Speech #970273201

I appreciate the gentleman yielding and I will certainly restore his time if he needs it. Let me answer my friend from New York in this fashion: traditionally we have rejected requests to increase the Border Patrol. the surveillance arm. but to your credit and the credit of the people in this House and in this Congress we have over the last year and a half added 300 people to the Border Patrol staff and we have increased its function by 20 percent and increased the money of the Immigration Service by fully $67 million. What this has done is for the first time in history allowed us to address the problem in the multifold way that it has to be addressed. in the law. but also on the ground. with a lean and very ready service. We went. for example. to San Diego last year and found in the Chula Vista sector that the helicopters were not flying.