Political Quotes

“Madam President, central to any debate over immigration is the need to secure our borders. The American people are overwhelmingly unified on that proposition. We must secure our borders. Unfortunately, the bill before this body--the Gang of 8 immigration bill--does not secure our borders. Right now our borders are anything but secure. In fiscal year 2012 there were 364,768 apprehensions along the southwest border. Forty-nine percent of those apprehensions were in Texas. The Border Patrol reported in 2012 463 deaths, 549 assaults, and 1,312 rescues. And this is just a tiny fraction of those actually harmed crossing the border illegally. In fiscal year 2012 there were 2,297,662 pounds of marijuana and nearly 6,000 pounds of cocaine seized at the southwest border. The trafficking we are seeing is not just human life, but it is also drugs that are destroying the lives of countless young people and Americans across our country. From April 2006 to March of 2013 over 9 million pounds of marijuana, cocaine, meth, and heroin has been seized just in Texas, $182 million in currency has been seized, over 4,000 weapons have been seized. Madam President, 392 cartel members have been arrested in Texas since 2007, 33 cartel-related homicides in Texas just since 2009, and 78 instances where shots were fired at law enforcement officers in Texas. The insecurity of our borders is causing human tragedies in our country, many of which are occurring in my home State of Texas.…”