Beto O'Rourke

Do you have any specific recommendations to correct those longstanding deficiencies?

Thank you. Ms. Melvin, you talked about longstanding institutional deficiencies and I think in your last statement you helped to define what those are.

You helped to put a human face on an issue that for many people can be reduced to processes or numbers or abstractions.

I think, at this point, we are looking at the integrated program office, the IPO, as the primary oversight body that is in place, to do that.

Can we justify spending ongoing tax payer dollars to support these expensive systems while an entirely different system is being developed?

The fate of 12 million people in the United States right now and the future of comprehensive immigration reform depend on the answer to this question.

We have more than 6 million people whose jobs are directly dependent on the secure flow of trade that crosses our ports of entry.

I would also like to thank you, Madam Chairwoman and Ranking Member Jackson Lee, for assembling this panel and holding this hearing on what a secure border looks like, and it is perhaps one of the most important questions for us in…

I think that is important for us to know because I share this committee's frustration with the fact that we don't have a defined goal and measurements on which to chart our progress against that goal.

While El Paso is the safest city in the country--and I would argue, if you want to know what a secure border looks like look at El Paso, Texas.

In your testimony, you noted that wait times and service levels at our land ports of entry are a major focus for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

I would ask for unanimous consent to submit the statement from the National Treasury Employees Union and a statement by the Border Trade Alliance into the record.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Governor Gilmore, you mentioned that one of the aims al-Qaeda has in pursuing attacks against the United States is to destroy our economy.

You cited the Secretary's goal of getting 50 percent of travelers enrolled in a secure traveler program like the SENTRI program.

You can imagine the thousands of jobs that are tied to that spending.

Is there any wisdom in finding a way to cover that cost for the benefit of having those folks screened?

Most of the people that are crossing that border coming into the United States want to go back to Mexico.

I don't want to minimize the dangers that those drugs pose to our communities and to the most vulnerable within them, especially our children, but with 16 States that have already approved medicinal use of marijuana, two States that have…

We have to provide a secure border, but we have to facilitate trade.

All Americans--whether an immigrant or citizen born here--require a secure border that prevents drugs, weapons, and violence from damaging our communities.

I want to commend and thank the Chairman and many others for their remarks about the need to set defined goals, metrics that will chart our progress towards those goals because right now, border security can mean many different things to…

Consequently, as we embark on immigration reform we must be mindful that the first step is to control our border--and I will be introducing legislation to accomplish that goal.

Until the administration creates a comprehensive National strategy to secure our borders--that includes a reasonable definition of operational control we can measure--we cannot quantify success or failure.

We are, and will remain, a nation of immigrants, and no one denies that our immigration system is broken.

When Government prioritizes enforcement and minimizes the benefits of the people and goods flowing through those ports, it does so at its own peril.