John Rice Carter: “This is an amendment that was put together to ensure that the Interior Department prioritize its efforts to construct a…”

“This is an amendment that was put together to ensure that the Interior Department prioritize its efforts to construct a joint law enforcement center in national parks and recreation areas along the southern border of the United States with available funds. National Park lands on our southern border have experienced a gigantic increase in the amount of illegal activity that has crossed into our park lands. The reason for this is very similar to grabbing a bean bag and squeezing it; it always bulges out at some point. As we start tightening our southern border with a lot of the efforts that have been bipartisan efforts by this Congress, it causes the people who are wanting to have illegal activity to move farther and farther out into the rural areas and into the unoccupied areas, and they're moving into our national parks. Joint law enforcement centers will be available to serve the National Park Service law enforcement agency, the United States Customs and Border Patrol, possibly even the Coast Guard when they're on the river at that border, and other Federal, State, or local law enforcement agencies as may be needed. This is something that has been discussed; it has been agreed upon; it has been approved. Additional rangers and Border Patrol officers have been added to our border and been assigned and are being compensated for working down there, but they lack serious facilities within which to be able to operate.…”