April 4, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 59 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Page H3092]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            BORDER SECURITY

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to highlight some pretty 
disturbing numbers released by Customs and Border Protection that help 
put our border crisis into perspective.
  In 2018, Customs and Border Patrol agents and officers seized more 
than 1.7 million pounds of narcotics, including 1 million pounds of 
marijuana; 280,000 pounds of cocaine; 248,000 pounds of 
methamphetamine; 6,500 pounds of heroin; 2,400 pounds of fentanyl, 
which is enough doses to kill everyone in the United States; and 
139,000 pounds of other illicit drugs.
  It is also a humanitarian crisis. Border Patrol agents rescued from 
trafficking 4,300 men and women near the border last year. There is no 
telling how many more have been caught up in human trafficking that 
slipped through the cracks.
  Border Patrol says nearly every sector across the Southwest border 
has exceeded their capacity. Each day, nearly half the agents on the 
Southwest border are diverted away from border security missions to 
instead care for, transport, and process family units and unaccompanied 
children.
  Even former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Jeh 
Johnson of the Obama administration said that we have a crisis with 
these huge numbers.
  Madam Speaker, we need to do our job and get this border crisis 
solved.

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