Speech #820170375

This legislation without the proposed amendment is discriminatory. I know the argument will be made that they can catch them better in 25 miles than they can in 1. That may have been true in years gone by in the horse and buggy days. but in this age of modern transportation a person trying to cross the border and evade the border patrol is not limited to the first 25 miles. for in 30 minutes he can be far into the interior of the United States. I agree that they should have authority to patrol along the Rio Grande to enforce our laws and to enforce the bill. but there is no justification to say that those of us who live as much as 20 or 25 miles away from the border are without private property rights. but when we suddenly reach a patrol line of 25 miles once again regain our rights in our private property. I know that people who live in the cities sometimes do not realize the situation we along the border are up against. that we too are entitled to the same property rights. We feel just the same about our private lands as they do about their homes. and we do not want a pistoltoting overzealous border patrolman abusing our rights and violating our private interests. and we very sincerely ask the sponsors of this discriminatory legislation to see that we have the same private rights that you have in the interior of the United States. and require that search warrants issued by a recognized court must be obtained before they can invade our private property.