Duncan Hunter for President 2012 - Reasons 18 through 24

18. U.S. BORDER PATROL (House of Representatives - July 24, 1992) [Page: H6619]

The SPEAKER pro tempore. (Mr. McMillen of Maryland). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from California [Mr. Hunter] is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentlewoman from Maryland, once more, and just talk with her a little bit about what is happening on the border. I wanted to move into another area, if I could, for just a minute. And that is this: In recent months, the Border Patrol of the United States has been subject to a great deal of criticism, especially since the crash in Tomekla, CA, just north of the San Diego border. It was a very tragic crash in which some illegal aliens, who had been pursued at one time by the Border Patrol, ran into and killed a number of American schoolchildren. It brought to light the great frustration with the problem of smuggling across the California border, both the smuggling of aliens and also the smuggling of narcotics.

I just wanted to say that this criticism of the California Border Patrol, which is an outstanding agency made up of many courageous individuals, is not deserved. The Border Patrol is a very small force of personnel who have now this massive job of, in part, securing the 2,000-mile land border between the United States and Mexico. Over the last year or so, in the San Diego sector, they have increased the cocaine and marijuana interdiction by over 700 percent of what it was about a year and half ago.

They are now building a fence out of steel landing mats across a 14-mile smugglers' corridor between Tijuana and San Diego. They have totally shut down the drive-through traffic.

In some places, we had drug trucks driving through at the rate of more than 300 per month that would stream across the border and go up into the highway system in California and leave with their load of cocaine or marijuana to ultimately poison the young people of America, going right out into the Interstate Highway System. And the Border Patrol, with this very small group of people working with the Army Reserve and with the National Guard, is now building 14 miles of fence and 14 miles of road across that smuggler's corridor.

I just wanted to say one other thing. I asked the chief of the Border Patrol in the San Diego sector, Gus de la Vina, to let me know what his people were doing. The Border Patrol does not advertise. It is a little bit like the Secret Service. It does not advertise the good works of the agents.

Generally, the Border Patrol makes the newspapers when somebody divines that they think the Border patrol has done something wrong, and then they are in for a healthy shot of criticism. But every day their people are out there risking their lives, not only with people that are smuggling aliens but people who are smuggling now million-dollar narcotic loads.

I just wanted to go over a couple of things that have happened in the last several years. One agent, while he was performing his assigned duties in the Tijuana River bottom, heard gunshots coming from Mexico and observed two men being chased by four assailants. This agent immediately drove his service vehicle to a position between the assailants and the victims. These were people who were shooting at illegal aliens. And he pulled the victims to cover behind his vehicle, even as gunfire was being directed toward the victims. Pulling his weapon, he prudently held fire to avoid hitting innocent people directly behind the assailants. After the assailants fled, this agent immediately called for emergency assistance and rendered first aid to one of the victims who sustained a gunshot wound to the chest.

My colleagues will notice I did not give any name to that Border Patrol agent. That is because it is the custom of the Border Patrol not to release or reveal the names of their agents who are involved in a war on a daily basis protecting American interests.

Here is another agent, January 5, 1991. This agent was performing patrol duties in North County, San Diego County, and two fellow agents requested backup for a suspected smuggling load they were in pursuit of on northbound I-5. The driver of the smuggling load was driving in an evasive manner when he realized he could not shake his pursuers. He slowed his vehicle to around 15 miles an hour and jumped out, leaving the van in gear.

The van continued down the highway, out of control. This agent was able to position the service vehicle beside the van, and he was then able to jump from the service vehicle. He is a Border Patrol man, leaping from a moving car on the highway. This is like an old John Wayne movie, leaping onto the lead horse in the stagecoach.

He was able to jump from his vehicle into the smuggler's vehicle. At this time the agent was able to stop the van, saving the 15 Mexican nationals in the back of the van from almost certain injury or death, another example of Border Patrol men saving lives.

These are lives of people who have been smuggled illegally into the country. For this there were no parades, no tickertape. There was no writeup in the newspaper. This was just another day at the job for a Border Patrol man, leaping from a moving car on a freeway into another one to save the lives of the people that you are paid to stop at the border.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding. I think he has hit an important point in an important message for this House as we start to go into the next session. The message is simply that freedom works. People around the world are escaping countries, climbing walls to get away from countries which have social agendas in which government bureaucrats literally have a program for everyone from cradle to grave.

I think this is an important message for this Congress to keep in mind as we develop our agenda. We do not want to move toward the same socialization, that cradle-to-grave social program structure, that people around the world are literally crawling over fences to get away from.

