Speech #1100061786

We are at war for one thing. and it is a pivotal moment within that war. And we are watching terrorists from overseas that have attacked the United States. And as we are watching our national security on that hand and as we are debating how we proceed to victory over al Qaeda and those terrorists on that end. at the same time our southern border is being flooded with just masses of illegal immigrants on a nightly basis. And to give. Mr. Speaker. some perspective on the scope of that problem. we have this testimony before the Immigration Subcommittee. of which I am the ranking member. and I sat intensively through hearings and engaged in questions and actually testified myself for the better part of 5 years at this point. Mr. Speaker. LI 2215 Mr. Speaker. the testimony that we get from the Border Patrol. as far as the Border Patrol representatives for the profession and the Government. identifies that 2 years ago on the southern border. our Border Patrol and other immigration officers interdicted 1.155.000. I believe. illegal immigrants attempting to come across our border. Last year. it was 1.188.000. The number increases. Now. one might argue that the effectiveness of our Border Patrol is reflected in the increase in the number of interdictions from about 1.155.000 to 1.188.000. But. Mr. Speaker. I would submit also that that could very well be a reflection of increased numbers coming across our border. It is not possible to identify whether the Border Patrol is more effective or whether they simply have a larger mass of people. But in any case. when questioned before Committee in testimony before Congress as to what percentage of the illegal border crossers they were interdicting. the number fell between 25 percent and 33 percent. I believe the quote in the testimony was. "We think we catch between a fourth and a third of those who attempt to cross." Now. that is not a very good record when you consider that there are 1.188.000 illegals. and that could potentially represent a third of those that tried or a fourth of those who tried.