Speech #1020212212

This does not include the July 27. 1992 seizure of 2.053 poundsmore than 1 ton--of marijuana in the San Diego Sector. The project underway to light this sector of the border will further shore up the U.S. Border Patrols enforcement efforts. The lighting plan calls for raising 150 poles of up to 60 feet in height from 1 mile east of the Pacific Ocean to San Ysldro Mountains. Lighting the border is step three. after road and fence improvements. In taking control of our borders. Let me conclude with a story recently covered by the San Diego UnionTribune which offers another glimpse of the daytoday heroics of the Border Patrol: Border Patrol Agent Michael Gregg said a citizen reported seeing a black pickup truck drive across the international border through a hole in the fence south of Boulevard in the Tierra del Sol area. Gregg said two Campobased agents tried stopping the truck along 18. but it sped away at speeds of up to 70 mph. Eventually the truck exited at Live Oak Springs Road. going south onto Old Highway 80. The driver intended to return to the border. Gregg said. As the truck was travelling toward the border fence along Tierra del Sol Road. Gregg said the passenger began heaving large rocks out the window. One rock shattered the windshield of a Border Patrol car. but neither agent inside was hurt. Just before reaching the border fence along a dirt road. the truck ran onto a large rut. becoming stuck. Both men ran from the truck. escaping into Mexico. Inside the pickup truck. agents found 220 individually wrapped packages of MartJuana2.053 pounds in allworth about $2 million. Gregg said. I hope that the Members of the House will share the conclusion I have reached with regard to the Border Patrol: The key to ending the traffic of aliens and drugs is to provide the Patrol with the resources to stop the Invasion at the border. I commend the leadership of Guy de Ia Vina and all the brave men and women who serve with him in the San Diego Border Sector.