Speech #910283475

Bear in mind. there are many factors by which one is impelled to see the wetback with sympathy. and with understanding of his objectives and his plight. Nevertheless. he is here in this country in violation of law and in that sense something must be done to dispose of him and his problem according to law. Bearing on the first problem. the Border Patrol of our Immigration and Naturalization Service. a branch of the Department of Justice. seems to be a neglected instrument of the Government. no matter what administration occupies the seats of authority in Washington. Going back three decades there were around 1.000 border patrolmen on our Mexican border. In the 1950s the numbers were increased slightly during a genuine effort to bring the border under control when. around the middle of that decade. a million wetbacks were returned to Mexico in 1 year. The number of border patrolmen we had last yearand I think this yearwas a few more than 1.100. Surely if we intend to cope with a problem which is disturbing to many conscientious people because they see the impact of the illegal alien on the economy. something should be done to augment and to support the men who are charged under law with responsibility for the security of our border. However. control on the border is not solely the product of a border police function. The problem will not respond to purely a police operation. It is a job which cannot be done without a blending of border police operations. employment concepts and adjustments in our country and. where possible. the achievement of economic balances between our country and Mexico. The Border Patrol of the Immigration and Naturalization Service is our only uniformed. armed. civilian police organization between the established ports of entry and it is administratively and organizationally hidden from the public view. Within the structure of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. a nonlawenforcement body in the modern sense. the Border Patrol is bedded quietly under a substructure called domestic controlsurely an appellation which must arouse curiosity among the nonbureaucratic majority of us as to organizational and functional intent. The Border Patrol should be identified and structurally set apart in order that we may properly identify the funds appropriated for its purposes and support it where necessary to accomplish its mission on the border. A few months ago a great emphasis was placed on control of our border as that control related to the illicit introduction of harmful drugs. Now all of us are in favor of preventing marihuana and harder drugs from coming into this country but from the quantities being found in this country and the quantities being used in this country. according to our daily press reports. one might conclude that the various excited effortsalmost hysterical in naturewhich re. cently resulted in clogging our ports for brief periods to legitimate traffic and which have resulted In a great deal of local misunderstandingthese crash programs are not the way to do it.