Speech #1090170465

In recent months. the American public has been focusing on the lack of security we have on the Nations borders. Fourandahalf years after 9/11. it is clear that our borders remain alarmingly porous and that much needs to be done to truly make our borders secure. The fact that our border is porous is not the fault of our hardworking Border Patrol agents and Customs and Immigration agents. who are doing the best they can with the staffing levels and resources that they have been provided. Rather. it is the result of the neglect and underfunding of border security over the last 41/2 years by the Bush Administration and Congressional Republicanswho have failed to provide our border security agencies the resources and personnel they need to succeed in their mission. Indeed. under this Administration and this Republicanled Congress. from 9/11 through April 2006. only 1.641 new Border Patrol agents had been hiredwhich is less than a 17 percent increase in 41/2 years. Furthermore. border enforcement and immigration enforcement have fallen drastically under the Bush Administration. For example. between 1999 and 2004. worksite immigration enforcement operations against companies were scaled back 99 percent by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. which subsequently was merged into the Department of Homeland Security. In 1999. the United States initiated fines against 417 companies. In 2004. it issued fine notices to only three. After years ot neglect. Congressional Republicans and President Bush are now busying themselves with speeches about the importance of border securitybut the question remains: where have the Republicans been for the past 41/2 years? Over the past 41/2 years. Democrats have been attempting to highlight the serious security gaps that exist along both our southern and northern bordersand have been attempting to get the GaPcontrolled Congress to focus on targeting resources on unfilled gaps. But the Republicans time and again resisted efforts to enhance border security and provide our borders the agents. equipment. and stateoftheart technology that our borders so desperately need. Seven times over the last 41/2 years. Democrats have offered amendments to enhance border security resources. If these Democratic amendments had been adopted. there would be 6.600 more Border Patrol agents. 14.000 more detention beds. and 2.700 more immigration agents along our borders than now exist. Each lime. these efforts have been rejected by the Republican Majority. Mr. Speaker. consider these examples of the majoritys failure to provide leadership for America on border security since 9/11. 1. 2001 Vote #454November 28. 2001H.R. 3338. FY 2002 Defense Appropriations/ Emergency Supplemental: Republicans voted against consideration of an amendment that would have added $223 million for border securityto help meet the promises in the 2001 PATRIOT Act on border staffing and to build needed border facilities. After 9/11. experts recognized that the porousness of the northern border represented a major security threat to the United States. And everyone remembered the attempt by an Islamic extremist to get a large amount of explosives across the Canadian border in December 1999 to blow up the Los Angeles Airport in the Millennium bombing plot.