This is a very important message for the Members of this House. I hope as we move out we are going to look once again at the values and the goals and the ideals that really matter to people.

I think the gentleman hit the nail on the head. People care about politics when politics have personal meaning to them. The one compelling force that has had a personal meaning to more people in the world over the last 10 years have been freedom. The manifestations of that desire for freedom are spilling out over the walls in Berlin. They are spilling out of the massive demonstrations of 1 million plus people in Eastern European capitals.

Let us not as the U.S. Congress move down the road toward a social agenda that says the way to make the American people happy is to give them more government and more bureaucrats.

Mr. HUNTER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I think the gentleman has made a number of very excellent points. You know, he has told us about a number of leaders, some of them Democrat leaders, national Democrat leaders who have come to their senses in that they are now telling their colleagues in their own party and Americans what their priorities are not and where some of their priorities have in the past been misplaced. For example, taxes, some of the social programs.

I think it is interesting at the same time the American people, who my good friend has said have really excellent common sense, have stated what some of America's priorities should be.

I thought it was interesting that a few weeks ago, with all this talk of the peace dividend and how we were going to reciprocate to this 1 1/2 percent real cut in defense that Mr. Gorbachev has made, the latest national poll that I saw that asked the American people if they should cut defense spending, was answered by a majority, in excess of 60 percent, saying that, `No, we should not cut defense spending.' I think that is a real wisdom that the American people have shown even while they have been cajoled by some of the opinion leaders to not even consider whether or not there should be a peace dividend, but whether or not they should spend it. The American people have come back and said, `We don't want to cut defense.'

I think one of the Vatican representatives hit the nail on the head as to why the American people do not want to cut defense when he was asked, `Why are we having glasnost and perestroika and why are the Russians at the bargaining table as they have never been before?' This representative of the Vatican, who had been critical of Ronald Reagan and a number of his defense programs in the past, surprised everyone by saying that it was Ronald Reagan being strong and showing the Soviet Union that the military option was not a viable one that produced the spark of change that now is exploding in the Soviet Union itself and throughout the captive nations.

So I think that the American people do have a good sense of priorities, and if we make this next decade a decade of freedom and a decade of individual responsibility. You know, I think one thing every Member saw a lot of, no matter where we were in this world during the break, is a lot of airports. Members of Congress were literally all over the United States and indeed all over the world.

I had an opportunity, like my colleagues, to sit and listen to families and family members as they would sit in airports assessing where they were going and what they were doing and their family problems and how they were going to solve them.

It was an interesting lesson for somebody who comes from Washington to just sit there unobserved and listen to Americans talk about how, perhaps, Aunt Alice is not doing well right now and who is going to help her out and how she does need some help, and now can `she stay with you folks for a while, and she can come over and live at our house?' And people basically working out within the family unit their problems, which legislators and bureaucrats in Washington would immediately label as being social problems which should be handled by Government bureaucrats, by the State.

And yet these individuals who really cared about their family members were making a great deal of headway in solving those problems. It occurred to me that that is one reason why these millions and millions of people are spilling over the Berlin Wall and spilling out of those socialist systems which have literally social programs for every single individual who was born and some individuals who are not born, pursuant to forced abortions, literally from conception to grave. Yet people around the world have run from this social agenda which is complete.

If we go to the Soviet Union, you do not have to ask them about their State-run childcare program because it has been in place for a long time. You do not have to ask them about socialized medicine, because it has been in place for a long time. Yet the people are dying to get away from those systems.

So I hope that this decade is a decade in which the American people tell the representatives in this body what their priorities are not and also what their priorities should be.

I think that the American people want Government to win the drug war and to do the meaningful things that only Government can do to win the drug war, and yet we are not doing them.

I made a survey of how many American agents are on the border in the entire State of California at any given time as the first line of defense against the massive cocaine traffic that is moving up from Central America through northern Mexico and into California; how many agents are on the line at any given time during the day or night on that 150-mile border between San Diego, CA, and Yuma, AZ? The answer is less than 50 on their best day. That is one agent for every 3 miles. That means we have more agents by far protecting Congressmen on Capitol Hill--talk about priorities--than guarding the entire land border between the United States and Mexico against the massive cocaine traffic that is moving northwards.

Now that is an example of the Federal Government moving off its agenda and doing a lot of things in the last year that it should not have been doing but neglecting one of its very, very important duties. I feel that the interdiction of narcotics is every bit as important as our national security activities around the world.

