Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, more news from the front. The border war continues, and today this dispatch comes from the weakest 272 miles on the second border of our Nation.

This could be a postcard from that front, snapshots of illegals all across the beaches here running ashore, coming from this boat called a yola. We see here a Blackhawk helicopter.

This invasion started in one Caribbean island and lands on another Caribbean island. This boat is packed with hundreds of illegals. They ride the waves that carry them to a new existence in these primitive boats. They wash ashore on the most advanced country in the world, a superpower.

Mr. Speaker, this looks like a naval invasion from World War II in one the Pacific islands.

This boat was spotted by the Border Patrol, and even though there may be 100 or 150 individuals that are illegally entering Puerto Rico, only 10 to 12 of them will actually be arrested. Sometimes the Border Patrol is not this lucky and doesn't find any of these individuals.

I have spoken to border agents who patrol Puerto Rico, and they have arrested individuals. Recently they arrested an individual of Middle Eastern descent. He was actually swimming ashore. And when he was questioned about what he was doing on American soil, he replied with answers like, ``Allah is great,'' and, ``Bush is the devil,'' and that is all he would say.

Stories like this prove the same warfare that let us conquer the Japanese islands in World War II is in play on our shores. It was called island hopping back in World War II, when the American marines would go from island to island getting ever closer to the Japanese homeland. Island hopping.

But after marines were sent to capture an island in the Pacific, they would move on to the next island, getting closer, and it worked, and it worked in the Pacific. But now this strategy is being used against the United States, and the invasion of Puerto Rico poses a national security issue, 272 miles of a border that needs to be protected.

But another island is being targeted first by these island-hopping invaders. It is called Mona Island. That is also a part of the United States, part of Puerto Rico. It is right here, Mr. Speaker, next to the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and then you see this little island called the Mona Island, very close to Puerto Rico.

This island is inhabited basically by a bunch of botanists, for lack of a better phrase, and they are investigating whatever nature resources there are there. It is a 25-mile nature preserve. And the biologists and naturalists that are there aren't the only people there. It is a breeding ground for illegals.

You see, what happens, Mr. Speaker, illegals stop off at Mona Island. They are Cubans, Chinese, Dominicans, Middle Easterners, South Americans and any other illegals from around the world.

They land on Mona Island, the first island-hopping stop in their Caribbean trip, and then they move over to the mainland of Puerto Rico. They make their way to Puerto Rico, where, at any given time, there are only four Border Patrol agents on patrol for 272 miles of border or coastline.

Then when illegals get to Puerto Rico, once they land, what they do is they find someone to sell them a fake American driver's license, pretend to be a U.S. citizen, and then catch an airplane to the heartland of America.

Mr. Speaker, we are being invaded by land and by sea. The obligation of the U.S. Government is to protect its citizens. That is the number one obligation of this government. We must protect our citizens from invasion from all foreign nations by any means. The border war includes the American held island of Puerto Rico and Mona Island.

Mr. Speaker, while we are sending more Border Patrol and National Guard to our southern border, we are losing ground in Puerto Rico. This island hopping must stop.

Why aren't we using the resources of the Coast Guard to protect our coasts from this unlawful invasion into Puerto Rico? There is a concentrated effort by other nations to infiltrate our national borders. It also happens to be illegal.

The government must have the will to protect our borders like we protect the borders of other nations throughout the world. Meanwhile, the battle for the border continues on the homeland, the second front.

That's just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, judicial injustice has struck again. That is what has happened in Ohio.

After 6 years of waiting to face the man who raped her and tell her horror at his hands so he would be off the streets, a teen saw her chances for justice smashed with one swoop of a rogue judge's gavel. It was nothing the victim did; it wasn't even anything the defendant did. Judge Eileen Gallagher dismissed the girl's case, get this, because the prosecutor was late to court. Furious he hadn't been on time when she herself was 45 minutes late to her own court, Judge Gallagher called the prosecutor unprofessional, so she took it out on the victim.

Judge Gallagher suffers from ``black robe disease,'' an incurable ailment, arrogant, hypocritical incompetence some judges get.

Mr. Speaker, when I was a judge in Texas for 22 years, and a lawyer was late to court, hold the lawyer in contempt, put him in jail. Don't let the defendant out of jail. Don't punish the victim.

The teen victim was raped by the defendant, then raped by her right to justice by Judge Gallagher. Hopefully the people of Ohio will hold this judge in contempt and dismiss her from the bench.

