Local Law Enforcement Unhappy Over Border Security Bill
Daniel Novick-KFOX News Weekend Anchor/Reporter
Posted: 7:44 pm MDT August 8, 2010
Updated: 8:52 pm MDT August 8, 2010

EL PASO, Texas -- On its face, the new border security bill past last week in the Senate looks like real progress. It provides $600 million for border security, including $176 million for 1,000 new Border Patrol agents, $39 million for Customs and Border Protection to keep the current level of officers and $29 million more for 250 new CBP officers at ports of entry.

But El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles said you have to look at what is not in the bill.

"Our response to these border issues are being paid for solely by local tax payers," said Wiles.

He said there is no money for local law enforcement like the sheriff's office and El Paso Police Department.

"My employees are pulled away from their normal job, they're pulled out of neighborhoods, in order to address issues that are directly related to the border," he said.

He said they are addressing issues like drug smuggling and human trafficking and more common crimes committed by undocumented immigrants.

"So they should come in and identify what portion of my deputy's job is dealing with border issues, and then provide me with the funding to hire additional staff to help do those things and keep deputies in the neighborhoods," Wiles told KFOX.

U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez agreed with Wiles and supported a bill in the House that included funding for local law enforcement. The funding was stripped out of the Senate bill that passed last week.

"I am extremely disappointed that the Senate chose to remove from this border security funding bill those millions of dollars that would have gone directly to these agencies," said Rodriguez in a statement to KFOX.

But Rodriguez still supported the Senate version of the bill.

"I now call on my colleagues in the House to pass this new and fully funded version of the bill on Tuesday when we reconvene in Washington," he said.

Rodriguez told KFOX while he is disappointed the local funding is not in the bill, approving the border security bill is the right thing to do.

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