April 30, 2012 3:51pm
by Joel Gehrke Commentary Staff Writer
Washington Examiner



Graph from GAO report


Department of Homeland Security officials oversee the largest law enforcement air force in the world, but they dramatically underperformed their goal to provide air support, especially in the high-priority area along the United States border with Mexico.

DHS's Office of Air and Marine only met 77 percent of requests for law enforcement air support in fiscal year 2010, despite having a goal of meeting 95 percent of requests. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is the primary customer for DHS air support.

"The main reasons for unmet air and marine support requests were maintenance and adverse weather, respectively," the Government Accountability Office reported today.

The air support records also do not reflect DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano's stated policy of focusing finite illegal immigration resources on high-priority areas and immigrants. DHS "did not provide higher rates of support in locations designated as high priority based on threats," GAO reported. "For example, one high-priority Border Patrol sector had the fifth highest support rate across all nine sectors on the southwest border."

DHS met 82 percent of all requests from Customs and Border Patrol officers, which included meeting just 80 percent of the 17,152 requests for air support filed by officers in the southwest region of the United States.

One Old Vet

GAO: Border security lacks air support from DHS | Campaign 2012 | Washington Examiner