[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 8977-8978]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  PRESIDENT CALDERON'S RANT ON AMERICA

  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, Mexican President Felipe Calderon 
spoke to this House Chamber this last week as our guest, but I heard 
about it nonstop when I went back home to my district in Texas. My 
office has received hundreds of calls, almost as many as those during 
the health care debate. To say my constituents were not happy with 
Calderon's speech would be an understatement.
  When I went out to get gas, go to a restaurant, or even wash my car, 
I got an animated earful from my neighbors. People in southeast Texas 
thought he was disrespectful and ungrateful to America. My friend Sammy 
Mahan, who owns a wrecker service, said a lot of things, some of which 
I cannot repeat, but he did say, ``Calderon lives in a lawless country 
and doesn't want the United States to enforce our laws either. It was 
like we invited a guest over for supper, he brought along all of his 
friends and his family, complained about the food, griped about our 
neighborhood, then drove off in our pickup truck.''
  Calderon spoke in Spanish directly to the Mexican nationals in 
America illegally, encouraging them to keep breaking our laws so they 
can send money back to Mexico. Remittances from the United States are 
Mexico's second largest source of foreign funds. Calderon told the 
illegals in Spanish right here in the people's House right up here from 
this podium, ``I want to tell the migrant, to whom they are working 
here by the greatness of this country, that we admire them, that we 
miss them, that we are fighting for their rights, and that we are 
working hard for Mexico and their families.'' He came across as 
encouraging defiance of American law.

[[Page 8978]]

  Exactly what rights would he be fighting for in America for the 
people in the United States illegally from Mexico? Would that be the 
so-called right to come here illegally, to work here illegally, and 
then send the money back to Mexico? That right doesn't exist, Mr. 
President. Would that be the right to illegally come to America then 
demand citizenship? That right doesn't exist either, Mr. President.
  My constituents weren't very happy that the President of Mexico would 
come here as our guest, then arrogantly lecture the American people on 
what American laws he likes and which ones he doesn't like, then have 
the unmitigated nerve to blame Mexico's problems on America.
  Calderon said he doesn't like our right to keep and bear arms. 
Perhaps if Mexico honored the second amendment philosophy of the right 
to defend themselves, the people of Mexico wouldn't be held hostage by 
the drug cartels. He blamed America for the violence in Mexico. He 
blamed America for illegal guns going south and illegal immigration and 
drugs going north. Well, I have a solution for him: Americans should 
just seal the border frontier. We will put the National Guard troops on 
the border to light up the criminal cartels. We have been protecting 
the borders of other nations like Iraq and Afghanistan and other places 
around the world. Our troops have been taking out the narcoterrorists 
worldwide. It's time we took care of business here at home because the 
Federal Government has been AWOL at the border.
  And the people, the everyday Mexican people, are wonderful and 
hardworking people who love their own country, but their country is 
corrupt and cannot take care of them or provide them safety or jobs or 
an education. So the people flee to the United States. Their own 
country has failed the people of Mexico.
  The people in Mexico are paying in blood and treasure for the 
lawlessness of the drug cartels. Instead of coming to America to tell 
us what laws we should and should not have, why not focus on making 
Mexico a place that the Mexican people aren't literally dying to leave? 
Mexicans risk rape, robbery, murder, and a horrible death by succumbing 
to the harsh desert elements when they try to come here illegally and 
cross the border. They are at the mercy of Mexico's criminal cartels. 
These people risk life and limb and are literally dying to leave 
Mexico, their native country.
  So instead of trying to Balkanize America, President Calderon should 
concentrate on fixing his own problems instead of continuing to make 
Mexico's problems America's problems. They have the resources to build 
a country that will keep people in Mexico so they don't have to flee. 
The United States cannot and should not continue to be an ATM machine 
for Mexico and bail them out of their problems.
  President Calderon should deal with Mexico's issues and solve 
Mexico's economic problems, human rights problems, organized crime 
problems, violence problems, kidnapping problems, government corruption 
problems, illegal immigration problems, and the abandonment of Mexico 
by Mexicans before he lectures anybody about anything else.
  And that's just the way it is.

                          ____________________