[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 17538-17539]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    ANOTHER DAY ON THE TEXAS BORDER

  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. Mr. Speaker, it was just another day on the Texas 
border on October 1, 2010. A young couple, David and Tiffany Hartley, 
were on Falcon Lake.
  Falcon Lake is a massive lake that borders Mexico in the State of 
Texas,

[[Page 17539]]

an international border. They were on their jet skis, and they traveled 
across the international line into Mexico. They had gone to see an old 
mission that was partially submerged in Falcon Lake.
  On their way back coming into the United States, they were being 
chased by three boats full, obviously, of drug cartel members--later we 
learned they were the Zeta drug cartels--firing automatic weapons at 
David and Tiffany Hartley. David was shot in the back of the head. 
Tiffany tries to help, but they were still shooting, so she flees.
  She comes back into the United States, and one of the boats--get 
this, Mr. Speaker--follows her into the United States for over 3 miles 
until she got ashore and finally sought safety with some passerby that 
was standing there. Then this boat casually goes back into Mexico.
  David Hartley was murdered on October 1, 5 weeks ago. The way the 
current runs in Falcon Lake, his body would have been into the American 
side in about 2 hours had not someone taken his body out of the water 
or cut the life preserver off of him or both. His body has never been 
found.
  The Mexican Government quickly accused Tiffany Hartley of being the 
culprit--the audacity--just to not investigate this case. David 
Hartley's body has never been found. The perpetrators who murdered him 
and shot at Tiffany Hartley have never been prosecuted.
  A detective by the name of Rolando Flores from Mexico was assigned to 
investigate this case. He apparently was the only person investigating 
this case. Soon after he started investigating it, his beheaded body 
turned up in front of a police station. Mexico quickly decided: We are 
not investigating the case. And, of course, they have not.
  Mexico has an awful track record of solving homicides, not just 
homicides of Americans in Mexico, but of Mexican nationals who are 
murdered in the name of selling drugs across that border and bringing 
them into the United States. So this case has not been solved. I doubt 
it will ever be because of the ineptitude of the Mexican Government to 
preserve and defend and protect people in Mexico.
  As Sheriff Sigi Gonzalez of Zapata County has said: This area is a 
trafficking area for drug cartels. The Zeta drug cartels have 
operational control of parts of that lake and bring drugs into the 
United States at night.
  I went down to Falcon Lake along with Sheriff Gonzalez' people. We 
went up and down the lake in speed boats. Of course, before we were 
allowed to get on the boats, we had to make sure that the locals who 
were taking us there had automatic weapons and everybody was wearing a 
bulletproof vest. Then we flew up and down the international border of 
this massive lake, some 60 miles long, almost 8 miles wide.
  Interesting to note, Mr. Speaker. The entire time we were on the lake 
either in a boat or flying over it, we saw no other boats on either 
side. No Americans are out on the lake. No Mexican nationals are out on 
the lake. For 6 hours we toured that lake and we saw no one, and the 
reason is it is dangerous. People on both sides of the borders don't go 
on that lake because it is not under the operational control of either 
Mexico or the United States. It is under the operational control of the 
Zeta drug cartel. That is a very unfortunate situation.
  This is one instance of many where there are places on the 
international border with the country of Mexico where neither country 
has operational control of the border, and it is time that we force 
them to do something about this nonsense that is taking place, the 
murder of Americans.
  Since then, there have been other Americans murdered in Mexico. Have 
these been crimes solved? Of course those crimes have not been solved.

                              {time}  1920

  We were just hearing comments by the other side about being at war in 
Afghanistan and Iraq. It is true. We go to war and fight the battles in 
other countries, Afghanistan and Iraq, we defend the borders of other 
nations. Maybe it is time we come home and defend our own borders and 
protect our borders as well as defending borders in Afghanistan and 
Iraq, because it is the first duty of government to protect the people.
  So what do we need? We need more boots on the ground. We need 
National Guard troops on the ground. We need more Air National Guard, 
Coast Guard, and we need the help of the Border Patrol to protect the 
dignity and sovereignty of the United States to keep the drug cartels 
from bringing that cancer into the United States, because it is the 
first duty of government to protect the people, and it is about time we 
protect all the citizens of this country.
  And that's just the way it is.

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