Bob Filner: “I rise today to make sure all of my colleagues understand the economic crisis that is occurring at the U.S.-Mexico…”

“I rise today to make sure all of my colleagues understand the economic crisis that is occurring at the U.S.-Mexico border from San Diego, California, which I represent, all the way east of Brownsville, Texas. These border communities are in an economic crisis and need immediate help. After September 11 this country took all sorts of security measures designed to prevent terrorist acts again. All those measures were extremely necessary, important and supported by this body and by the American people. Yet some of those measures that we took had economic consequences which we did not foresee and which have to be taken care of in the months following September 11. For example, we grounded all general aviation. Many businesses went out of business in that sector of the economy. Now they are trying to get back on their feet. The border communities had been neglected in looking at the aftermath of September 11. We heightened security at the southern border, appropriately so. We started what is called a level one alert, to make sure no further terrorists could get into our country. That level one alert required much more search of cars, much more questioning of individuals, checking of IDs, all of which the American people support; but we did not add increased resources at the southern border to handle this increased level of security.”