Speech #1090119545

China refused to accept any of them back. So we have to use every diplomatic tool in our toolbox to make sure we not only detain people who come across our border illegally. but that we then. in an expeditious way. return them back to their country of origin. Second. in the bill that Senator KYL and I proposed. we proposed a doubling in the number of Border Patrol agents. And while we have heard a lot of talk about additional Federal agents at the border. the Federal Government really hasnt stepped up yet. There is a lot of good and. I think. wellintentioned talk. But on 9/11. we saw that 9.788 Border Patrol agents were funded by the U.S. Government. Here we are today. and we have seen a small increase to a little over 11.000. But lest some people think that is a lot of Federal agents on the border. let me remind them we have a 2.000mile border between the United States and Mexicoa 2.000mile borderand now a little over 11.000 Federal agents. when the city of New York has somewhere on the order of 39.000 policemen. So if you compare a 2.000mile border and 11.000 Border Patrol agents with the fact that the city of New York has 39.000 police officers. you can see why I suggest to my colleagues that we are both underfunded and undermanned when it comes to the sheer volume of people coming across the border. Last year. about 1.2 millionthats 1.2 millionpeople were apprehended coming across the border. So how can we in good conscience say that we are doing everything within our power to enforce our borders and enforce our laws when we simply deny the Federal agents. who are doing a very good job. the number of people they need in order to be successful? Then there is the issue of detention beds. Once you detain someone coming illegally across the border. they are entitled. ordinarily. to a deportation hearing. if they come from a country other than Mexico. People who come from Mexico are returned expeditiouslyusually the same day. Of course. many of them try to come back and. after enough tries. they usually make it past the border. But we have had a flawed policy of catch and release. In other words. when we have apprehended people at the border who come in illegally from countries other than Mexico. we said: Please show up in 30 days for your deportation hearing. Are we surprised that the vast majority of people dont show up but just merely melt into our landscape and become part of that 12 million people who come to our country in violation of our immigration laws? Well. it is because we only have 20.000 detention beds20.000with 1.2 million people coming across our borders just last year. That is the fundamental. root problem with the catchandrelease policy that the Department of Homeland Security has had for far too long. Senator KYL and I would not only raise the number of detention beds to 50.000. but we would end the catchandrelease policy by improving and increasing and mandating the use of expedited removal across our borders. This chart reflects that Border Patrol apprehensions of people from countries other than Mexico were 165.000 last year. Yet 114.000 of them were released under the catchandrelease program. As I say. most. if not all. of them melted into the landscape and became part of this shadow culture living in America today of people who have come to this country in violation of our immigration laws. We may assume we know why they have come here. We may assume that they are people in search of a better life and. indeed. many of them are.