The Crisis At the Border

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding.

Madam Speaker, as a proud Texan, I am proud to give my first remarks on the floor of the United States House of Representatives today on the important issue of border security, critical to my district and critical to the State of Texas and our Nation.

Hundreds of thousands of people seek to come to this country, both legally and illegally, each year. They are drawn to the hope of the greatest free society the world has ever known. But we are in danger of losing that which separates us from the other nations of the world, the rule of law. Nowhere is that more pronounced than the chaos and the lawlessness of our southern border.

Freedom cannot flourish in chaos. Prosperity cannot emerge from fear. Yet, we have failed to secure our Nation because Members on both sides of the aisle have buried their heads in the sand over the last several decades, talking instead of doing. Americans are weary of our opinions and ready to see us do the job we were sent here to do.

This isn't about numbers or statistics. It is about people. It is about Jared Vargas, a vibrant young college student studying computer science with dreams of working in the cybersecurity field. His life was cut tragically short when he was brutally murdered by an illegal alien in San Antonio last June.

Jared's mother, Lori; his twin brother; and his younger sister don't care if I personally believe fences would be more effective than drones, or vice versa. And they don't care if one of my colleagues believes that 2,028 homicide charges against illegal aliens in 2018 is not enough to justify a border wall. For them, one matters enough.

The Vargas family does care that Jared's murderer had been in ICE custody twice and had been arrested for a DWI and released just a month before he killed Jared.

This current debate before us has a face. It has a name. That name is Jared. And his family wants justice for Jared.

But it is also about the little girl who, today, will be exploited by drug cartels who know that sex trafficking can be more lucrative than trafficking drugs.

It is about the young woman in Central America who saves money and pays every last dime she has to someone who promises to take her to a better life in America, only to be forced into a shipping container. She wakes up in Greece to find that she has been sold into the sex trade, and there is no one around her who speaks her language.

According to Doctors Without Borders, roughly one-third of women making their way across the border are victims of sexual assault. I am old enough to remember, as a Senate lawyer, when Senator Tom Coburn spoke on the Senate floor in 2007 about rape trees. I find it unacceptable that today, a decade later, the border is littered with the clothes of new victims because we have failed to do anything as a body, as a Congress.

In my visits to the border, one thing is clear: Dangerous cartels are calling the shots. I was talking to a Border Patrol agent last summer. He said:

I am down here at night. I am by myself. I have no cell, no radio. I can't see the river through the thick cane. I can't drive along the river. And the cartels have operational control of the border.

That is what we are sending our guys down on the river, in the Rio Grande, to do to defend this Nation.

So it is time for us to put partisanship aside and secure our border. Fences, cameras, radios, cell phones, more Border Patrol agents, additional immigration judges, cleared cane, navigable roads along the river, we need all these tools.

To be clear, that is what is in the President's plan. That is what we are fighting to get. To be clear again, fences are a vital and necessary part of that security.

It is absurd for anyone to argue that fences do not work, take your pick of an example throughout history, from the walls around medieval fortresses to the fencing around the White House and our military installations today.

Ask a tort lawyer whether leaving your pool open, monitored by drones, will save you from liability if a child falls in your pool.

The truth is, fences have worked since the dawn of time. Currently, we have 46 miles of reinforced fencing along the San Diego sector of the border. Before construction began in 1986, there were 630,000 arrests. Compare that to almost 32,000 arrests in 2016.

Fences work. Yet, 10 years ago, I heard members of the Senate Judiciary Committee argue that fences don't work because migrants then shifted from California to Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas.

Only in Washington is that logic passable. Fences don't work because they worked? That may have been the first time, though it won't be the last, that I heard someone say fencing is a 1st or 3rd or 18th century solution for a 21st century problem.

But in El Paso, in Yuma, in Tucson, in Israel, fencing was put in place, and we have seen reductions of up to 90 percent or more in illegal crossings.

This body has repeatedly authorized foreign assistance to our allies to help them secure their borders. But, at the same time, the House is crippled with inaction at securing our own.

We have repeatedly authorized fencing for the United States of America, but we are here today trying to actually get it funded and get it built. It is time to stop posturing about things that everybody in America knows.

In Texas, let's stop talking. Let's go down to Brownsville. Let's start building the fence where we need it and work our way up the river.

To my colleague who was speaking early about, well, where is the fence going to go? If we face an obstacle, let's discuss it. If a rancher needs access to water, we consider leaving an opening, post a guard, put up a camera, and then continue moving up the river.

Let's work together for one simple goal. The United States of America should have operational control over its borders, not dangerous cartels.

Many on both sides of the aisle like to pretend that we shouldn't build a fence because it might be possible to go over or under it. Of course, that is possible, but that is not a reason not to build a fence.

The fundamental question is this: Are we more secure with agents and drones, or are we more secure with agents, drones, and fences?

This is not a partisan issue; it is a humanitarian crisis. It is time for us to stop bickering or hiding behind excuses and secure the border now.

It is time for America to reclaim operational control of its border, pay Federal workers who are doing their job, and make America secure again.

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