Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007

Floor Speech

ALIEN SMUGGLING AND TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT OF 2007 -- (House of Representatives - May 22, 2007)

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Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. I appreciate the yielding of the time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007.

During consideration of the Homeland Security authorization bill earlier this month, I made a commitment to my colleagues that the House would have the opportunity to vote on maritime smuggling legislation. I am pleased to have been able to work with the Judiciary and Transportation Committees to craft this critical homeland security legislation. It addresses not only alien smuggling at sea, but also alien smuggling by land and air.

Specifically, the Alien Smuggling and Terrorism Prevention Act includes tough new penalties for those who recruit, encourage, transport, or shield from detection aliens who cross our land, maritime, or air borders illegally. These enhanced penalties are essential to discouraging criminals from building tunnels in remote parts of the desert to smuggle aliens across our borders.

We know that the same people that smuggle drugs into our country are ready and willing to smuggle individuals who would do us harm. In fact, in January we learned of a plot to smuggle about 20 would-be terrorists into the United States from Mexico for $8,000 a head. The drug dealers called them ``Osama's guys.''

The bill requires that interdicted smugglers and aliens be run against all available terrorist watch lists. This is an important step in protecting America from terrorists.

I would especially like to commend the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Hill) for authoring this commonsense enforcement legislation. He is to be commended for his commitment to border security.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for working together on this important legislation and urge all Members to give it their support.

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