Speech #1090132303

We didnt know who was coming in. We especially didnt know who was leaving. We knew that we werent in control of the southern border relative to those folks coming in. and we knew that on the northern border. although we dont have the humanwave issue of illegal immigrants coming into the country. we do have a very serious issue of people who might come across the northern border represent clear and present threats to us. probably even more so than across the southern borders. in some cases. So we reoriented funding within the homeland security programs through the first bill that I was in charge of. At that time. the administration sent up a proposal which essentially continued what I would call the benign neglect of the border security effort in our country. Their proposal in that budget was for 210 additional border agents and essentially no increase in technical capability or in the capacity of infrastructure or the capacity of ICE. There was a proposal in the Coast Guard area. but it was anemic. So we took that proposal which came from the administration and we reoriented that. too. We said: We are going to increase the number of border security agents on the border by 8.000. We are going to spend about 4 years to 5 years doing that. We had to begin slowly because the training facilities simply werent there for this type of a huge increase in border security staff. So we began with a supplemental number of 500. and then we followed that up with 1.000 additional agents in the next regular bill that came through. So we added 1.500 new agents. In addition. agents arent the only issue. Boots on the ground is not the only issue. Technology is an issue. but probably even more important is the issue of what you do with an illegal immigrant who has come across our border once you capture that individual on our side of the border. Most of them are Mexican. on the southern borderabout 85 percentand they are immediately put on a bus and taken back across the border. In many instances. they just come back the next day or a week later.