Beto O'Rourke

Not that the United States needs to bear that burden on its own, but just so that we know what that number is.

I appreciate you convening this hearing and so quickly exploring legislative options so soon after these vulnerabilities have been exposed.

I would think every country in the world and every person in the world who gets on an airplane has a shared interest in us resolving this.

It has become a democracy. Since 2000 it has a robust, functioning democracy, something that was unheard of a generation ago.

I wanted to start by following up on a comment made by my colleague and hopefully help disabuse him and anyone else who might hold the notion that we can somehow conflate immigrants and aspiring citizens with criminality, drug dealers, and…

El Paso and San Diego are among the two of the 10 safest cities in the United States.

We have a very strong interest in him being brought to justice.

I want to thank Mr. Dinkins and the government of Mexico and everyone involved in the capture of Chapo Guzman.

We must manage this satisfactorily, we must have a deterrent that puts law and the rule of law on the front of our approach to these problems.

I think that is--especially that last part is a smart investment in Mexico.

We have sent them Black Hawk helicopters, you know, kind of law enforcement material.

What is going to change, in all reality?

El Paso is the safest city today; it has been for the last 4 years. That is, I think, in large part because of the large immigrant population we have in our community, not in spite of that.

We heard from the GAO yesterday that they have serious concerns about the way that CBP is proceeding...

I think the initiatives you have undertaken to bring greater transparency to the organization are welcome...

This is where I want to ask my question finally, is on access to mental healthcare.

I would like to start out by thanking you and commending you for your responsiveness to me and to our office in the many requests that we have put before you.

We need a full-service veterans' hospital in El Paso.

I want your assurance that as you add additional CBP Officers to these ports, those cities like El Paso... are not penalized.

Our Ranking Member on the committee, Ms. Jackson Lee also brought up the issue that we are seeing a surge in activity...

I hope to build on that with other Members with a bill that we will be introducing shortly...

We would love your help with that and look forward to working with you there.

We need to improve claims' turnaround times out of the Waco regional office.

It has improved since then thanks to Mr. John Mendoza and his wonderful team of doctors, nurses, and front-line staff in El Paso, but it is in desperate need of improvement.

What are you going to do in addition to the additional $309 million that we are requesting in the fiscal year 2015 budget for mental healthcare to surge providers' access, care, and resources to these desperately under-served areas where…