Sean Reyes: “Mr. Chairman, in closing, let me clear the record. When the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode) talks about the young…”

“Mr. Chairman, in closing, let me clear the record. When the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goode) talks about the young man that fired off at the Marines, he did not know what he was firing at. They were operating in a covert and camouflaged situation, and he did not know what they were. So he did fire a shot at them. But the important thing there is one life lost in an ill-conceived policy is one life too many. When they talk about the authority that the President needs to be able to do that, he has that authority already in several different parts of our law. When he talks about the value of training for our military, I would remind my colleagues, the military in Baghdad pleaded with us and said, look, we trained for combat. We have won this war. Get us out of here. We are not cops, we are not infrastructure protectors, we are not policemen. Get us out of here. We trained for combat. That is their role. Secondly, you do not want to subject border communities to marshal law. You talk about sending a message? The message that you are sending is this, that we are thinking of our military as expendable. We are willing to send them to the border, where they may become legally liable should they shoot another Esquiel on the border. They are legally liable. Secondly, they are trained for combat. You cannot expect our military to change hats, one for combat and one for civil law enforcement. We deserve better.”