Ted Poe

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, it has been 5 months since David Hartley was brutally murdered by pirates on Falcon Lake. His body remains missing, and those responsible for this border murder remain at large. Shamefully, the only American peace officer apparently still working on this case is Sheriff Sigi Gonzalez of Zapata County. He has identified four of the seven shooters as Zeta Cartel members. At least there's still somebody on the case. The local sheriffs cannot do the job that they are supposed to do of protecting their counties while doing the Federal Government's job of protecting the border as well. Sixty-five Americans were murdered in Mexico last year, and not one case has been solved. Unfortunately, some of the Mexican border law enforcement personnel are in cahoots with the drug cartels. That relationship breeds incompetence and corruption. Until the FBI, the State Department and Homeland Security get fully engaged in the murders of Americans in Mexico, it will be the responsibility of local sheriffs to keep the peace on the border. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the border war continues, and there is no end in sight. This week, President Calderon of Mexico is coming back to Washington D.C. He is going to meet with our President. It will be interesting to see if he continues to blame America for his problems. You remember the last time he was here, he stood here on the House floor and dressed us down as Members of the United States House of Representatives, blaming us for his problems, blaming us for the corruption, blaming us for the drugs that are in Mexico, blaming us for the violence in Mexico, blaming the folks in Arizona for trying to protect their own border. I wonder if he will continue the blame game. The problem is the situation is worse, not only on the border, but in Mexico. Corruption along the border with Mexican law enforcement continues, even though the Mexican military is doing a fairly good job of reining in the drug cartels. And he blames the United States for the guns that are in Mexico. You must remember, Mr. Speaker, just some of the guns that go to Mexico are from the United States. Guns from all over the world end up in Mexico. There are a lot of reasons for that. One of those is Mexico doesn't protect its borders any better than we do. People throughout the world know if you can get to Mexico by any means, whether you want to bring contraband, drugs, guns or people, you can eventually get into the United States. Mexico, like the United States, doesn't have operational control of the mutual border between the United States. Even the General Accountability Office, who are the people who keep up with statistics, made this report recently, that on the United States border with Mexico, only 44 percent of the border is under the control of the United States and only 15 percent is airtight. So who controls the other 56 percent of the U.S. border with Mexico? If it's not the United States, it's not Mexico, who controls it? We don't know. Probably the outlaws, the drug cartels. They are the ones that have operational control of both sides of the border because the situation on the border continues to get worse. Mexico doesn't protect its border from people going into Mexico from any direction, and the United States doesn't protect its border adequately to keep drugs and violence from coming into the United States. Unfortunately, this is continuing to get worse. Last year, 65 Americans were killed in Mexico, and to my knowledge, none of those cases was solved. You see, Mexico has a terrible record of solving crimes not only against Americans, but against Mexican nationals. Over 3,000 people were killed in Juarez last year. That's more people than were killed in Afghanistan last year. It is a serious, violent situation. And will it continue to come across the border? Some say, oh, it won't come to America. Let me give you one statistic. The 16 border counties in Texas that border Mexico, on any given day, about 35 percent to 40 percent of the people they have in their jails are foreign nationals charged with crimes in the United States. These are not immigration violations. These are crimes, some of them violent crimes--35 percent to 40 percent. So the crime is already pouring over because people can go back and forth across the U.S.-Mexican border at will because there are parts of the border that no one controls. In fact, the situation is so bad this year that the Texas Department of Public Safety today has made a statement telling young people about spring break. And here is what they say: ``Various crime problems exist in many popular resort areas of Mexico such as Acapulco and Cancun, and crimes against U.S. citizens often go unpunished.'' ``The safety message is simple: avoid traveling to Mexico during spring break and stay alive.'' So, we are even being warned not to let your kids go to Mexico during spring break because it is not safe. So what do we do about this? Well, there was raids recently this week because of an ICE agent that was killed in Mexico. Raids were made in the United States, and 676 drug cartel members were arrested, $12 million was seized, lots of drugs and lots of guns. And it's a point that we need to understand as citizens, that the drug cartels operate in Mexico, but they operate in the United States as well. They bring those drugs to other gang members throughout the cities of America, and they sell those wares here in the United States. So the crime does occur on both sides of the border. And we need to understand that. It is important that we deal in reality and understand that the border is a war zone. A Texas Ranger once told me, he said, ``Congressman Poe, after dark on the Texas-Mexican border, it gets western.'' Those days need to end. We need to put the National Guard on the border and secure the border. It will protect the United States and Mexico. