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Sunday, February 5, 2012

Nearly 100 Members of Congress Endorse Congressman Pierluisi’s Caribbean Border Initiative

WASHINGTON, DC- Three influential groups in Congress have sent a joint letter to President Barack Obama expressly endorsing Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi’s proposed Caribbean Border Initiative and urging the federal government to assign more resources to combat drug-related violence in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

The letter was sent by the chairs of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, which are known collectively as the Tri-Caucus and which represent nearly 100 Members of Congress. In the letter, the groups urge the President to establish the Caribbean Border Initiative as a mechanism to improve the public security situation in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“I am pleased to receive the backing of so many of my congressional colleagues for this Initiative. I will continue to seek support from all stakeholders, including subject-matter experts, additional Members of Congress, the Obama Administration, and other states. I will not ease up on my demands for more and better resources to protect the American citizens residing in Puerto Rico and the USVI until the day that the federal government significantly intensifies its efforts to combat drug-related violence in its Caribbean territories,” said the Resident Commissioner.

“[W]e write to express our deep concern about increased drug trafficking through Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the high level of violence that these two American jurisdictions have been experiencing as a direct result of this trafficking, and what we believe to be an insufficient response by the federal government to these problems,” reads the Tri-Caucus letter to President Obama.

The Tri-Caucus chairs highlighted the leading role that the Resident Commissioner has taken in focusing the Obama Administration’s attention on the problem of drug-related violence in Puerto Rico, noting that “[a]t a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing, Attorney General Holder stated, in response to questioning from our colleague from Puerto Rico, Congressman Pierluisi, that drug-related violence in our country’s Caribbean territories ‘is a national security issue that we have to confront.’”

In addition, the Tri-Caucus chairs expressed agreement with the Resident Commissioner’s view that the federal government has not addressed the issue of public security in Puerto Rico with the urgency it merits.

“[F]or too long, the focus of the federal government has been on preventing illegal drugs from reaching the U.S. mainland from Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, not on preventing drugs from entering these two American jurisdictions in the first place. This approach must change,” said the letter.

The Tri-Caucus leaders concurred in the view expressed by Pierluisi that the federal government’s laudable efforts to prevent traffickers from transporting drugs across our nation’s southwest border is creating a balloon effect, whereby traffickers are increasingly turning to the Caribbean region as a route for shipping drugs into the United States.

Congressman Charlie González (D-Texas), the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, of which Pierluisi is a member, stated: “Puerto Ricans are American citizens and should be protected by the same resources against national security threats, including the extreme violence associated with the drug trade. Though Puerto Rico is victimized by the criminal element to an even greater degree than many states, the island receives only one-fifth of the federal funds provided to fight narco-trafficking. These statistics are disturbing and they show that the situation in the Caribbean border must be addressed.”