Political Quotes

“This amendment would simply include sense of Congress language in the bill that would express that Congress supports extending the current deployment of National Guard troops on the border through the rest of the fiscal year. As many are aware, in October of last year about 1,200 National Guard troops were deployed along the southwestern border. According to the Department of Homeland Security, the presence of National Guard troops is helping to bridge the gap until we train enough border agents to patrol the rest of the border as authorized by Congress. To be more specific, the Governor of Arizona recently indicated that under this deployment, the Arizona National Guard has been involved in approximately 19,000 observations, 10,000 apprehension assists, 235 drug seizure assists involving about 18 tons of marijuana. However, unless action is taken, this deployment will end at the end of next month when troops will be coming off the border; they will be coming off the border likely before that as well. In Arizona, those in the Yuma sector will tell you that the presence of National Guard troops has been instrumental in us achieving actually operational control, which means that if an illegal alien crosses the border in the Yuma sector, you have a reasonable expectation of catching him or her. So we need that there to maintain operational control, and we also need that presence in the Tucson sector where we have something far from operational control.…”