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“ON THE NEED FOR MORE BORDER PATROL AGENTS ON AMERICA'S NORTHERN BORDER” mentioning the U.S. Dept. of Justice was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6089 on July 17, 2000.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ON THE NEED FOR MORE BORDER PATROL AGENTS ON AMERICA'S NORTHERN BORDER
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Metcalf) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. METCALF. Mr. Speaker, I do not have to remind this House about the fine work of our border patrol officers. They put their lives at risk every day to slow the flow of illegal drugs into this country and to keep our border safe from dangerous aliens. Their work in helping to arrest a suspected terrorist near Port Angeles, Washington, last December was exemplary.
Due to the current inept management of the INS, however, the jobs of these officers are made much, much more difficult. Over the past two fiscal years, Congress has appropriated funds for the INS to hire 2,000 new Border Patrol Agents. The agency has failed to hire anywhere near that number, and the vast majority of the new agents they have hired have been assigned to the southern border.
There is no reason why northern border staffing should not be greatly increased. Since 1996, I have sent numerous communications to President Clinton, Attorney General Reno, and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner demanding a permanent end to the transfers of Northwestern Border Patrol Agents and urging higher staffing levels on the northern border.
Instead, Commissioner Meissner has recently ordered another reassignment of agents from the northern to the southern border. In addition, she has ordered every Border Patrol plane moved from the State of Washington. In a month's time, every plane along the entire northern border will be moved south.
A few days ago, in protest to these moves, the entire delegation from the State of Washington wrote to Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner Doris Meissner protesting her recent decision to transfer Washington State Border Patrol Agents and equipment to the Mexican border.
Ms. Meissner's latest raid on the northern border is unconscionable, especially because a July 8 story in the Seattle Times reports that
``When Meissner made this decision, she possessed a confidential February report by the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General which determined that `The 311 Border Patrol Agents along the northern border cannot adequately patrol the approximately 4,000 mile border with Canada.' ''
The February report also notes that between 1993 and 1998, agents along the northern border were nine times more likely to encounter someone smuggling drugs and 14 times more likely to encounter someone smuggling weapons than agents along the southwest border.
Despite this overwhelming discrepancy, more than 95 percent of INS's Border Patrol Agents are on the southern border. In addition, INS Commissioner Meissner's decision to move personnel was made knowing that last year's arrest of suspected terrorist Ahmed Ressam highlighted additional reasons to maintain maximum coverage on the northern border.
I have also previously asked Commissioner Meissner to hire additional northern border agents, for which Congress has already appropriated the money. She has not only not hired additional agents, she has again relocated some of the few agents we have.
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In addition, she removed all of the patrol planes from the Washington border. Most outrageous of all, it turns out she has made these relocations while refusing to release the contents of a Department of Justice report that specifically highlights the severe personnel shortages on the U.S.-Canadian border.
Relocating agents and equipment while hiding details of the dangerous understaffing problem at the northern border is a dereliction of duty. It is risky. It is wrong. It is irresponsible. If Commissioner Meissner cannot do an adequate job on our northern border, then we must get someone in the position who can.
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