Time for Federal Government to Take Action on Border

Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stated last week in the Wall Street Journal that the southwest border is “one of the safest parts of the country.” As a representative from a border district in New Mexico—one of the four “Gateway States” referenced in the article—I must take issue with their claims that things on the border are not as bad as they seem.

As a lifelong resident of southern New Mexico, I know more than the story being told from Washington.  The situation at our border is not something easily understood through statistics.  It is far more easily seen in the fear in people’s eyes.  Its cost is counted in human lives.  Not only lives lost—though that is all too often the case—but lives spent in fear, joblessness, and confusion amidst a chaos that has impeded the freedoms of so many Americans. For example, they claim that more drugs are being seized on the border. While the statistics are commendable, and the efforts of our Border Patrol agents are laudable, drugs are still poisoning our cities and towns. And if the actual supply of drugs were being disrupted, basic economics shows that the price would go sky high. This has not happened.

I wanted my congressional colleagues in Washington to witness the situation on the border firsthand, so I joined a congressional delegation to tour the border, primarily in my district.  Dozens of my colleagues in Congress from both parties were invited, but only three came along.  When we met with the citizens of Columbus, New Mexico, they caught a glimpse of how border security issues affect everyday life.  When I asked the locals how many felt uncertain about the security situation in their area, nearly every hand in the room shot up.

Unfortunately, those fears are justified.  Only days after my visit to Columbus, residents were petrified to learn of yet another murder.  A local hero who had killed three armed men in defense of his home in January was gunned down February 9th in Palomas, a Mexican village less than four miles from Columbus.

A month later, the mayor, police chief, and other local officials of Columbus were arrested on charges of drug smuggling and weapons trafficking.  It has even been alleged that the police chief was using official police vehicles for his weapons trafficking operations. Though this sounds like something we might read about in Juarez or Mexico City, the fact is that it occurred within our borders, in Columbus, New Mexico, USA.  A war rages on in one of the world’s most violent regions—just a stone’s throw away from American cities and citizens. Last year, 3,100 people were murdered in Juarez.  It defies common sense to argue that Americans are unaffected by such violence and disregard for humanity.  

I spoke with a constituent who lives 20 miles from the border in the boot heel of New Mexico. He said that although there are more Border Patrol vehicles in Southern New Mexico than in years past, the bulk of them are patrolling along Highway 9, some 50 miles from the actual border in some areas. Stunningly, Secretaries Napolitano and Locke did not mention the murder of Bob Krentz, a rancher from rural Arizona. They also neglected to print a word about the murder of Brian Terry, a Border Patrol Agent, last December. Wearing rose colored glasses will not change the fact that our government is failing us. The border is not secure!  

Just last week, a local news station reported that a southbound van was stopped at a border checkpoint with 148 AK-47 magazines and 6,000 rounds of ammunition.  Secretaries Napolitano and Locke will point to such an event and claim that the situation is improving, because border agents stopped the truck.  I look at such an event and wonder how many trucks we didn’t stop.  If our borders are really as secure as Napolitano and Locke’s claims, then no smuggler would be so bold as to use our own highways to carry weapons by the score straight through our checkpoints. 

A recent decision by the Obama Administration allows trucks registered in Mexico to enter this country to conduct commercial operations along our highways, causing me to grow even more anxious thinking about how much worse this crisis could get. Citizens of Mexico are not required to undergo the same safety training as American truck drivers. We are also allowing citizens of another country to take jobs Americans could fill. Plus, in the words of Teamsters Union President James P. Hoffa, Jr., “Mexican trucks don’t meet the same standards as American trucks.” This is both a jobs and a safety issue.

The reality is that weapons and drugs are rampantly flowing across our border. As long as they are, we may be sure that smugglers still think it’s worth their while to run the risk to turn a profit.  We should not be pleased that we stopped one van.  We should be shocked that our enemies think our border is so weak.

Recently, CBS News reported that an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in Phoenix stated that the agency allowed guns to move across the border into Mexico. This is one of the most disturbing revelations to come out of our government in recent memory. Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa has inquired about this issue, but has received essentially no response. My constituents deserve better than bureaucratic non-answers to questions of life and death.

The violence at and around our border is truly disturbing.  While those in Washington want to talk about “the progress we’ve made over the past two years,” I don’t have that luxury.  As long as I see fear in the eyes of my constituents, I will hold our leaders to a higher standard.  This is not the time to talk about our progress.  This is the time for the federal government to take action, and provide Americans with a border that is truly safe.