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Senate Panel Pushes for More Border Agents
WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Efforts to toughen security along the troubled U.S.-Mexican border advanced in Congress on Thursday as a Senate panel authorized $322.9 million for an additional 1,000 border patrol agents and 500 support personnel."We can't allow our borders to be a weakness," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, after the Senate Appropriations Committee endorsed her proposal for beefing up the border patrol. Hutchison, Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas; and other Southwestern lawmakers are calling for tougher enforcement along the border following a rash of violence and continued reports that terrorists may be planning to sneak into the United States from Mexico. The concerns gained new urgency after the killing of a police chief in the Mexican border town of Nuevo Laredo, which has been virtually paralyzed by drug wars. U.S. authorities fear the violence may be spreading across the Rio Grande into Laredo and elsewhere in Texas. Now for the obligatory "True, but Smarmy Backhand-Written Paragraph": Hutchison, in a rare break with the Republican White House, has sharply attacked President Bush's 2006 budget request that called for only 210 additional border patrol agents, a 10-fold reduction from the 2,000 agents Congress requested last year when it overhauled the nation's intelligence system. Posted by: Pappy 2005-06-18 |
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