A Call to Action--Border Security

Floor Speech

Mr. PERRY. I want to also extend my appreciation to you for bringing up this important issue. I think this is going to kind of be a continuing
conversation, at least for the next couple weeks, as we move forward
into bringing this particular bill and the legislation to the floor.

With that, I was just thinking that in the last couple days I saw the
President on TV, and he asked a question: What kind of country do we
want to be?

I think you can think of that in a lot of different ways, but
regarding the border, the President, while he says that, has preached
over the years that he has made our Nation's border more secure than
ever. I just remember last year when he was literally saying that, we
saw tens of thousands of unaccompanied people coming across the border,
and all of America was saying to themselves: What are you talking
about? How can you say that?

The Border Patrol wasn't stopping these people. They were greeting
these people and bringing them into the country. You are thinking,
maybe that is a great thing, but we don't know who they are or what
their intentions are, and you have no credibility, Mr. President, when
you say that.

His statement is just supported by bloated statistics and a false
sense of reality. I think most Americans understand that. As a matter
of fact, the GAO recently found that only 44 percent of the southwest
border was under operational control--44 percent. So 56 is just wide
open apparently. Listen, that 44 percent, that is based on some best
guess or some estimate because, believe it or not, they don't even keep
the records.

Now, you know--you know as sure as you are watching this on TV or in
the gallery or sitting at home thinking about it--that those Border
Patrol agents and those sheriffs are keeping records of the things they
do on a daily basis and a nightly basis, drove so many miles, picked up
this many people coming across the border.

What happens to that information? Guess what, folks? They don't want
us to have it. They don't want the GAO to have it because then we would
know that our back door is wide open.

I mean, these gaps on the border lead to higher crime rates and
unemployment for American citizens. It is really no more complicated
than your own home. Sure, you love your neighbor to your left and your
right and the people that adjoin your home to the north and to the
south, but that doesn't mean that you leave your doors wide open for
them to come in and go as they please at all hours of the day or night.

We want to be a country that is defined by who we are, and it
requires protecting. If we are not going to define our country in those
ways, why define it by having a border at all? That is what I think the
President and many on the other side would propose, that we just
abolish the borders. Well, guess what, folks? If we abolish the
borders, we don't have any country at all.

I was thinking about another thing I heard recently. Over the last 6
years of the couple million jobs that were created in a downturn
economy, almost all of them, statistically, were filled by people that
weren't born in this country. Listen, it is great to have people come
here and we need to have that policy, a smart policy, but our policy
should be what works for America first, and securing our border and
doing what works for America is the right thing to do. It is our duty.
It is our oath.

Now, people say: Well, why is it so important?

Look at the crime rates. More than 40 percent of all criminal cases
initiated by Federal prosecutors were in districts that border Mexico.
Is anybody surprised? Do you think that that doesn't correlate to
something? That means something, folks. I mean, the Governor of Texas,
Rick Perry, stated more than 3,000 homicides were committed by illegal
immigrants in the last 6 years.

Now, are we a nation of laws or aren't we? If we are a nation of
laws, what does it matter if you have a law that you are not going to
enforce? Does it mean anything? The President has not executed the law
for biometric exit. That is where we determine who you are, what you
are doing here, and when you leave. Come legally, come across our
border, but that is part of securing the border. But when it is time to
go, it is time to go. If you want to stay, hey, that is great, but show
up and let our government know that you are going to stay a little bit
longer and what your purpose is. We don't want you to stay if your purpose is for something other than what it should
be.

The Congress has spoken, as a matter of fact, eight times passed a
law requiring an exit system at all our ports; yet the executive
branch, the one who executes the laws, has decided that is not
important. They are just not going to do it.

Folks, this puts us at a huge disadvantage. It makes us unsafe. We
are not secure in our homes. We don't have the peace of mind of knowing
that we are safe in our homes. We don't have the peace of mind of
knowing that the people coming across the border are being screened for
maybe diseases or criminal activity.

