Speech #1090172496

Coast Guard for maritime vessels. Finally. the bill requires DHS to assess the vulnerability of the northern border. Some of my colleagues ask why we need these additional border control tools. When combined with hightech detection devices. a secure fence should make attempts to cross our border more timeconsuming so that the Border Patrol has time to respond and catch those trying to breach the border. Having a stateoftheart border security fence system should ensure that it cannot be easily compromised. The business of apprehension is manpowerintensive. slow. and legally complex. If we only build a "virtual fence" without additional physical barriers. we will spend millions on technology that is subject to ordinary downtime and then spend even more money to chase down. apprehend. process. and deport the illegal bordercrossers. I believe instead we should add these tools to the toolbox of the Border Patrol. as requested by DHS. An increased manpower alone approach would have the Border Patrol remain vulnerable to decoys and other tactics designed to draw our border agents into one area so that another area is left exposed. This fencing will help border control efforts and will not be an inhibitor to legitimate entry to this country. More importantly. we know that fencing works. With the establishment of the San Diego border fence. crime rates in San Diego have fallen off dramatically. According to the FBI Crime Index. crime in San Diego County dropped 56.3 percent between 1989 to 2000. Vehicle drivethroughs in the region have fallen from between 6 to 10 per day before the fence to only 4 drivethroughs in 2004. and those occurred only where the secondary fence was not complete. According to numbers provided by the San Diego Sector Border Patrol in February 2004. apprehension decreased from 531.689 in 1993 to 111.515 in 2003. The Senate should take up and pass the Secure Fence Act of 2006 and give the Border Patrol all of the tools it needs to do its job. The Senate should send a clear message that we need this fence and we need it now. Lets send this bill to the President before we leave at the end of the month.