That is an absurd policy. I 
don't understand why we do that. That is certainly not fair to people 
that are legally in the country or to American citizens.
  One thing that has been mentioned and continues to be mentioned is 
the concept of the fraud that is perpetrated on the United States based 
upon the 14th amendment. Let me give an example.
  Down in south Texas, frequently pregnant ladies come across the Texas 
River, illegally coming to the United States from all over the world, 
and

[[Page 8885]]

then they have a child born then in the United States. We assume that 
child is an American citizen. And because it is our policy to assume 
that person is an American citizen, the mother gets to stay. If the 
husband is here, he gets to stay. And before you know it, the whole 
family is allowed to stay because of the fraud perpetrated on the 
American people by that pregnant individual coming into the United 
States illegally and having a child.
  It is based upon a phrase in the 14th amendment that says that ``All 
persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the 
jurisdiction thereof'' are citizens. Now, notice, Mr. Speaker, what the 
phrase says. It says ``all persons born or naturalized and subject to 
the jurisdiction thereof'' are citizens.
  Well, I think the argument should be made that that individual that 
perpetrated a fraud on the United States, illegally coming into the 
country, is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. She 
is subject to the jurisdiction of whatever country she came from. And, 
hopefully, this matter will be resolved by either legislation from this 
body or by our Supreme Court across the street to determine whether or 
not those people really are subject to the jurisdiction of the United 
States and whether they should be granted automatic citizenship or not. 
That will be left for another time.
  But just to show you how we are our own worst enemy and how we are 
inviting the insurgents into our country, we have cities in this 
Nation, it is usually the large cities, the big cities, and, 
unfortunately, it happens to be my city of Houston, Texas, that have 
sanctuary policies. What a sanctuary policy is that local police 
officers are instructed that they are not to stop people and inquire as 
to their legal status in the country. If they do so, then they will be 
disciplined. This gives an open invitation to people, because they know 
they will not be stopped by the police, arrested and deported.
  What used to happen, Mr. Speaker, was local police would stop 
somebody on a traffic or some other minor offense, find out they were 
here illegally in the United States, and they would turn them over to 
the immigration officials and immigration officials would then deport 
that individual. That doesn't happen any more. Now they may stop them 
and realize they are from some other country, but they let them go 
because cities have sanctuary policies. Don't arrest people here 
illegally in the United States.
  This means you can get arrested for jaywalking but you can't be 
arrested for being here illegally in this country. Makes me wonder 
whether or not we have lost our common sense.
  Let me read some letters and correspondence I have gotten and 
received from individuals about this whole issue of unlawful entry into 
the country. As many Members of the House have done, we have received 
numerous comments, e-mails, letters and phone calls of what people 
think about this whole issue of the border and border security, which 
is the issue.
  One of the towns I represent is a small town called Humble, Texas, 
and Zine from Humble has written me this comment: She says, ``I am an 
immigrant myself, who was blessed to have the privilege of becoming an 
American citizen. I came to this country legally many years ago with my 
two daughters. As soon as we arrived, my daughters were enrolled in 
school so they could learn English and we spoke only English at home. 
My sister, who sponsored us, took us to McDonald's and told my 
daughters that they couldn't really be Americans unless they ate 
hamburgers and drank Coca-Cola. Five years later, we became U.S. 
citizens. We are Brazilian by birth and Americans by choice, and we did 
it legally. We never demanded any rights because we had none until we 
became citizens. We pay taxes, we obey the law, we love this country 
