[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 10410-10411]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          SECURING THE BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah 
(Mr. Bishop) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, a great deal has been said about the 
border surge over in the Senate. In typical Senate-think, they have 
seen a problem and decided to throw money at the problem, even if a 
lack of funding is not the problem they are facing.
  This map divides the country up into the Border Patrol sectors. The 
numbers are from 2010. The numbers are different today but, obviously, 
the ratios are about the same. In this year, one has to ask the 
question of why were 56 illegal entries apprehended in the main sector 
and 200,000 apprehended in the Arizona sector. What was the difference 
between those two?
  If you were trying to sneak into a baseball game, something I'm not 
advocating, but if you were trying to do that, you don't jump over the 
turnstile where a cop is standing. You go around the corner and find 
the hole in the fence so no one will actually see what you are doing. 
The drug cartels are not stupid. They are looking for that hole in the 
fence. Obviously, this sector is where the majority of the illegals and 
the illegal drugs and the illegal human trafficking and potential 
terrorism exists.
  So the question has to be: Why is that the entrance level of choice? 
It's actually very simple. Everything that is red is land that's owned 
by the Federal Government on this map. In Arizona, 80 percent of the 
border is owned by the Federal Government. Over half of that is in the 
``Wilderness'' category, ``Endangered Species,'' or ``Conservation 
Habitat'' category, where, by special law, the legislation provides 
this land a special status which prohibits the Border Patrol from 
entering that area. They can't enter in a motorized vehicle. They can't 
even pedal a bicycle. They can go into that area on foot, on specially 
fed horses, and that is it. The drug cartels recognize this. They're 
not stupid. And they realize that this is the problem.
  When this Congress insisted a fence be built along the California 
border, we passed legislation that waived 40 environmental laws that 
were prohibiting the fence from being built. Those same 40 laws are the 
laws that prohibit the Border Patrol from going along the red areas of 
that border and doing their job, which simply means, as ironic as it 
sounds, Federal law is stopping the Federal Border Patrol from going on 
Federal land to do a Federal purpose, which is federally stupid. But 
this is, indeed, what we're doing.

[[Page 10411]]

  The Border Patrol actually cares about the environment. Drug cartels 
don't at all. This cacti, cut down by the drug cartel, is an endangered 
species. It was cut down there to stop east-west access on the only 
road that allows the Border Patrol to follow in that particular area.
  This truck is a temporary sensor device in a wilderness area. The 
Border Patrol wanted to move it from point A to point B. It took them 6 
months to get approval by the land manager in that area before they 
could back the truck up and move the truck over to another stop because 
the land manager was not happy with the Border Patrol being in his 
Wilderness territory. And the law was on the side of the land manager, 
not on the side of the Border Patrol.
  The Senate has tried to say that they're coming up with a compromise 
solution to increase border security. In actuality, they have done just 
the opposite. They have put language in there that says that the 
Homeland Security Secretary can, notwithstanding any other law, require 
certain elements to be built in this particular area. But that allows 
the Secretary of Homeland Security to have the political discretion of 
whether to do it or not. It allows the Secretary of Homeland Security 
to have immediate access into these border areas, but only in Arizona. 
If they go anywhere else along this border, they have to have the 
written approval of the Secretary of the Interior as well as the 
Secretary of Agriculture. And most importantly, it says in there that 
the manner in which the Homeland Security Secretary shall make these 
decisions must be in the manner that best protects the natural and 
cultural resources on Federal land.
  I'm sorry, but as soon as they put that language in there, it 
requires some bureaucrat to establish what the standard is, and it 
opens it up to someone else initiating litigation that that is not the 
best standard possible. In essence, we're back in a worse situation.
  They wish to have another 25,000 Border Patrol agents. This is what 
our fence looks like in Arizona today. This is a fence, this is Mexico, 
that's Arizona, and the open area is the animal habitat to allow 
animals to go back and forth from Mexico and Arizona. The one road on 
here is the only road in which the Border Patrol is allowed to go. You 
can have another 100,000 agents in that area, and you'll simply find 
out that it won't help unless you let them go outside of that one road.
  We don't need money. What we need is access. What the Senate is 
proposing is actually worse than the status quo.

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