mr. chairman , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
mr. chairman , i point to the previous amendment where we talked about estimates a little bit . 
well , this is dealing with estimates . 
this amendment would simply require a study conducted jointly by the department of homeland security and the department of justice on the link between illegal aliens and gang membership . 
surprisingly , despite the overwhelming agreement from all parties that the two are linked , there is no comprehensive report anywhere that we can find on this topic . 
it is time for that to change . 
congressional testimony on april 13 of this year produced some important anecdotal evidence of the need of this sort of data . 
before the committee on the judiciary subcommittee on immigration , marsha garst offered some statistics in relation to some problems in the shenandoah valley of virginia . 
she indicated the gangs there are nearly 75 percent composed of illegal aliens . 
she also related that a number of the illegal alien gang members had been previously deported , proving that we are not doing our job on the borders . 
a second witness at the same hearing was heather macdonald of the manhattan institute . 
she has research that is helpful to this subject , but somewhat out of date . 
she indicated that a confidential california department of justice study from 1995 said that 60 percent of the 20 , 000-member 18th street gang in southern california are illegal . 
also , that the leadership of the colombian lil ' cycos gang , who control some markets in l.a. , was about 60 percent illegal in 2002 . 
ice officials put the number of illegals among ms-13 members at simply `` a majority. '' we need to do better than just know `` a majority. '' if you are not convinced , just listen to my friend and colleague , the gentleman from indiana ( mr. hostettler ) xz4001870 , who is the subcommittee on immigration chairman . 
he indicated in his statement : `` while there are an estimated 750 , 000 to 800 , 000 gang members in the nation , there are no firm estimates on how many of these gang members are aliens and how many are citizens. '' his point should not go unaddressed . 
so we again are saying today that our porous borders are a problem for our citizens . 
this time it is crime , sometimes deadly in our neighborhoods and streets . 
despite this very clear link between gangs and illegal aliens , there is not a study that i located anywhere that addresses this issue . 
i think that it is long past due for that to change . 
people say that addicts have to first admit that they have a problem before they can move on and get help . 
this study is a good way for us to finally admit that we have a major problem and seek ways then to correct the problem . 
i hope that we will not take too long to seek that help , and i would be happy to assist with a solution , because it is an issue that i have worked on and been very interested in for a long time . 
i urge my colleagues to adopt this amendment and help us finally get the facts about the nationwide scope of what we are dealing with in terms of illegal aliens and gang membership . 
mr. chairman , i reserve the balance of my time . 
