Pete Sessions: “we know that fencing works. It is a proven approach. The San Diego fence has been incredibly successful. The illegal…”

“we know that fencing works. It is a proven approach. The San Diego fence has been incredibly successful. The illegal entries have fallen from 500,000 to 100,000. Crime in San Diego County, the whole county, dropped 56 percent. It is an absolutely successful experiment and demonstration of this working. The chief of Border Patrol told one of the House hearings that it multiplies the capacity of their agents to be effective. There is no way individual agents can run up and down the border without some barriers in these high-traffic areas. Secretary Chertoff asked us explicitly for 800 miles of barriers and fencing. He asked for that. We voted for it in May. We voted 83 to 16 in favor of the fence, and in August we voted 93 to 3 in favor of funding. But we haven't gotten there yet. This bill is the kind of bill which can allow us to go forward and complete what the American people would like to see, and maybe then we can have some credibility with the public and we can begin to deal with the very important, sensitive issues of comprehensive immigration reform which I favor. But I believe the present bill that came through the Senate did not meet the required standard. We can do much better. We have voted for this. We voted for it at least three times to make it a reality. And then we will have some credibility with the American people after we do that and then begin to talk comprehensively about how to fix an absolutely broken immigration system.”