[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23971-23975]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


                              {time}  1615
                        THE TEXAS/MEXICO BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. POE. Mr. Speaker, last week I got to go down to the west Texas 
town of El Paso, that town that Marty Robbins sang that famous ballad 
about. It was one of my several trips to the Texas/Mexico border since 
I've been in Congress, now almost a dozen times down along the Rio 
Grande River.
  The Texas border with Mexico, the river border, is 1,248 miles long. 
That doesn't mean much, but it's the same distance from New York City 
to Kansas City. And I spent last week in two of those counties, the 
furthest west county, El Paso County, and the second county to the 
east, Hudspeth County.
  I met with the Sheriff's Department in El Paso County, and Sheriff 
Leo Samaniego and his chief deputy, Jimmy Apodaca and Public 
Information Officer Rick Clancy, all El Paso natives, took me around 
the area of El Paso city and the County of El Paso. I'd like to 
describe the scene that I saw there.
  In El Paso, El Paso is a community of about 500,000 people. Across 
the Rio Grande River is Juarez, Mexico, a community of over 2 million 
individuals. Juarez, unlike some border towns, is a thriving area. The 
economy is booming. And across the city of El Paso, on the Rio Grande 
River, there is an 18-mile fence. And let me describe that fence 
between Mexico and the United States. The Rio Grande River is to the 
south. The next thing you see is green space, it's primarily dirt, for 
about 200 yards. And then there is a fence, a fence that protects the 
canal that runs on the northern side of the Rio Grande River. You see, 
the canal has more water in it sometimes than the Rio Grande River 
does. And it's a manmade canal. It's full of water most of the time. So 
there's a fence on each side of the canal.
  Then there is a road that the Border Patrol patrols, and then there 
is yet one more fence before the highway there in the city of El Paso. 
And this fence has been there for some time. And along that 18-mile 
stretch in the city of El Paso about every quarter of a mile on the 
road, the Border Patrol road, there is a Border Patrol vehicle. And we 
saw numerous of those vehicles while I was there those several days. 
And it seems to me that area is very well protected, and no one crosses 
into the United States because of those three fences, the canal, and 
the presence of the Border Patrol.
  Before the fence was there, the border was basically wide open and 
people came right across into El Paso and dodged traffic there on the 
main streets. According to the sheriff's department, since the fence 
has been built in the city of El Paso, crime in El Paso has dropped 60 
percent. So the Border Patrol, working with the local law enforcement, 
seems to do a good job of keeping people, especially criminals who want 
to come in and commit crime in El Paso city and flee back to Juarez, 
from coming into the town. The situation is somewhat different as you 
move on further down the river.
  Before I mention that, I would like to mention a couple of things 
that I did observe. In the mornings we went out to the several 
crossings into the United States, the legal crossings, and observed 
people coming in from Mexico to the United States. At about 6:15 in the 
morning, very early, was when these photographs were taken. Now, these 
photographs were taken by the Rio Grande River, and turning around, 
these photographs are taken of students going into El Paso city. And 
you will notice they have on school uniforms. This individual is even 
carrying a set of golf clubs that he brought from home, I suspect, to 
go to school. Here are some kids down here earlier in the morning, and 
they also have their backpacks, their school uniforms, and they are 
headed into the United States.
  How do we know they were school students? Well, many of them were 
wearing the T-shirts of the colors of the elementary school, purple and 
blue and green and red, or gray. And hundreds of these kids cross the 
border into the United States every day from Mexico to go to school in 
the United States. At the end of the day, all of these kids, some of 
them escorted by their parents, cross back over into Juarez, Mexico, to 
go home. And this is a daily occurrence when school is in session.
  It seems to me that the United States is funding the education of 
foreign nationals that not only don't live here; they live somewhere 
else and come to our schools all at the expense of taxpayers in the 
United States. People who pay their taxes, live here legally, whether 
citizens or not, fund the education system for people in some other 
nation on a daily basis.
  I went to some of the local high schools and noticed how some of the 
students would drive up in their vehicles and they would have Mexican 
license plates on their vehicles. Two apparently had crossed the border 
that morning, coming into the United States, going to American high 
schools, and turning around at the end of the day and going back home. 
It seems to me that this ought not to be.
  The sheriff's department tells me that about 40 percent of the El 
Paso school system is made up of citizens from Mexico that come across 
each day into the United States. Statistics are hard to find. The El 
Paso school district seems to disagree with that.
  And you will notice these aren't poor kids coming over. These are 
kids that are just basically middle-class kids coming to the United 
States. And we took numerous photographs of those kids. Here are some 
of those just for your benefit.
  But as we moved out of the city of El Paso, which, like I said, 
seemed to be a secure place for basically illegal traffic coming in 
except for maybe situations like where the ports of entry are not 
screened or protected very well by the border protectors, there seems 
to be no

