Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, a migrant in Reynosa said this: ``He paid one of the criminal groups in the city after he arrived a few months ago from Honduras to secure the purple bracelet to protect against kidnapping and extortion.'' ``He said once migrants or their smugglers have paid for the right to cross the river, which is also controlled by criminal groups, they receive another bracelet.'' So basically, cartels are going throughout, they are recruiting people to come, charging them thousands of dollars. At each step along the way they have to pay another fee to get across the territory that is controlled by cartels. One human smuggler who spoke up, of course, on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that the bracelets were a system to designate who was paid for the right to transit through cartel territory. And this is what he said: ``They are putting these bracelets on so there aren't killings by mistake.'' This is what we are allowing, and it is tragic. We can do better than this. We can mitigate the influence that the cartels are having at our border, and communities throughout my State, in particular, in Texas, and throughout our Nation. We can mitigate this humanitarian and this national security crisis, and I encourage the White House to do so, and for this House to take up legislation to secure our border as well. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. ____________________”