Silvestre Reyes

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Silvestre Reyes
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Texas's 16th district
In office 1997–present
Preceded by	Ron Coleman
Born	November 10, 1944 (1944-11-10) (age 64) Canutillo, Texas
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Carolina Gaytan
Residence	El Paso, Texas
Alma mater	El Paso Community College, Associate's Degree
Occupation	border patrol agent
Religion	Roman Catholic
Military service
Service/branch	United States Army
Years of service	1966-1968
Battles/wars	Vietnam War

Silvestre Reyes (born November 10, 1944 in Canutillo, Texas) represents Texas's 16th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He is a member of the Democratic Party

Reyes served in the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He later worked for the U.S. Border Patrol. Reyes retired from the Immigration and Naturalization Service and ran for Congress against Ron Coleman in the Democratic primary, but Coleman retired. After winning a primary runoff,^[1] Reyes was easily elected to the House of Representatives as a Democrat in November 1996.^[2] He was most recently re-elected by a wide margin in November 2006.^[3]

Reyes has served as chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. In 2002, he considered running for the United States Senate, but decided against such a move. In 2005 he missed 94 votes in the House, the ninth most of any member.

Reyes was a key player in the 109th Congress because of his Immigration and Border Patrol experience. He was instrumental in leading the opposition to the House immigration proposal proposed by James Sensenbrenner, H.R. 4437. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi selected Reyes to present and lead the debate on a Democratic substitute to replace the Sensenbrenner legislation, which was voted down on a party line vote.

As a senior member of both the Armed Services and Select Intelligence Committees, Reyes is a key member of Congress on Defense and military issues. He is credited with the recent success of Fort Bliss and White Sands military bases in the most recent Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) decisions by the Department of Defense. On December 1, 2006, Reyes was tapped by Pelosi, the prospective Speaker of the House, to be the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.^[4]

ASME honored Reyes with the ASME President's Award on April 3, 2008. ASME President Sam Zamrik presented the award in recognition of Reyes' "outstanding contributions in promoting diversity in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields" as the co-founder of the Congressional Diversity and Innovation Caucus.^[5]

[edit] Controversial statements

In a December 2006 interview with Congressional Quarterly, Reyes said that al-Qaeda, an exclusively Sunni group, was composed of "both" Sunni and Shi'te members. He then instead asserted al-Qaeda is "predominantly probably Shi'ite." He also avoided answering the question whether Hezbollah, a Shi'ite organization, was Sunni or Shi'ite, answering now famously ""Hezbollah. Uh, Hezbollah? ... Why do you ask me these questions at 5 o'clock? Can I answer in Spanish? Do you speak Spanish?" Reyes, who had been on the Armed Services Committee and been a ranking member of the Select Intelligence Committee for a number of years prior to the interview, was widely criticized for his display of ignorance.^[6]

In the same interview, Reyes said he favors sending more troops to Iraq: "on a temporary basis, I’m willing to ramp them up by twenty or thirty thousand ... for, I don’t know, two months, four months, six months – but certainly that would be an exception."^[7] Yet, a month later, when President George W. Bush proposed sending approximately 21,500 more troops, Reyes said to the El Paso Times, "we don't have the capability to escalate even to this minimal level."^[8]

[edit] Philippine Visit

On August 25, 2007, Reyes (who is both Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and a senior member of the Committee on Armed Services) and four other US Congressmen visited American troops deployed in the southern Philippines to overview the US-Philippines relationship. Reyes headed the bipartisan delegation which included New Jersey Rep. Rodney P. Frelinghuysen, member of appropriations committee and the select intelligence oversight panel; New Mexico Rep. Heather Wilson of the committee on energy and the intelligence committee; New York Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, a Democrat, of the financial services and international relations committees; and Maryland Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger of the appropriations and intelligence committees. They drove to the base of the Joint Special Operation Task Force Philippines (JSOTFP), a US-led body, which trains Filipino soldiers against terrorism, in Barangay Upper Calarian.^[9]

[edit] Telecom immunity

In his role as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Reyes was a deciding factor in whether legislation on the floor of the House extending provisions of the FISA would include retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies which participated in the NSA's warrantless wiretap program. Although he initially supported immunity for telecommunications companies, saying that immunity was necessary and the companies hadn't done anything illegal ^[10], eventually after being contacted by pressure groups, the version of the legislation he introduced did not contain provisions for telecom immunity, despite Republican threats to torpedo any bill that did not contain telecom immunity ^[11].

[edit] Founding of Controversial Border Strategy

In 1993, while serving as the Chief Patrol Agent of the El Paso Border Patrol Sector, Reyes led the Border Patrol to strategically position agents on the border to intercept illegal immigrants in a strategy later termed "Operation Hold the Line". This operation was the predecessor to a similar operation dubbed "Operation Gatekeeper" in Southern California. Such tactics were not without controversy, as placing Border Patrol Agents in high visibility positions placed them at tremendous risk from rock and firearms assaults from the Mexican side of the border. Immigrant-rights groups also protested the strategy, as it was effective in deterring illegal aliens from crossing in protected urban areas such as El Paso and San Diego, California and as such "forced" them to cross through desolate parts of the Southern United States, such as the deserts of the Imperial Valley in California and the Sonora desert in Arizona.

At the time, many in Border Patrol leadership did not believe that immigrants would risk their lives to cross through such perilous areas of the United States, yet it has been estimated that over 3,000 immigrants have perished from exposure and other related incidents while attempting to enter the United States illegally since the inception of Operations Hold the LIne and Gatekeeper. ^[12].

[edit] Committee assignments

• Committee on Armed Services
  • Subcommittee on Readiness
  • Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces
• Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
  • As Chairman of the full committee, Rep. Reyes may serve as an ex officio member of all subcommittees.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• U.S. Representative Silvestre Reyes official U.S. House site
• Silvestre Reyes for U.S. Congress official campaign site
• Silvestre Reyes at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Federal Election Commission — Silvestre Reyes campaign finance reports and data
• On the Issues — Silvestre Reyes issue positions and quotes
• OpenSecrets.org — Silvestre Reyes campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart — Representative Silvestre Reyes (TX) profile
• SourceWatch Congresspedia — Silvestre Reyes profile
• Washington Post — Congress Votes Database: Silvestre Reyes voting record
• — U.S. Congressman's Family Member Kidnapped in Juarez

v • d • e Chairs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Roybal • García • Richardson • Martínez • Torres • Bustamante • Fuster • de la Garza • Ortiz • Serrano • Pastor • Becerra • Roybal-Allard • Reyes • Rodriguez • Napolitano • Baca • Velázquez