We have neglected that duty. That is one thing we should be doing. In every poll the American people have answered, they show they expect Government to do that. The average convicted murderer, and this is an issue that my friend, the gentleman from Georgia [Mr. Gingrich] is a leader on, the average convicted murderer in the United States, after being placed behind bars, does roughly as much time behind bars as the time that is spent in college by a young person, maybe 4 to 6 years, before he is taken by the State out of that institution and placed back in our neighborhoods, to interact with our children and our families.

We are literally not extracting the criminal element from our society as fast as a State justice system is moving this criminal element back into society.

Now, that is something the Government should handle. That is something the Government should be responsible for, and that is something we have neglected.

20. IT'S CALLED PORKBUSTING, NOT GRIDLOCK (House of Representatives - April 02, 1993) [Page: H1862]

(Mr. HUNTER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to answer the gentleman from California [Mr. Fazio] a member of the Democrat leadership who just took this well to criticize Republicans for standing firm against pork barrel spending.

This great economic stimulus package that you have touted includes bike paths in Puerto Rico, cemeteries, and fish atlases. It is pure pork, and the Republicans who are fighting this are porkbusters.

Our duty to the American people as Republicans is to stand firm against shams, and the Democrat economic package is a sham.

21. WE NEED A 100-PERCENT FAT-FREE CRIME BILL (House of Representatives - August 20, 1994)[Page: H8758]

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, for our constituents who want a 100-percent fat-free crime bill a number of Democrats and Republicans have been working, and we have put together a crime bill that has more policemen, more prisons and jails, and more Border Patrol, and is $7 billion less than the porked-up crime bill that the conference is presently working on. So, if we want to join up and pass a crime bill that does something about crime and also reforms habeas corpus, reforms the exclusionary rule, and does something for the officers on the street, vote for the Brewster-Hunter bipartisan, 100-percent fat-free crime bill.

22. DO NOT SURRENDER OUR SOVEREIGNTY (House of Representatives - September 29, 1994) [Page: H10255]

(Mr. HUNTER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, the President in sending GATT down in an attempt at the last minute to get it through is really doing a disservice to our country. He is doing a disservice particularly to the sovereignty of this country. Eighty-three of the nations that will be members of the WTO, the World Trade Organization, and that will be about two-thirds of the membership, have a record in the United Nations of voting more than 50 percent of the time against America.

What President Clinton is doing is giving away our strong right to bilateral negotiations in trade. He is surrendering that to a committee that does not like us very much. This President is sending our Government to the United Nations, our troops to Haiti, and our jobs to Japan.

23. A COMMISSION FOR CUTTING FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY (House of Representatives - September 08, 1993) [Page: H6393]

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, President Clinton has recommended eliminating 252,000 positions in the Federal bureaucracy.

Well, Mr. President, Republicans, in poker parlance, want to call your hand and raise you.

Let us lock in your 252,000 position cut with a commission similar to the Federal Base Closing Commission that has been so successful in cutting defense bases around the country. The Commission should analyze the Federal bureaucracy, identify 252,000 positions for cutting, it should then submit by a time certain that list by President Clinton to Congress and give President Clinton and the Congress a single up or down vote.

We have never been short on recommendations for cutting the Federal bureaucracy, Mr. President. We have always been short on political will. So Republicans are calling your hand, Mr. President. Let us use the Base Closing Commission to cut the Federal bureaucracy, and if you are serious, Mr. President, you will initiate this action in a very short period of time. We are waiting for your response.

24. AMERICA NEEDS MORE CRIME FIGHTERS, NOT MORE SOCIAL PROGRAMS (House of Representatives - August 18, 1994)[Page: H8605]

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, my colleague, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Schumer], has just blamed Charlton Heston for the failure of this pork barrel boondoggle that we humorously refer to as the crime bill. He even criticized Mr. Heston's role as Moses in the Ten Commandments.

Coming from his big government district in New York, Mr. Schumer probably would have preferred a movie entitled `Pharoah Knows Best.' Charlton Heston did not kill the crime bill. The American people looked at the promise of the gentleman from New York [Mr. Schumer] to make the rest of the country as safe as New York City, and the American people said `that is what we are afraid of.'

If pouring social programs into New York City solved crime, there would not be a single pickpocket left. Hug-a-thug does not work. We need more Ben Hurs, more Will Pennys, more Andrew Jacksons, and more Moseses!

