AZ GOP Votes Against Border Security

Arizona’s Republican Congressmen have voted against a bill to improve border security measures and create grants for border security programs. H.R. 1, which passed 299 to 128, creates the Border Intelligence Fusion Center to assist Arizona law enforcement officers by producing border-related intelligence. The measure also implements several border security measures recommended by the 9/11 Commission.

H.R. 1, allows the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to deploy officers and intelligence analysts through the Border Intelligence Fusion Center in order to enable border-related intelligence.

The bill also implements several of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations for security along America’s borders, including risk-based distribution of state homeland security grants, the establishment of a stand-alone grant program for first responder communication, inspection of 100 percent of air cargo over the next three years, and scanning of 100 percent of the shipping containers that come into the U.S over the next five years.

“In their first 100 hours, Congress is passing legislation to help fix Arizona’s broken border,” said Democratic Party Chairman David Waid. “And yet our state’s own Republican Congressmen are voting against the federal assistance that Arizonans have been calling for. The Congressmen are doing a disservice to this state.”

The bill was overwhelmingly passed with the help of 68 Republican congressman, including the support of Republicans from other border states such as California and Texas. Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Ariz.), Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Rep. Harry Mitchell (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) co-sponsored the measure.

See: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll015.xml and http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d110:2:./temp/~bdir9V::|/bss/110search.html

Posted Wednesday January 10, 2007 by