Speech #920109652

Widespread reports thtoughout the Jmmigration Service tell of large scale smuggling operations. bringing in aliens who are willing to commit as much as $300 of their future pay to the agent who smuggled them into the country. With the criminal element involved in alien smuggling. it can be anticipated that the smuggling of illegal goods. including narcotics and dangerous drugs. may go along with the smuggling of human cargo. The lax enforcement of our immigration laws becomes still another cause of crime when destitute aliens are apprehended. taken from their jobs. and simply ordered to leave the country. because the border patrol lacks the funds to deport them. They become desperate men. and even if they had not previously been criminally inclined they are often driven to lawbreaking in order to make a living. Rising unemployment. burgeoning relief rolls. a rising tide of crimethese are among the major problems of America today. and every one of them is being aggravated by the silent invasion of millions of illegal aliens. One would expect that the Immigration and Naturalization Service. charged with guarding the security of our borders.. would have beefed up its efforts to curb this rising tide of illegal entrants. Instead. it has curtailed almost every phase of its operations. Despite the indisputable evidence of a greater need for law enforcement by our border patrolmen. the Immigration and Naturalization Service is trying to get along on 1.000 less personnel than it had 5 years ago. There are only 1.400 border patrol agents in the entire Nation. 1.200 immigration inspectors and 780 criminal investigators. Not only is this tiny force called upon to do an impossible job of law enforcement. they are curtailed at almost every step in their operations. A few months ago. the border patrol grounded the last of its planes used for transporting illegal aliens back to the borderafter having allowed two other planes to become inoperable through lack of maintenance. The border patrol tried to replace this transport system with a grossly inadequate system of bus transportation. quoting. as 1971 justification. a GAO study dated 1968. The Inadequacy of transportation for illegally entered aliens is illustrated by events in San Antonio this week. According to the Associated Press. San Antonio policcmen have been ordered to stop arresting illegal aliens because of the expense of handling the large numbers they have apprehended in recent weeks. Police Inspector Marion Talbcrt said the U.S. Immigration Office advised police officials it will not pay the bill for housing aliens in the county jail as in the past. If any illegal aliens are picked up. Inspector Talbert said. they will be released by immigration officials. and given a paper telling them to return to Mexico. This situation is duplicated in many other cities. In New York. the immigration subcommittee was informed. there are only two investigators to work all information received from all over the United States and other points concerning illegal aliens in the Nations largest city. Many who have sent information there in the past now do not bother. simply because the information is seldom worked. due to the fantastic overload. In my district some weeks ago. I began to get reports that. not only had the planes been grounded but border patrol cars were out of gasoline because the funds had run out. I immediately contacted the White House and was informed that the Office of Management and Budget had released additional funds the previous night. Inquiry by the press brought forth the statement that the funds had never been impounded. Nevertheless. funds were made available. and the cars were running again. Such reports of penury on the part of the Immigration Service have come to me from all over the country. Here are a few examples: In Yuma. Ariz.. where normal usage of gasoline for patrol cars has been 225 to 250 gallons per day. the service was rationed to 105 gallons a day. at 35 gallons per 8hours shift. Sunday and holiday time was cut to the point that only three men were left to work 65 miles of border. normally worked by 30 to 33 border patrolmen. Patrolmen were reduced to siphoning gasoline from abandoned and confiscated cars to continue operation. Orders went out to stations in the Pacific Northwest to discontinue farm and ranch surveillance and other search details for which alien travel and detention funds were not already on hand. El Paso. Tex.. agents reported that farm and ranch surveillance had been discontinued. tracking of illegal aliens in the sandhills has been discontinued. Patroling back roads to apprehend smugglers evading the traffic check point has been discontinued. spotter planes have been grounded. and city patrols in the city of El Paso have been discontinued. Service officers in El Paso received a call from Parker. Tex.. from a citizen who reported he has previously called both the Dallas and San Antonio offices to report the presence of 168 illegal aliens and that nothing had been done about it. The caller said two officers had gone to the location and verified the fact that the aliens were therebut with no transportation to take them to the border. and no funds to detain them. they were not apprehended. In Del Rio.