That's just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, a hypocrite always practices what he preaches against. And while Vicente Fox took a whirlwind tour of the United States acting like an old-fashioned revival preacher preaching open borders, trying to intimidate Americans into allowing the illegal invasion of his people down Mexico City way, the gospel of truth comes out.

Mexico, it seems, wants its southern border locked down. The Mexican Government says too many illegals are sneaking into Mexico, especially those Guatemalans. The Mexican Government says that illegals are taking jobs from Mexican citizens. Sound familiar?

While Mexico is demanding open doors into the rest of North America, they have got their own dead bolt on the door to the rest of the world.

Preacher Fox, practice what you preach. Your immigration laws are even tougher than America's. Why don't you open up your southern border to illegals? And meanwhile, preach to your own people that illegally entering the United States is just wrong. Quit trying to be self- righteous and telling America what to do.

The words of hypocrites are seldom heard, especially the words from preachers.

And that's just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, they were called the Screaming Eagles of World War II. They jumped into Normandy into the wet darkness of the night before sunrise on D-Day, June 6, 1944. They held off the Germans in the dead of winter in the Battle of the Bulge in a small Belgian town called Bastogne. Even though completely surrounded, they replied to the demands of the Germans to surrender with that famous statement of their commander, ``Nuts.''

They are the 101st Airborne of the United States Army. They are the Band of Brothers. The 101st is still on duty, and their legacy now continues in the blistering heat of Iraq. They are once again fighting the forces of tyranny and terrorism.

Recently, at an outpost near Baghdad, American volunteers of the 101st found themselves surrounded and attacked by the enemy. One soldier, Specialist David Babineau, was killed in the skirmish. Private First Class Kristian Menchaca and Private First Class Thomas Tucker were kidnapped, captured, and later, apparently, murdered.

Twenty-three-year-old Kristian Menchaca was from my hometown of

Houston, Texas. The Army turned Kristian Menchaca's life around. It gave him a greater purpose, a higher calling. He leaves behind a wife, a family, and lots of grateful Americans.

The terrorists that America fights in Iraq and Afghanistan, they take no prisoners. They have no POW camps. While the media here is bemoaning some alleged improper events in Guantanamo Bay prison about some captured terrorist that got their feelings hurt while in custody, they would do better to point out terrorists execute their prisoners.

Terrorists kill everybody because terrorists hate everybody that believes in freedom. They kill children, the elderly, the weak, the innocent, and they even murder captured American soldiers.

This enemy we fight in the desert sands of Iraq and Afghanistan are evil villains who oppose our righteous and just cause to proclaim freedom throughout the world.

News reports claim the attackers of the outpost all wore masks to cover their faces. Mr. Speaker, outlaws and bandits of the Old West wore masks to disguise who they were because they, like these terrorists, covered up their wicked intentions of destruction of everything that is good and right.

But like the outlaws of yesteryear, each of these criminals will be hunted, tracked and brought to a speedy end, because the 101st Airborne is on patrol in the hot hills of Iraq.

These terrorists have messed with the wrong people. These American soldiers fear no enemy. You see, they are brothers. They are the Band of Brothers, and while three of them have given their lives for liberty, it will be the wrath of the remaining brothers that these terrorists will experience. The terrorists will be introduced to judgment day.

Shakespeare said of the brothers in Henry V how they will be regarded. He said, ``From this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remembered; we few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.''

Tonight, we remember the strongest of those unyielding warriors against terror, three members of the 101st Airborne, these Band of Brothers.

And that's just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, news from the front: The battle for the border continues. The cost to Americans for the government's failure to prevent the invasion onto our shores increases. Last year in my hometown of Houston, citizens spent $125 million on treating 57,000 illegals in local hospitals, a 77 percent increase from the previous year.

This nonsense that illegals are not a drain on the American taxpayer is a myth perpetrated by the admiral of the fleet of invaders, Vicente Fox. America cannot continue to be the lifeboat for the sinking ships of states south of the border. What happens when our lifeboat overflows because of America's compassion? In fact, Americans are paying for hospital costs for illegals and cannot afford to pay for their own health care. So until our shores are secure, and since we choose not to deny illegals health care, every time an illegal is treated at our hospital, deduct an equal amount of foreign aid from those ships of state who send their citizens here. Make Admiral Fox pay instead of the American citizens. And that's just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take the time of the gentleman from North Carolina.

