Speech #1020190952

Speaker. let me thank the gentlewoman from Maryland. once more. and just talk with her a little bit about what is happening on the border. I wanted to move into another area. if I could. for just a minute. And that is this: In recent months. the Border Patrol of the United States has been subject to a great deal of criticism. especially since the crash in Tomekla. CA. Just north of the San Diego border. It was a very tragic crash in which some illegal aliens. who had been pursued at one time by the Border Patrol. ran into and killed a number of American schoolchildren. It brought to light the great frustration with the problem of smuggling across the California border. both the smuggling of aliens and also the smuggling of narcotics. I just wanted to say that this criticism of the California Border Patrol. which is an outstanding agency made up of many courageous individuals. is not deserved. The Border Patrol is a very small force of personnel who have now this massive job of. in part. securing the 2.000mile land border between the United States and Mexico. Over the last year or so. in the San Diego sector. they have increased the cocaine and marijuana interdiction by over 700 percent of what it was about a year and half ago. They are now building a fence out of steel landing mats across a 14mile smugglers corridor between Tijuana and San Diego. They have totally shut down the drivethrough traffic. In some places. we had drug trucks driving through at the rate of more than 300 per month that would stream across the border and go up into the highway system in California and leave with their load of cocaine or marijuana to ultimately poison the young people of America. going right out into the Interstate Highway System. And the Border Patrol. with this very small group of people working with the Army Reserve and with the National Guard. is now building 14 miles of fence and 14 miles of road across that smugglers corridor. I Just wanted to say one other thing. I asked the chief of the Border Patrol in the San Diego sector. Gus de la Vina. to let me know what his people were doing. The Border Patrol does not advertise. It is a little bit like the Secret Service. It does not advertise the good works of the agents. Generally. the Border Patrol makes the newspapers when somebody divines that they think the Border patrol has done something wrong. and then they are in for a healthy shot of criticism. But every day their people are out there risking their lives. not only with people that are smuggling aliens but people who are smuggling now milliondollar narcotic loads. I just wanted to go over a couple of things that have happened in the last several years. One agent. while he was performing his assigned duties in the Tijuana River bottom. heard gunshots coming from Mexico and observed two men being chased by four assailants. This agent immediately drove his service vehicle to a position between the assailants and the victims. These were people who were shooting at illegal aliens. And he pulled the victims to cover behind his vehicle. even as gunfire was being directed toward the victims. Pulling his weapon. he prudently held fire to avoid hitting innocent people directly behind the assailants. After the assailants fled. this agent immediately called for emergoncy assistance and rendered first aid co one of the victims who sustainei a gunshot wound to the chest. My colleagues will ncice I did not give any name to that Border Patrol agent. That is becauso it is the custom of the Border Patrol not to release or reveal the names of their agents who are involved in a war on a daily basis protecting American interests. Here is another agent. January 5. 1991.