Border Security: Feds Need To Step Up With Funding...

Border security Feds need to step up with funding El Paso Times Staff Article Launched: 01/19/2008 12:00:00 AM MST


Cash-strapped border law-enforcement agencies are treading water when it comes to border-security operations because state money for those operations has dried up.

You might recall that the Legislature last year approved $110 million to go toward border-security efforts. While that's a good step, it isn't a whole lot of money, considering the scope of border-security concerns. And, only about $2 million has been sent in grants to local departments to spend on border security.

Cmdr. Claudio "Tony" Morales heads up border-security operations in the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. He said, "Everything is at a standstill right now. We're not being funded currently."

That funding needs to be expedited. A spokeswoman in Gov. Perry's office said that efforts were being made to smooth out the grant process and that more money for local departments is "forthcoming."

What state officials must keep in mind here is that threats to the border don't sit around and wait for funding. Those threats are constant and increasing. Border security depends in large part on state officials keeping up with funding needs and demands and expediting the process as much as possible.

This border security hiatus also emphasizes another ongoing concern.

Border security is and should be the purview of the federal government. But ever since 9/11, the feds haven't been noticeably eager to shoulder that burden. So, state and local governments, particularly those along the border and in the most immediate danger, have to take the initiative. That leads to backing state governments into the corner and giving them little choice about what to do.

If states want something done about border security, they have to do it themselves. So governors and state legislatures have to come up with their own plans and money.

This isn't to say that the feds aren't making progress. The ranks of the Border Patrol are being increased and other measures are being taken. But there are also boondoggles typical of a vast, lumbering bureaucracy such as the Homeland Security Department. An example is the heavy-handed approach being used by the government in preparing land in South Texas for the infamous border wall. In areas such as Eagle Pass, the feds are working against the people and local governments instead of with them.

Local governments and the feds have to work together to promote as seamless a border-security plan as possible. But federal money is essential to such efforts.

The federal government certainly has its own set of fiscal worries, from expensive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to a slipping economy to major indebtedness at home and abroad.

But the federal government also has a major financial obligation when it comes to border security. It must meet that obligation.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/opinion/ci_8011444

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