Border Sheriffs Targeted for 30% Manpower Increase

June 22, 2011

Carter, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Devers at border fence

Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON, D.C. – Americans would gain a powerful new line of defense against a spillover of border violence under legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. John Carter (R-TX), to dramatically increase the number of deputies in southern border counties. The Southern Border Sheriff’s Community Impact Aid Act of 2011, HR 2217, would provide a new federal grant for counties from California to Texas that are within 25 miles of the U.S. southern border to immediately and permanently increase the number of patrol deputies by 30%.

Carter says while the Border Patrol does a superb job at the federal level with the limited resources available, only half of our 2,000 mile southern border is under operational control, leaving border deputies as a major line of defense against drug cartel violence, human trafficking, and potential terrorist infiltration. The former Texas judge ordered a field investigation of conditions on the southern border in 2010, which revealed that border sheriffs were expending up to 50% of their total departmental budgets on border related crime.

“The deputies patrolling our southern border are not just protecting the folks in their county, but the rest of us as well,â€