Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, when it comes to the border, for many in politics, there is no greater boogeyman. The fact is that the border has more resources committed to it today than ever before, 21,000 Border Patrol agents, more than double what we had in 2004. We should not militarize the U.S. border with Mexico or with Canada. This amendment would not only allow resources to go south and affect States like Texas and communities in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California, but would also allow these military objects to go into New York and Washington State along our northern border. There is also no indication that the Department of Homeland Security has asked for these resources or indicated that they are either short- staffed or undermanned when it comes to the resources that they need to deal with the border situation. Painting our border as a war zone does a disservice to the men and women who live along our U.S.-Mexico border and also the border with Canada. I think that, just as the 1033 program has had some troubling issues with respect to our local law enforcement, it is a bad idea to extend this program to DHS.”