CONGRESSMAN SALAZAR CALLS FOR BORDER CONTROL FUNDING

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WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Salazar today released the following comments in response to the President’s speech outlining his plan to militarize the U.S.-Mexico border.

“Our border security problems are the result of years of neglect. If this Administration is serious about border security, why has it seriously underfunded our border patrol?

“This Administration has still not implemented the 9-11 Commission’s recommendations for improving our border security.  In 2004, the 9-11 Commission recommended an increase in the number of border security agents – 2,000 agents every year for ten years. But the President’s budgets since then have provided funds for barely 1/10 that number.

“If the Administration hasn’t planned to pay for our current border patrol needs, how does it plan to fund the addition of National Guardsmen?  Our military is already stretched thin with missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. When I visited our troops in Iraq, they were in need of body armor and additional protection. Diverting resources from completing the mission in Iraq and Afghanistan now would be a big mistake.

“I served in the Army and my son served in the National Guard – the training we received is fundamentally different than what is required of law enforcement officials. National Guard rotations do not allow for the kind of consistency that is needed to adequately secure our borders.
More importantly, the military cannot violate the Posse Comitatus  Act – soldiers cannot conduct a search, seizure, arrest, or other similar law enforcement activity on U.S. soil. 

“By militarizing the border, we would be expanding into dangerous new territory, when we should be funding and helping border patrol secure the U.S.-Mexico border.”