Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CISCOMANI. Mr. Chairman, I thank Mr. McClintock for yielding me the time. I am excited to see the House take up my bill, H.R. 5585, the Agent Raul Gonzalez Officer Safety Act.

This bill is simple. It makes evading law enforcement within 100 miles of the border a Federal crime. Mr. Chairman, how anybody can be against this commonsense legislation is beyond me. Calling it unnecessary is something that maybe those that are opposing this should address with the families of those that have perished due to incidents and these tragedies that we see on the border and in my district on a weekly basis.

To me it is simple. It is common sense that this should be a Federal crime. Far too many lives have been jeopardized and tragically even taken at the hands of bad actors who engage in high-speed pursuits.

If you evade CBP or local law enforcement, you are clearly not a good actor. Unfortunately, the current law does not make this a crime in and of itself, and it leaves the burden of prosecuting these individuals to our local communities--as if they haven't already paid the price of this administration's failures on this issue.

Not only is this bill common sense, it is crucial, and in some cases, even lifesaving. To quote one of my constituents, At least once a week there is a high-speed chase through my town that includes a 15-mile-an- hour school zone. Do residents need to die to get the attention needed to correct this border problem?

I consistently hear about the detrimental impacts that high-speed chases have in southern Arizona--southeastern Arizona, to be more specific--and in Cochise County, which is in my district.

This criminal activity is not just reserved to drug cartels and smugglers themselves. Cartels now recruit Americans to drive down to the border and transport migrants north. We must change the calculus for those who endanger all of us when failing to yield to law enforcement. For far too long, the administration has allowed cartels to profit off the border crisis while facing almost no consequences.

Another constituent has said, We have multiple high-speed vehicle pursuits each week. The lack of Federal resources to deal with those has led the county sheriff to be the de facto law enforcement agency to interdict the human smugglers.

This bill is about supporting our local border communities who deal with the crisis daily and to stop the smuggling and trafficking. In calendar years 2022 and 2023, Cochise County reports booking 2,884 individuals for border-related crimes, costing over $9.4 million. This is in one county, in one State. I have seen the toll it takes firsthand in our communities. By letting this happen, this administration has absolutely failed Americans.

Our local law enforcement should not be taking on this burden. These migrants are evading detection, and the smugglers themselves are evading detection, or more likely, the cartels are telling them to do so. Yet again, our communities are being forced to do the job of the Federal Government.

At a time when it is arguably the easiest to cross our southern border and be granted entry by this administration, freely almost, we should be asking ourselves why these people are fleeing law enforcement. The answer is these are the really bad actors who the cartels want to evade arrest.

Finally, I want to highlight the hero this bill is named after, Agent Raul Gonzalez, who was killed in 2022 while pursuing illegal immigrants in Texas. His death underscored the tragic truth that our CBP officers risk their lives every day to protect our country. By passing this legislation, we are showing them that we have their backs. That is why this bill is supported by law enforcement groups like the National Border Patrol Council and seven law enforcement groups in Arizona alone.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my much-needed legislation. Let's send a message to our border communities and the authorities that we will always have their backs, and let's send a stronger message to the bad actors that we will pursue any actions that threaten American lives to the fullest extent of the law.

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