A detailed history of McCain voting JUST on amnesty

2007: Voted on Senate floor in favor of motion to invoke cloture on S. 1639, a bill to reward illegal aliens with amnesty Sen.

McCain voted in favor of a second motion to invoke cloture on S. 1639 (whose main sponsor was Sen. Edward Kennedy),
a bill to reward up to 6 million illegal aliens with amnesty. The motion to invoke cloture would have limited further debate on the bill and moved it to a final vote. A vote for cloture was effectively a vote in favor of passing the amnesty-guestworker bill. The motion to invoke cloture failed by a vote of 46 to 53.

2007: Voted on Senate floor in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens Sen. McCain voted in favor of a motion to invoke cloture on S. 1639 (whose main sponsor was Sen. Edward Kennedy), a bill to reward illegal aliens with amnesty. The motion to invoke cloture was a move to initiate debate on the proposal and limit further discussion of amendments to a previously-agreed upon set of proposals — thus a vote against cloture was effectively a vote in favor of killing the amnesty-guestworker bill. The motion to invoke cloture passed by a vote of 64 to 35.

2007: Voted on Senate floor against reducing amnesties for illegal aliens Sen. McCain voted in favor of a motion to invoke cloture on the substitute amendment (SA 1150) to S. 1348, a bill to reward illegal aliens with amnesty. The motion to invoke cloture would have ended debate on the proposal and limited further discussion of amendments to a previously-agreed upon set of proposals — thus a vote in favor of cloture was effectively a vote in favor of the amnesty-guestworker bill. The motion to invoke cloture failed by a vote of 45 to 50.

2007: Voted on Senate floor in favor of amendment to create a disincentive to apply for amnesty Sen. McCain voted in favor of the Cornyn Amendment (SA 1250) to S. 1348 to discourage applicants from applying for amnesty by eliminating the provisions protecting the confidentiality of the information contained in amnesty applications and, instead, requires the sharing of application-related information upon the request of a law enforcement agency, intelligence, or national security agency, or DHS component when requested in connection with a duly-authorized investigation of a civil violation. The Cornyn Amendment passed by a vote of 57 to 39.

2007: Voted on Senate floor against amendment to bar certain criminals from amnesty Sen. McCain voted against the Cornyn Amendment (SA 1184) to S. 1385 (whose main sponsor was Sen. Harry Reid) to bar criminal aliens from receiving amnesty. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff has estimated that 15% of illegal aliens are criminals. The Cornyn Amendment failed by a vote of 46 to 51.

2007: Voted against amendment to strip amnesty provisions from S. 1348 in 2007 Sen. McCain voted against the Vitter Amendment to strip the amnesty provisions from S. 1348 (whose main sponsor was Sen. Harry Reid). The Vitter Amendment failed by a vote of 29 to 66.

2007: Cosponsoring S. 774 to reward illegal aliens with amnesty S. 774 (whose main sponsor is Sen. Dick Durbin) would reward illegal aliens under the age of 21 who have been physically present in the country for five years and are in 7th grade or above with amnesty. An estimated 500,000 to 600,000 illegal aliens would qualify for this amnesty.

2007: Cosponsoring S. 340 to grant amnesty to illegal aliens (AgJOBS) Sen. McCain is a cosponsor of S. 340 (whose main sponsor is Sen. Dianne Feinstein) to encourage more illegal immigration by rewarding certain illegal aliens who work in agriculture with amnesty.

2006: Voted on Senate floor in favor of S. 2611 to reward illegal aliens with amnesty Sen. McCain voted in favor of final passage of S. 2611 (whose main sponsor was Sen. Arlen Specter) which includes an amnesty (both immediate and deferred) for 10.2 million illegal aliens (6.7 million illegal alien workers and 3.5 million illegal alien spouses and/children). S. 2611 passed by a vote of 62 to 36.

2006: Voted in favor of amnesty for illegal aliens Sen. McCain voted in favor of a motion to invoke cloture on S. 2611 (whose main sponsor was Sen. Arlen Specter) which includes an amnesty (both immediate and deferred) for 10.2 million illegal aliens (6.7 million illegal alien workers and 3.5 million illegal alien spouses and/children). The motion to invoke cloture passed by a vote of 73 to 25.

2006: Voted against amendment to reward 2 million illegal aliens with amnesty Sen. McCain voted against the Feinstein Amendment to S. 2611 (whose main sponsor was Sen. Arlen Specter) to create an “orange card” that would allow an estimated two million illegal aliens to pay a fine, and after 6-8 years, adjust to Lawful Permanent Resident status. The Feinstein Amendment failed by a vote of 37 to 61 .

