Speech #1090119625

I mentioned the military. Because the Barry Goldwater Gunnery Range is located on the border with Mexico and is one of the largest areas for our pilots to train regardless of the service. that area is of great value to the United States for our defense preparedness. Two years agoI dont have the numbers from last yearthere were something like 400 to 500 missions that had to be aborted because pilots had their planes gassed up. ready to go. with the bombs ready. or maybe had even taken off. but when they got close to the range. the radio call came back that there are illegal immigrants in the area. Turn back. Dont drop your bombs. This is an area where strafing and bombing occurs on a regular basis. The Marine Corps is responsible for the western half of this gunnery range. They go out on a weekly basis and try to clear the area of illegal immigrants. But frequently. after they have cleared the area and radioed that it is OK for the mission to come in. they find there is somebody there and they have to abort. There were hundreds of flying hours that were lost 2 years ago and I am sure last year as a result of this phenomenon. Military training is being sacrificed. The same thing is occurring on the proving ground. the Yuma proving ground. which is a pathway for illegal immigration. The point is. there are a lot of reasons to control our border beyond dealing with the problem of illegal immigrants. That is a huge problem. With at least half of the illegal immigrants coming through my State on an annual basis. it represents particularly a huge problem for my State. But I havent mentioned one of the key elements. and that has to do with securing our borders as a sovereign country. particularly in a time where there is a potential terrorist threat. It is not hard to transport contraband material across our border.