Speech #990215854

As the group makes its way through the canyons. the bandits shoot one of them. thereby terrorizing the others into immediate surrender of whatever savings and valuables they possess. Pike concludes his essay on this note: The criminal fallout from our border chaos is affecting the wellbeing of San Diegans in their daily lives. Illegal aliens now account for more than 25 percent of arrests by the San Diego Police Department for burglaries and car thefts. A final point: The enormity of the illegal alien crisis at our doorstep overwhelms rational consideration because it is so irrational itself. The learned esjays we read from time to time about how Illegal aliens boost the U.S. economy are irrelevant to the mass exploitation. misled hopes. suffering. and tragedy. It is unconscionable that Americans should countenance either such a human price for their mere economic benefit. or. on the other hand. willingly submit to the dangers inherent in an uncontrolled border. While I do not subscribe to all of Mr. Pikes deeply felt comments. I must recall once again that I myself am familiar with the locations he describes. I myself have seen the notorious "soccer field." where hundreds. if not thousands. of undocumented aliens meet in the twilight hours. As you stand there. you are appalled by the fact that they have already broken the law. They are already standing on U.S. territory. The fact of the matter is the soccer field is a large plain. a level piece of ground that is Just across the border from Mexico and the reason why they are able to gather there and the Border Patrol officers can only view them from above is that if the Border Patrol officers were to descend down into the soccer field. these people would have an opportunity to easily escape over to the Mexican side before they were there. If the Border Patrol officers stay down there. they go across in other areas and if they gain the high ground. they get past the Border Patrol officers. So they stand there in the twilight hours waiting before they begin their Journey into the inside of the United States. Unfortunately. I have also visited the socalled spider holes. where undocumented aliens hide from the authorities. While the term "spider holes" may seem hyperbolic or exaggerated to some. it is only too accurate a description of the inhuman hovels that the Border Patrol periodically discovers. Indeed. the term "hovels" may be too generous. What you ought to see is these spider holes. They may be as shallow as 3 feet deep. They may be wide enough for three or four people to lay side by side to sleep at night. but they generally have a very small hole in which the people go inside to them. protected from detection by the Border Patrol. yes. protected from detection by bandits. they hope. sometimes protected from the heat or the rain or the cold. There are rodents in them. no latrines. no facilities. no run. ning water. The only water that they use is the water that they get from runoff and irrigation with all the pes. ticides that are in there. no protection from disease. and not just a couple of them.