James Davis: “I rise in opposition to this well- intentioned but ill-advised amendment. My State, Florida, like Texas and many coastal…”

“I rise in opposition to this well- intentioned but ill-advised amendment. My State, Florida, like Texas and many coastal States, faces challenges in controlling our border, but the answer lies in strengthening the Border Patrol to solve this problem. As the sponsor of the amendment has alluded to, if we have 6,800 Border Patrol officers not taking care of the problem, let us increase the number of Border Patrol officers. There has been no evidence offered to suggest that these people, these men and women, are not qualified to do their jobs. The answer does not lie in diverting up to 10,000 additional military troops to handle this function, and as the sponsor of the amendment has mentioned, the amendment would have the effect of authorizing the Department of Defense to use these additional personnel in an emergency situation. If this is such a problem, these additional personnel should not be there just for emergencies, they should be there all the time. We should be strengthening the number of Border Patrol agents down there, not trying to have additional people down there who have not been trained to do the job and only using them in emergency situations. The Department of Defense has estimated that the diversion of up to 10,000 troops could cost as much as $650 million. Let us use a more cost-effective approach. Let us beef up the Border Patrol.”