Thread: Remarks by Michael Chertoff, Senator John Cornyn

Remarks by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff at a Press Availability with Senator John Cornyn, Representative Henry Cuellar and Members of the Southwest Border Sheriff’s Coalition
Release Date: April 24, 2007

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010
Washington, D.C.

Secretary Chertoff: Well, good morning, everybody. I'm delighted to be joined here by Senator Cornyn and Congressman Cuellar from Texas, Sheriff Gonzalez from Zapata, Texas; Sheriff Ogden from Yuma, Arizona; I think our Commissioner Ralph Basham and Chief David Aguilar from the Border Patrol.

We've just had the opportunity, thanks to the good offices of Senator Cornyn and Congressman Cuellar, to meet with the Southwestern Border Sheriff’s Coalition. This coalition represents the sheriffs who are part of the front line at the Southwest Border that deal with the problems of human trafficking, drug trafficking and violence that impacts the citizens who are in the very southwestern part of the United States.

We've had the opportunity to talk about how we can continue to work together and build on our partnership, securing our borders and ensuring the sovereignty and security of our country. And for me it's been important to hear their front line observations about what is going on as we deal with some of the challenges of the Southwest Border.

I want you to know, sheriffs, and I want other sheriffs and the citizens to know that we have a complete alignment of interest and a shared vision of what we need to do with the border, which is to get full control of the border and make it a safer and more prosperous place for the people who live there.

And I think I speak for all the participants at today's meeting in talking about how important partnership is in making sure we can achieve what we have to get done at the border. Partnership between federal, state and local law enforcement, partnership between all elements of law enforcement to make sure that we bring all the resources that we have to deal with this very challenging problem.

Our commitment to this partnership is expressed through a number of critical programs. For states that seek our help in helping to establish law and order at the border, we have funding through Operation Stonegarden, training through our 287 program and joint enforcement through our Border Enforcement Security Task Forces.

Operation Stonegarden gives states, and through the states, local communities, the flexibility they need to protect their citizens against threats that come from the other side of the border.

Through the 287 program, our immigration and customs officers provide designated state and local law enforcement personnel with training that they can use to help enforce immigration laws. Some of this helps us, of course, move convicted felons more quickly out of the country and back to their home countries when they are here illegally. In fact, just yesterday we had a conference call regarding 287 talking to a number of communities, not just at the border, but around the country about how we can better leverage this program.

And through the Border Enforcement Security Task Forces along the Southwest border, we have been able to work together with local law enforcement to attack the criminal organizations that sustain drug trafficking and human trafficking and cause so much of the violence and the law enforcement problem that is at the Southwest Border.

This is designed to target using intelligence, where the money is, where the armaments are, what the leadership is so that we can have a strategic focus in how we bring our law enforcement resources to bear on the challenge of border violence and border drug trafficking and human smuggling.

Now, of course, this is part of a large strategy, and one in which the federal government has an important responsibility and therefore plays the lead role. The President, as you know, committed last year, and we are on track to deliver on this commitment, to put more than 18,000 boots on the ground border patrol at the border, most of them at the Southwest Border, but the end of calendar year 2008.

And while we're waiting for those resources to arrive, the President has jump-started the process of putting boots on the ground by having approximately 6,000 National Guard at the border to provide additional resources to the Border Patrol eyes on the ground, back room support, and other kinds of important assistance so that we can really maximize the impact we have at the border.

I've had an opportunity to go down to Arizona and Texas, Southern California and New Mexico to look first hand at what we are doing at the border to make a real difference. I've talked to the National Guardsmen who are delighted to be carrying out a mission to protect our country along the Southwest Border. I have watched, and I've even made a modest contribution, to building some of that fencing in those areas of the border where fencing is appropriate, particularly in Yuma, Arizona, where it's adding a lot of value in preventing people from streaming across the border.

And beyond mere physical, hard fencing, there's virtual fencing. The use of 21st century technology to really multiply the law enforcement effect of the Border Patrol in the Southwest. We're talking about integrating unmanned aerial systems. We're talking about integrating ground-based radar, tower-based radar, which is about to go up in Arizona, and building a system of comprehensive surveillance and communication that allows us to detect people who cross illegally, and then to move the resources to the place of detection so we can interdict them, apprehend them, and send them back home again.

And by the way, since we're talking about not just the apprehending but sending back home, I'm delighted to say we have continued to adhere to our promise of ending catch-and-release at the border. We now return everybody that is deportable and we detain them until we get them back. That has had a huge impact on the number of non-Mexicans that are trying to cross into the United States from the southwest.