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, we have come to the end of a long chapter in American history. The lone U.S. survivor of World War I, Frank Buckles, has died at the incredible age of 110. At 16, Frank Buckles lied about his age so he could join the Army in 1917 and go ``over there'' to fight for the cause of America. He drove an ambulance in World War I in Europe. During World War II, Buckles was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and held as a prisoner of war for 3 years. Until recently, Buckles continued to drive his tractor on his farm in West Virginia. It was Buckles' passion to have a memorial built on the Capital Mall to honor all those doughboys that served in the great World War I. We have memorials for the other three major wars of the last century, but not one for World War I. I met Corporal Buckles when we introduced this legislation that is named in his honor. It is time we build such a memorial, and it is time we also allow Frank Buckles to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. History must remember this last patriot of World War I and the 4 million other Americans that served. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, last November, the Helsinki Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe extended an invitation to the former Prime Minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra and a representative from the current Thai government to present testimony at a briefing on the alleged human rights violations that took place in Thailand back in March 2010 at a legal demonstration resulting in the deaths of at least 80 Thai civilians and the imprisonment of at least 350 other civilians. Unfortunately, this briefing was postponed until the new Congress convened and a new commission chairman was appointed. Now that the new Congress is here, I hope the Helsinki Commission will re-issue the invitations. I am personally traveling to Thailand next week with my colleague Congressman Dana Rohrabacher from the House Committee on Foreign Affairs to look into the extent of the alleged human rights violations, including the detainment of over 350 demonstrators by the current Thai government. It is our intention to meet with representatives from the Thai Government and with opposition leaders to study the current situation. But it is clear that in the wake of the worst violence in decades, the Thai Government needs to hold free and fair elections. With the recent uprising in Egypt and other parts of the Middle East and Asia by individuals who demand their freedom, Congress needs to be clear that it stands for the basic freedoms and rights of people around the world.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. I thank the gentlelady for yielding. The issue is, is this constitutional? It's not whether it's a great idea, whether an individual mandate is going to save us all. The issue is whether it's constitutional. Now I do not believe the Constitution gives the Federal Government the authority to force an American to buy anything, whether it's health care insurance, whether it's a car, or whether it's a box of doughnuts. And if we allow the Congress to go in and force Americans to buy a product or be punished by paying a fee which is a fine, and if you don't pay the fine, you could be prosecuted under the IRS code and go to prison, then where does it stop? Where does Congress then stop its nonsense of forcing Americans to buy products all in the name of saving us all? This portion is unconstitutional. We should not force Americans to buy any product. And we should defund the individual mandate for the simple reason it's unconstitutional. Let's talk about that issue in this discussion and debate on the House floor.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Chairwoman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Chair, the law does not legislate. In fact, it prohibits legislation. All it does is tell the Department of Justice they can't spend any money on this lawsuit. I would accept the ruling of the Chair.

Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Chair, I wish to speak on the point of order.

Mr. POE of Texas. This issue is an issue of public safety, which is the first obligation of the Federal Government, to protect the people, to protect the homeland. And that is why it's important the Federal Government get out of the way of the State of Arizona trying to protect the good citizens there in Arizona from the drug cartels that are coming into their State. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Chairwoman, I understand a point of order is reserved by the other side. This amendment to the CR is very simple. The State of Arizona has implemented laws in its State to protect the dignity and sovereignty of the State. The United States Federal Government, in all of its awesome power, has jumped in and sued the State of Arizona at taxpayers' expense, preventing them from enforcing the rule of law in their own State. The Federal Government doesn't enforce the rule of law on the borders. Just recently, the GAO has reported that only 44 percent of the border is secure. That means somebody else controls the other 56 percent of the southern border, and it is not the United States of America. Arizona is trying to protect its people. The Federal Government won't protect the border, but yet it sues the State of Arizona. This legislation will prohibit the Federal Government from using its resources and any money to implement the lawsuit against the United States of America v. The State of Arizona and Janice Brewer, the Governor thereof. It's a very simple amendment. I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter).