2006: Voted against amendment to kill amnesty provisions Sen. McCain voted against the Vitter amendment (SA 3963) to S. 2611 (whose main sponsor was Sen. Arlen Specter) to remove provisions authorizing the “earned legalization” and “agricultural worker” amnesty schemes that would grant amnesty to an estimated 16 million illegal aliens and their families (according to a May, 2006 study by the Heritage Foundation’s Robert Rector). The Vitter amendment failed by a vote of 33 to 66.

2006: Voted against procedural move to reward illegal aliens with amnesty Sen. McCain voted against cloture on SA 3424, a “compromise amnesty” proposal by Sens. Hagel (R-NE) and Martinez (R-FL). The purpose of voting against allowing a final vote on this proposal varied from Senator to Senator, with many of them favoring the proposal but not willing to bring it up without a lot of votes on amendments. At the least, those voting against cloture were insisting on a chance for opponents of the bill to make their case with amendments. The Hagel-Martinez proposal would reward illegal aliens with amnesty. S. 2611 includes an amnesty (both immediate and deferred) for 10.2 million illegal aliens (6.7 million illegal alien workers and 3.5 million illegal alien spouses and/children). The cloture motion failed by a vote of 38 to 60.

2005-2006: Cosponsored S. 2075 to reward illegal aliens with amnesty S. 2075 (whose main sponsor was Sen. Dick Durbin) would reward illegal aliens under the age of 21 who have been physically present in the country for five years and are in 7th grade or above with amnesty. An estimated 500,000 to 600,000 illegal aliens would qualify for this amnesty. The bill died in the Judiciary Committee.

2005-2006: Cosponsored S. 1033 to reward illegal aliens with amnesty Sen. McCain was a cosponsor of S. 1033 to reward virtually all illegal aliens (except those with criminal records or terrorist connections) with amnesty. This could potentially reward 9 million illegal aliens with amnesty. This bill died in the Judiciary Committee.

2005: Voted in favor of amnesty for agricultural workers Sen. McCain voted to invoke cloture, a procedural move requiring 60 votes to limit debate and ensure a vote on the AgJOBS amnesty amendment for up to 3 million illegal aliens, introduced by Sen. Larry Craig (R-ID), to the Iraq supplemental spending bill. The Senate voted 53 to 45 not to invoke cloture, effectively keeping the amnesty off of the final bill.

2005-2006: Cosponsored S. 359 to grant amnesty to illegal aliens Sen. McCain was a cosponsor of S. 359 to encourage more illegal immigration by rewarding certain illegal aliens who work in agriculture with amnesty.

2003-2004: Cosponsored S. 1645 to grant amnesty to illegal aliens Sen. McCain cosponsored S. 1645 (whose main sponsor was Sen. Larry Craig) to encourage more illegal immigration by rewarding certain illegal aliens who work in agriculture with amnesty. This bill died in the Judiciary Committee.

2003-2004: Cosponsored S. 1545 to reward illegal aliens with amnesty S. 1545 would have rewarded illegal aliens under the age of 21 who have been physically present in the country for five years and are in 7th grade or above with amnesty. An estimated 500,000 to 600,000 illegal aliens would have qualified for this amnesty.

2003-2004: Cosponsored S. 1461 to encourage reward illegal aliens with amnesty Sen. McCain cosponsored S. 1461, to create a legalization process for almost all illegal aliens who will then be eligible for green cards after 6 years. Amnesty has been shown to increase rates of illegal immigration. The bill did not come to a vote.

2000: Voted against an illegal immigration amnesty. Sen. McCain voted against including an amnesty for illegal aliens from Central America in the Senate H-1B bill (S.2045). This not necessarily a vote against the amnesty, but rather a vote against including it in the H-1B legislation. The move to attach the amnesty failed 43-55.

1997: Voted for an amnesty to illegal aliens from Nicaragua and Cuba. Sen. McCain voted for a procedural move that helped allow the Mack Amendment to be included in S.1156 (the District of Columbia Appropriations bill). This amendment granted amnesty to illegal aliens from Nicaragua and Cuba and is expected to add close to one million people to U.S. population. 96 N/A N/A

1990: Voted for a bill that included an amnesty. Sen. McCain supported S.358 (whose main sponsor was Sen. Edward Kennedy), which provided an amnesty for up to 165,000 spouses and minor children of illegal aliens who were granted amnesty in 1986. Ultimately, the 1990 bill passed 81-17.

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