Andy Biggs: “I thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse), and I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this important issue.…”

“I thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse), and I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this important issue. I am an Arizona native. I grew up in southern Arizona, and trips to the southern Arizona border were not infrequent and not unusual. I have gone from San Luis to Naco, to Nogales, to Agua Prieta. I have been along the border many times, most recently just a couple months ago, and during that time, I used it as kind of a fact-finding expedition. I wanted to know what people who live right along the border talk about and think about as we in Congress consider things like a Presidential promise to build a wall, even in this bill, a partial wall, a good start. I will tell you what I know is that the number one drug and human smuggling corridor in the United States of America is through the Tucson sector. That is right through the heart of the Arizona-Mexico border. It impacts, literally, 75 to 80 miles into the border. Where we have wilderness preserves, our agents can't go in, they don't go in, and yet roadways are cut in this pristine desert by those who enter from the cartels, cutting roads with their vehicles that they know that our agents cannot traverse. So I am familiar with the area. I am familiar with the issue. I had the privilege of talking to Border Patrol agents over the last few years, but in particular the last time I was at the border, and I talked to a number of them.…”