Texas Rep. Ted Poe, a member on the House Judiciary committee's subcommittee on immigration policy and enforcement,
is calling on the U.S. Federal Government to secure the border and pushed back on the idea that the U.S.-Mexico border is as secure and as safe as it has ever been according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano yesterday in Texas.
"I do believe that the concept out of Washington that the border is as secure as it has ever been is not actually factual," said U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, a Texas Republican. "The federal government is probably doing more than it has in recent years but the border ... is still not secure."
"There are some in the federal bureaucracy who would have us believe that the violence is all in Mexico," Poe said. "These individuals know firsthand the violence is not confined to Mexico."
And Poe is correct. The FBI Uniform Crime Report, data used by the Administration as a crime gauge, excludes documentation of kidnapping, extortion, home invasion and cartel on cartel violence. The Justice Department doesn’t have a definition of spill over violence and therefore cannot track violence occurring outside of documented crimes. Homeland Security has a similar problem. Yet, we keep hearing the same line, that the border is secure.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute public-policy conference that the United States' southwestern border was "as secure as it has ever been." Napolitano was invited to testify, but sent Ayala in her place, said Shaylyn Hynes, press secretary for Poe.
"This is not the testimony of those farmers and ranchers who live on the border," said Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples. He and Roland Garcia, a ranger for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, testified that farmers and ranchers along the border live in fear of the drug and human smugglers that traverse their property.
"It is a crisis in the very real sense of the term," Staples said. He said the resources the border has received are appreciated, but more are needed.
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