Mr. Speaker, news from the front: the battle for the border continues. The news is disturbing. The enemy is among us. There are invaders here from other nations that were smuggled here, and they live in the shadow of crime. They prey on our families. Some are thieves; some are killers. According to the Government Accountability Office, 25 homicides a day are committed in this country by people that are illegally here. That is 10 times more Americans killed in Iraq since 2003. Americans pay for the prison cost to lock these outlaws up. Then when our government tries to deport them, eight nations refuse to take back their own people. So since we cannot detain these individuals indefinitely, our government lets them go, lets them go into the heartland of America, thereby letting these illegals free to roam our streets with a permanent get-out-of-jail-free card, and a permanent stay-in-America-forever card.

Mr. Speaker, this ought not to be. Eight countries turn a blind eye, a deaf ear on their illegals in America. Many of them are criminals. They have committed crimes and gone to our prisons, and these countries will not even take their own people back, even though they have lawfully been deported.

How many people are we talking about? In 1 year alone, these eight countries left more than 130,000 people ordered to be deported back to their homeland, and they refused to take these individuals. Many of these people were thieves and bandits, and they are left on our soil.

The detention cost to Americans was $83 million.

Mr. Speaker, Americans pay. They always pay for illegal entry. That is $10 million more than the people in my district got after their lives were ripped apart by Hurricane Rita. And despite all that money spent, we are forced to turn these immigrant inmates out on our streets, many to prey on our families, many to strike again, many to steal again.

We foot the bill for their prison stay, then their countries won't take them back. This isn't a matter of illegals ignoring a deportation order and disappearing into the night. It is about eight countries who ignore their obligations. Some of these countries accept foreign aid from the United States.

Who are these eight countries? They include China, Iran, India, Jamaica, Vietnam, Ethiopia. These countries put up immigration obstacles impossible for our government to hurdle, but these same nations gladly take our foreign aid. They gladly take that free American money, but won't take back their own people.

Also, America allows 123,000 legal visas each year to be issued to these nations. So, Mr. Speaker, these nations cannot have it both ways. Take our money and take your illegals back, or no more American money. We should deny foreign aid to nations that refuse to accept their lawfully deported illegals. We should deny American visas to those nations who refuse to take back their lawfully deported citizens. America cannot allow this nonsense to continue.

Mr. Speaker, the war for the border continues, but we will not let ourselves become bogged down by the demands and expectations of the leaders of these obstinate eight, these nations who expect money from our pockets, but won't take back their criminals who have picked our pockets. That's just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, the costs of Hurricane Katrina and Rita are far more than dollar amounts. For days, thousands of people fought for survival among the rising flood waters, lack of food and water, and outlaws victimizing the weak and helpless. In an attempt to lead the smallest victims of the hurricanes to safety, desperate, yet well- meaning parents sent their children with family and evacuation workers fleeing for safety. Their hope was to reunite after the storm; however, full panic soon engulfed Louisiana and Texas. Many parents found it impossible to locate these children once the storms had passed. Terrified parents made heart wrenching pleas to anyone who would listen. They spent countless hours praying for news of their kids.

Mr. Speaker, one organization heard their prayers and responded with the will and manpower to find these children. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children would undertake the tremendous task of locating 5,172 missing children. Mr. Speaker, after the winds stopped and the flood waters receded, all 5,172 children were found. It was only through the unwavering and relentless dedication that these children were found, and returned to the safe arms of their parents. I now pay tribute to those tireless children crusaders.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, NCMEC, was established in 1984 by John and Reve Walsh in response to the kidnapping and disappearance of their son, Adam, in 1981. The center makes it their mission to locate, and successfully bring home, missing children across the United States. When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit Louisiana and Texas, the U.S. Department of Justice requested NCMEC's help in locating the displaced children of the hurricanes' victims. NCMEC responded with lightning speed, establishing a Katrina Missing Persons Hotline, with 30 telephones and 160 highly trained Project ALERT and Project ADAM volunteers to man the hotlines. Over the next few days, they would report thousands of missing child sightings.

These child crusaders spent long days and nights looking throughout America for these missing children. Photographs were used to help identify these children. The center tracked down leads, handled phone calls, and in the end, reunited families. They did not perform these tasks all on their own, however. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, USPIS, American Airlines, and thousands of nameless, silent volunteers aided the NCMEC in the successful recovery of all 5,172 missing children.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service responded to the prayers for help much like the NCMEC. These highly dedicated lawmen and women used the U.S. Postal Service's change of address information system to reunite these families. Safety precautions were taken by the USPIS to ensure no misuse of the information system occurred. Members of the highly trained Project ALERT and Project ADAM teams, as well as the NCMEC case analysts, worked in cooperation with the special Hurricanes Katrina and Rita change of address operation in Tennessee, reunited children with parents. American Airlines became the angels in the sky for the NCMEC, donating numerous airline tickets, which successfully led to 89 children being brought home safe.

