Thread: Cuellar offers congressional border tour

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?news ... 9392&rfi=6

08/18/2006
Cuellar offers Congressional border tour
BY SCOTT SHAFFER , LAREDO MORNING TIMES

U.S. Reps. Henry Cuellar and Charles Dent had some fun in the 100-degree-plus heat Thursday before introducing fellow members of Congress in Laredo for a two-day visit.“It’s great to be together in August in the desert,” Dent joked as he recalled a helicopter ride with Cuellar last fall in Iraq.

“Laredo is almost as hot as Iraq!” Cuellar said.

Cuellar invited Reps. Dent, R-Pa.; Jo Bonner, R-Ala.; Pete Sessions, R-Dallas; and John Doolittle, R-Calif., along with Al Zapata, president of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, to Laredo to learn more about security, trade and immigration issues along the Texas border as they work together to develop legislation.

The group spent Thursday morning at the Lincoln-Juarez International Bridge and was scheduled to tour the Rio Grande by Border Patrol helicopter after meeting with the media at the Border Patrol hangar.

“This is my first visit to the border,” said Bonner, who pointed out that the House and Senate immigration bills are as “opposite as night and day.”

“We hope to take back from this visit enough knowledge and information to somehow merge the two bills and pass legislation that will be good for America,” he said.

Doolittle was impressed with the amount of traffic coming across the border.

“It’s been very, very helpful for me to comprehend the whole variety and mix of problems you have,” he said.

Sessions suggested his colleagues were getting a balanced view of the border.

“Hopefully they will return home and understand why we need to secure our border but also recognize the importance of continuing economic growth and development in the U.S.,” he said.

Dent acknowledged concern among his Pennsylvania constituents about illegal immigration but said he wanted to broaden the focus.

“How material moves into this country is also important,” he said. “I was very impressed to see all the security layers you have here on the border.”

The group will meet with Laredo-area business leaders today to discuss the challenges of implementing border security while maintaining the trade flow between the U.S. and Mexico.

“Hopefully they will return home and understand why we need to secure our border but also recognize the importance of continuing economic growth and development in the U.S.,” he said.

You're kidding me right? They don't have an understanding of why the border needs to be secured?
Well let's see. I can think of few good reasons.
For starters, how about honoring your oath of office you took by defending the Constitution Article IV, Section IV.

Second, read all the polls out there on this issue. It will be quite obvious what the American people want.

Thirdly, it will reduce the chances of terrorists acting out another 9/11.

Gee Senators, do I really need to go on? If none of them have a 'complete' understanding of why the border needs to be secured, then none of them have business holding office.