Date: 2007-03-07
Speaker: GINNY BROWN-WAITE (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Flor

ida. Mr. Speaker. I rise today to discuss the sorry State of our Nations borders. As we have read in the newspapers every day. we have an estimated 12 to 15 million people living illegally in. the United States.. Now. I understand that this is a divisive issue for many people. even for some in this body. I. myself. understand the needs of Floridas citrus growers and sugar cane farmers to have a reliable source of agricultural workers. But as my constituents tell me all the time. what part of illegal doesnt Congress understand? I know that we need a guest worker program. but not one that includes amnesty or a pathway to citizenship. as some have called it. A guest worker program should be just that. a program where migrant workers are guests in our country and return hbme when their visa expires. Unfortunately. that is not what happens today. We have hundreds of thousands of people sneaking across our borders every day. We dont know who they are. where they are headed or what their intentions are. Some of those on the other side of the aisle make the argument that the people sneaking across our borders are just good honest people looking to make a better life for themselves. That may indeed be the case for some. But in a post9/11 world. we cant take that chance. Many of them are common crooks. lowlevel thugs. brutal gang members. drug dealers. murderers. rapists or kidnappers or serial killers. One example recently in Florida took place with the brazen abduction of a young man by the name of Clay Moore in Manatee county. which is just outside of my congressional district. Thir.teen yearold Clay was waiting for a school bus with other kids when a man driving a pickup truck pulled up alongside of them and kidnapped Clay by gun point. Law enforcement issued an AMBER Alert and set up a concerted manhunt to find Clay and his abductor. Unlike the case of Jessica Lunsford or Sarah Lunde. in this case. the story ends with good news. not a body bag. Clay managed to escape. but not after being driven to the middle of the woods. ducttaped to a tree for several hours. He freed himself by using a safety pin he had hidden in his mouth to cut the duct tape holding him to the tree. and then he called home for help. Clay is a brave and resourceful young. man to have gotten away without being harmed. I can only wonder if he and his family watched old reruns of MacGyver to learn the safety pin trick. This story ended well for Clay. *But the bad news for America is that the alleged abductor was an illegal immigrant who had been deported once from the country. A news report from the Bradenton Herald even describes the problems authorities had tracking him down. "Obtaining the warrants took longer than expected due to the suspected kidnappers multiple aliases. BeltranMoreno is an undocumented immigrant who. at one time was deported from the United States." they said. When I came down to the floor earlier. the authorities still had not caught BeltranMoreno. News reports indicated that he was trying to make it to Mexico to escape prosecution and punishment. Mr. Speaker. if our immigration laws had been enforced and if we had stronger border security measures in place. this kidnapper would not have been in America and would not have had the opportunity to kidnap. young Clay Moore. Instead. a dangerous criminal flees. leaving his whereabouts unknown and his motives- unclear. This is unacceptable. The House has passed strong border security legislation in the past. but. the Senate is taking its open path. a path towards amnesty. My constituents in and the constituents of many in this Chamber believe that that is absolutely the wrong path to take. Americans deserve real security and real results. With other likeminded Members of Congress. I will work to pass legislation that keeps illegal kidnappers and illegal aliens like BeltranMoreno off our streets and away from our children.