Speech #990274913

DC. on Capitol Hill. at least if you judge by the success of our attempts to have meaningful new legislation. When you add up the numbers of people that come into this country illegally every year. on the low side this would amount to around 2 million people. or the equivalent of 4 new congressional districts on a yearly basis. According to the San Diego Border Patroland they control only 66 miles out of the almost 2.000mile border we have on the South. their apprehensions over the last 6 months. October to March. have risen by an incredible 48 percent over the same period a year ago. More than 270.000 illegal entrants were arrested in just the 66mile section that is under the control of the border control unit in San Diego. Of those illegal aliens. 6.500 were not from Mexico. were not Mexican nationals. but rather came from 55 different countries. They not only are now coming from Central and South America. they are coming from Africa. they are coming from Asia. they are coming from Europe. both East and West. they are coming from every continent on the face of the Earth. but they find that coming through Mexico and through our southern border is a fairly easy transit today. In the first 17 days of April we were averaging 2.451 arrests a day. a rate that led to more than 70.000 arrests for the month. That is just in that 66mile section that is under the control of the Border Patrol for San Diego. During this month. in the San Diego area. we are encountering an average of one undocumented worker. one undocumented worker picked up by the Border Patrol every 35 seconds. We know that we are locating at best only about half of the flow of illegal entrants. The rest are making it past them. soon to join their compatriots throughout California and the rest of the country.