Sean Reyes: “Mr. Chairman, this is often one of the issues that gets contentious on the floor of Congress, and it is a lot like…”

“Mr. Chairman, this is often one of the issues that gets contentious on the floor of Congress, and it is a lot like eating an ice cream sundae. It looks good. It feels good eating it, but it is not good for us and a lot of times people recommend against it. Part of this effort is not one of wanting to sound tough on drugs. Like my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), I fought the war on drugs. I had 26 rac{1}{2} years working the border with the United States Border Patrol, so I know what is involved. That is why I emphatically asked my colleagues let us fund the INS, let us fund Border Patrol. Let us give them the right equipment. Let us give Customs the necessary personnel, the necessary technology to do the kind of professional job that my colleague, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Traficant) is concerned about. If, in fact, this issue is about fighting terrorism; if, in fact, we are concerned about the ability of this country to monitor and control the borders, it is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. It is an issue that has to be dealt fairly. It is an issue that has to be dealt even-handledly, and it is one that has got to be done strategically. We cannot impose marshal law on communities along the border simply because they happened to live there, people happen to live there.”