Four Democratic lawmakers will meet with border officials, immigrant advocacy groups, and local residents on the southern border this week as part of a fact-finding expedition to see how best to boost border security.
“The only way we will know the most effective ways to invest taxpayer dollars is by working with real facts,” House Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi said in a statement. “That’s why it is crucial we see firsthand the situation on the ground at the border so we have a full and accurate understanding of our current border security operations – and how best to bolster them.”
Thompson said he and three other Democrats plan to examine U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s immigrant processing centers, border crossings, and technology.
Rep. Xochitl Torres Small of New Mexico, who chairs Thompson’s subcommittee on Oversight, Management, and Accountability, will also travel to the border, along with Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas.
The committee did not respond to a request for more information about the trip such as which federal and local officials they’ll meet.
Last week, President Trump held his first campaign rally of 2019 in El Paso. Trump told supporters enhancements to the wall in the west Texas city had helped reduce crime. Rally attendees told the Washington Examiner they noticed a downturn in crime, which had already started to drop ahead of the wall’s construction.
But Democrats oppose Trump’s push for a border wall or even the steel slat fence he agreed to as a compromise. Late last week, Congress passed the 2019 DHS funding bill that lets Trump spend $1.375 billion on steel slat fence in the Rio Grande Valley, far short of the $5.7 billion Trump was seeking.
Democrats have said they can only support the use of technology to monitor the border and infrastructure improvements at ports of entry.
The House Homeland Security Committee will use its February trip to make recommendations to appropriators between now and September for a bill funding the department in fiscal year 2020.