[[Page 23972]]

presence of the Border Patrol outside the city of El Paso throughout 
the rest of the county. Let me try to explain that area.
  This is a map of a partial area of the towns and locales that I went 
to last week as a guest of the sheriff's department. You will notice up 
here in the far western portion of Texas that borders Mexico is the 
city of El Paso, this yellow area here. The city of El Paso, like I 
said, has that 18-mile fence. As soon as you get out of the city of El 
Paso and go down to the county line of El Paso, things are a lot 
different and the presence of the Border Patrol was a lot different, in 
my opinion.
  First of all, of course, there is no fence that was built like the 
one that I just described. As soon as you get out of the city of El 
Paso, there's no fence of any type.
  So I traveled along with the sheriff's department of El Paso County 
to these different small little towns along the border, border towns. 
Fabens, Texas, we all heard about Fabens, Texas, where the Border 
Patrol officers got arrested and convicted for trying to apprehend a 
drug smuggler. That's a different story for another time. And these 
other small towns all along the border.
  The way the situation is on the border and how I will describe it is 
to make it clear on how easy it is to cross into the United States. Of 
course, there's the Rio Grande River. Depending on where you go, there 
is sometimes not even water in the Rio Grande River. And as soon as you 
cross the Rio Grande into the United States, there is a Texas highway, 
Highway 20, that runs the length of El Paso County and part of the next 
county, Hudspeth County. That road is about 3 miles from the border. 
And then you go an additional 2 miles along the border, this entire 
area here, and there is Interstate 10 that travels all the way from 
Florida through Texas to California. So it is about 5 miles from the 
border to Interstate Highway 10.
  The area is flat. The area has brush, and it's low brush and it's 
thick brush, very easy to hide in that area. And at night you can see 
above that brush for miles. You can see from the Rio Grande River all 
the way to the interstate where all of the vehicles are traveling up 
and down the interstate.
  So we visited these little small villages in El Paso County and 
talked to some of the individuals that were there, that lived there, 
that have lived there, their families, for generations. And this was 
probably the most, shall I say, expressive bunch of people that I have 
ever met. These farmers and ranchers that live on the Rio Grande River 
on the Texas side, the American side, and what they are going through 
and their property has been tampered with because the Federal 
Government doesn't secure the border. These ranchers, these villagers, 
they all live right on the Rio Grande River. They live between the 
river and Interstate 10. Some of them live south of Highway 20, right 
on the river. And I met with one of those locals, and he said that he 
felt like our own government has deserted the ranchers and farmers in 
the rural areas of our country. He said he waits sometimes a long time 
for the Border Patrol to show up when they are called.
  And here is the reason for that: it would seem to me the Border 
Patrol ought to patrol the border, which is the Rio Grande River. The 
Border Patrol, it seems to me, ought to be on the border to protect the 
border. But most of the time they are not on the border. They are on 
Interstate 10, which is 5 miles from the border, driving up and down 
that area. Well, if people get to Interstate 10, they are already in 
the United States. And if they can cross into the United States, it's 
very easy to get picked up on Interstate 10 or even Highway 20 here and 
dispersed into the United States.
  So what happens is, because of this policy of keeping the Border 
Patrol on Interstate 10 for the most part, you leave these ranchers, 
these farmers, and these people who live in these small villages and 
towns in no-man's land. And I visited in many of these small villages 
and these very small homes on the American side, and I was shocked to 
see the bars on the windows and how the people have tried to protect 
their property from just the criminal element that crosses into the 
United States because they are, in their opinion, without adequate 
protection.
  We need to enforce the border on the border, not have a policy that 
puts the Border Patrol 5 miles from the border on Interstate 10. And, 
