U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), the ranking Democratic member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, recently visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to observe actions that are being taken by various agencies to secure the border.
McCaskill’s trip included a walking tour and field operations briefing at the Hidalgo Port of Entry, an overview of air and marine operations, and tours of the McAllen Centralized Processing Center and Borer Patrol Station.
“This is a complex issue and I look forward to working with Congress and the Department of Homeland Security to address the challenges we face,” the senator said. “We know that whenever we have people illegally crossing our border, it’s a security threat.”
Additionally, McCaskill received briefings from both U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Border Patrol, observed nighttime operations of Border Patrol, and met with refugees and community leaders in the area.
“Given that many of the people crossing our border are women and children fleeing violence in Central America, we’ve also got to go after the drug cartels and gang violence in their home countries so that these families and unaccompanied children are not making the dangerous journey to our southern border,” McCaskill added.
McCaskill was the sponsor of a 2010 bill that led to the direct hiring and placement of 1,000 new Border Patrol agents, new unmanned aerial vehicles, and updated communications equipment. In addition, she sponsored a 2012 bill that sought to combat underground immigration border tunnels, which was subsequently signed into law.