Mike McCaul

Thank God we now are beginning to have institutions that have the resources to protect our frontier, and I urge you to continue to support them.

I think the southbound flow of cash and weapons is the big issue.

We are here today to learn more about these efforts and how they might be helpful as a model going forward for the Nation.

Foreign drug cartels have used brutal tactics of violence and the threat of violence against United States citizens.

We cannot allow local U.S. Sheriff's Departments and State Authorities along our 2,000-mile border with Mexico to bear a disproportionate responsibility.

I think, looking at the big picture, to sit there and use the language that said conducting business on the Texas border is tantamount to living in a war zone, I don't think that rhetoric helps, because I don't think it presents the real…

I do that not as a label--you know I introduced this bill. I didn't do it to label them, but rather to give us more authorities to go after them multi-jurisdictional.

We owe them. We have an obligation to an economic and political, democratically to stand with them in a significant way.

Their report and past hearings held by this subcommittee underscore the need for a comprehensive review of the Federal Government's role in protecting the border.

The evidence is clear; the border is not secure.

I think the focus--we are focusing on the border States. That is what we need to be focused on.

We must rationally and fairly both strictly enforce control of our borders with robust Federal law enforcement--as well as providing legal guest worker status.

I will support that comprehensive immigration reform so that we can fight and people have a stake in the action.

It is imperative the administration help us secure the border.

I think it highlights even more so that we need to be paying attention.

The problem today is that--General McCaffrey, when you made the observation that there was never a taillight that turned on as the cars were going into Mexico, the problem we have today is that those ports of entry were designed…

We need more money if we are going to do the job.

The United States must be a more effectively resourced partner to the government of Mexico.

We simply must reform and have a guest-worker status where these people are protected by OSHA safety standards, minimum wage, et cetera.

It is shameful that we haven't had the will to take up comprehensive immigration and put this to rest.

I don't view this as Republican/Democrat issue. I don't see it as a partisan issue. I see this as a bipartisan issue.

I have introduced legislation that would designate the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Would America allow terrorists based in Canada to make nightly incursions into New York? The answer is a resounding 'No!'

You have my commitment on dealing with immigration. You have my commitment to go forward and realize that this just is more than a border problem; this affects every citizen in the United States.

I believe it is flawed in terms of not taking into account drug trafficking.