of course, that is what the farmers and the ranchers said as well.
  It was interesting to hear from these farmers and ranchers, and they 
would talk to me. They all met together in one of their farmhouses and 
talked for several, several hours on this tremendous issue. And they 
said that they see everybody coming across, that the days and times 
have changed. It used to be that this border was basically fairly open. 
I mean by that there would be crossings on both sides, Americans into 
Mexico, Mexicans into the United States. There would be landowners on 
both sides who would do business with each other. But those days are 
over. The people coming over now, according to these farmers and 
ranchers, are criminals. Not all of them, but many of them are. And 
they destroy their property. They destroy the vehicles that they have. 
They steal their property.
  And we have heard much about a virtual fence. A virtual fence. What 
is a virtual fence? It means there is no fence, but there are cameras 
that watch the border. And I will give you an example of how the 
virtual fence works along this area. There are cameras, and some of 
those are maintained and monitored. And on three different occasions, I 
saw through a vision in heat sensor cameras illegals coming into the 
United States across the border. The Border Patrol was notified to come 
to those areas and pick up these people bringing in whatever, drugs, or 
just coming into the United States.
  In one instance the Border Patrol took 45 minutes to get to the 
location. They were being directed by the person watching the camera to 
where the illegals had crossed, and they were within 30 feet of them 
and still couldn't see them because, you see, that brush is so thick. 
And they were hiding 30 feet away, and finally the Border Patrol left 
that area. And those particular three individuals that were hiding in 
the brush had on baggy clothes, the kind that drug smugglers bring in 
when they pack their bodies with drugs to smuggle into the United 
States.
  Let me mention this about the Border Patrol. I think the Border 
Patrol agents that work on our border do as good a job as our 
government will let them do. They are fine people. But they have to 
follow the policies of somebody else, I think probably people here in 
Washington, DC, maybe folks that have never even been to the border. So 
they do what they are told to do, and they patrol the area they are 
told to patrol. It would seem to me that we ought to have our Border 
Patrol working more hand in hand with the locals, the sheriff's 
department, and patrolling closer to the border.
  But the virtual fence, it's virtual all right. People are still able 
to cross in through that virtual fence.
  It is interesting that the sheriffs and the deputy sheriffs that work 
out there, they are a little different than the Border Patrol. Like I 
said, nothing against the Border Patrol. We need them. We need more of 
them. We need more boots on the ground, probably more boots on the 
ground than we do other things. But the sheriffs' deputies and the 
sheriffs, they all grew up there. They all are from there. They know 
the people who ought to be there and the people who are from some other 
place. So we certainly need to use them as well.
  The farmers, what do they grow down there in southwest Texas anyway? 
They used to grow cotton. They don't do that anymore. But this whole 
area here has pecan orchards, and you will drive down by the Rio Grande 
River, once again south of Interstate 10, and you will see pecan 
orchards. Pecan orchards, that's what they grow. But they are orchards 
that have to be irrigated. And the problem the farmers have is that so 
many people are crossing across their orchards that they are tearing up 
their crops. They say on an

[[Page 23973]]

average they have, each one of them, four to five groups of anywhere 
from 30 to 50 people a day crossing their farm orchards, in many cases 
tearing up the property.
  But let me tell you some of the experiences that they have had. One 
farmer noticed that there were some illegal people coming across his 
land. He goes out and he apprehends them, holds them for the Border 
Patrol. It turned out that these two individuals apparently were from 
Honduras. They are called OTMs in the vernacular, ``other than 
Mexicans,'' because, you see, everybody is crossing in. We shouldn't 
just say things about Mexico. It's not just illegals from Mexico; it's 
from many other countries, including Honduras.

