Speech #1030055957

Last year. Mr. Chairman. the Border Patrol was designated as the primary agency responsible for drug interdiction between ports of entry along the United StatesMexican border. Each year more than 1 billion dollars worth of drugs are captured along that border. and yet there are probably two or three times that much that gets through. In the past 7 months over 800.000 illegal immigrants were apprehended nationwide. and yet at least three or four times that number are makihg it through. The GAO reports that upward of 22 percent of the Fedoral prisons population are illegal aliens. In California at least 25 percent of our State prison population are illegal aliens. The same problem is true in Florida. and Texas. and other borderline areas. Eightyone percent of all Americans support an increase in the border control. notwithstanding that the major new responsibility of the Patrols ongoing principal mission is to deter illegal entry and conduct related apprehension activity along the borders. In the San Diego area alone. Mr. Chairman. 3.000 to 4.500 undocumented aliens flood our border daily. It is estimated that for every illegal alien at that particular point three gain successful entry. In fiscal year 1992 the U.S. Border Patrol arrested 1.2 million aliens. Mr. Chairman. I authored an amendment to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 authorizing a substantial 50percent increase in the Border Patrol. This amendment passed. and yet these levels have never been properly funded. We are currently at the level of around 4.800 for Border Patrol personnel. but there is only about 1.200 on duty at any one time. along that southern border. If my amendment had received sufficient appropriations. we would have been at the level of 6.600 by the end of fiscal year 1994.