Canseco Statement on Significant Draw Down of U.S. Personnel Along Southern Border

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 20th, 2011

Contact:  Valentina Weis
(202) 225-4511 or Valentina.Weis@mail.house.gov

Canseco Statement on Significant Draw Down of U.S. Personnel Along Southern Border

Washington D.C. – Congressman Francisco “Quico” Canseco (TX-23), who represents almost 800 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, issued the following statement in response to the announced plans by the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security to reduce the number of National Guard personnel deployed along our nation’s southern border:

“Today, the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security announced that beginning in 2012 the number of National Guard troops patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border will be reduced from 1200 to roughly 300. I am concerned that such a drastic reduction in the number of U.S. personnel tasked with securing our southern border will leave our border communities vulnerable to spillover violence from Mexico and result in our borders being less secure than they are now. As I visit with constituents of the 23rd district, many of whom are living in border communities, they tell me the threat of spillover violence has become a part of daily life. Shamefully, this is the same area that the Obama Administration and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano have categorized as “safe”, “secure” and “open for business.” I have seen firsthand the ruthless tactics the cartels use along the border, exerting power through unimaginable violence and disregard for the rule of law. Yet the Obama Administration is apparently going to remove security personnel from the region, leaving Americans who live along the border to do so in a heightened state of fear.

According to the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security, this massive withdrawal of National Guard troops will coincide with an increase in aerial surveillance of the southwest border region provided by the Department of Defense. By claiming that the border is “safer than ever” the administration is transitioning the National Guard presence along the border from the proven method of “boots on the ground” to an experimental “boots in the air” tactic, all at the expense of safety for border residents and border communities. If the Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security wish to experiment with new “deterrent” methods along the border, they should not do so by reducing the proven resources we currently have in place until their new methods have proven to be at least as effective as the National Guard troops being removed.

Removing vital resources and personnel from the border region is tantamount to abandoning our southwest border region to the Mexican drug cartels and telling Americans living along the border ‘you are on your own.’ Border residents who now see National Guard troops keeping them safe soon will see those posts empty and a few more aircraft in the air. Whether they be the National Guard troops, Border Patrol agents, or Border Sheriffs, we need to increase the resources and manpower along our border in order to keep our communities safe, protect American lives, and restore prosperity to our border communities. Implementing an untried surveillance operation and simply removing tried and proven National Guard troops from the border will drastically decrease security along the U.S.-Mexico border, leaving American citizens in harm’s way.”

###