Thread: Senators: Obama border initiative good step, but insufficien

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Obama administration's initiative to deploy additional federal resources in the fight against rising drug-related violence along the Mexican border was criticized as insufficient in a Senate committee hearing Wednesday.


Sens. John McCain, left, and Joe Lieberman attend a committee hearing on Mexico border violence.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, said the administration's plan to send hundreds of extra federal agents and new crime-fighting equipment to the border "represents a significant step forward" but is not enough.

Mexican drug cartels, believed to be operating in more than 230 American cities "from Appalachia to Alaska," represent a "clear and present" danger to the United States, Lieberman said at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on border violence.

"I think you're going to need more resources to get this job done," he told Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. The United States needs to "make life miserable" for the drug cartels so "life is better for us," he said.


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Committee member Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, also praised the Obama administration's plan, but agreed with Lieberman that more needs to be done.

The cartels are believed to be responsible for the killing of more than 6,000 Mexicans last year. Some of that violence has spilled over into the United States as traffickers purchase American firearms and fuel a high U.S. demand for illegal narcotics. Watch Napolitano discuss the plan to curb border violence »

Lieberman, who chairs the committee, called for an additional $250 million to be used for the hiring of 1,600 additional customs and border protection officers. He said, among other things, that another $50 million should be allocated to immigration and customs agents investigating firearms distribution and violence near the border.

He also called on Congress to close "the gun show loophole ... that allows purchasers to circumvent background checks that occur at gun stores."

Finally, he argued that U.S. laws need to be updated to help authorities better track money from American drug sales -- "the lifeblood" of the cartels.

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Drug sale proceeds, he noted, are "increasingly being smuggled back to Mexico in stored-value cards. A single card can hold thousands of dollars, is far less conspicuous than bundled cash and does not have to be, as a matter of law, declared at the border," he said.

The cards are "not considered legal monetary instruments," he noted, and officials therefore have little authority to police them.

"That needs to be changed," he concluded.

Lieberman said the additional funds and legal reforms are necessary to combat cartel violence that has started to resemble tactics used by extremists in the war on terror.

The cartels are "attacking police stations and other government facilities (and) kidnapping and killing family members or associates," he said.

They are "posting the names of officials and law enforcers marked for execution (and) then kidnapping or killing many of those officials and informers and, in a gruesome mirror image of what we've seen from terrorism, decapitating their targets."

Lieberman's suggestion came one day after Napolitano announced the Obama administration's plan to combat drug-related violence along the border. Watch Obama discuss the plan »

The Obama plan calls for doubling the number of border security task force teams, as well as moving a significant number of other federal agents, equipment and resources to the border. It also involves greater intelligence sharing aimed at cracking down on the flow into Mexico of money and weapons that help fuel the drug trade.

The plan commits $700 million to bolster Mexican law-enforcement and crime-prevention efforts. It also calls for tripling the number of Department of Homeland Security intelligence analysts dedicated to stopping Mexican-related violence.

In addition, it calls for increasing the number of U.S. immigration officials working in Mexico, strengthening the presence of border canine units and quadrupling the number of border liaison officers working with Mexican law enforcement agencies.

McCain voiced praise in Wednesday's hearing for Mexican President Felipe Calderon's efforts to combat the cartels. He said Calderon is facing an uphill struggle in part because "corruption penetrates to literally the highest levels of (the Mexican) government."

On Tuesday, the Mexican army arrested a top drug cartel chief and four of his bodyguards, according to the state-run Mexican news agency Notimex.

The arrest of Hector Huerta Rios. alleged head of northern Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, came one day after Mexican authorities announced rewards of up to $2 million for information leading to the capture of major cartel operatives.

The drug war "is an existential threat to the government of Mexico," McCain said. "If the Mexican government fails and is taken over by the drug cartels ... it not only has profound consequences for Mexico, it certainly has the most profound consequences for the United States of America."

McCain noted that the city of Phoenix, Arizona, now has the second highest kidnapping rate in the world, behind only Mexico City. A recent rise in the number of kidnappings in Phoenix has been tied to the drug cartels.

The Homeland Security Committee hearing was held as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a visit to Mexico on Wednesday for two days of meetings with top officials. The drug war heads the list of topics to be discussed.

Clinton will make clear the United States is committed to working with Mexico and helping it come out of the drug war stronger, aides said. Watch more on Clinton's mission »


Obama vowed in a nationally televised news conference Tuesday night to invest the resources needed to properly address the situation.

"If the steps we have taken do not get the job done, then we will do more," he promised.
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All About Mexico • Border Control and Customs • U.S. Department of Homeland Security
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/25/senate.mexico/

Congress seems to think it's just fine to spend, spend, spend billions of dollars on their pet projects, but not nearly enough money to make us all safe.

Live from the border
Anderson Cooper is live from the U.S.-Mexico border as the drug war fuels brutal violence. How all of it threatens to spill into the U.S. on AC 360
Tonight, 10pm ET


Lets not forget to watch this

We have an invasion and the Congress will not even give us E-Verify everyone.

However, if John McCain and Joe Lieberman support sending more troops to the Mexican border, why am I suspicious? Neither is exactly known as a "friend of the United States".

They're going to use the Drug War to spy on US citizens bank accounts tracking the "money", is my guess and then guard the border to keep US citizens from leaving while letting every illegal alien in.

It might also be to arm up in our border states to prevent secessions.

Whatever it is they're up to, you can bet we won't like it one damn bit.