Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2007
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2007 -- (House of Representatives - May 25, 2006)
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Mr. RENZI. Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the chairman and commend him for demanding from the Department of Homeland Security an in-depth examination of what will work and how we will implement the newest plan to protect our border. But new plan needs to include, as the chairman talked about, a tactical operation, the tactical ability to stretch the border. In other words, we need to get on offense and not take such a passive approach to our issues on the border. We need to be careful that we are not just sitting in a green and white Border Patrol pickup truck, sitting on the border on the night shift, hoping that we picked the right spot, and thinking we will interdict illegals using that kind of an approach.
Mr. Chairman, I grew up in Arizona and my ranch sits within a few miles of the border. On many occasions I have had my fences cut, and I have had many people flow through my ranch headed north. Over the last 18 months, my staff and I have and our team has developed a comprehensive approach to border security called the Red Zone Defense. We currently have 8 aerostat balloons on the border using look-down radar peering into Mexico, stopping the flood of airplanes flowing into America. We need to add sensors that can peer across the line, see them coming, see where they are staging before they get to the border in order to shift the defense, shift the limited amount of manpower we have so we can interdict in a pro-active approach.
Many of my colleagues have embraced this plan. The chairman of the authorization committee, Mr. King of New York, included it in the authorization bill. And it needs to be part of the financial strategy that is developed by DHS in order to gain operational control of our borders.
Coming from Arizona and living on the border, growing up on the border, we deal with it day in and day out. I ask that DHS, as it begins to move forward in responding to the chairman and the ranking member's demand for a comprehensive plan, look at pro-active intelligence that can cue our limited manpower and can see the illegals coming before they cross the border. We need to have it included in the plan.
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