I was present when First Lady Laura Bush held a reception on Monday, June 12, at the White House to show appreciation to all those wonderful people. She invited these heroes to join her, along with six Members of Congress, and several of the reunited families. Everyone extended heart-felt gratitude for the tireless efforts achieved by these individuals. Rebecca Gonzales, wife of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and John and Reve Walsh were present as well. The First Lady praised the collaborative efforts of these organizations and individuals, expressing her gratitude for the heroes who relentlessly crusaded for the most helpless victims of the hurricanes--the children.

It is my honor to pay tribute to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, American Airlines, and thousands of volunteers for answering the prayers of the despondent hurricane parents. Today, 5,172 children have been led back to their families, another example of Americans helping Americans when the tidewaters of trouble have risen.

Mr. Speaker, a self-claimed sadistic pervert, Jerry Inman, is branded with tattoos of skulls, daggers, bats and the pentagram, the symbol of hell. The two-time convicted sex offender, after serving time in two southern States for several rapes, kidnappings and robberies, has been released and has struck again.

He recreated hell for 20-year-old Clemson University student Tiffany Souers. He stalked her, and in the shroud of darkness of the night, he broke into her apartment, strangled her, raped her and then murdered her. This devil of the South should not even have been in South Carolina, but the good behavior got him released from another State prison.

Mr. Speaker, rapists try to steal the very souls of their victims. Then they steal their lives. And as we fight the global war on terror, we need to fight the street terrorists in America. Repeat rapists are never cured. We cannot say they are misunderstood or need therapy or counseling, because some are just evil, and if we do not lock them up indefinitely, then it seems that outlaws like Inman are wasting good air breathing.

And that's just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, news from the front: the war on the border continues. More disturbing news, this time from the forgotten front.

We have just voted to finish successfully the war on the first front, Iraq and Afghanistan. Our second front is the fight against armed illegals, human smugglers, drug runners and possible terrorists not just wanting to penetrate our homeland border with Mexico and Canada, but the forgotten front, Puerto Rico.

Mr. Speaker, here I have a map of the Caribbean islands. Puerto Rico is a part of the United States, the location: in the Caribbean islands next to the Dominican Republic, southeast of Cuba, east of Jamaica. It has earned a reputation among border patrol agents as America's biggest threat.

This is not a photo, the second one here, of Americans storming the beach at Iwo Jima or Normandy. Mr. Speaker, this is a photograph of 100 illegal immigrants with landing craft storming the American beaches in a yola, a homemade wooden boat. The boat is from the Caribbean islands. Its cargo, Dominicans, Middle Easterners and others from the islands. The Border Patrol says when people storm the American beaches here in Puerto Rico, they capture maybe one out of 10. And here we have a Blackhawk helicopter, at this particular time, having to view this firsthand.

One U.S. Border Patrol agent says he interviews the survivors of these ill fated trips, and they say they are coming to America for that free amnesty. Once they get to Puerto Rico, they can go anywhere in the United States with only a birth certificate or an easily forgeable photographic ID, if the one Border Patrol agent at the San Juan airport happens to ask for that identification.

We must remember that one of the 9/11 hijackers made his way into the United States through the Virgin Islands. Then he took flight lessons at San Juan, Puerto Rico. More than 2,600 illegals have been found entering the country just this way in Puerto Rico the past year. How many more weren't caught at all? And just where are they going and what are they taking with them?

Most of them, we must remember, are not from south of the border or north of the border; but they come from all over the world. Since we don't require passports to legally enter the United States from Mexico, Canada or the Caribbean islands, people can easily get to Puerto Rico pretending to be

from these countries. Even people illegally getting into Puerto Rico then board a plane anywhere in the United States with some fake document that is mistaken for a valid American identification.

We have 22 border patrol agents in Puerto Rico, but only four of them are on duty at any one given time. They are doing the best they can, but they need help.

