Smith: Administration's Border Security Index an Excuse for Inaction

Washington, D.C. - Yesterday during testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano unveiled plans to develop a “border security index” to measure enforcement progress along the Southwest border.  According to Secretary Napolitano, the border security index will include crime, immigration, and economic data.  Following this announcement, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) released the statement below.

Chairman Smith: “Secretary Napolitano’s so-called border security index will be nothing short of inflated facts and figures to give them an excuse to say the border is secure.  The Administration has cooked the books on border security for the past two years and I don’t expect the results of their index to be any different. 

“The Government Accountability Office and Border Patrol agents on the ground know the truth.  According to a recent GAO report, only 44 percent of the Southwest border is under the ‘operational control’ of the Border Patrol.  Mexican drug cartels are out of control and the violence threatens to spill over into the United States.  And each year, millions of illegal immigrants enter the U.S. 

“No matter what kind of index the Administration produces, they cannot change the facts and the truth.  The reality is that there are massive holes in security along the Southern border and the Obama administration has ignored this growing problem for the past two years.  The Administration’s index is just an excuse for inaction. We don’t need a make-believe index; we need action.  There is no substitute for improved border security coupled with increased interior enforcement of drug and immigration laws.”