[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 161-162]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                OUR HOMELAND, THE FORGOTTEN THIRD FRONT

  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, more border agents are being sent to 
the border. The border, as we all know, is violent, dangerous, and it 
is not safe. Drugs and guns and people and money cross back and forth 
across the border because two nations do not have operational control 
of that border. The border is desolate. It is hard. It is a war zone--
but Madam Speaker, I am not talking about the border of the United 
States with Mexico. I am talking about the southern border, or the 
border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
  That's right. Border Patrol agents from the United States are going 
to Afghanistan to protect the Afghan border from the Taliban coming in 
from Pakistan. It is a war zone over there, and the Secretary of 
Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, has said we are going to 
contribute Border Patrol agents to protect the border of Afghanistan. 
There are already 25 there, and more are on the way.
  Now, Madam Speaker, why are Border Patrol agents from the United 
States going to Afghanistan?
  The marines and our soldiers and our troops over there can do the 
job. More importantly, we need the Border Patrol agents over here. 
``Homeland security'' means that the Secretary of Homeland Security 
protects the American homeland, not the homeland of some other nation.
  We need the help.
  In fact, we need the military on our southern border. Our border is a 
war zone. Drugs and people and money crisscross our border with Mexico. 
It is a violent place. It is the third front. More recently, we have 
had several people murdered on the battlefront on our border. Let me 
relate three of those.

[[Page 162]]

  One of those was a 27-year-old female police chief in Mexico--right 
on the border with the United States. Chief Hermila Garcia was on the 
job for 51 days, and she was shot down, shot seven times by the drug 
cartels. A recent homicide on the border.
  Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot in the back while he was 
protecting our border. Ironically, he had been to Iraq and Afghanistan 
as a soldier, as a marine, and now he was back here, killed on our 
border.
  Then David Hartley, a citizen, was murdered on Falcon Lake, in Texas, 
when he was with his wife, Tiffany, as they were viewing an old 
mission. Shot and killed by the drug cartels.
  Our homeland is not protected adequately, and it is time that we put 
Border Patrol agents on our border but also that we put the National 
Guard on our southern border. It is the third front. Homeland Security 
should protect it.
  And that's just the way it is.

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