with its tradition and all it stands for, and we do not wish to see it 
destroyed or changed. In 2004, I had to go to the emergency room of a 
local hospital. I was there for 7\1/2\ hours because the waiting room 
was full of illegals who, according to the law, had to be taken care 
of. I pay taxes, they don't. Where are my rights?
  Another letter I received from Jack, in Houston, Texas, tells me 
this. He says, ``My wife, who I love dearly, is an immigrant, a legal 
immigrant who took the time and effort and wanted to do the right thing 
that would allow her to come and stay in this country legally. For 
illegal immigrants to demand their citizenship and rights I think 
pretty much violates all this country stands for, which is fair and 
equal treatment under the law of the land, which they seen fit to 
break. To me, this is akin to convicts in prison demanding to be 
released because they want to be released regardless of crimes that 
they have committed.''
  Another U.S. citizen of Hispanic descent, Marinell, from Houston, 
proudly writes, ``Speaking for the Hispanic community who are U.S. 
citizens, I'm asking you for your support to secure the borders. There 
are some issues that are very important and are simple that should be 
followed. One, close the border. Two, make illegal entry into the 
United States a felony. Three, no amnesty programs by any name. Four, 
guest workers should be fingerprinted and background checked. Five, any 
detained illegals should be immediately deported.
  Six, English only. The cost to us for accommodating so many languages 
is overwhelming. Seven, no more automatic citizenship for people born 
in America of parents who are not U.S. citizens. Eight, exact a tax on 
money wired out of the United States by illegals. Nine, stop listening 
to illegals and start listening to Hispanics who are U.S. citizens.
  Ten, don't believe that our economy will collapse if we don't have 
illegals. We would all rather pay a little more for goods and services 
and less for our health care premiums.''
  Wise common sense by a person who did it the right way, proud to be 
in the United States and proud to be here legally.
  Philip from Montgomery, Texas, says, ``I've heard it argued that 
illegals are only coming to improve their economic standing. Can not 
the same be said of anyone who commits larceny? They want to improve 
their economic standing as well. Illegals are systematically robbing 
our public coffers, denying our citizens adequate education, medical 
care and other essential services. Enough is enough.''
  Carl from Beaumont, Texas, writes, ``The argument used to justify 
illegal aliens is that they will do the work that Americans won't do. 
Well, that is not correct. Americans will do the work if paid the going 
wage, not less than the minimum wage. I am disheartened that we reward 
employers who rob Americans of honest work by cheap labor. This has to 
stop. This country has grown into a powerhouse without resorting to 
economic slavery of immigrants.''
  Just this week I received a letter from a member of a local union 
down in Beaumont, Texas. He sent me a newspaper article. This newspaper 
article headlines ``Fabricator requests 300 Mexican workers. Company 
claims there's not enough Americans to work.'' And the article goes 
ahead and points out that there are three businesses down in Beaumont, 
Texas, that want pipefitters and welders to come on board from other 
nations because there is not workers. Well, that is preposterous. This 
local pipefitters union member wrote me a letter saying he hadn't even 
heard about this, and his whole responsibility is finding jobs for 
local citizens as pipefitters and as welders.
  And you notice we are talking about pipefitters and we are talking 
about welders. We are not talking about someone doing unskilled labor. 
These are good wages. And some of the businesses would rather hire 
people from other nations, claiming there are no Americans that will 
take these jobs, and then pay subpar wages. Mr. Speaker, this is just 
not right, and these individuals certainly, who are American citizens 
and are legally here, ought to be receiving the jobs over people from 
other nations.
  So what are the solutions? The first one, the government has to fight 
for America. Some have said that our government's at war but it is at 
war with