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, last year the military received over 3,000 reports of sexual assault involving other members in the service. This week, 17 veterans are saying that the military ignored their cases of sexual assault while they were on active duty. These accusations have occurred in all branches of the military. The most recent complaint came from a woman who says she was drugged and gang raped by two fellow members of the Navy. This ended her career. Another rape victim reported the crime to the Marines, and she was ordered not to tell anyone, and to respect the alleged rapist, who was of a higher rank. The perpetrators of rape in the military must be held accountable for their misdeeds, and victims should be respected and validated by the military. The United States has the world's finest military personnel, and we must support all of them, including victims of crime. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), who knows as much about the Clean Air Act as anybody. (Mr. BARTON of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. POE of Texas. It is my understanding that the committee is going to move a standalone bill in the next few months on the very issue of CO2. Mr. Chairman, this amendment is very simple. It prohibits the EPA from overreaching and from expanding its authority that Congress, in my opinion, has not given it to do. CO2. We all breathe CO2. Climate changes, but there is no evidence at all that it is manmade CO2 that causes the climate to change. The climate has been changing, well, for thousands and thousands of years. I urge my fellow Members of this House to support this amendment to rein in the oppressiveness of the EPA. States like Texas already regulate the air through their State regulatory processes, so I ask that all Members support amendment No. 466.

Mr. POE of Texas. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. POE of Texas. Contrary to what the gentleman says, in the State of Texas, the power plants, the refineries are already being regulated. They're being regulated by the State of Texas. And unless this amendment passes, the refineries, those that I represent probably more than any person in the United States--this new added burden by the EPA coming in will make those at the refineries lose their jobs. The administration has already done a good job of trying to close down the oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico by not lifting the permitting process. Now the administration with this requirement, contrary to the law of Congress, since Congress has not passed a cap-and-trade philosophy, will put those refineries and workers at harm, and they will lose their jobs because of the new EPA regulatory process that is not necessary. With that, I yield as much time as he wishes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter).

Mr. POE of Texas. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. POE of Texas. I yield the gentleman an additional 20 seconds.

Mr. POE of Texas. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'd like to thank my fellow Texans, Mr. Barton and Mr. Carter, for cosponsoring and introducing amendment No. 466 in their commitment to block funding for new EPA greenhouse gas mandates. This amendment will eliminate funding for the EPA to be used to implement, administer, or enforce any statutory or regulatory requirement pertaining to the emissions of greenhouse gases from stationary sources. This amendment will put an end to any backdoor attempt made by the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases to go around Congress and circumvent the will of the people. Americans have rejected this policy. Despite being rejected by Congress, the administration has ignored the will of the people and the law to further some political agenda. It's absolutely necessary that Congress take immediate action to ensure that the EPA does not continue to destroy industry across the board in our country. We're in the midst of a massive economic downturn, and the last thing we need to do is to shoot ourselves in the foot with unnecessary, expensive new regulations that are on business and industry, not to mention Americans will be left holding the bag. Past attempts to regulate greenhouse gases would cost American taxpayers up to $200 billion a year, the equivalent of hiking personal income taxes up about 15 percent, or cost each American household an extra $1,700. This amendment, section 1746 of the CR, says that none of the funds made available to the EPA are to be used to enforce or promulgate any regulation relating to State limitation plan or permits. Further, amendment No. 466 takes the CR a step further, prohibiting the EPA from enforcing national regulation of greenhouse gases similar to the cap- and-trade regulation. This amendment basically prohibits the EPA from overregulating not only the State of Texas but the rest of the States regarding greenhouse gases. Probably no Member of Congress represents more refineries than I do in southeast Texas; and the regulatory process, the overregulation of the EPA coming in and trying to now regulate the State of Texas regarding greenhouse gases is a