                              {time}  1630

  So he holds them for the Border Patrol. The Border Patrol comes and 
arrests these two individuals, takes them out of his custody, takes 
them over and turns them into the immigration services. One thing leads 
to another and they are released on their own recognizance to come back 
for an immigration hearing sometime later. You see, that's what happens 
to many OTMs. If you are ``other than Mexican,'' you're not held, 
detained and deported. You're held for a while, and because there are 
not enough detention facilities, they're released on their word to come 
back for their immigration hearing, deportation hearing, shall I say. 
It would not surprise us that most of those people never come back for 
that hearing.
  But anyway, these two individuals are apprehended; they're released 
from custody. And guess what? Two days later, this farmer had his pecan 
orchard burned to the ground. I wonder who did that? You see, it's 
ironic and silly to arrest these people from other countries, no matter 
where they are, hold them and release them back into the community, 
especially when they commit crimes, and most of them never appear back 
at that court hearing.
  There are farmers and ranchers down there that don't want to leave 
their land. But I will tell you this, they are mad, they are angry, and 
as many of them said, they are disappointed that, in their opinion, and 
I will quote one of them, that the American Government has written off 
the rural farmer along the border. Because of whatever reason, there is 
no security in their opinion. Rural America has been given away by 
outlawry by our government, and this ought not to be.
  So after we went through with the sheriff's deputies in El Paso 
County, wonderful people, we went over to Hudspeth County, which is the 
adjoining county. Most Americans have never heard of Hudspeth County. 
Let me describe it for you. It's 5,000 square miles. It's the size of 
Delaware and Rhode Island put together, and it's just one county in 
Texas. It has 100 miles that borders the Rio Grand River, so it has 100 
miles of border.
  On patrol in Hudspeth County is Sheriff Arvin West, and what a right-
thinking American he is. He has 12 deputies to patrol this whole area. 
In other words, on any given shift, any time of the day, there are 
three deputies that patrol the entire county that borders Mexico. Now, 
you notice, Mr. Speaker, part of Interstate 10 is very close to the 
border, 5 miles, along with Highway 20, which is 3 miles from the 
border. And then about halfway down at Sierra Blanca, the road changes 
and it goes on off through Houston to Florida.
  But this area here, of course, is an area that we went through. The 
sheriff's deputies, Sheriff Arvin West and his individuals that work 
for him, took me through that area. And we traveled right on the 
border. There is a dirt road on the American side.
  Let me mention this: you see this road over here, Highway 2, Mexican 
Highway 2. Of course you see it runs along the border as well on the 
other side. And so there's a dirt road right on the border. And we 
traveled down this dirt road, sandy road, the river is right next to 
us. And we traveled for 30 miles on this road, took about 3 hours, 
before we saw one Border Patrol agent. It surprises me that we weren't 
that quiet going down that area, and the first time we saw a Border 
Patrol agent was 30 miles down river where we had been traveling.
  But let me tell you about Arvin West. Arvin West, sheriff of this 
county, makes $36,000 a year. His 12 deputies, who are all patriots, 
who most of them are Hispanic, make $26,000 a year. But to a person, 
they are determined to secure their border because of the crime problem 
in the United States for failure to secure the border.
