Speech #1090123177

President. I thank the very able Senator. Last month. the Senate began debate on immigration and border security legislation. part of which would authorize a whole host of items intended to secure our borders. The legislation would authorize the hiring of additional Border Patrol agents. The legislation would authorize the hiring of additional immigration enforcement agents and detention officers. The legislation would authorize border surveillance technology and unmanned aerial vehicles. However. the Immigration bill is just an authorization bill. Now. if we are serious about border security. we must approve real dollarsreal dollars. Together with our colleague. Senator LARRY CRAIG. and with the support of my Homeland Security Subcommittee chairman. Senator JUDD GREGG. I led the effort in the Senate last year to appropriate hard dollars to begin to put real teeth into our border security agenda. We did not merely authorize the hiring of more Border Patrol agents. we appropriated hard cash. hard dollars to hire 500 more Border Patrol agents as well as more immigration enforcement agents and detention officers. The administration opposed this effort. But those 500 Border Patrol agents have been hired. They have been trained. They are now deployed on our borders defending our Nation and making us more secure. As we continue to hire more Border Patrol agents and other immigration enforcement officials. we need to give them the tools they need to do their job. Yes. We need to start paying for those tools now so they will be available as more and more Border Patrol agents and immigration enforcement officials are hired and trained. The Border Patrol needs new helicopters because the average age of its helicopters is nearly 40 years. The average age of our Customs primary fixedwing aircraft is 30 years. All of our border enforcement officials. including the newly hired officials. need more vehicles. including allterrain vehicles. highendurance vehicles. and more buses to transport and remove illegal aliens. More radios are needed and other communications equipment. especially for those individuals operating in remote desert areas along our border. Customs and Border Protection has a requirement for 18 unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs. The immigration bill authorizes more UAVs. but until this morning. we had only one UAV operating on our border. At 5:49 a.m. this morning. where were you? I was asleep.