Speech #1030055956

Tijuana border region which Congressman FILNER. HUNTER. and I directly represent. is the Nations busiest and most violent border zone. More than 50 percent of all undocumented persons apprehended throughout the United States were apprehended in this region in 1992. Yet the Border Patrol in San Diego remain grossly underfunded. No Member of this body can truly understand how desperate the situation is until they have seen it for themselves. I have ridden with the agents and I have seen the overwhelming and demoralizing odds. the vehicles that have long exceeded Government recommended mileage replacement standards. and the vehicles that have their hoods tied down with wire. I have heard potential border crossors laugh at the Border Patrol agents saying: "Just wait until nightfallyou cant stop us." Border Patrol agents in San Diego have special needs. They must use horses. helicopters. allterrain vehicles. and mountain bikes to protect what is the most overrun 15 miles of the border. Just last month my office received a desperate call from the Border Patrol in San Diego. They are absolutely stone broke. They received sedans which are going to remain unused until they can get money to transform them into usable vehicles. I know the Appropriations Committee has boon generous with their funding for Border Patrol this year and I thank them. However. with over 50 percent of the national workload of undocumented alien traffic and 30 percent of the national drug seizures. San Diego has never been realistically funded for its workload. To my colleagues who think $60 million is an increase too great to bring home to their constituents. think about this: In the State of California alone the cost of providing services and incarcerating undocumented aliens is $2.8 billion per year. These are costs that no taxpayers want to bear the burden of. This is not a problem unique to San Diego or California. The recent attempt by hundreds of Chinese citizens to enter the United States through Mexico. New York. and New Jersey shows the need for greater resources at our border. The Border Patrol authorization requires INS to appropriate sums as may be necessary to the Border Patrol: $60 million is absolutely necessary to provide resources and an additional 600 agents to the Border Patrol. The HunterMoorheadSchenk amendment would provide those resources and I urge my colleagues in the House to vote in favor of this amendment. ii 1130