Border security debate heats up Capitol Hill

Erin Kelly - May. 27, 2010 01:28 PM
Republic Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Political wrangling over Southwest border security dominated congressional debate Thursday as the Senate rejected a move by Arizona senators to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the border, and the Obama administration denied that its deployment of 1,200 troops is little more than a public relations move.

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that hewould soon send up to 1,200 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to help thwart Mexican drug cartels. His action pre-empted a push by Arizona Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl to amend an emergency spending bill Thursday to deploy 6,000 Guard troops.

Republicans and Democrats are both trying to show how tough they are on border security as immigration heats up as an election issue in the wake of Arizona's passage of a controversial immigration enforcement law.

"We have an obligation to our citizens to secure our border and allow them to lead lives where they not live in fear," McCain said. He wants 3,000 troops just on Arizona's border with Mexico.

Democratic leaders said the $2 billion in increased border security spending proposed by Republicans was excessive.

In addition to sending in 6,000 troops, border-state Republicans sought money for state and local law enforcement agencies, unmanned drone aircraft and other equipment, and additional Border Patrol officers and customs agents.

"This is a huge amount of money from colleagues who talk fiscal moderation," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. "It's sort of throwing an enormous amount of money at the problem."

Meanwhile, in the House, members of the homeland security committee pressed administration officials over the timing of the president's National Guard announcement.

Rep. Connie Mack, R-Fla., said he believes that Arizona's immigration law - which he denounced as undemocratic - is spurring new attention to border issues.

"Is sending in the National Guard just a public relations move?" Mack asked a panel of administration witnesses at a hearing on aid to Mexico.

Officials from the Homeland Security Department denied that suggestion.

"It's part of a multi-layered approach (to border security)," said Mariko Silver, acting assistant homeland security secretary in the Office of International Affairs.

At the same hearing, a top State Department official told lawmakers that the future of U.S. aid to Mexico through the Merida Initiative will focus less on buying costly helicopters to fight drug cartels and more on reforming the Mexican criminal justice system to ensure more effective and open prosecution of narco-traffickers.

"We are moving away from big-ticket equipment and into an engagement that reinforces progress by further institutionalizing Mexican capacity to sustain adherence to the rule of law and respect for human rights," said Roberta Jacobson, deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs.

The United States also will provide targeted economic aid to parts of Mexico where young people are especially vulnerable to being recruited into the drug cartels, Jacobson said.

The Merida Initiative began in 2007 as a partnership between the U.S. and Mexico to fight organized crime. Since then, Congress has approved about $1.1 billion in aid to Mexico to provide equipment and training for Mexican law enforcement efforts.

The program has been plagued by bureaucratic delays, and only about $400 million to $500 million has actually been spent, Jacobson said. She said that amount should increase to more than $600 million by the end of this year as helicopters and other surveillance aircraft are delivered.

Southeast Arizona rancher Bill McDonald also testified at the hearing, calling for beefed-up border security and improved surveillance to deal with what he described as an increasingly frightening kind of border-crosser.

"In the last three to five years, the character of the crosser has taken an ominous turn," McDonald said. "They often wear black and paint their water jugs black. They pass by our ranch house so close at night that you can hear them talking between the barks of our dogs. We, who live in a deep east-west canyon and had never had a break-in, had two occur in 2009."

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