The border war must be won. We do it by first requiring all people in the Western Hemisphere to have a passport to get into the United States legally. Our 9/11 Commission recommends it. It is a national security issue of the United States. And then we give the resources to our border agents to make sure they can keep people from landing on our beaches and invading our country. It is a border security issue. We must win the war on this second front and prevent the unlawful invasion into America. Keep these landing craft from invading our beaches.

Mr. Speaker, lawlessness on our border breeds more lawlessness in the heartland of America.

Mr. Speaker, that is today's news from the front.

And that's just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, down on the Rio Grande where the sage brush and mesquite trees line the lawless border of the riverbank is the home of generations of Texas ranchers. Their homes, feet from the porous border, they wake up to human smugglers, drug runners and thieves that have trespassed on their soil.

On the border I met crusty rancher, C.E. Cunningham of Quemado, Texas. He has lived on the land for seven decades, and he now writes me about the southern border invasion into America: ``We have had our livestock, wildlife killed, vehicles, tools, equipment stolen. I had to move my mother out of her own home when three illegals stole and robbed her. I have taken weapons away from thieves. I have seen the Mexican Army camped out on the riverbank, and I have seen their tracks on our side. I have tried to get the Mexican Government to help with the thieves, but they told me it was best they stole over here instead of Mexico. It seems to me the Mexican government sanctions these crimes against us.''

Mr. Speaker, Americans like C.E. Cunningham want their lives back, their land back, and their security back. We have to stop letting the Mexican Army and Generalissimo Fox invade the United States by encouraging illegal entry into our country.

And that's just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, I went to Iraq in 2005. I was one of two Members of this Congress to view the first free elections in their history, and I watched in awe and admiration as more than 8 million people went to the polls and elected a government. Men and women, young and old, courageously cast their ballots in the face of the violent terrorists.

I spoke to many Iraqis and they showed great defiance against those outlaws that wished to disrupt those elections. Despite facing 300 attacks across the nation that day, more than 60 percent of the Iraqis went out to vote. Not even 44 murders by the terrorists could remove the resolve of those people.

Men and women waited in line to cast their vote. They took the historic ballots, entered a cardboard booth and made their choice. With that simple but noble action, they pushed tyrants and terrorists aside and set Iraq on a path to freedom. Then they marched down the street holding their ink stained finger up high in defiance of those terrorists.

I talked to Iraqis. And I talked to a woman who came up to me with tears in her eyes after she voted and said how grateful she and her family were for the America that we live in, for giving their sons for her family's freedom.

She went on to relate to me how her husband and her brother had been murdered by the devil of the desert, Saddam Hussein.

There have been more successful elections since the first, and the skeptics and the critics get it wrong with each new free and successful election.

Democracy is the enemy of terrorists. They hate democracies as much as

they hate the human life of the innocents that they murder.

We cannot give in to these madmen. The insurgents have discovered that the United States and her allies cannot be defeated on the battlefield. They have also found that the steely resolve of the Iraqi people to create a free and fair and inclusive government cannot be broken. Liberty and freedom are overcoming treachery and tyranny and violence. We will not fear nor flee nor flinch in this absolute resolve.

And our mission statement was stated 40 years ago by President John F. Kennedy when he said, ``Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we will pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe in order to assure the survival and success of liberty.''

And that's just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, when hurricane disaster hit Louisiana and Texas, many people suffered, and many people profited on this misfortune. To the rescue was FEMA. But the phrase itself

brings fear and trepidation into the hearts and souls of those affected by this disaster.

Why? Many people that needed help never got it and never will. But some people did get help, and they profited on this disaster, and FEMA paid for it. The GAO says FEMA wasted $1.6 billion of taxpayer money, or 16 percent of all funding.

Thieves used unlawful money to get season football tickets, vacation at Hawaiian resorts for 2\1/2\ months, paid for a divorce lawyer, go to topless clubs, and, get this, even pay for a sex change operation. FEMA even sent money to prison inmates pretending to be hurricane victims.

Mr. Speaker, this ought not to be. FEMA should only be responsible for passing out toothbrushes to these thieves, because that is all they will need when they go to prison. If employees at FEMA are accomplices they should go to jail too. Hurricane season is back. But do not expect FEMA to help in the next disaster, they are the disaster.

And that's just the way it is.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Minnesota for yielding.

Likewise, I have great respect for Chairman Mica, but in this particular situation, this is a national security issue, and you cannot separate national security and security of an airline industry with daily operating procedure. We cannot allow some foreign airline to control the operating procedure of American airline companies, especially in time of war. In time of war, American airlines have always been able to mobilize the American fleet during Iraqi I and Iraqi II; 5,872 missions were flown by American airline companies. Ninety-eight percent of those were my American pilots. If our airline industry is controlled by a foreign country, what makes us think that country will cooperate with us in time of war?