detriment to the industry. The State of Texas regulates greenhouse gases. The State of Texas regulates the industry. It has done a good job. This is overreaching on the part of the EPA. And it's time for the EPA not to put industry out of business and put the refinery industry out of business. This amendment will rein them in and prohibit them from implementing the so-called cap-and-trade philosophy on States such as Texas and other States. [From the Wall Street Journal, Jan. 4, 2011] The EPA's War on Texas The Environmental Protection Agency's carbon regulation putsch continues, but apparently abusing the clean-air laws of the 1970s to achieve goals Congress rejected isn't enough. Late last week, the EPA made an unprecedented move to punish Texas for being the one state with the temerity to challenge its methods. To wit, the EPA violated every tenet of administrative procedure to strip Texas of its authority to issue the air permits that are necessary for large power and industrial projects. This is the first time in the history of the Clean Air Act that the EPA has abrogated state control, and the decision will create gale-force headwinds for growth in a state that is the U.S. energy capital. Anyone who claims that carbon regulation is no big deal and that the EPA is merely following the law will need to defend this takeover. Since December 2009, the EPA has issued four major greenhouse gas rule-makings, and 13 states have tried to resist the rush. The Clean Air Act stipulates that pollution control is ``the primary responsibility of states and local government,'' and while the national office sets overall priorities, states have considerable leeway in their ``implementation plans.'' When EPA's instructions change, states typically have three years to revise these plans before sending them to Washington for approval. This summer, the 13 states requested the full three years for the costly and time-consuming revision process, until the EPA threatened economic retaliation with a de facto construction moratorium. If these states didn't immediately submit new implementation plans to specification, the agency warned, starting in 2011 projects ``will be unable to receive a federally approved permit authorizing construction or modification.'' All states but Texas stood down, even as Texas continued to file lawsuits challenging the carbon power grab. Two weeks ago, EPA air regulation chief Gina McCarthy sent the Texas environmental department a letter asserting that the agency had ``no choice'' but to seize control of permitting. She noted ``statements in the media'' by Texas officials and their ``legal challenges to EPA's greenhouse gas rules,'' but she cited no legal basis. And no wonder. The best the EPA could offer up as a legal excuse for voiding Texas's permitting authority last Thursday was that EPA had erred in originally approving the state's implementation plan--in 1992, or three Presidents ago. The error that escaped EPA's notice for 18 years was that the Texas plan did not address ``all pollutants newly subject to regulation . . . among them GHGs [greenhouse gases].'' In other words, back then Texas hadn't complied with regulations that didn't exist and wouldn't be promulgated for another 18 years. The takeover was sufficiently egregious that the D.C. circuit court of appeals issued an emergency stay on Thursday suspending the rules pending judicial review. One particular item in need of legal scrutiny is that the permitting takeover is an ``interim final rule'' that is not open to the normal--and Clean Air Act-mandated--process of public notice and comment. So much for transparency in government. The EPA claims its takeover is a matter of great urgency, but Texas is being pre-emptively punished for not obeying rules that don't exist today because the EPA hasn't finalized them. ``Now, at this early stage, there's no specifics to tell you about the rules in terms of what we're announcing today, other than they will be done and we'll move--take steps moving forward in 2011,'' Mrs. McCarthy told reporters on a conference call last week about the agency's ``performance standards'' for oil refineries, power plants, cement manufacturers and other such CO2-heavy facilities. ``It's way too early in the game right now to be talking about what we think the standards are going to look like,'' she added helpfully. ``Today's announcement is just the fact we're going to move to those standards.'' This and other permitting uncertainties have brought major projects in the U.S. to a standstill. The Texas takeover in particular is pure political revenge and an effort to intimidate other states from joining the Texan lawsuits. The reason states are supposed to run the clean-air process is that local regulators have the staff, capacity and expertise that Washington lacks. When the carbon rules eventually are issued, that means the takeover will extend the current moratorium even longer in Texas. The EPA concedes that some 167 current projects will be affected, and many more in the future. Our guess is that all of them will be delayed for years and many will simply die. This is precisely the goal of a politically driven bureaucracy that wants to impose by illegal diktat the anticarbon, anti-fossil fuel agenda that the Obama Administration has been unable to pass by democratic consent. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. POE of Texas. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, according to the Secretary of Homeland Security, our southern border is secure. Well, not so fast with that pronouncement. According to the General Accounting Office--those are the people that we pay to actually give us the true facts on such matters--half of the southern border is not under the operational control of the Border Patrol. Forty-four percent is secure; the rest is not. So who operates the other 56 percent? And, further, a mere 15 percent of the border is considered airtight. Texas is the least secure border of all the Southern States. Our Border Patrol does a fine job but they need some help. The border sheriffs are superior lawmen, but they are overwhelmed with cross- border crime. With 37 percent of the people in Texas border jails being foreign nationals, those sheriffs, like the Border Patrol, are out- manned, out-gunned, and out-financed. There is a border war going on, and it's time to send the National Guard to the southern border to protect the homeland. Homeland Security should deal in reality, not myth and propaganda, and realize that over half of the border is the wide open spaces and that it remains porous to the drug bandits. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, David Hartley, Lesley Enriquez, Arthur Redelfs, Nancy Davis, Carlos Mario Gonzalez Bermudez, Juan Carlos Echeverri, and now ICE agent Jaime Zapata. These are all American victims of the border war, the third front, all murdered in Mexico. Yesterday, ICE agent Jaime Zapata was ambushed and murdered and another agent was wounded when they were gunned down at a fake ``checkpoint'' between Mexico City and Monterrey. None of the assassins or perpetrators of any of these homicides have ever been captured. I suspect, based upon Mexico's lax enforcement of the rule of law, no one will ever be held accountable. Agent Zapata's murder will be news for a few days, then the country will move on to other matters. But the border war continues against the vicious drug cartels and it is time we acknowledge that this war is not going away. The drug bandits have operational control of portions of the southern border. Drugs and people are smuggled north. Money and guns are smuggled south. We should help our neighbors restore the rule of law in Mexico and hold the lawless accountable for murdering Mexicans and Americans. Otherwise, there will be more murders like the one against Agent Zapata. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the aftershocks of the Egyptian revolution are being felt throughout the Middle East. The hunger for freedom has gone viral and reenergized the movement for freedom in the country of Iran. No country in that region presents more of a threat to the national security of the United States, Israel, and the world than the ``tyrant from the desert'' and his regime in Iran, Ahmadinejad. Ahmadinejad says that his first nuclear missile will be sent to Tel Aviv, Israel. He hates the United States; he hates Israel, and he has been determined to destroy the both of us. We must believe his words are more than just rhetoric. For decades, the regime has managed to quash but not eliminate a vibrant opposition movement. In 2009, that frustration erupted for the whole world to see. Thousands of people, mainly young people, marched defiantly in the streets, protesting the fraudulent election of Ahmadinejad. The ``little tyrant'' is a rogue President and an illegitimate President, and the response from the regime was brutal. Police on motorbikes ran over protestors, fired tear gas, beat them with batons, tortured them, shot them, and over a hundred protestors were murdered in the 2 weeks that followed the election. But to the surprise of the world and the little tyrant from the desert, the flame of freedom was not quashed in Iran. During that fight for self-determination, our administration was somewhat passive, believing we could work with that tyrant. But Ahmadinejad does not want peace. He's already declared war on his own people and wants war with the West. In Iran there's no freedom of expression and association, no freedom from arrest, detention or torture, and women are denied basic human rights. But there's a remarkable thing, Mr. Speaker, about repression: The more a tyrant tries to hold on to power by cracking down on the people, the faster he loses grip on that society. So, inspired by the events in Egypt, tens of thousands of young people once again took to the streets in Iran on Monday to protest the rogue government. But the dictator is fighting back, and he will continue to do so. But the protestors want freedom in their country. Communication has been cut. However, we are seeing communication from Iran through videos and YouTube and tweets from those Iranian people. The judiciary in Iran has already arrested 1,500 people. Two nonviolent protestors have been murdered, and the rogue parliament, along with the henchman Ahmadinejad has called for the hanging