Have these initiatives shown results? Well, we've been tracking this. This year alone, the number of people apprehended has fallen by nearly 30 percent, which is indicative of the fact that we are beginning to dry up that flow across the border. If we look at each quarter since we began this program last summer and compare it with the same time period in the prior year, we see consistent decreases – 13 percent, 38 percent and 25 percent – showing that we are getting some momentum. And we see even more dramatic decreases in the number of non-Mexicans because we've ended catch-and-release.

Now I'm the first person to tell you, we have not reached the point where we can declare victory. In fact, I will tell you that as we push harder on the criminal organizations, they will push back. There will be more violence. They are fighting to maintain their illegal business. That is not going to, however, deter us from continuing to put the pressure on. We're going to put more resources down there. We're going to work with the local law enforcement and give them more help, because we are not going to lose this war against illegal traffickers. We're going to win it.

The final piece I need to put into perspective is of course this is part of a large picture, and that's why we're working very hard with members of Congress, including the members here, on immigration reform that will deal with the problem in its totality. That means we've got to deal with interior enforcement, we've got to make sure employers stop hiring illegal workers, and we've got to find a humane, fair and reasonable solution to the undocumented migrants we have here and the labor needs that are currently being satisfied through illegal immigration.

If we can deal with this problem in its totality, if we can take economic migrants and deal with them in a way that is fair, tough and reasonable, then we can focus our resources on the people we most want to keep out of this country, who are the drug-dealers, the criminals and those who pose a threat to our homeland security.

So, I want to thank you all for coming. Now I turn to Senator Cornyn.

Senator Cornyn: Thank you. For too long, the federal government has simply failed to live up to its responsibilities to deal with our broken border. And I'm glad to tell you that under the leadership of Secretary Chertoff, that's changing.

And thanks to the strong leadership of the commissioner, and the chief, and now the great work of the Southwest Border Sheriff’s Coalition, which the Secretary and I and Congressman Cuellar met with today, we're seeing a kind of partnership that I think gives me great hope that we will be able to bring a reasonable solution to this tremendous challenge.

This is important to recognize that Washington, D.C., which is a long way away from our international border, frankly, doesn't have a great understanding of the challenges along the border. Secretary Chertoff, the commissioner, and the chief do understand because they've been there. They haven't just read about it in novels or seen it depicted in movies.

They've been there, and most importantly, they've been talking to the people in the border communities to try to understand what the reality is and how to work together to try to find common sense solutions.

To me, it's a great honor to be part of people trying to find realistic solutions working across the aisle here in Washington, D.C., to solve a problem. That's what I happen to believe my constituents sent me to Washington to do.

And so it's an honor to work with these great public servants and who are demonstrating really the kind of leadership our country needs on one of the most urgent issues of the day, and that is our broken immigration system and our broken border, which as we know, allows people to come across without any kind of distinction; those who want to work, but also those who want to do us harm.

And we need to try to find a rational way of dealing with that and let law enforcement have the resources they need and a fair chance to try to focus their efforts on the criminal element and those who seek to do the American people harm.

So, thank you for your leadership, Mr. Secretary.

Secretary Chertoff: Thank you, Senator.

Representative Cuellar: Thank you very much. And I also want to thank Secretary Chertoff for the great work that he's been doing along with the chief and the commissioner, and of course the senator. I think by working in a bipartisan way, we can try to find the answer to what we see at the border. How do we balance border security without impeding trade and tourism, which is very important to us?

And the reason we're here meeting with the Southwest Border Sheriff’s Coalition is to help try to find an answer to that particular area – that is, being strong on border security without impeding trade and tourism.

I want to thank the Border Sheriff’s Coalition, because they took their time to come up here to become partners with the federal government, because we, just like the senator said, one of the things that we realize is that we can't do it by ourselves in the federal government. By establishing these coalitions and these partnerships, I think we can find that we can provide border security.

One of the things that we did ask the Secretary, and he is going to provide us is, is how do we expedite some of the dollars that are available right now where we can help these sheriffs do their work, where we can be part of the overall solution? And by doing that, we can work within the framework that we have available right now.

Later on we'll talk about some border legislation on how we can provide extra funding for the sheriffs. But we're trying to find not only the long-term solutions, but also the short-term solutions we have.

In conclusion, as the Secretary said, I certainly want to thank him and Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, because they have been reaching on behalf of the President to talk about the big picture. And the big picture has to do with immigration. Immigration, there's three parts. We have border security, number one, and this is where the border sheriffs come in. Number two, some sort of guest worker plan. And then the third part of it is what do we do about the 11 and 12 million undocumented aliens that we have here?

