A Call to Action--Border Security

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALMER. I would. I want to thank the gentlewoman from Arizona for
the work you have done on this. I know this has been--I don't want to
say a labor of love, but you have an incredible sense of urgency, I
think perhaps more than anyone that I have been involved with, a sense
of how important this is.

I want to talk a little bit about the fence. Like the gentleman from
Georgia, I have been to the border before but not in the context of
examining our border security. I am a strong proponent of the fence. I
have been all along.

What this trip opened my eyes to is the fact that the fence by itself
is not enough. It is an impediment. One of the things that was
impressed upon me on this trip was the sophistication of the cartels
and the people across the border in breaching our fence and breaching
our security.

There is some pretty serious engineering going on here. When we were
in San Diego, for instance, we saw where we have double-layer fencing.
We have got the metal mat, landing mat fence on the Mexico side. We
have got the high, the heavy gauge fence with the razor wire at the top
on the U.S. side.

They are using hardened blades for laser saws. It literally takes 1
minute to cut through there. All along that fence you saw where it was
patched and what the border patrol calls doggy doors. They cut it out
in three places, push it open, and they are through.

The interesting thing is there, you have got 3 million people in
Tijuana on the Mexico side, and you have got 3 million in San Diego.
Almost the minute they are through, they are assimilated.

But the thing that is going on there is the cooperation between local
law enforcement, the Coast Guard, the Border Patrol, and how diligent
they are to be there immediately once that line is breached to
interdict that.

They have been so effective at it that they are now pushing these
folks offshore. They are using the panga boats now, and the Coast
Guard, working with the Border Patrol and local law enforcement, have
been so good at interdicting that they are forcing them up the coast of
California. That is not the case in Arizona.

What people need to understand is that just building the fence and
pulling back and thinking that is going to stop them--I don't care how
high we build it, how wide we build it, how many layers we have; if we
don't have people in forward operating positions to interdict these
people when they are staging to come across, we are not going to stop them.

The picture that you are showing there next to you is the fence in
Arizona, and the attention was drawn to where they had cut through the
mesh there. That is not the thing that got my attention.

If you will notice there, those are 6-inch I-beams supported by 6-
inch channel. That is quarter-inch carbon steel. That is all along that
border.

They came along there, with these hardened blades, laser saws, cut
through the I-beam, cut through the channel, folded it over, ramped
over, and drove trucks over it.

Now, this was not reported in the national media. I am not sure that
there was any discussion about it from this administration. It was the
local media that picked up on it. The ranchers know about this.

But I think--and you can correct me if I am wrong--but I think they
said there have been 47 vehicles that crossed over that. These are
pickup trucks loaded with drugs and other items, contraband, whether it is guns or drugs or human trafficking. But that is the issue.

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Mr. PALMER. Well, think about the staging that had to take place for
that, that a vehicle that heavy, to be able to cross that fence,
obviously--and the interesting thing is they used our own I-beam and
channel to support the ramps that would bear that weight for that truck
to get over it.

This is not a static situation. Just building the fence is not
enough. We have got to have the aerial surveillance, the unmanned
aircraft, the aerostats.

Looking into Mexico and seeing the staging that takes place for an
operation like that to take place--you have been in the military, you
understand this--that if you are going to--it literally looked like a
military operation where they cut this down and ramped over it and
drove over it.

If we are looking into Mexico and see that, we need people in forward
operating bases that can react immediately, not 20 minutes later, not
30 minutes later, because they are already over and gone.

So this has got to be a combination of things. I am fine with the
fence. We can build the fence as high and wide and as long as we want
to, but we have got to be able to interdict.

We have got to be able to see them staging, because they are not
carrying ramping material on their backs for 3 or 4 miles to the fence.
This happened fairly close to the fence, and we should have been able
to see that and stop it.

The other issue is the morale, and the fact that we don't--that we
are not doing anything about catch and release has really hurt the
morale, I think, with our law enforcement and with our Border Patrol.

And it definitely has hurt the morale of the ranchers. My heart
really goes out to those guys. They have been there through many
generations. They have put in their blood, sweat, and tears in this.
And it is not just that they love their ranch. They love their country,
and it was very evident in what they had to say.

I think it is incumbent upon us, as Members of Congress, to do our
duty to protect the border.

And the other thing, again, going back to the morale, it is different
in San Diego, it is different in Arizona, it is different in Texas.
What we need to do--and I am very, very grateful for the work that is
being done to bring alongside this bill an enforcement bill.

We have got to do this, I think, in a way that makes sense to the
American people. Build the fence, secure the border, but have the right
enforcement that goes along with this, that makes the work that our
Border Patrol is doing worthwhile. When they catch the bad guys they
need to be able to--there ought to be some consequences for it.

Earlier, Mr. Perry from Pennsylvania made this point about, when are
you forward-deployed in a combat zone, you secure your perimeter. There
are consequences if you cross that perimeter a little more lethal than
they would be here, but, in all honesty, we have got to do these things
together.

I applaud you for the work you are doing. It is extremely important,
and I look forward to working with you on this.

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Mr. PALMER. If the gentlelady would yield, I would like to add one
other thing to that.

This bill would allow access through Federal lands, and it has
created a huge impediment for Border Patrol in the interdiction of
people like this, whether they are coming across on foot or coming
across in vehicles, if our Border Patrol do not have access to roads
through Federal land. So that is another very important component of
this bill.

And then, last thing. Down in Texas we have got this Caruso cane on
the banks of the river that basically is a natural hiding place for
people who are crossing the river. We have got to allow our Border
Patrol to take whatever measures are necessary to eliminate those type
of natural hiding places and barriers to interdiction.

So all of this is extremely important. I am glad you put that picture
up because I don't think people fully appreciate, when you talk about
people bringing drugs across the border, the massive amounts that can
cross just on the backs of individuals.

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