[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3161]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          MANAGING THE BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, you know, we, as Americans, have a 
responsibility to protect our environment and to protect our homeland, 
and unfortunately we are failing at both.
  Our border patrol has done a wonderful job in the urban areas of this 
country; however, in rural areas, where the United States Federal 
Government owns about 40 percent of the land from California to Texas, 
we seem to not be doing quite as well, and that now becomes the prime 
area where evil groups like drug cartels and human traffickers and 
potential terrorists are now entering into this country.
  The rules, the regulations, and our interpretations of the law are 
prohibiting our Border Patrol from actually fulfilling their functions. 
We have gaps, not only gaps in the fence, but gaps in our virtual 
fence, gaps in our monitoring that allow these groups to have open 
access--drug cartels, human trafficking cartels, potential terrorists--
undetected and unfettered into this country.
  Secretary Salazar is currently at the border. On Saturday, he will be 
at the Chris Eggle Visitors Center. Chris Eggle is a Border Patrol 
agent who was shot and killed in the line of duty at Oregon Pipe 
National Monument back in August of 2002. He was pursuing a drug cartel 
hit squad who had fled across these open areas into the United States 
after committing a string of murders in Mexico.
  These people we are talking about who are illegally coming into this 
country are those who are bringing massive amounts of illegal drugs 
into this country, who are involved in human trafficking--illegally 
coming into this country--who are involved in unthinkable acts of 
aggression, and especially violence against women.
  We have wilderness law protection that is supposedly there to protect 
the sanctity of the land; unfortunately, in some of our laws or 
interpretation of those laws about wilderness area we are actually 
opening up this land to some of those evil people who are coming 
across. And in so doing, they are destroying the wilderness 
characteristics we are trying to protect. What it means is that we are 
destroying that which we wish to protect.
  Therefore, I am asking Secretary Salazar for four items in his visit 
when he sees firsthand the problems we have on our southern border.
  Number one, I am asking him to end the Department of the Interior's 
requirement that the Department of Homeland Security must negotiate 
access and seek permission before entering onto Interior lands to 
enforce the law and secure the border.
  Two, I want him to acknowledge that Department of the Interior 
policies have contributed to severe environmental damage and 
destruction by hampering Homeland Security from fulfilling their job to 
stop organized crime, drug and human traffickers, and potential 
terrorists from crossing the border through protected natural areas.
  Three, I want him to stop impeding Border Patrol access to public 
lands, including wilderness areas, for the purpose of siting and 
building electronic surveillance.
  And, four, I want to end the Department of the Interior's practice of 
extorting mitigation funds from Homeland Security. Money appropriated 
for border security should only be spent on making our borders secure, 
not diverted to unrelated Interior spending projects.
  To secure our borders, we must do so to stop the evils of drug 
traffic, human trafficking, and potential terrorism. Common sense tells 
us that should be our goal; common sense tells us we should agree to 
that particular goal.

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