During a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on the president’s $33.25 billion funding request for border security on Thursday, U.S. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) warned about consequences of a “piecemeal” approach to border security and blasted “partisan politics.”
President Donald Trump has requested $18 billion for a border wall, $8.5 billion for additional staff, $5.8 billion for surveillance technology and $1 billion for access roads. McSally, the chairwoman of the U.S. House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Maritime Security, said piecemeal border security actions in San Diego and El Paso had “pushed illegal activity into my state” during Thursday’s hearing.
“It blows my mind how things get taken out of proportion and turned into something political,” McSally said. “The Secure Fence Act was voted on by then-Senator Obama, then-Senator Clinton, then-Senator Schumer, all realizing the value of 700 miles of physical barriers on our southern border to stop and slow down the illegal activity and the cartel activity that was coming into our country. In my district, President Obama signed and approved 9.5 miles of barrier in Douglas and seven miles in Naco, to list a few examples. Let’s get out of the politics and into the reality of what our agents need and what an actual border wall system will do for them.”
National Border Patrol Council National President Brandon Judd testified that there was an “immediate drop” in the number of illegal crossings once physical barriers were installed in Douglas and Naco, Arizona. He noted that there were 112,000 apprehensions in 2003 and “somewhere around 20,000” in Naco last year.
“So, from 112,000 to 20,000; that is largely due to the technology that we invested, which includes barriers,” Judd continued.
McSally said during the hearing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has advocated for a combination of physical barriers, technology, and personnel along the southern border for years.
“The reason is simple, the border is complex and there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution,” McSally said. “Along all 1,954 miles of border, there are wide variations in terrain and threats from urban cores like San Diego and El Paso, to remote rural areas like my district in Arizona. We know that the border is not secure — gangs and trafficking organizations exploit it every day. And it is not just border communities that are threatened by these bad actors, Americans across the country are affected by the illicit activity traversing our borders. We have a unique opportunity to change the status quo on the border. The proposal offered by CBP is a solid framework.”