Speech #1090107436

Congress needs to 52. Pt. 2 1553 appropriate money for infrared cameras that allow agents to see the entire border in day and nighttime. Finally. we need more Border Patrol agents. Although Congress has already tripled the number of Border Patrol agents since the late 1980s. more are still needed. Mr. Speaker. one million immigrants come to America legally each year. and my staff members spend the majority of their time helping those who want to come to our country to work hard and play by the rules. We are protected from dangerous people entering the country at our airports. IDs are checked against the terrorist watchlist. and baggage is screened. Who is doing checks on the 8.000 people who arrive here illegally each day? Who is our last line of defense? It is a Border Patrol agent in a green uniform working alone. At 2:00 a.m. tonight. after all of us are asleep. he will be once again working somewhere near the top of a cold 5.000foot mountain along the CaliforniaMexican border. He will get a radio call telling him to approach a group of illegals who have been spotted by an infrared scope and are located near the top of that mountain. He will track their footprints in the dirt and make his way toward them. As he approaches. there is something he does not know. Are these illegal aliens a group of harmless teenagers who are scared and freezing. or are they heavily armed. dangerous drug traffickers like the ones who have killed so many of his colleagues? Either way. he will approach them because it is just another day on the job. Mr. Speaker. I have a message for that Border Patrol agent. The United States Congress knows you are there. We appreciate your service. and help is on the way.