Speech #1090178915

Mr. Speaker. while this bill provides important funding that is very late in coming for our border security. there are still holes in the funding Congress has passed � . . and what the 9/11 Commission said was the least the Congress should do to combat the terrorist threat. Let us use the Intelligence Reform bill that became law in December. 2004. as a benchmark of what this nation must do to try and control the security of our borders: the bill mandated 10.000 Border Patrol agents over 5 years (2.000 annually) and 40.000 detention beds over 5 years (8.000 annually). Here is a compilation of all the funding bills the Congress has passed that have become lawincluding the bill passed today. laying out how many Border Patrol agents and how many detention beds we have actually funded: Emergency Supplemental in 2005 (Passed May 2005). 500 Border Patrol Agents. 1.950 Detention Beds. FY06 Homeland Security Conference Report (Passed October 2005). 1.000 Border Patrol Agents. 1.800 Detention Beds. Emergency Supplemental in 2006 (Passed June 2006). 1.000 Border Patrol Agents. 4.000 Detention Beds. Add in what we are passing today: FY07 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill. 1.500 Border Patrol Agents. 4.870 Detention Beds. Our grand total of what we should have done according to the 9/11 Commission to date is: 4.000 Border Patrol Agents and 16.000 detention beds. While we are finally caught up on paying for the least the 9/11 Commission said we should do for Border Patrol agents. we are still 1.550 short on detention beds. Never let it be said that we did the least we could dothis Congress is paying for less than what the 9/11 Commission said was the least we should do. And let me add that it took a national guilt trip and backlash to get this Congress to pay for the least amount of Border Patrol agents the 9/11 Commission demanded. What has appalled so many of us is that DHS is releasing thousands of illegal immigrants into the general population of the U.S. because they simply do not have the detention space to hold them. These illegal immigrantsalso referred to as OTMs (other than Mexicans)-are given what they call "walking papers" and are released on their own recognizance with an order to appear at a deportation hearing weeks after their release. In fact. they are asked where they are traveling to in order to give them a hearing near their final destination. O1 course. they rarely return. This is hurting the morale of our U.S. Border Patrol Agents and it is a misguided process. Because of "catch and release" the number of immigrants who have come across our borders has significantly increased. According to the April 2006 Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report heres what undertunding border security means: 774.112 illegal immigrants were apprehended during the past three years. Of those. 280.987or 36 pecentwere released largely due to a lack of personnel. bed space and funding. Our willful neglect of our border security had galled our fellow citizens. As a political gesture. this Administration and this Congress want to build a wall and militarize the border? Thats not what we need.