[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 168 (Friday, December 17, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H8770-H8771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MEXICAN-AMERICAN BORDER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, last Tuesday, north of the
Mexican-American border, a number of our Border Patrol agents were
trying to stop some bandits, Mexican bandits who were stealing and
killing people who were coming across the border illegally. One of the
people that was involved in this and was shot was a fellow named Manuel
Arianes, AKA Manuel Arellanes Osorio. He is a Mexican in the United
States illegally. He was convicted in 2006 for aggravated assault. He
had been deported to Mexico twice, and he was in the United States with
his colleagues committing more crimes. And a Border Patrol agent, Mr.
Brian A. Terry, was shot to death on the border in that area last
Tuesday night.
Now, the reason I bring this up--and my good friend, Mr. Poe of
Texas, who will be talking about this and probably some other things
related to it later--we wrote a letter, Mr. Poe, myself, and Ed Royce
of California, Ralph Hall of Texas, and Pete Olson. All of us wrote a
letter to the President of the United States, and this was in October.
We said, Mr. President, you know, we sent 17,000 National Guard people
to the Gulf during the Gulf oil spill because it was a threat to the
environment and to the people's livelihoods who live down in that area.
And yet the Mexican-American border is 1,980 miles long, and when the
President decided to help augment our Border Patrol agents, he sent, I
think, 1,300 or 1,400 National Guardsmen down, went down there and only
for a short period of time, and they were not right on the border.
We have a war going on on the Mexican-American border. Today, we
talked about the spending bills. We talked about taxes. We talked about
tax extenders. And all of those things are extremely important, but we
have a war going on on the Mexican-American border with drug dealers
and thieves and terrorists coming in from Mexico. And now we understand
that we're training, down in Central America, some of the local law
enforcement and military with our military people to stop them from
moving into places like Costa Rica. We are talking about the drug
dealers.
We have a major problem in our hemisphere that threatens the
stability of the entire southern part of the United States--Texas, New
Mexico, Arizona. And as we know, the Arizona Governor has tried to do
everything she can to deal with the problem, and nothing is happening.
In fact, the President of the United States and the Justice Department
have been fighting her. It just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
We need to get on with doing what we promised to do, and that is
build that border fence and put enough border agents down there and
National Guardsmen to deal with the problem and, if necessary, to work
with the President of Mexico to put military personnel on both sides of
the border to stop these terrorists, drug dealers, and the people that
are disrupting what is going on here in the United States.
And you say, Well, that's the border. That doesn't deal with us.
There are signs in Arizona 80 miles north of the border, 80 miles
into the United States that say to American citizens, Don't go south of
here because it's not safe. We have got ranchers and farmers that have
been beaten up and killed in the United States by these drug dealers
and these terrorists that are coming across the border.
So we wrote to the President on October 26, Mr. Poe and I and my
other colleagues, and we followed up with another letter on November 4.
And you know what we have heard from the President? Not a darn thing.
Nothing. And it's been, what, a month and a half, 2 months.
The President is ignoring this problem and people are dying, and the
security of the southern part of the United States--in fact, the entire
United States is at risk.
So if I were talking tonight--and I know, Madam Speaker, I can't talk
to the President because we are not allowed to talk to people outside
the Chamber. But if I were talking to the President, I would say, Mr.
President, answer our letters. Pay attention to what's going on, and
secure that border. Go talk to the President of Mexico and the others
in Central and South America and make sure we stop these drug cartel
terrorists from disrupting the United States and threatening the
security of our border. This is a war, Mr. President. Get on with it.
[[Page H8771]]
Congress of the United States,
Washington, DC, October 26, 2010.
Hon. Barack Obama,
President of the United States of America, The White House,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. President: We are writing to you today to express
our extreme concern regarding the deteriorating security
situation along our Nation's southern border. It seems that
every day brings a new report of some atrocity; the most
recent being the apparent murder of a U.S. citizen at Falcon
Lake, Texas; yet little if anything appears to be being done
by our government or the Mexican government to stop the
bloodshed and bring the perpetrators to justice.
Protecting our borders and our citizens is a paramount
responsibility of the Federal government; enshrined in the
preamble of the Constitution. It would be an unforgivable
breach of our constitutional responsibilities if we do not
take stronger measures not only to prevent the upward spiral
of violence from further spilling over into the United States
and threaten the safety of U.S. citizens on American soil but
to reclaim those areas of our border already overrun by
smugglers and criminals. We can no longer pretend that this
is simply Mexico's problem. The time has come to recognize
that the drug violence along the border is a direct threat to
the United States and act accordingly.
First, it has become apparent that the Mexican government
and law enforcement authorities are either unwilling or
unable to address this problem unilaterally. Therefore, we
believe it is imperative that you immediately begin serious
dialogue with President Calderon on building a comprehensive
framework, in the spirit of Plan Colombia, that will better
coordinate a more aggressive and proactive strategy to turn
the tide of this conflict.
Second, we must complete construction of the border fence.
Any responsibility we have to minimize the impact of the
fence on the physical landscape or native species in the
region pales in comparison when measured against the value of
human lives that will be lost if we do not seal the border.
Finally, we believe it is critical that we deploy
additional National Guard troops to the border. Media reports
indicate that 17,000 National Guard troops were deployed to
the Gulf region to respond to the recent oil spill. Yet, you
have only pledged 1,200 National Guard troops to protect the
border--and according to media reports only a small fraction
of those troops have arrived to date. It is unrealistic, if
not pure insanity, to believe that a mere 1,200 National
Guard troops, even with the support of the Border Patrol, can
effectively cover the nearly 2,000 mile long Southwestern
border of the United States. We must put additional bodies on
the ground and we must give them the weapons and specify
rules of engagement that give them the authority to do
whatever is necessary to secure the border. A National Guard
trooper armed with only a pistol and given no authority to
engage the enemy is useless against a criminal armed with
military grade weapons and ammunition.
Mr. President, we implore you to view this situation for
what it is, a war and to act accordingly.
Sincerely,
Dan Burton,
Ralph M. Hall,
Edward R. Royce,
Ted Poe,
Pete Olson.
____
Congress of the United States,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, November 4, 2010.
Hon. Barack Obama,
President of the United States of America, The White House,
Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. President: On October 26th I and four of my
colleagues, sent you a letter expressing our extreme concerns
regarding the deteriorating security situation along our
Nation's southern border. Since that time five more Americans
have been killed along the border region. Protecting our
borders and our citizens is a paramount responsibility of the
Federal government; enshrined in the preamble of the
Constitution. I strongly urge you to consider the proposals
laid out in my letter from October 26th. Americans are dying;
it is time to recognize that the drug violence along the
border is a direct threat to the United States and act
accordingly.
Thank you for giving your personal time and attention to
this critically important issue.
Sincerely,
Dan Burton.
____________________