[[Page 8886]]

the American public, at war with the American will. We ought to make 
sure our government has the moral will to protect the dignity of our 
country, the borders, both the northern border and the southern border.
  Our government has to quit working for other nations. There are 
reports even this week that the Minutemen, nonviolent individuals who 
go and sit on the border and watch for illegals coming in and then 
notify the Border Patrol, there are reports that the Border Patrol is 
telling the Mexican government where these Minutemen are so that the 
illegals crossing into the United States go around them.
  I do not know if this is true or not, but we are going to find out if 
that is true and it is going to stop. The American Government has to 
work for America not for foreign governments.
  We have to protect our borders. I mentioned earlier that we protect 
the borders of other nations, so maybe we ought to protect the borders 
of our own Nation. Third world countries protect their borders better 
than the United States does.

                              {time}  1700

  The reason is we do not have the moral will to protect the dignity of 
the border. We talk about how we are going to protect the border, but 
we have not done it. There was talk about it in 1996 when this House 
talked about border security and a guest worker program. Nothing 
happened. We got the guest worker program, we just didn't get border 
security.
  My grandfather used to say when all is said and done, more is said 
than done. That is what is going on. We are talking about it and there 
is a lot of publicity about it, but it does not seem that we are 
demanding and securing the border.
  We have to help the Border Patrol do their job. We need to give them 
the best equipment. Just like we give our military the best equipment, 
we need to give our border patrol the best equipment.
  The National Guard, they are part of the military. Their 
responsibility is to protect us. It is a good idea to use them 
immediately because no wall can be built overnight, yet the National 
Guard can be deployed overnight. Even if Generalissimo Vicente Fox does 
not like it, we ought to do it.
  We should consider using a fence in appropriate areas. I know other 
Members of Congress have received all types of correspondence and mail. 
We get all kinds of things sent to us. But recently, I had an 
individual from Texas send me four cases of bricks. Here is one of 
those bricks. He sent a letter along with it. In the letter he said, 
why don't you use this brick and these other bricks to build a wall to 
protect us from people illegally coming into the United States. Other 
Members of Congress have received these bricks as well.
  The American public wants something done. Whatever it takes to secure 
the dignity of the United States, we certainly ought to do it. Maybe we 
ought to have Extreme Makeover go down to the Texas border and have an 
``Extreme Makeover Border'' edition. As fast as they build something, 
they would not take long to build a wall. The reason we are building 
the wall is because of those people illegally coming into the United 
States. No American should ever feel guilty about that.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to use the best law enforcement groups in the 
United States and that is the sheriffs, the Texas sheriff, the border 
sheriffs in California, Arizona and New Mexico. Those are some right-
thinking folks. They know the area. They know the people. They have 
dedicated their lives to enforcing the law. But the way the law is 
written now, we cannot use the border sheriffs in detaining illegals 
that come into our country, and we ought to use them. We ought to give 
them the law enforcement power to turn illegals over to Federal 
authorities and have Federal authorities deport those individuals.
  Rick Flores of Webb County made the comment, he said this is not a 
partisan issue. It is not a Republican issue or a Democratic issue, and 
he is a Democrat. He said this is a red, white and blue issue. He is 
right. Our border sheriffs ought to be used because they all grew up in 
these particular areas. They know the people and know who shouldn't be 
in those particular areas. So we should give them the money to do this.
  The second thing we need to do after we secure the border, and we 
secure the borders before we start talking about people who are here 
illegally or any other immigration policy because you must stop the 
bleeding before you can solve the problem.
  Once we secure the dignity of the border, we have to go back and look 
at our immigration policy. It is chaos in my opinion. It takes too long 
for people to come here legally. I have had individuals from Mexico who 
have tried to get into the United States, and it has taken years. 
People in my district, it took them a long time to come in legally. We 
seem to discriminate against people. We do not treat them all alike. We 
have to look at our immigration policy, maybe start over and make it 
fair and put the world on notice here is how you enter the United 
States legally.
  Whether you want to work here, or whether you want to be a resident 
alien or become an American citizen. We have to stop the chaos in the 
immigration department.
  One thing that we ought to do, it seems real obvious to me, when 
people cross from the nation of Mexico or Canada or the Caribbean, they 
can show one of several hundred documents to prove that they are from 
some other nation. They can even use a baptismal certificate. Our 
border agents have to shuffle through all of these different papers to 
figure out whether these people in this car are legally coming into the 
United States.
  Why do we make it so difficult on ourselves? Why don't we do what 
every other nation does, and that is if you come to the United States 
legally, you have to have a passport, just like they do in every other 
nation in the world. When we let people into this country legally, we 
do not even know who they are. When they leave, we do not record that 
they left. With the bar code in a passport, we can check people's 
criminal record. We can record and keep a database if they are legally 
coming into this country and when they have to go home.
  Then the employer can have a photograph on a visa and the employer 
can use a government document rather than some Social Security number 
to see if the person he is hiring is legally in the United States and 
quit making police officers out of our businesses.
  Why people are opposed to a passport, I do not know. We talk about 
all kinds of identification cards that we want people to carry; simple, 
universal, worldwide, because we are in the world community, a 
worldwide document, a passport to enter the United States.
  Then we ought to deport felons that are convicted automatically. Let 
me tell you what happens. Someone would be in this country, they are 
caught committing a crime. They are tried. They are sent to the Texas 
penitentiary. You would think that our government would automatically 
deport those people. But we do not do that. What we do is let them go 
back in the county in which they were convicted. Then the immigration 
service has to recapture them and have a deportation hearing and may or 
may not deport them.
  I tried people back in Texas who were illegally in the United States 
and never deported. They were released, went back and committed another 
crime, and went back to the penitentiary. We ought to deport people who 
are convicted of a felony if they are from another country.
  Probably the best example of an individual who abused our system was 
an individual by the name of Angel Resendiz. He came to the United 
States. He was captured several times, deported a few times. After 
being released, he committed nine murders in the United States. He was 
released by Federal authorities after being captured several other 
times. Resendiz is sitting now on death row in Texas waiting to be 
executed.
  I haven't even talked about those people from all over the world who

