Speech #1090156388

We have the people who can do the job. If we provide the resources. we can make it much more secure and move towards making it secure so those lawbreakers who want to enter our country find it very difficult to enter our country. They find themselves being detained. being deported. Those people who come into this country from other countries find themselves not with a getoutofjailfree pass as they can wander among the populace of the United States as it used to be with our catchandrelease program. but under the House bill we would detain these people. these OTMs coming into this country. The Mexicans we would take back to Mexico and we would enforce the law. The people say to me in my district. when we start talking about immigration. at least 20 percent of the questions I have in my town hall meetings are. Whats wrong with enforcing the laws we already have? I cant say a word because I agree with them. I agreed with them when I sat on the bench as a district judge and we would call Immigration to ask them to come pick up people who were clearly illegally in this country and have reluctance to do so. I saw it with a number of our people sitting in our jails in Williamson County. Texas. who were illegal aliens. taking up jail space that our taxpayers are spending good. hardearned dollars for. I saw them at the emergency rooms in our little local hospitals and in our big metropolitan hospitals. overwhelming our medical system. and we could not get the response we needed. We have neglected our job. and now the House is saying we are ready to get the job done and we are submitting the resources and the ideas and the manpower and the technology to the Border Patrol and those agencies. including our Texas sheriffs and other law enforcement people in Texas and Arizona and New Mexico and California. so we can start to meet the crisis at the border and stop the bleeding. That Is what our House plan says. And it says. this is a start.