Obama Takes Shots At Republicans Over Border Security Criticisms

Along with immigration, President Barack Obama also talked to thousands in El Paso Tuesday about border security and what his administration has done to secure the border.

“In recent years, among the greatest impediments to reform were questions about border security. These were legitimate concerns; it’s true that a lack of manpower and resources at the border, combined with the pull of jobs and ill-considered enforcement once folks were in the country, contributed to a growing number of undocumented people living in the United States,” Obama said during his speech at the Chamizal National Memorial Park in front of thousands of people. “And these concerns helped unravel a bipartisan coalition we forged back when I was a United States Senator. In the years since, “borders first” has been a common refrain, even among those who previously supported comprehensive immigration reform.”

Obama said he has addressed those concerns since he took office.

“Well, over the past two years we have answered those concerns,” he said. “Under Secretary Napolitano’s leadership, we have strengthened border security beyond what many believed was possible. They wanted more agents on the border. Well, we now have more boots on the ground on the southwest border than at any time in our history. The Border Patrol has 20,000 agents – more than twice as many as there were in 2004, a build up that began under President Bush and that we have continued. They wanted a fence. Well, that fence is now basically complete.

“And we’ve gone further. We tripled the number of intelligence analysts working the border. I’ve deployed unmanned aerial vehicles to patrol the skies from Texas to California. We’ve forged a partnership with Mexico to fight the transnational criminal organizations that have affected both of our countries. And for the first time we are screening 100 percent of southbound rail shipments – to seize guns and money going south even as we go after drugs coming north.”

Obama said his administration has gone “above and beyond” what was requested by the very Republicans who said they supported broader reform as long as we got serious about enforcement.

“But even though we’ve answered these concerns, I suspect there will be those who will try to move the goal posts one more time,” Obama said. “They’ll say we need to triple the border patrol. Or quadruple the border patrol. They’ll say we need a higher fence to support reform. maybe they’ll say we need a moat. Or alligators in the moat. They’ll never be satisfied. And I understand that. That’s politics. But the truth is, the measures we’ve put in place are getting results. Over the past two and a half years, we’ve seized 31 percent more drugs, 75 percent more currency, and 64 percent more weapons than before. Even as we’ve stepped up patrols, apprehensions along the border have been cut by nearly 40 percent from two years ago – that means far fewer people are attempting to cross the border illegally.”

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn released a statement ahead of Obama’s Texas visit stating what he didn’t expect to hear from Obama.

“We aren’t sure what the President plans to say (May 10 in El Paso), but it’s highly unlikely he’ll mention a recent GAO report that found only 44 percent of our southern border is secure. He probably won’t echo his Director of National Intelligence who said the border poses a direct threat to our national security. And I don’t expect him to bring up Secretary Clinton’s comparison of the situation in Mexico to the insurgency in Colombia in the 90s,” Cornyn said in the statement. “It’s disappointing that the only time border security and immigration reform get President Obama’s attention is when he is campaigning. The bottom line is that nothing President Obama says, or where he says it, can change the fact that he failed to deliver on his promise to make immigration reform a priority during his first year in office.”

Obama also took the time to speak about El Paso’s safety in light of the bloody drug war that has killed thousands in Juarez, Mexico – just across the Rio Grande.

“Despite a lot of breathless reports that have tagged places like El Paso as dangerous, violent crime in southwest border counties has dropped by a third,” Obama said. “El Paso and other cities and towns along the border are consistently rated among the safest in the nation. Of course, we shouldn’t accept any violence or crime, and we have more work to do. But this progress is important.”