NAFTA AND THE DRUG TRADE -- (House of Representatives - January 23, 2007)

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--- The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, this evening we are going to listen to the President of the United States, and I have no doubt in the State of the Union he will talk about the war on terrorism, and he will talk about the need to create jobs in Iraq to stabilize the terrible situation there, and he will talk about more funds for reconstruction of Iraq. Our Nation has already spent over $500 billion and rising in that sad country.

But I would like to focus on the United States just for a second, if I could, and talk about the terrorism focused inside of this country and point out that 90 percent of all the drugs that are smuggled into this country enter through our border with Mexico, and that is according to our State Department. In fact, under NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, which his father negotiated, drug and drug-related smuggling across the Mexican border has risen to over $142 billion a year, according to our Drug Enforcement Agency.



[Time: 15:00] Every single community in our country is affected, not just border communities. Every single jail, every single sheriff, every single law enforcement official, every single prison. Our communities are infected with burglaries, with robberies, with personal assaults related to the abuse of drugs in our country. I will be very interested to see what the President has to say about that war on terrorism tonight that affects every single neighborhood in this country.

NAFTA brings a significant increase in cargo traffic across our southern border and thus strains the enforcement efforts of our border patrols and enables traffickers and terrorists. In fact, 9,300 commercial trucks cross our border daily. 9,300 more trucks. And do you know how many we inspect? Five percent. Five percent. So there is a 95 percent chance for smugglers who are out there, whatever they want to get into this country, that will be their rate of success.

Now, the Mexican Government is working very hard to build a four-lane highway which they call La Entrada al Pacifico, the Entrance from the Pacific. And the idea there would be to redirect so much of the traffic from Asia, from China, these big ships that are bound for the United States, from the west coast, Ports of Los Angeles and Oakland, further south, and stretch the actual shipping lanes into Mexico versus the United States. It is estimated that as much as 30 percent of the truck traffic will also be diverted from California and El Paso to the ports of entry at Presidio.

The idea is that the highway into our country would begin further south where goods would come in in deepwater ports, and the completed route would save up to 4 shipping days for goods moving between the Pacific Rim countries and Texas, which would be one of the major ports of entry into our country.

The problem is that we really haven't addressed the issue of drug smuggling as a part of this. Ninety percent, again, of all drugs smuggled into this country come over the Mexican border. That area has become almost lawless. Hundreds of murders related to drug trafficking go unaddressed both on the Mexican side of that border and our side. We really need to have a border enforcement organization that is negotiated by treaty by amending NAFTA in order that we can have proper enforcement along that very porous part of our country which makes us so vulnerable.

Our border guards are overwhelmed. We know that pedestrian traffic has increased by 55 percent across that border, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, and all kinds of vehicular traffic. Can you imagine that one place on that border accounts for 70 to 90 percent of the cocaine sold in the United States smuggled through that region? In fact, the drug cartels have moved up their major source of operation in Colombia up to the state of Juarez, and now control the state of Juarez just south of the State of Texas. This is real terrorism poised at our country.

Let's say the people in the Middle East want to get something into the United States. You mean to tell me they haven't thought about this? Of course they have. And we know that drug presence leads to more violence and more corruption at every level.

An unreleased Drug Enforcement Agency report notes that drugs, weapons, people traffickers, and terrorist organizations have to cross the border from Mexico into the United States, and they will use one of the many corridors available to them. I hope that the President of the United States tonight talks about securing our southern border.