  You see, they have to patrol all these little towns here, Fort 
Hancock and McNary and Sierra Blanca. These are all their little small 
towns that are in their county. And these towns have crime problems 
because of that crime coming from Mexico. So they want the border 
secure.
  And let me say this at this point: This is an issue about border 
security, this is not an issue of immigration. That's a totally 
different issue. Border security is the issue, and we must, as a 
Nation, secure our border. And these sheriffs that live along here, the 
border sheriffs, each one of them believes the border should be secure 
because of the crime that is being committed.
  But we traveled down this area. And I'd like to show you or mention a 
couple of things that I observed. Going down the river, we stopped. 
This is at night, in the middle of no place. And we came across a 
trolley that was built across the river; now that's what I call it. It 
had a steel cable running from one side of the river to the other with 
a bucket in it, or a trolley. And apparently people can go back and 
forth across that trolley into one country or the other. And that 
disturbed me to some extent. But we then traveled down and saw 
something else that I think was a little more disturbing.
  This photograph here, Mr. Speaker, is a foot bridge taken on the 
American side, obviously, over into Mexico. You notice it's a steel 
foot bridge. It has rails on it. It probably would meet OSHA standards. 
And the only thing that goes across there are people. But you notice, 
of course, Mr. Speaker, how the land is trampled down on the Mexican 
side, how there is trash over here, and on this side there is land 
trampled down as well. There is in Hudspeth County. And there are 10 of 
these in the area. Who built them? They're still trying to find that 
out. Is it guarded? It is patrolled? Are people there watching to see 
if people come into the United States? No. These foot bridges exist for 
the sole purpose of letting people, apparently, cross into the United 
States. If they serve some other purpose, I don't know what that is.
  But that disturbs me to some extent. Here we have in El Paso 
basically three fences and a canal trying to protect the United States 
from people coming in illegally. And we just moved to the county next 
to it and we see these things that are built to allow foot traffic to 
come into the United States. This ought not to be.
  And of course once they come into the United States, they can see the 
interstate, which is just 5 miles away, and make their way up to the 
interstate, get picked up by someone flashing their lights at them, and 
move on down wherever they wish to go into the far most areas of the 
United States. This is a bridge that is a convenience for people who 
wish to cross into the United States illegally.
  On down the river and up the river there are many places where the 
river is low and there are washouts, where water has come from either 
Mexico or the United States to go into the Rio Grande River. And these 
are perfect places that are used by drug smugglers to smuggle drugs 
into the United States from Mexico. Once again, once they cross into 
the United States, they make their way, under routes that they have 
planned, to the interstate and move those drugs east, west and north.
  But it was interesting to see that there were places where the 
roadbed, or shall I say the riverbed looked like it had been filled in, 
where some vehicle had come in, Caterpillar tractor, and had smoothed 
down the river so that vehicles crossing into the United States 
wouldn't get stuck in the mud.
  Now, I asked the sheriff's department about that, and they said, 
well, sure, every once in a while there would be a