I know that tomorrow the Hispanic Caucus is going to meeting with the President to talk exactly about the three parts that are so important to us. But today, I do want to thank the border sheriffs for coming up here and being part of the solution to address border security without impeding both trade and tourism.

So, I certainly want to thank the Secretary, the senator, and of course our border sheriffs that are here took their time.

I believe at this time we have Zigi Gonzalez.

Sheriff Gonzalez: Well, thank you, Congressman Cuellar, and we, as the Border Sheriff’s Coalition, appreciate the opportunity to be here today. We thank Senator Cornyn, Congressman Cuellar for arranging this meeting with Secretary Chertoff.

It was no surprise to us Secretary Chertoff, of course, is very familiar with what's happening along the border. It was reiterated to us today. We appreciate the work that he is doing in protecting our great country. Again, we want to reiterate to the Secretary our strong commitment that we have as a coalition in continuing our working relationship with our federal partners, and again, continuing that relationship.

Secretary Chertoff, we appreciate you taking time from your very busy schedule. We know you're doing the best you can for our country, and we look forward to our continued working relationship, and thank you, sir.

Secretary Chertoff: Thank you very much. All right. I guess we'll take some questions.

Question: Customs and Border Protection has approached landowners in Roma, Texas, about building a fence – building fence there, and using land for fencing.

Can you tell us what the other communities are that will be approached for that 370 miles of physical fencing you want? And when that is done, will eminent domain models be used, or will you use the provision that was in the intelligence bill that suspends U.S. laws to allow you to build these kinds of border barriers?

Secretary Chertoff: Well, first of all, I'll let the chief talk specifically about communities, but let me say – put a few things in perspective. First of all, actually there is no law in the Intelligence Reform Act that suspends all U.S. laws. There's a law that allows environmental waivers with respect to environmental laws, but the Constitution continues to apply at the border. That was not suspended. So, eminent domain is actually the constitutional thing.

We want to work with communities. I think this is a very good illustration of the point that one size does not fit all. We're very sensitive to the fact that the lay of the land in Texas is different than Arizona. It's different than California.

The solution has to vary location-to-location. So we are very interested in working with landowners and communities to figure out what is a solution that fits our needs best, that works with the community best.

We've talked, for example, to the Texas mayors about in some areas what we need is to clear some of the brush and clear some of the vegetation so that the river can be used as a natural barrier. So we are trying very hard to make sure we operate within a framework that is mutually agreeable with the landowners and to make sure that we're not simply ramming something down their throat.

And so we're going to proceed in that manner, really trying to be in very much of a listening mode in terms of what their concerns are. Obviously, at the end of the day, we have to make sure we can satisfy our operational requirements. But we want to be good neighbors and good partners, as I've said.

I don't know, Chief, if you want to talk specifically about areas, or.

Chief Aguilar: There's three pieces to the question that you just asked. Basically – and these are the following answers. The border chiefs have worked with the communities out there to identify the very specific areas of the border that could utilize infrastructure as a means of controlling the illegal flow of drugs, narcotics and aliens into this country. That's one piece.

The second piece is the Secure Fence Act that has in fact been passed and is law now. We are working to build the 370 miles that we are committed to building under that, and then the third very important piece is the Secure Border Initiative that will utilize a virtual wall. It is that morphing of those three that we are going through now.

The outreach that commenced last week was Border Patrol agents basically going out there and educating and informing the community members that might – and I stress might – get impacted by these three components of what we're moving forward on. Okay.

Question: Can you tell us the other communities that might be impacted?

Chief Aguilar: Well, they'll be across the Southwest Border. Now – and again, the 370 miles are very defined by the Border Patrol chiefs working with the local communities. The Secure Fence Act actually delineates point-to-point some of those fence areas. I'd direct you to the Secure Fence Act on that.

Question: The Secure Fence that deals with the 700 miles –

Chief Aguilar: Yes.

Question: And you all are talking about 370.

Chief Aguilar: At this point, 370, yes.

Question: So are there specific communities within the 370 that you can identify?

Chief Aguilar: And that's where that morphing process comes into place, that we will make use of the virtual wall, as the Secretary was talking about.

Representative Cuellar: If I can just add, since it covers my – one of the counties I represent, as you know, the last Congress passed pretty much – as you can see, had a disagreement with that, had a problem with Congress getting a little crayon and saying from Laredo, put a fence all the way down to Brownsville from Eagle Pass all the way to Del Rio. I think the more prudent thing to do is to give the Secretary some flexibility where he can look at the terrain and other factors. And I think that is the approach that some members of Congress will be looking at, is give him the flexibility. Because we feel that the way it was done last time was not the most appropriate way. So we're hoping we can do that.

