Republican U.S. Rep. Will Hurd of Texas knows exactly what type of security is needed along the U.S.-Mexico border because the district he represents encompasses 800 of its approximately 1,900 miles.
Hurd represents the 23rd Congressional District of Texas, a largely rural chunk that runs along about a third of the entire Lone Star State’s border with Mexico, from El Paso in the west to San Antonio in the east, the whole district is bigger than 29 of the United States.
Almost 70 percent of the roughly 750,000 residents are Hispanic, as of 2015, according to the Census Bureau, and most people in the 23rd District earn a living farming, ranching, extracting oil and minerals, or working in recreation and tourism — all of Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park are located within Hurd’s whopper-sized district.
“Every mile along that border is different from the one before it,” Hurd told The Ripon Advance on Monday. “A one-size-fits-all security solution won’t work as a deterrent.”
The congressman is referring to U.S. President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall idea, which first surfaced on the 2016 presidential campaign trail as a 30-foot-high, multi-million-dollar, Mexican-funded structural solution to end illegal border crossings.
The U.S. House of Representatives on July 27 approved a funding bill for defense and veterans programs that includes $1.6 billion to start building Trump’s proposed wall, passing the package along party lines with a 235-192 vote. Five Republicans voted against it and five Democrats voted for it. And it now heads to the Senate.
Hurd voted in favor of the appropriations bill on the final passage vote. The same day he also introduced bipartisan legislation called the Secure Miles with All Resources and Technology (SMART) Act.
Specifically, the bill would direct the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to provide border protection via technology rather than a physical wall erected to protect the U.S. border at Mexico. The bill also would require DHS to submit a comprehensive strategy to Congress detailing different tools and available solutions to provide such technology-focused border security, Hurd said.
“Homeland Security would need to have a complete security strategy with a focus on technology,” said Hurd, who prior to Congress spent almost a decade at the Central Intelligence Agency, including undercover work in Pakistan.
Such technology would be a more viable long-term solution for 21st Century problems, said Hurd, who also has private-sector cybersecurity expertise. For instance, a smart wall would utilize high-tech resources, including sensors, radar, light detection and ranging (LIDAR), fiber optics, drones and cameras to detect, track and confirm movements across the border before deploying patrols from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“This is a broader vision that would be more efficient and, by the way, would cost a fraction of what the physical structure would cost,” said Hurd, who estimated the smart wall price tag at about $500,000 per mile — a $24 million difference per mile than the cost of Trump’s proposed wall, he added. “That’s a big difference.”
Hurd said this smart wall could be operational within a year. The SMART Act also would authorize $110 million to increase coordination and teamwork between CBP and state, county, tribal and other government law enforcement entities supporting border security.
The bill is aligned with Hurd’s priorities as vice chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee’s Border and Maritime Subcommittee.
“People are frustrated,” he told The Ripon Advance. “It’s 2017 and we haven’t been able to secure the border. I want to see us elevate drug trafficking and human trafficking to the national security intelligence level. I think this should be our focus rather than building a structure.”
Along those lines, the SMART Act would help CBP and other agencies increase manpower so that they’re better able to respond to actionable intelligence, Hurd said, including whatever might be learned about a drug cartel, diseased crops, weapons or the smuggling of other illegal substances, for example.
Along with Hurd, the other House members to introduce the SMART Act last week were Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-TX); David Valadao (R-CA); Steve Knight (R-CA); Steve Pearce (R-NM); Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA); and Keith Rothfus (R-PA).
Asked what from his personal life has inspired his bipartisanship, Hurd said: “My dad always told me to do two things. Be honest and have a PMA — a positive mental attitude.”
Hurd’s time with the CIA, he said, put him in contact with a variety of people from all walks of life, from all over the world. They would have to work together to keep a building from blowing up; to stop a nuclear proliferator from doing his job; or to keep secrets from being exposed, he said.
“You have to be able to work with everyone to get things done. It’s all I’ve known how to do my whole life,” Hurd said, adding that it transcends politics. “People want to see us get things done.”