[[Page 23974]]

Caterpillar tractor parked on the Mexican side just sitting there. And 
they're sitting near these areas where drug smugglers come in, and the 
next day that Caterpillar bulldozer has come down there to the river 
bank, made a road for drug smugglers to bring drugs into the United 
States. And I asked Sheriff West, well, what do you do about that? He 
said, as soon as we see those, of course we're not down there 24 hours 
a day, neither is the Border Patrol, we tear up the river way so that 
those vehicles can't come into the United States. But a few days later, 
once again some bulldozer has come in and laid the river smoother and 
drier so that vehicles can come into the United States, sitting there 
waiting to move the illegal narcotics into our country.
  You know, drug trafficking is a major reason we ought to secure the 
border. Those people who come here to do us harm is another reason to 
secure the border, whether those are just basic outlaws or whether 
those are people who wish to set up cells at the right time to do this 
nation damage. And in little area here that I'm talking about, well, 
it's a big area that I'm talking about, makes it easy for them to come 
into the United States.
  Now, Sheriff West doesn't have much of a budget. In fact, he has such 
a small budget that he really doesn't have any vehicles. It's hard for 
me to understand how a sheriff's department can operate without 
vehicles, but here's what he does and many of the other sheriffs along 
the Texas-Mexico border. When they capture a drug dealer, they 
confiscate his vehicle, and by law they're allowed to keep that vehicle 
after they go through the proper channels to seize it. So most of his 
vehicles have come to the sheriff's department with the behest of the 
drug dealers. And so they're driving drug dealer vehicles, SUVs, very 
nice vehicles that they have confiscated from drug dealers. And those 
are the vehicles, the patrol vehicles, most of them trucks, pick-up 
trucks or SUVs so they can patrol up and down this entire county. 
They've even seized an 18-wheeler and put the sheriff's logo on it.
  You know, I admire people like Sheriff West, the sheriffs along the 
border who will do what they need to do to secure the dignity of the 
United States.
  The sheriff's department also mentioned to me about something we've 
heard about here in Congress, I've never seen it myself, but we hear 
reports about the Mexican military coming into the United States for 
different reasons, all those reasons are probably no good, and whether 
that's true or not.
  On this road, on Interstate 10, there is basically nothing on 
Interstate 10 except vehicles, mostly trucks, but there is a massive 
truck stop on Interstate 10. And it is not uncommon, according to the 
sheriff's department here in Hudspeth County, to see the Mexican 
military wearing their uniforms going into this truck stop for whatever 
purpose they have. It's interesting that they say, of course, that it's 
not unusual for drugs to be accompanied by the Mexican military into 
portions of the United States.
  So if we have the military from another country coming across our 
borders without our permission, I would hope that that would disturb 
Homeland Security to some extent, that they would prevent that from 
happening, or at least quit denying that it occurs.
  So apparently to me it seems we have moved the U.S. border from the 
Rio Grande River to Interstate 10, 5 miles inward. We have left all 
this area as no-man's land. You live there at your own risk of drug 
dealers and criminals coming across, and this ought not to be.
  It's unfortunate that this situation occurs, but it is the duty of 
our country, of course, to make sure it doesn't occur any longer. The 
failure of the Federal Government to secure the border allows everybody 
to come in here. We get the good, we get the bad, and we get the ugly, 
and we're getting a lot of bad and ugly because this border is not 
secure. So we secure our border. We do what we need to do. We have to 
have the moral will to secure the border. If we did, the border would 
be secure. We secure the borders of other nations. We secure the Korean 
border. Why don't we secure the American border? We secure the borders 
of other nations throughout the world. Why don't we secure the American 
border?
  Third World countries protect their borders better than we do. Why? 
Because of all of those political reasons and all of those people that 
have political agendas keep our government from doing what it ought to 
do, and the first duty of government is to secure the nation. And I 
would hope Homeland Security would go down to the border and see it the 
way it really is.
  Mr. Speaker, we hear about violence on the border. I heard a lot 
about it down there. We don't get too many news reports about the 
violence on the Texas-Mexico border or anywhere else along the southern 
border with Mexico, but I would like to read a dispatch from the 
Hudspeth County Sheriff's Office on September 5, which was 2 days ago. 
This dispatch reads: At approximately 9:56 a.m., the U.S. Border Patrol 
at Fort Hancock Station, there's Fort Hancock, that's a little bitty 
place with just a handful of people living there, the U.S. Border 
Patrol at Fort Hancock Station called the Hudspeth County Sheriff's 
Office requesting assistance from the sheriff's office and highway 
patrol with a vehicle that was being pursued on Interstate 10. It was 
westbound at the 68 mile marker. So the vehicle was going this 
direction, headed west. The vehicle had crossed into the United States 
from Mexico and was loaded with approximately 800 pounds of marijuana. 
The vehicle was a 2005 GMC Yukon, light gold in color. The pursuit went 
into El Paso County, the next county over, and then turned back 
eastbound toward Tornillo, Texas. Hudspeth County Deputy Keith Hughes, 
stationed in Fort Hancock, Texas, joined in the pursuit. Deputy Hughes 
was able to negotiate his way to the front of the pursuing law 
enforcement vehicles.
  The driver of the Yukon exited Interstate 10 and drove south on Acala 
Road toward the United States and Mexican border. Right in here, this 
little road. The United States Border Patrol set up road spikes on 
Acala Road. The driver of the Yukon hit the spikes, but continued 
traveling through Acala Road and Texas 20 in Hudspeth County.
  Upon crossing Texas 20, the driver of the Yukon exited the vehicle 
and ran south to the United States and Mexican border. Deputy Hughes 
and the U.S. Border Patrol began a foot pursuit. The driver was 
captured by pursuing officers. During the foot pursuit, automatic 
gunfire was heard from the direction of the United States and Mexican 
border. Sheriff Arvin West ordered the area south of the capture site 
to be cleared of any persons in danger, and to seek out and find the 
person or persons responsible for the gunfire.
  Once there were sufficient sheriff deputies on the scene, Chief 
Deputy Mike Doyle organized and led the deputies to the border area for 
the search.

