Speech #1030132989

Which a number of us put forward. And that added 600 border patrolmen. So they basically dispersed the border patrolmen who had been forced on them by Congress. and they pumped the number up to 4.500 border patrolmen. Our studies show that we need 10.000 border patrolmen because you have 12 smuggling corridors in the Southwest from San Diego to Tijuana and from Brownsville in Texas to Matamoros. and you have to have the number of people to put them on line to stop the illegal immigrants from coming in. Now we need 10.000 border patrolmen. The Clinton administration has said they are going to give up 4.500. We are still about 6.000 short. At the same time we are cashiering out of the military about 2.000 young people every week. That means if we just took 3 weeks worth of personnel slots whore young marines. and Army. and Air Force and Coast Guard personnel are being cashiered. just 3 weeks of people who are being taken out of the Air Force and put those Job slots in the border patrol. we would be able to stop illegal immigration in the Southwest. Similarly. about 350.000 bureaucrats or Federal workers work in Washington. DC. not counting the Department of Defense. If we took 6.000 of those slots. of those 350.000 people who work in Washington. DC. in administration doing paperwork. if we took just 6.000 of those slots and put them on the border. then we could stop illegal immigration. So illegal immigration. stopping illegal immigration. is not spacebased lasers. it is not technical and does not require a lot of R&D. What it does require is national will. I have looked forward to the Clinton administration. which has talked a very strong line on illegal immigration. and they have had good rhetoric. but I have looked forward to them providing the additional 6.000 border patrol agents. But to date the bill that provides the 6.000 border patrol agents is the Republican bill on immigration. and I hope that President Clinton will take this bill and work with us to see to it that we have the number of border patrolmen that we need. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Georgia and then my friend. the gentleman from California.