Speech #1060025369

Senator KYL and I. along with Senators DOMENICI. GRAMM. MCCAIN. and BINGAMAN. have been very concerned about the Border Patrol issue that faces our border States. In fact. we were stunned this week to learn that though Congress has authorized and authorized funding for 1.000 new Border Patrol agents that in fact only 200 to 400 are coming on line this year. Mr. President. that is stunning. That is stunning when you consider that last year the Border Patrol apprehended 1.5 million persons illegally crossing the border. and fully half of those were at my State of Texas. In fact. the McAllen Border Patrol sector. which includes Brownsville. Harlingen and McAllen. had the largest number of drug seizures of all Border Patrol Sectors in the United States1.610 drug seizures just in that one sector. The drugs apprehended have a value of over $410 million. Two Border Patrol agents in the McAllen sector lost their lives last year in a raid of a drug traffickers hideout. It was the first time Border Patrol agents had been killed during such a raid. Senator ABRAHAM held a hearing this week. and the Chief of the Border Patrol told us that he has not been able to recruit and retain and. in fact. is losing 10 percent of the agents. For every one that we are bringing on. we are losing two. because our Border Patrol agents are capped at a journeymen9 level. That translates to roughly $34.000 a year for an agent that has several years of experience. For an agent. that is certainly a job of law enforcement at its toughest. Under the bill that we have just introduced. the agents would be eligible to be paid at a journeymenll level. which is approximately a $7.000 increase. This pay raise is also consistent with the pay of other law enforcement agencies that work along the border. One significant problem for the Border Patrol has been that many agents go to work for the Customs Service. or the DEA when they reach the cap. So they get to their cap. their experience. and they go over to another Federal agency that pays better. We must solve this discrepancy among Federal agencies in the same place that are doing similar kinds of tough duty work for hazardous pay. Yet. the Border Patrol is $7.000 less than Customs and DEA agents. We must correct this discrepancy if we are going to get control of our borders. which are a sieve right now with drugs moving through at an alarming rate. This is not just a TexasArizonaNew MexicoCalifornia problem.