[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 14]
[House]
[Page 19622]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2000
                           BORDER PROTECTORS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, America lost a great lawman last 
Thursday near Campo, California. United States Border Patrol Agent 
Robert Rosas was brutally murdered on July 23 by thugs illegally 
crossing into the United States. Agent Rosas was shot and killed at 
approximately 9:15 p.m. while following a group of people who had 
crossed the border illegally. Agent Rosas was by himself, like a lot of 
our agents nowadays. He radioed for backup. The group Agent Rosas was 
following split up before backup agents arrived to help him.
  Agent Rosas was following one of the groups; but when fellow officers 
arrived, they found Agent Rosas outside his Border Patrol vehicle. He 
had been shot several times in the head and other places in the body. 
Agent Rosas had served with the Border Patrol for 3 years. He was only 
30 years of age. He was married and had a 2-year-old son and an 11-
month-old daughter. A suspect, Ernesto Parra-Valenzuela, is in Federal 
custody in Baja, California. He had a standard Border Patrol-issued 9 
millimeter pistol tucked in his clothes when he was arrested. Four 
other Mexican nationals were also arrested. They were part of a violent 
smuggling ring, and one of the other men arrested is wanted for two 
homicides and a rape. Also detained were 21 illegals.
  Shooting at Border Patrol agents is a drug cartel way of life. T.J. 
Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council, said that 
around 50 border agents a year are shot at. Others are run down by 
vehicles. For example, in January 2008 United States Border Patrol 
Agent Luis Aguilar was run down and killed by a drug smuggler in a 
Humvee 15 miles north of the border in California. When agents spotted 
a drug-laden Hummer trying to flee back to Mexico, Agent Aguilar threw 
down a spike strip to stop the vehicle. Witnesses said the driver of 
the Humvee swerved to intentionally hit Agent Aguilar, and the vehicle 
was traveling over 55 miles per hour. Agent Aguilar was killed. He was 
a 6-year veteran of the Border Patrol. He was 32 years of age, and he 
left behind a wife and two kids. The Humvee driver, the drug smuggler, 
escaped back into Mexico.
  There are others who were killed by smugglers. In August of 2002, 
United States Park Ranger Kris Eggle was shot and killed in the line of 
duty at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona. The area has 
become a haven for drug and alien smuggling. The area is known as 
Cocaine Alley. A drug cartel hit squad fled into the United States 
after committing a string of murders in Mexico. Out-manned and 
outgunned, Ranger Eggle never had a chance. He was 28.
  Agent Rosas is the first Border Patrol agent to be shot since Ricardo 
Salinas and Susan Rodriguez were slain in Texas in July of 1998. The 
Cameron County, Texas, Sheriff's Department was investigating a report 
of shots fired in Rio Hondo, Texas. That's in the Rio Grande Valley. 
Deputies found a woman, Margarita Flores, and one of her daughters, 
Delia Morin, dead at their home. Her son was also shot and seriously 
wounded. The killer, Ernest Moore, was seen fleeing in a pickup truck; 
and with the help of the Border Patrol, sheriff's deputies spotted the 
vehicle in a driveway of a San Benito house Moore shared with his 
father.
  The deputies and the agents were searching the home and the nearby 
cornfields when they heard rifle shots. Border Patrol Officers Ricardo 
Salinas and Susan Rodriguez were both found shot and killed. The 
perpetrator was also killed.
  Madam Speaker, the border regions in this country have become the 
most lawless areas in the United States. Drug cartel thugs roam the 
border frontier, transporting drugs, weapons, cash, illegals and 
victims of sex trafficking across the border at will. The noble Border 
Patrol agents are out-manned, outgunned and out-financed by the drug 
cartels; and these outlawed drug cartels need to be captured and 
brought to justice.
  In the meanwhile, our Border Patrol protectors need our support. We 
owe the brave men and women who guard the border more than gratitude 
for the sacrifices they make. We owe them the proper funding, manpower 
and support to guard not just our border but their safety as well. 
These agents are the first line of defense between the illegal drug 
smuggling cartels and the American people.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________