Speech #1100103914

Now lizards and critters can get through. so from an environmental standpoint. it is actually a good thing. but people cannot get through. And. importantly. that. combined with vehicle barriers. which are also large railroad tietype structures put into the ground to prevent vehicles from coming across. is particularly important because it is the vehicles that bring the drugs. Of course. they can bring larger numbers of immigrants. But the reality is. where you have vehicles. most likely you have weapons and you have drugs. And. of course. where that is involved. you are putting in danger the lives of our Border Patrol 53. Pt. 19 October 3. 2007 and other Federal officers and making it more likely that the value of the contraband coming across is going to be significant. thus driving these smugglers into more desperate measures to protect it. Violence across the entire southern border has increased significantly. With the double fencing. there is a road in between. And the point of fencing is to slow down those who might find a way to get over the fence. The reality is. with additional vehicles. with additional Border Patrol. and this kind of fencing. what you can create is a situation where. by the time someone may have gotten over the first fence. the sensors and the cameras will have alerted Border Patrol. and they are stationed at close enough intervals that on the road in between. Border Patrol can get to the site and pick up the illegal entrants. So that is why this kind of fencing is so important. As I said. with the money that is provided in this amendment that is before us right now. we will be able to complete at least 370 miles of fencing along the southern border by the end of next year.