And also, I want to say this. Last time the Secretary was back from Laredo and we were with the senator, we asked him to make sure that they take input from the local communities.

And I think that's very important, because as they go out and talk to folks, we're hoping that we can get some of the local input. Because right now, we've still got to deal with the Secure Fence Act. And until there's a flexibility provided in there, we've still got to work under that Secure Fence Act that got passed last year.

Question: There are landowners all along the border that want to know whether or not eminent domain will be applied to their land, and that's what I guess I'm trying to get at. I understand the fence and the flexibility, but have you identified specific communities, like Roma, where you will go in, may use eminent domain?

Representative Cuellar: Right. And we'll let the department. But again, the point I'm trying to make very carefully is that we hope to provide that flexibility to the department as they address some of those issues on that issue, because we've still got to work under the current law that we have right now.

Secretary Chertoff: Yes?

Question: Some of the leadership of the National Border Patrol Council has expressed a loss of confidence in Chief Aguilar. One, can you speak to your level of support for him?

And, two, is there a problem within the ranks of the Border Patrol on a morale basis?

Secretary Chertoff: First of all, I have a tremendous amount of respect for Chief Aguilar, who has risen up through the ranks and has done a magnificent job of building the capability of the Border Patrol for the first time putting a national strategy in place which is showing real results.

And I understand the union, under its current leadership, traditionally takes the view that everything that the Administration does is bad. Remarkably, I thought Mr. Bonner, the head of the union, actually was arguing against hiring more Border Patrol agents, which I thought was a little puzzling.

I understand that there's a certain amount of unhappiness over the result of what happened in the prosecution of the two Border Patrol agents. That, of course, is a matter in the courts currently, and we let the courts move forward.

But none of this has to do with Chief Aguilar, who has been a magnificent leader. One of the things I did when I was down there the last couple of times was talk to people on the Border Patrol and ask whether, in particular, the issue with the two agents who were prosecuted, had an impact on morale. And I was told, and it was my perception that it had not; that there was an understanding that, you know, there's a process in place.

But I also made it unequivocally clear that we support our Border Patrol a hundred percent, including the right to defend themselves using all the tools available to them by law. Now, of course, they have to follow the law. But in my view, the obligation and the authority of the Border Patrol to protect themselves against violence cannot be compromised, and I've made it clear and I know the chief has made it clear that we will support the righteous use of force in self-defense and in accordance with the law, with the fullest extent of our ability to do so. And I think that has been what's important to the Border Patrol.

And I've asked the chief to monitor and make sure people feel they're capable of doing what they need to do to defend themselves and to carry out their mission and to be alert to anything that suggests any chilling effect over there.

Question: Yes. It's been five months since President Calderone took office in Mexico with a step-up in enforcement on drugs. I want to know whether something has changed both at the federal level and at the local level in their relationship with the Mexican police, Mexican government?

Secretary Chertoff: We have had a tremendous relationship with Mexican authorities under this new government. I had an opportunity to go down to Mexico, and meet with the members of the president's cabinet that deal with the issues involving border and security.

There's been unparalleled cooperation. And I have to say anybody looking at the kind of vigorous activity you see in Mexico, the extradition of the drug kingpins, tough enforcement actions against corrupt police officials, anybody who looks at that has to be confident that the president, the new president of Mexico and his administration are not only talking the talk, but they're walking the walk. They are really taking steps to do what they have to do, which is assert control over these criminal organizations in Mexico.

This is where we have a total community of interest. We will benefit, and the people of Mexico will benefit if we can work together to crack these criminal organizations, that traffic in drugs, that traffic in human beings, and that traffic in violence. And we very committed, and I know the President is very committed, President Bush is very committed, to working with our Mexican counterparts to helping them do what they need to do on their side of the border so we can do what we need to do on our side of the border.

Moderator: Two more questions.

Question: At the local level, have you seen any change?

Sheriff Gonzalez: We've always enjoyed a good relationship. In Zapata, we don't have a town or a river – or city, I'm sorry – across the river from us, but we've always enjoyed a good relationship with all our Mexican counterparts. And we continue to work in getting partnership with our federal agencies on the U.S. side, again, and with the Mexican counterparts.

Moderator: Last question.

