Speech #1100045113

Mr. Chairman. 1 rise today in support of H.R. 1684. the Fiscal Year 2008 Department of Homeland Security Authorization Act. a good bill which could be much better. I say that because the managers amendment. if adopted. would strip out many bipartisan provisions that would have helped prevent terrorism and strengthen immigration enforcement. including one that I authored. H.R. 1684 currently includes an amendment I sponsored that was adopted during the committees consideration of this bill which would improve maritime immigration enforcement. As a representative from Florida. I know how critically important It is to secure our maritime borders. as do many of our coastal colleagues. Coast Guard RADM David Pekoske testified before our Border. Maritime. and Global Counterterrorism Subcommittee in February about the challenges of coastal security. During his testimony. he highlighted an ongoing partnership with USVISIT to deploy mobile biometrics collection equipment on Coast Guard cutters operating in the Mona Pass between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. where almost half of our maritime migrant apprehensions take place. I was intrigued by the possibility of this effort and the promise it may hold for strengthening our maritime defenses. My amendment. which the managers amendment removes from this bill. would expand this effort into a formal pilot program and require DHS to evaluate the results to determine the feasibility and appropriateness of expanding such capability to all DHS maritime vessels. This capability is critically important since we currently do not have the ability to verify the identity of apprehended migrants. previous immigration violators. criminals. and possible terrorists in the maritime environment. This deficiency allows those who seek to break our Nations immigration laws and those who may wish to commit terrorist acts to remain undetected and be repatriated without consequence so that they are free to continue their illegal and dangerous behavior. The biometric identification of interdicted aliens in the maritime environment has the potential to greatly improve the security of Americas coastal borders. Unfortunately. since the majority has decided to remove this provision from this bill. we will not realize that promise.