A porous US-Mexico border poses one of the greatest threats to all Americans in terms of crime and terrorism. Safeguarding the US southern border is one of the most complex and demanding homeland security challenges we face as a nation. Texas alone shares a 1,254 mile international border with Mexico – 64 percent of the entire US-Mexico frontier.

Texas' immediate proximity to Mexico poses security challenges related to criminal elements that are based in Mexico but who focus their criminal efforts in the United States – principally Mexican cartels and gangs. These Mexican organized crime cartels and gangs exploit the porous border to smuggle drugs and humans into the United States. Organized criminals such as the Texas Mexican Mafia, the Texas Syndicate, and Los Zetas have increasingly been linked to acts of violence in both Mexico and the United States. Violence in northern Mexico has been on the rise as cartels become more powerful, and a significant law enforcement presence along the southern border is critical to prevent spillover violence.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has stationed two Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Predator B aircraft in Corpus Christi, which will extend unmanned surveillance aircraft across the southern border. I am a strong supporter of UAVs which provide critical surveillance assistance to law enforcement personnel on the ground.

On February 15, 2011, two immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) Officers were shot while working in Mexico. Special Agent Victor Avila was shot twice in the leg and is still recovering. Tragically Special Agent Jaime Zapata was fatally wounded during the attack. In light of this tragic event, I became a cosponsor of H.R. 915, the Jaime Zapata Border Enforcement Security Task Force Act. This bill establishes a Border Enforcement Security Task Force program to enhance border security by fostering coordinated efforts among Federal, State, and local border and law enforcement officials. The mission of this task force is to protect United States border cities and communities from trans-national crime, including drug trafficking, arms smuggling, illegal alien trafficking and kidnapping along and across the southern border