There is a cost to that. There is a cost in lives. There is a
financial cost to that in caring for people that get diseases that we
have long eradicated in America that now come across the border
unchecked because our border is wide open. That is why it is important
to secure the border.

It is important. Congress has spoken. Congress, the representative of
the American people, has spoken eight times on this issue, and the
President has just said: I can't be bothered. He designates Federal
lands, and our own agents can't be on these Federal lands and do their
job.

I mean, who thinks that controlling the border and securing the
border means being 50 miles off the border? I guarantee you, if you are
in the combat zone securing your perimeter, your border--and the
gentlelady knows what I am talking about because she has been there
herself, as I have been there--you secure your perimeter and you watch
your perimeter right on it, not just set up a little fence or draw a
line in the sand and then head to the tent and hope nobody crosses it.
That doesn't work there, and it doesn't work here. Yet that is what we
are doing, and we are espousing it as though it was some kind of policy
that is coherent and is realistic. It is not.

Our agents want to do their jobs. They are excited to do the job,
they are committed to do the job, and our Federal Government literally
is standing in the way and saying: Absolutely, you can't do the job.

We can get some assistance from our State and local, our National
Guard, too. I have served on that mission as well. There is a lot of
opportunity there to divide the duties and the resources and make this
work that is cost effective. There is a lot of expertise from a
military standpoint that can be used legally to help secure our
borders, but, here again, the President can't be bothered. Mr. Speaker,
it is unconscionable.

We need to keep track of these individuals with radical views. If the
President had enacted the biometric requirements that have been
required by the United States Congress eight times, maybe the Tsarnaev
brothers wouldn't have had the ability to come to Boston and blow up
people during the marathon. But we will never know because they just
come and go as they darn well please to our country, and we don't ask
anything. How is that securing the country? How is that good for
America?

Mr. Speaker, thanks again to the gentlelady for hosting this. This is
an incredibly important subject that we need to be discussing, and it
is great that we have some time on the House floor to discuss this.

I hope what this does is it kind of gets the people that are watching
this to say: Huh, maybe there is something to this. Maybe I should call
my Representative. What does he or she think? How would he or she vote
on such a border bill? Is there something missing in the bill, and is
there some reason they wouldn't support the bill, and what is that?
What would I like, as an American, to see about my border? Should we be
letting anybody that darn well pleases come across the border unchecked
to come into my community and do whatever they would, take my job, harm my family, or do I want something more as an American? Where does my Representative stand?

I think it is a great opportunity to call your Representative, write
your Representative, email, talk to his staff and say: What does my
Representative think of this?

So I appreciate the opportunity. I appreciate your leadership. I
know, I have been to where you live.

Ms. McSALLY. You know what we are dealing with.

Mr. PERRY. Yes.

I have flown on the Arizona border down there. I have crossed the
border in Nogales, and I have been privileged to be there. America is
not where it needs to be on this. The Congress is, but we need to pass
a bill, and we need the President to execute it.

I thank you very much for the opportunity.

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Mr. PERRY. We want to make sure that we get all the information out
about this. As I said, the GAO's best estimate, I think, is about 56
percent of the border is not secured.

Another thing to mention about this bill is that we are looking for
100 percent. Now, we understand, just like law enforcement, they don't
catch every criminal, and sometimes prisoners escape from prison, but
we expect the warden to secure the prison, and the plan is to keep
everybody in prison in prison.

But with this bill we expect 100 percent, and it is important to note
that the other side would have us diminish that standard.

Right now, GAO is saying that 50 percent of the border is unmonitored
and not secured. We actually have people in this Congress saying let's
lessen the standard that we have currently right now, and the best we
can get is 50-some percent.

I don't know who in their life plans to fail, doesn't plan to exceed
and do the maximum. Whether it is showing up for work on time or
anything you endeavor in, nobody shoots for below the bar. You shoot
for the best. Yet in this endeavor, we have people literally in this
Congress who are saying let's actually do less than we can do--
actually, let's do less than we are doing right now. So that seems to
fly in the face of what every single American, regardless of your
positions on other things, feels about securing the border.

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