<<<Back to News Center 2010

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Pierluisi to Meet Today with Deputy Secretary of U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Resident Commissioner Continues his Crusade for More Federal Resources to Combat Drug- Related Violence on the Island

Washington, DC- This afternoon, Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi will meet in his
congressional office with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) second-highest ranking official, Deputy Secretary Jane Holl Lute, who will brief Pierluisi on the efforts that DHS is undertaking to increase the federal resources that it devotes to combat drug trafficking and attendant violence in Puerto Rico.

The meeting, which was requested by the Resident Commissioner, is the latest of many steps he has taken to press the federal government for additional resources to address drug-related violence on the Island.

“The statistics demonstrate that trafficking organizations are increasingly transporting drugs through the Caribbean region, and the number of drug-related homicides in Puerto Rico speaks for itself. The federal government cannot continue to evade its responsibility to confront this problem,” said Pierluisi.

The Resident Commissioner has been urging DHS to act swiftly to fill vacancies at the Puerto Rico offices of its component agencies, which include U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Pierluisi has also urged DHS to assign additional personnel temporarily in Puerto Rico until the level of drug-related violence subsides, and to provide the Island with the resources—such as planes and boats—that it needs to combat the drug trade.

In addition, Pierluisi has drawn attention to the fact that the U.S. Coast Guard—another component agency within DHS—does not have any fixed-wing coastal patrol airplanes permanently stationed in Puerto Rico, and has expressed concern that the Island is not scheduled to receive any planes until 2018, after Miami and Key West have been fully resourced. The Resident Commissioner intends to reiterate his call to DHS to allocate resources to Puerto Rico in a more appropriate fashion.

Finally, the Resident Commissioner will continue to seek support for his proposed Caribbean Border Initiative, through which the Administration would address drug trafficking and related violence in the region. The Initiative would be modeled after the successful Southwest Border Initiative, which brought 360 additional DHS officers to the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I have said it before and I will repeat it now. The level of drug-related violence in Puerto Ricois as severe as—if not more severe than—any other U.S. jurisdiction. I will not rest until thefederal government acknowledges this fact and provides us with the resources we need,” saidPierluisi.