Border Tunnel Prevention Act Of 2006

BORDER TUNNEL PREVENTION ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - September 21, 2006)

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, it is with great disappointment that I stand before you today to discuss a bill that fails once again to provide us with a comprehensive approach to handling border security.

Last week, Republicans introduced a border fence bill which was exactly what they voted against in December 2005. Today we are going to discuss three bills already considered by this body. In other words, the Republican leadership is forcing us to participate in their cheap political gambit to mislead the public. Simply put, the Republicans have morphed from a ``do-nothing'' Congress to a ``do-over'' Congress. Unfortunately, we continue to have a long way to go, and we will get nowhere with this piecemeal approach they are masterminding.

The Bush administration has had almost 6 years, and the Republican Congress 11 years, to secure the border.

Since 9/11, House Republicans rejected eight Democratic amendments to enhance border security resources. If these Democratic amendments had been adopted, there would be 6,600 more Border Patrol agents, 14,000 more detention beds, and 2,700 more immigration agents along our borders that now exist.

On December 16, 2005, all 218 House Republicans voting that day opposed a Democratic motion to recommit to H.R. 4437 to improve border security and immigration enforcement by fulfilling the 9/11 Commission's border security recommendations.

Fifty days before election day, the House Republican leadership has scheduled votes on bills we have already voted on. As usual, Republicans are all talk, but cheap on action to securing the border. Last week they voted on a border fence bill, but refused to provide the money needed to build a 700-mile fence along the Texas-Mexico border.

If Republicans were serious, they would have moved forward with a House-Senate conference that protects United States borders, strengthens our Nation's security and addresses the Nation's immigration problems comprehensively. Instead, they spent the summer conducting 22 sham hearings across the Nation.

Republicans talk about the fence as if it is the sole solution. Meanwhile, on September 15, DEA agents discovered yet another tunnel located beneath a residence in Calexico, California, and extending approximately 400 feet to a residence in Mexicali, Mexico.

We are spending $1.5 billion per week in Iraq, but the Republican leadership will not even commit to funding to secure our Nation's borders.

Democrats do not want to pass the buck on State and local governments to enforce immigration laws simply while the Republican-led Congress and administration fail to properly fund border security officers. States and localities are already robbing Peter to pay Paul by using a huge amount of their homeland security grant funding to secure the border, purchase communications equipment, and fortify bridges, ports and buildings.

Democrats do not want to stay the course on President Bush and the Republicans' failed border enforcement.

Madam Speaker, we need a comprehensive border security and immigration plan, not a piecemeal plan.

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