January 8, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 3 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page H278]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WALL WON'T SOLVE DRUG PROBLEM

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, the President's demand for $5 billion for 
a wall won't stop the drug trade, and here is why: The drugs will keep 
flowing in here, due to NAFTA and CAFTA's exploding continental trade 
resulting from U.S. jobs being shipped south of our border and the 
goods they produce down there being transshipped back here with an 
endless flow of trucks, planes, ships, and railcars. Colombian drug 
cartels figured this out when NAFTA came along.
  Madam Speaker, I have a story from last Friday's Wall Street Journal, 
entitled: `` `El Chapo' Jury Told of Cartel's Tricks, From Submarines 
to Laundry Carts.'' Two characters among the most significant drug 
traffickers ever extradited to our country are undergoing trial.
  They explain how massive amounts of cocaine and methamphetamines were 
ferried from Colombia through Mexico into major U.S. cities and how the 
cartel hired families from the United States to drive down through El 
Paso into Mexico and bring back contraband material hidden in 
compartments in their cars. This is a shot of Laredo, Texas, just one 
of hundreds of portals into our country.
  Madam Speaker, the trucks go for miles from the control point all the 
way back. This is how the majority of contraband material comes into 
this country, through those portals of entry. A wall will not solve the 
major reason these materials end up in this country.

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