James Traficant: “The amendment does not mandate troops on the border. It is only an option. Those troops, if they go to the border…”

“The amendment does not mandate troops on the border. It is only an option. Those troops, if they go to the border, cannot make an arrest. They must only detain. I appreciate the fine gentleman who was in the border patrol. But poor illegal immigrants coming from Central America are not bribing Customs, and they are not bribing the border patrol. I am talking about narcoterrorists, Congress. You talk about a drug war. We have got kids overdosing on the nod in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Youngstown. When are we going to fight? Enough is enough. They do not go to the border unless there is an emergency. And our President said, we need 25,000 more border patrol agents to secure our border. We are paying money to secure the borders in Bosnia. We are paying money to secure the borders all around the world, and we are going to hell literally. I am tired of all the ethnic comments being made here. I want to help every one of those people in Central America. Those who can come here legally, come in. But do not come in illegally. But that is not my focus. We are not going to stop these big narcotic kingpins with the program we have been operating. My colleagues know it and I know it. Now we have a chance for the debate. This amendment came up rather quickly, before Members could have a chance to really study this baby. I want their vote. If they stand for stomping out narcotics, cocaine, heroin in this country, then stand up today. I hear all this big mouth rhetoric.…”