[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8609]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      SECURING OUR SOUTHERN BORDER

  (Mr. CULBERSON asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, I want to take 1 minute to address, 
tonight, an important bill the House passed on Homeland Security, 
funding all the agencies of Homeland Security.
  In addition to funding our military, the Military Construction bill 
which we have just done, for Veterans Affairs, we also have a 
fundamental obligation to secure our borders. And the Homeland Security 
bill that we just passed does that in a number of important ways, most 
importantly, for the people of Texas.
  I want to reassure everyone listening tonight that the Texas 
delegation and this Congress, this majority, will not rest until the 
southern border is secure, until we, with the full support of the 
people that live along the border, secure the border with zero 
tolerance, using existing law, which means 6 months in jail for 
crossing the border illegally, as we are doing in Del Rio with the full 
support of the local community, arresting everybody that crosses the 
border and throwing them in jail for up to 6 months, with the obvious 
exception of women and children. But we are enforcing the law in Texas, 
in Del Rio and in Laredo.
  With the help of my friend Henry Cuellar and the local community, we 
are working in this majority to expand that zero tolerance program from 
Brownsville to San Diego. And I want to thank the Homeland Security 
Committee, Mr. Aderholt, for allowing us, through language in the bill, 
to expand rapidly the use of available empty bed space for illegal 
aliens so there are no more police officers like we just lost, another 
police officer in Houston, Texas, to an illegal alien. And we are not 
going to rest until that border is secured, Mr. Speaker.

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