Tom Tancredo: “many of our colleagues have come to the floor today to express their deep commitment to doing everything that can be…”

“many of our colleagues have come to the floor today to express their deep commitment to doing everything that can be done to ensure the protection of the American people. It is a laudable sentiment, but one that rings hollow when juxtaposed against the fact that today our borders are just as porous and just as undefended as they were on September 11, 2001. We may indeed wish to go home to our constituents and tell them that we have done everything we can do, but that would be far from the truth. Just last week a television program documented the ease with which human smugglers illegally bring people into the United States, including potential terrorists. This is 10 months after September 11. This situation will improve only marginally by the creation of this new agency, and that is because of only one thing. It is the consolidation of the various border enforcement activities that now reside in a myriad of Federal agencies, each one operating within a vacuum, with little if any communication between and among them. But even this effort is being crippled because perhaps the most moribund of all of these agencies, namely, the Department of State does not want to give up a responsibility that they have so dismally failed to uphold.”