Question: Secretary Chertoff, this question is for both you and Senator Cornyn. There are some reports out that say that Republicans are willing to make concessions in immigration reform and trying to get closer with the Democrats and trying to get a bill out. Are these concessions, or is there any truth in these reports? In particular about limiting the time that undocumented in this country would have to wait to get a green card and also in reducing fines?

Secretary Chertoff: I know you know that I am not going to start to respond to leaked speculation about discussions. The only thing I'm going to say is there's been a lot of bipartisan discussion to try to deal with this issue of immigration reform.

The President has been personally engaged in this, members of the cabinet and the White House Administration, senators and members of Congress from both sides. And it's very important we get this thing done. The public I think has gotten tired of complaining. They want to see solutions.

And I think that, you know, obviously, there will be a lot of speculation about what's going on. In the fullness of time when there's an agreement -- and I'm hopeful, quite hopeful there will be – about how to proceed with this, then I think, you know, more will be revealed. But I think a lot of speculation and trying to, you know, kind of read tea leaves is not particularly useful.

Senator Cornyn: I'm glad the Secretary answered that first.

Senator Cornyn: I do – there have been no agreements by anybody. But there have been very constructive negotiations and discussions going forward, starting with some general principles. And I think Congressman Cuellar hit on those principles.

The only one I would add to border security and the necessity of dealing with the labor shortages we have through a temporary worker program and some way to reconcile the status of the 12 mission people who are living here in the shadows is the importance of having a workable, enforceable system at the worksite.

Document fraud and identity theft are rampant, and make our current laws almost impossible to enforce. And so what the Secretary has been doing, spending a lot of time with people in the Senate and in the House trying to come up with a solution, and no one is going to 100 percent of what they want. I wish it were true that I could get 100 percent of what I want, but it's not going to happen.

What I do want is a workable system that can be enforced so we can regain the confidence of the American people that we're actually serious about passing laws and enforcing those laws. I think that's what we all want and I hope we'll achieve it.

Question: Secretary Chertoff, could I ask one –

Moderator: This is the last one.

Question: Thank you. Obviously, the Administration has put a statement out, a draft statement out on family reunification, and then a path to citizenship for temporary workers. Could you talk at all about the Administration's views on those two points? Then a follow-up in terms of clearing the backlog of legal immigrant – of applications from legal immigrants, and meeting border security requirements in 18 months, could you amplify at all about where you are on those?

Secretary Chertoff: Well, I can certainly say it's far from obvious the Administration put a statement out, because the Administration didn't put a statement out.

I mean, people leak various pieces of paper and then attribute them. I think what I said to the previous question stands. There's a lot of discussion. It's a complicated problem. And as Senator Cornyn said, you've got to deal with border security. That's got to be – there can't be any compromise on that. There's got to be real tough and effective worksite enforcement. We have to deal with the issue of labor needs. We also have to deal with the issue of undocumented workers.

Everybody is working hard, and these are issues that have been around for a long time. And, you know, at such time as there is agreement, and I'm hopeful that that time will be soon, but I'm not a soothsayer – at such time as there's an agreement, then what will be agreed upon will be revealed. Other than that, it's all speculation.

Moderator: Thanks very much, everyone.


http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1177510428257.shtm

Chertoff, what a waste.

Representative Cuellar: Thank you very much. And I also want to thank Secretary Chertoff for the great work that he's been doing along with the chief and the commissioner, and of course the senator. I think by working in a bipartisan way, we can try to find the answer to what we see at the border. How do we balance border security without impeding trade and tourism, which is very important to us?

Rep. Cuellar is worried about balancing border security with trade and tourism - his only concern is keeping the borders open to trade and tourism!

Here's the proof:

http://grades.betterimmigration.com/tes ... VIPID=1190

As you can see, he has an "F" in border security and a "D" in interior enforcement. I would suggest Cornyn and Cuellar's main purpose for being at the border actually has very little to do with real border security.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting sick and tired of being played for a fool!

I believe this whole conversation between these guys is to finalize THEIR VERSION of securing our border so that they can claim the border is secured so that THAT part of the comprehensive reform is complete. Next will come amnesty and and the guest worker program.

Rockfish's

I believe this whole conversation between these guys is to finalize THEIR VERSION of securing our border so that they can claim the border is secured so that THAT part of the comprehensive reform is complete. Next will come amnesty and and the guest worker program.

I agree, Rockfish. What is beyond comprehension is to think that they don't realize that everybody knows that the borders are not secured.

I hate it when they attempt to force complete and total lies down our throats, knowing full well that there is only so much that we can do about it.

That is why I have so much disrespect for this president and why I think Secretary Jerk off is such a joke..

Too bad it's not a joke we can afford to laugh about.