Lee Metcalf: “I do not have to remind this House about the fine work of our Border Patrol agents. They put their lives at risk every…”

“I do not have to remind this House about the fine work of our Border Patrol agents. They put their lives at risk every day to slow the flow of illegal drugs into this country and to keep our borders safe from dangerous aliens. Their work in helping to arrest a suspected terrorist near Port Angeles, Washington, in December was exemplary. We all appreciate their efforts. Due to the current inept management of the INS, however, the job of these officers is made much, much more difficult. Over the past two fiscal years, Congress has appropriated funds for the INS to hire 2,000 new Border Patrol agents. The agency has failed to hire anywhere near that number, and every new agent they have hired has been assigned to the southern border, even though our northern border also has problems. In fact, until recently, the INS had been detailing agents from our already shorthanded northwestern border to shore up its Border Patrol officers in Arizona. At one point, nearly 10 percent of the field agents in Washington State were assigned to the southern border. The INS has indefinitely postponed the details, but refuses to call a permanent halt to transfers to the southern border. This is not what Congress wanted. There were supposed to be more agents in Washington State, not less.”