Bob Filner: “as California's border Congressman, I rise to oppose this amendment. I am amazed at some of the arguments supporting…”

“as California's border Congressman, I rise to oppose this amendment. I am amazed at some of the arguments supporting this amendment. Members who agree that we need more security on the border, yet every one of them voted for a budget that only had 10 percent of the border patrol increase that this Congress has authorized. So they talk about more border patrol, but they voted for a budget that did not include it! Mr. Chairman, I would not vote for an amendment that militarizes my colleagues' districts, and I urge my colleagues to oppose the amendment aimed at militarizing my district on the California-Mexico border. We have a highly trained military. It is the best in the world, but it is not trained to perform domestic security duties. It is not trained to go on patrol in my neighborhood. It is trained to pursue and kill foreign enemies, not to check if visas have expired. We do need more border security, but we should give the border patrol the support they need to do the job. They are the professionals. Let us give them the critical manpower and equipment they need. Let us invest in 21st century technology. The gentleman from Iowa (Mr. King) talked about a haystack. As our border patrol looks for the dangerous needle in the haystack, we can use technology to make that haystack smaller. Let us pass more support for the border patrol, let us pass comprehensive immigration reform.…”