[[Page 8887]]

come here just to commit crime. So deport people who are convicted of 
felonies in our Nation as soon as they serve their sentence. We have to 
abolish this catch-and-release policy. Catch and release is a phrase 
that fishermen use. Catch and release is you catch them, take them off 
the hook and you let them go.
  That is what they do with fish, catch and release. Because we claim 
we do not have enough facilities to detain individuals. People from 
Mexico, if you are captured illegally, we deport you. We send you back 
home. But if you are from some other nation other than Mexico, OTMs, if 
you are from China or Peru or France, instead of deporting you 
automatically, you are released. Thus, the catch and release. What they 
do, they stand before a magistrate and swear that they will come back 
for their deportation hearing in 6 months.
  Mr. Speaker, does it surprise anybody that more than 90 percent of 
those people we never see them again. They just move on. We catch them, 
we let them go. This is absurd. Police officers work too hard to 
capture these individuals just to let them go. We have to find 
facilities to house these people until they are deported. Put them on 
old military bases.
  We have 10,000 trailers sitting in Hope, Arkansas, owned by FEMA. 
They are in Hope because they would not bring them down to hurricane 
areas like Texas because of the floodplain. That violates one of their 
policies. Why not use FEMA trailers as temporary housing for OTMs. Here 
we discriminate against Mexican nationals here illegally because we 
send them home. But if you are from some other Nation other than 
Mexico, you are released and told to come back. And then we are shocked 
that people do not come back.
  We ought to deny benefits for people here illegally in this country. 
They shouldn't receive health care, education, welfare, housing, AFDC, 
Social Security and they certainly should not receive amnesty. The idea 
that we are going to tell people here is what we are going to do, we 
are going to give you amnesty, but you are going to have to pay a fine, 
pay some back taxes and learn English. What if they do not do that? We 
are going to do nothing because that is what we have been doing, 
nothing. What prompts those people to do that. They have been dealing 
with a cash economy. They do not even know what their back taxes are. 
So this whole idea of rewarding illegal behavior is wrong.
  We ought to also go after employers that knowingly hire people 
illegally in this country. You know, 3 or 4 weeks ago we heard about a 
couple of businesses in the United States that were raided and captured 
folks that were here illegally, and the business was being prosecuted 
for hiring illegals. That has gone away. That is not in the news 
anymore. Why not? Because all that was a publicity stunt, in my 
opinion.
  There are many businesses that hire people legally from other 
nations, and there are other businesses for cheap, plantation labor 
hiring them subpar. We ought to go after those people. It is follow the 
money. Follow the money trail, and that is something that we ought to 
do.
  There are people with different motives that do not want our borders 
protected. There are some on the left, those northeastern elites who I 
think for political gain don't want our borders protected. There are 
people on the right for cheap labor that do not want our borders 
protected. Our borders need to be protected because all people in this 
country have the right to have our borders protected.
  Mr. Speaker, the battle for America and its dignity is upon us. I 
think we ought to fight for our homeland. This has nothing to do with 
race. It has everything to do with the law. As I have mentioned, there 
are many good folks from other nations that are legally in this country 
that have become citizens. But those people that illegally flaunt our 
Nation and our laws should be held accountable. Our Nation has to be 
engaged in this process.
  I am concerned that maybe our Nation is not engaged. Maybe we do not 
understand that there are those who wish to colonize our country. We 
cannot allow this unlawful, illegal invasion and insurgency and 
colonization to occur. The line has been drawn in the sand, and I hope 
we are willing to cross it and protect our border. The number one duty 
of government is public safety. We had better get in the fight. Instead 
of waving the white flag of indifference, we have to understand that 
our Nation is sovereign. Part of sovereignty is protecting the borders.
  Mr. Speaker, history will reflect on these days and one wonders in 
the long lamentable catalog of human conduct, were these the best of 
days or were these the end of our days. Only history will tell how we 
as a people react to protecting our Nation, to establishing border 
security, to establishing a fair immigration policy, and then 
establishing a policy on what to do with those folks already here 
illegally. We can solve these problems, Mr. Speaker. America has always 
been able to solve every problem. With the good Lord's help, we have 
solved every problem we have ever had, but we must have the moral will, 
we must have the moral desire and the moral integrity to defend our 
borders.
  Mr. Speaker, that's just the way it is.

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