This is certainly a national security issue, and we should not outsource our

national security to the European Union.

Mr. Speaker, lawlessness on the border breeds more lawlessness in the United States, and failure to protect our borders is a national security issue. And I come to you tonight with some disturbing news. The threat is even more serious than many Americans know.

Tucson, Arizona is 65 miles from Mexico. I have it here on the map. It is shown by the red dot. It is the route to two interstates, one going north and south and one going east and west. Just southeast of Tucson, Arizona is the University of Arizona Technology Park. On that park, which is surrounded by an old-fashioned chain link fence, is a technology firm called Raytheon. Raytheon is a defense contractor that makes Tomahawk cruise missiles.

Well, neighbors in Tucson, Arizona have sent me some pictures of what appears to be illegal entry into the perimeter of this plant. Here we have the chain link fence. This photograph is taken inside the perimeter. On these premises, 400 acres, is the Raytheon plant. It is true there is another fence around Raytheon that is a fence that is a cable type fence that keeps trucks from coming through. But someone, of course, could crawl underneath or over that particular fence. And you see, Mr. Speaker, there is all types of litter inside the fence. And the question occurs, where does this come from? These are trails that are similar to what you see along the Texas border where I am from, but border towns down in Southeast Texas don't have a plant that makes Tomahawk cruise missiles. Tucson neighbors say these trails are filled with trash, backpacks, water bottles and clothes. And why is that? Well, it seems that the illegals that come from Mexico sneak under this fence and hide on these 400 acres until the human smugglers come back later and pick them up and transport them throughout the United States.

Raytheon public relations officials have said well, they hadn't heard anything about it from the security. And they have strict security procedures to enter that facility. But a supervisor at Raytheon security said yes, illegals have been known to come through the grounds, but they were just passing through. And some illegals have been found working at the Raytheon plant by subcontractors, but they were ordered off the premises.

I would like to show you some more disturbing photographs that the Tucson neighbors have sent me. This is a photograph taken inside the perimeter of the chain link fence. And you see numerous backpacks where illegals have come in to the perimeter, have hidden on the premises. When the human smugglers come to pick them up and take them into the heartland of America, they bring with them the backpacks that allow them to change clothes.

It is somewhat disturbing to me, Mr. Speaker, that we have this contractor that makes Tomahawk missiles that allows this to occur on their premises because, you see, lawlessness on the border breeds more lawlessness in the United States. And you would think that a company that has submitted a border security plan for the Department of Homeland Security just 2 weeks ago would be concerned about their border too. After all, it is a national security issue.

I have one more photograph to show you, taken on the same premises, but on the other end of the perimeter. A similar photograph of backpacks, water bottles left by the people that illegally entered the United States. How ironic that it is that they hide on the premises of a place and an institution that is trying to protect the national security of the United States.

Mr. Speaker, the Raytheon problems are our problems because the U.S.- Mexico border is not secure. We have to stop the illegal entry at the border between the United States and Mexico. Otherwise, we will continue to see these backpacks throughout the United States. And some may have clothes, but some may also bring in to the United States property and explosives that could damage the United States. It is a national security issue. It is a border security issue.

Mr. Speaker, we have an obligation to the American people and have to have the moral will to protect the borders and the dignity of the United States.

And that's just the way it is.

Mr. Speaker, the ladies of the gulf, Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, battered Louisiana and Texas, shattering families, scattering 5,172 children across the country. In the darkness of the night, children disappeared from their families. Searchers only hoped and prayed that they would be found.

Frantic parents upon arrival in safe harbors panicked because they were separated from their kids. While the hurricanes were a bad dream, losing their kids was a nightmare.

This is when the child crusaders came together, without hesitation, launching into action, combing 50 States, searching among thousands of people. In the end, all 5,172 children were brought home. After hundreds of hours of manpower, success occurred because of the dogged determination of the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children.

Through the tenacious work of peace officers and the tireless efforts of the U.S. Postal Service and thousands of nameless citizen volunteers, children were united with their parents. Yesterday, I was with the President at the White House when the First Lady honored these valid heroes, demonstrating the face of tragedy is best met by strong hearts and iron wills, and people just taking care of people.

And that's just the way it is.