                              {time}  1645

  After a thorough search of the border area south of the capture site, 
it was determined that the automatic gunfire came from the Mexican side 
of the United States-Mexico border. The Hudspeth County Sheriff's 
Office conducted a search of the border area alone because the agents 
of the United States Border Patrol were ordered not to engage at the 
border. And that is a dispatch that I didn't see printed in any 
newspaper in the United States about the violence, the drug dealers and 
the drug cartels along our southern border.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a serious situation on the Rio Grande River. Like 
I said earlier, this is not an immigration issue at all. This is an 
issue about whether this country will secure its borders. I wonder 
whether a Nation that won't secure its borders deserves to exist as a 
Nation. It is the duty of our government to enforce the existing law. 
We have pontificated in this House ever since I have been in Congress 
about more laws on immigration, border security, comprehensive 
immigration reform. Why don't we just enforce the laws we already have? 
It is still against the law to come into the United States without 
permission, regardless of the reason. People from

[[Page 23975]]

other countries don't believe we will enforce the rule of law in this 
country.
  Otherwise, they wouldn't keep coming in the United States. And many 
times when they are captured, nothing happens. Our government has the 
duty to protect the people in this country from violence of criminals 
coming from other nations. Our country has the duty to protect citizens 
throughout the country from criminals coming from other places who we 
call terrorists. The next terrorist who is going to come to the United 
States probably is not going to fly over here and get off the airplane 
here at Reagan, and look around and see what damage they are going to 
do. They don't have to do that. They don't have to go through TSA 
screening. All they have to do is come across either our northern or 
southern border.
  Mr. Speaker, our Federal Government has the duty to keep the Mexican 
military out of our Nation. It has no business being here for any 
purpose.
  Mr. Speaker, many years ago, Marty Robbins wrote a song, a ballad 
about the west Texas town of El Paso and about how a cowboy lost his 
life because he was seeking the love of a Mexican lady by the name of 
Feleena. That ballad basically talks about the Wild West along the 
border and how it was violent at a time. Some things have changed along 
the Texas-Mexico border. There is some security. There are prosperous 
cities on both sides of the border. But there are other communities. 
These are small communities. These are small villages where real people 
live, too. Many live in fear of their life because our border is open. 
Times have changed because the type of people coming into the United 
States have changed. They are not all coming over here looking for 
work. Some of them are coming over here looking for mischief. They find 
that mischief. Much of that mischief is down there on the border where 
Americans live and legal immigrants live that are persecuted by 
criminals who come in to the United States.
  So violence does continue on our border. It is imperative that we 
understand that and admit it so we can do something about it. Denying 
the truth is not a solution, but being openminded and realizing that, 
Mr. Speaker, I have only talked about two counties along the Texas-
Mexico border, El Paso County and Hudspeth County. This border, like I 
said, is 1,250 miles long from El Paso all the way down to Brownsville. 
I have traveled almost the entire length of it as a guest of the 
sheriffs along the border. The situation is bad along that entire area. 
As you travel west through Arizona and through California, you find the 
same problems along the border, according to those sheriffs who live 
there and who grew up there.
  So the obligation of our government is to do something to protect the 
dignity and the sovereignty of the United States and make folks 
understand that our government will protect them, their families and 
their property and keep them safe from intruders who come into the 
United States no matter what the reason, because, you see, it is still 
against the law to enter the United States without the permission of 
the United States.
  We need to mean it. We need to do something about it. We need to put 
more Border Patrol agents on the border. We need to use the National 
Guard, and if necessary, a fence in appropriate areas. It won't work 
everywhere. But it will work in some places. Where it is erected, it 
has worked.
  We need to do whatever it takes to make sure that the United States 
is a sovereign Nation and we do not lose this country to other folks 
who come over here and are trying to take it away from Americans and 
legal immigrants.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, that is just the way it is.

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