Border Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. VALADAO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative McSally. I had an opportunity to go to your home State a couple of weeks ago and spend some time with you on the border. I have spent quite a bit of time here in Washington over the last 2 years talking about immigration reform. I do believe that we have to fix the problem. We have to address the situation we have with immigration in general. But something that I learned a lot about on that trip which I knew before, until I really got to experience and see for myself, I didn't realize how bad the situation on the border was and what our border agents face on a day-to-day basis, with people coming in with tools that I happened to use in my shop when I am building stuff, saws and torches and different types of equipment, just to get through the fence. When you see the situation we have got with the types of drugs and the types of people crossing the border on a daily basis, it is truly a situation that has to be resolved and looked at in a totally different way.

Chairman McCaul came up with a piece of legislation to address this, going along the whole border in a piece-by-piece manner. It looks at each part of the border and how it needs to be addressed. From that tour and the time I spent on the border, I got to see how important it was; from the California portion in San Diego and how people are getting across the border and the type of tunnels they are digging to the type of aircraft that people are flying, the drones that you can buy for a couple thousand bucks online; and even down to your part of the border where we got to see people cutting through the fence and actually making ramps and driving over barriers that weren't able to be cut; down to Texas to the Rio Grande when we traveled the river and saw what the situation was there, where people can hide and how narrow that area is.

The bill that was introduced helps secure the border because it looks at each portion of the border separately and individually and addresses it as a problem in itself. It puts technology in those places where it can truly make a difference. That border with this legislation can actually be secured--as much as we possibly can. Then we can move on with the rest of what has to be done. Obviously, fixing our guest worker programs and fixing our visa programs and the type of legal immigration that we welcome in this country because this country was built on immigrants. But we want to make sure that we secure the border first.

I am thrilled to be here and spend some time with you this evening talking about such an important issue. I appreciate the invitation.

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Mr. VALADAO. I appreciate the opportunity again.

But, no, that is something we hear about a lot in the district. Everybody just says: Build a fence, follow the existing law.

Most people don't know the technology out there. Like you said, they literally have scouts. They have got people every so often, every so many yards or 100 yards, whatever the distance, spotting where the Border Patrol agents are. They know everything about these Border Patrol agents.

I heard a story that one of the people crossing the border actually had a booklet with all the names, addresses, and the tendencies of each and every Border Patrol agent.

They knew if they chewed gum, if they chewed tobacco, if they read a book while they were sitting there. They knew how slow they drove from checkpoint to checkpoint. They knew everything about this person. They knew exactly how long they would have those openings to get across.

They knew how to dig a tunnel. There was a tunnel they found that was 90 feet underground, 700 yards long, and the only reason they found that wasn't because of technology--because they don't have the technology to find that--it was because they found an informant that opened their mouth and told them where it was at, and they were able to stop that.

It is amazing how much is out there and what these people are doing, and anyone that believes just building a fence is going to work--they are going to go under it, they are going to buy those drones to go over it.

I heard stories of cannons that are literally firing bales of drugs over the top. There are so many opportunities out there. For anybody to believe that just enforcing the law the way it is written today, it will never work--it just won't--because the technology is out there.

If you ask any police officer on the street or any parent out there, you can't do everything the same you did 50 years ago because your children have way better technology to do stuff, our prisoners in our prison system have much more opportunity, and now, these folks have unbelievable amounts of technology out there to get across or to bring their drugs across.

Like you mentioned earlier, the problem has changed. What the folks in your district had mentioned to me was 20 years ago, 15 years ago, it was a large number of people--it was families, it was those that we see typically working on farms--who are out here just looking for an opportunity.

The folks coming across today are dangerous. They

are cartels. They are trying to bring drugs. They are bringing problems into this country. A lot of times--like one of your constituents--someone's life was taken. It is a truly sad situation.

But it has to be addressed in a way that actually solves our problems. We don't just take votes here because of sending out a press release. We solve problems. Legislation that we introduce and that we pass and that we vote on has to solve problems for the American people. That is what we are responsible to do, and that is what I want to do.

So again, I thank you for the opportunity.

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