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Border Security

When the Homeland Security Subcommittee I chaired in 2006 authored the report A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border, exposing the rise of the Mexican drug cartels, no one could have predicted the enormity of the bloodshed to come.  In 2008, nearly 6,000 people in Mexico were murdered by these cartels.  That’s more than the number of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.

                                                                
                Download: A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border 

As I predicted in 2006, we indeed have a war on our southern border.  Cartels are controlling the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S., and weapons and cash into Mexico.  They kill anyone that gets in their way – including police officers and elected officials. It is a multi-billion dollar business.  As the violence increasingly spills onto U.S. soil, it is imperative that we substantially increase the resources of our Border Patrol and Border Sheriffs. 

America's borders are also our nation's last line of defense in the War on Terror and they must be secured.  Evidence in our 2006 report that terrorists want to exploit our porous borders to gain entry into the United States still exists today.  It is for that reason alone America must make securing our borders the top priority.  America has a right and, more importantly, a responsibility to determine who enters our nation and for what reasons. While reform of our legal immigration system is needed, I believe we must first secure our borders to stem the flow of illegal traffic before we begin debate on a temporary guest worker program. 

We must also work to better enforce our current immigration laws.  We must expedite the deportation of illegal immigrants who commit other crimes in our communities.  I continue to work to improve the relationship between Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and local law enforcement across our district.  Greater resources are needed to provide voluntary training to police and sheriff’s departments so that they can detain illegal immigrants and start the deportation process.