Political Quotes

“I yield to my colleague. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona is recognized. Mr. McCAIN. I hope the Senator from New York understands what the Chief of the Border Patrol said on this issue of 90 percent effectiveness. We are going to hear this over and over. In a hearing on February 26, 2013, at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing, the Chief of the Border Patrol--not the Secretary of Homeland Security--said: First of all, 90 percent wouldn't really make sense everywhere. . . . We put 90 percent as a goal because there are sections along the border where we have not only achieved, we've been able to sustain 90 percent effectiveness. So it's a realistic goal but I wouldn't necessarily and just arbitrarily say 90 percent is across the board because there are other locations where there is a lot less activity and there won't be a lot of activity because of terrain features, for instance. So where it makes sense we want to go ahead and start parsing that out within those corridors and within those specific sectors. That is why we think that what we came up with in this legislation is effective control, 100 percent surveillance, and the use of technology, which I am confident will give us a border that all Americans can be happy with. No border is ever going to be sealed. Anybody who stands in this body and says if you want to hire 10,000, 20,000 or 50,000 more Border Patrol agents, you still aren't going to secure the border completely.…”