of corrupt opposition leaders. But the people of Iran still continue to protest. The Iranian people--the Iranian resistance movement--is here to stay, whether Ahmadinejad likes it or not, and they deserve the same chance as every other freedom-loving people to rule their own country. The Iranians are freedom-loving people, and they deserve that basic human right that all peoples have of self-determination. Today, we support--I support--the Iranians in Iran to take over their own country and to remove the dictator that is oppressing them. This fight will be difficult, but we hear the cries of the Iranian people. And those of us in Congress that support them, we are not going away any more than the Iranian people are going away, because they have the basic right of self-determination in their country. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. POE of Texas

Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I bring you news from the war on our third front, the southern border with Mexico. Last Saturday, two American teenagers were brutally shot and killed in Mexico in the Mexican border town of Juarez, Mexico. That is right across the Rio Grande River from El Paso, Texas. On Thursday, drug cartels gunned down eight people at a bar in Juarez. On Sunday, Homero Salcido, the head of security and intelligence for the state of Nuevo Leon in Mexico, was shot in the head and his car was set ablaze. Nuevo Leon is close to the U.S. border and once was considered one of the safest towns in all of Mexico. These murders are evidence that the narcoterrorists are continuing to expand their control with our neighbors to the south in Mexico. There are portions of Mexico that are under the control of the drug bandits, and honest law enforcement is nonexistent. However, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano has said that the situation on the border has been ``mischaracterized'' by lawmakers for political reasons. Well, the same can be said of Homeland Security Director Napolitano. She mischaracterizes the border region, claiming it is safe. This is either for political reasons or because she refuses to admit the Federal Government is unwilling or incapable of securing the border. More than 34,000 people have been murdered in our neighboring country of Mexico since the drug cartels began their reign of terror in 2006. In my opinion, neither the United States nor Mexico has operational control of some border regions. Drugs and people are smuggled into the U.S. and guns and money are smuggled to the south into Mexico. And this is just not a Mexican problem. For example, 27 percent of the inmates in United States prisons are not U.S. citizens: 17.5 percent are from the nation of Mexico, and a whopping 37 percent of Texas border jails contain foreign nationals. If the border is so secure, Ms. Napolitano, how come so many thousands of illegals are pouring into our country committing serious crimes and filling up our prisons? How can any reasonable person say our borders are secure when 27 percent of America's prisons are the home to foreign nationals? They wouldn't be in prison if they didn't cross the border in the first place. There is more. Jose Oswaldo Reyes Alfaro, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, went on a killing rampage in Manassas on Wednesday. He shot and killed three people and injured another. Alfaro had been ordered to be deported in 2002, but he just never left the country. These murders could have been prevented if our border security plan, Ms. Napolitano, was working. An 8-year-old girl in Fairfax, Virginia, was raped by an illegal in her own home. Her rapist was Salvador Portillo-Saravia, a known criminal who was living in the United States illegally. In 2003, Portillo-Saravia, an MS-13 gang member, was arrested and deported to El Salvador. But since we have open borders, the child rapist was able to sneak back into the United States unnoticed and under the radar. He was even arrested in November of 2010, but rather than be held in jail for deportation, he was released back on the streets because no one was able to check his illegal status. And 1 month later, Salvador Portillo-Saravia raped an innocent 8-year-old girl in her own home. This disgusting crime could have been prevented if we secured our borders, deported illegals that were in this country, and kept them from returning. Tell the parents of this 8-year-old girl, Madam Secretary, that our border crisis is just ``mischaracterized.'' Our system is flawed and Homeland Security better understand that it is the duty of the Federal Government to protect the people of this Nation and quit making excuses. It's way past time to put more National Guard troops on the border. I have introduced legislation to put 10,000 National Guard troops on the southern border to be paid for by the Federal Government but supervised by the four State Governors. We protect the borders of other nations. It's about time we protect our own. Meanwhile, it appears Homeland Security is living in never-never land or blissfully unaware of the real world on the southern border--or mischaracterizes the situation for political reasons. And that's just the way it is.