Lamar Smith: “Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Hunter-Moorhead-Cunningham amendment to add 6,000 new Border Patrol agents. The…”

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of the Hunter-Moorhead-Cunningham amendment to add 6,000 new Border Patrol agents. The text of this amendment is at the heart of reform legislation introduced by the Illegal Immigration Task Force. Arguing that hiring 6,000 Border Patrol agents is too costly is just a pretext for inaction. In fact, it costs too much not to. It is far more costly to allow criminal aliens to pour over porous borders and then have to spend more money to incarcerate them and then deport them. CBO has given a preliminary cost estimate for the additional agents of $1.6 billion over 5 years. In contrast, the cost to incarcerate criminal aliens is $1 billion annually. That $1 billion does not even begin to count the cost in lost life and lost property that these criminals inflict on our Nation. What we spend on these agents is nothing less than crime insurance for the Nation. This investment is long overdue. Not only do Border Patrol agents stop criminals at the border, they stop criminals before they ever get there because of their deterrent effect. This amendment realizes that an ounce of Border Patrol prevention is truly worth a pound of prolonged deportation cure.”