U.S. Rep. Martha McSally (R-AZ) recently confronted the nation’s border security challenges and opioid drug abuse crisis at the state level in efforts to highlight how their interconnectedness is impacting Arizona.
On May 31, Rep. McSally hosted U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on a tour of multiple locations along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona, to view enforcement issues, border fencing, and terrain features and threats. Their tour followed the May 30 hearing held in Arizona by the U.S. House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, chaired by Rep. McSally, to examine the opioid epidemic and their illicit flow across the nation’s Southwest border.
“Secretary Nielsen is well versed on the challenges we face along our southern border but nothing provides a better understanding of our unique border challenges and opportunities than seeing them first-hand and talking to individuals on the ground,” said Rep. McSally. “I’ve fought in Congress to advance legislation to address staffing shortages at our ports of entry and increase funding for infrastructure and technology to secure the border and stop the flow of illicit contraband into our communities.”
Together, they toured the Douglas, Arizona Port of Entry, which has been renamed the Raul Hector Castro Port of Entry, the state’s second-largest commercial port that in 2014 processed more than 64,000 commercial trucks, almost $ 4 billion worth of trade between the U.S. and Mexico, 2.9 million cars and 2.3 million pedestrians. They also toured the Nogales-Mariposa Arizona Port of Entry, which connects Arizona State Route 189 directly with Mexican Federal Highway 15.
The visit provided Secretary Nielsen an opportunity to see the unique security challenges Arizona faces, according to a May 31 statement from the lawmaker’s office, and provided local stakeholders and government officials the chance to explain how such challenges impact the local border communities.
For instance, Rep. McSally and Secretary Nielsen first visited the Douglas Port of Entry, which was built in 1933 and currently requires updates to meet the demands of increased pedestrian and commercial traffic.
“This visit by the Secretary helps convey why I’ve engaged in [these] efforts and demonstrates why more is needed,” Rep. McSally said, adding that she anticipates “working with her and other members of the administration as Congress tackles these issues in the coming weeks.”
Also that day, the two officials met with sheriffs from Cochise, Pima and Yuma counties to discuss law enforcement issues along the border and were joined by U.S. Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) during a roundtable held with members of the business community, ranchers, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Arizona National Guard. Following the meeting, the group traveled to several other locations along the border with CBP agents to gain first-hand knowledge about solutions to strengthen the southern border.
The border tour and roundtable followed the May 30 hearing held at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in Phoenix.
“Last year, four of Arizona’s top opioid-prescribing doctors were located in the sparsely populated Mohave County. Together they wrote prescriptions for nearly six million pills over a 12-month period,” Rep. McSally said during her opening statement. “An unsecure border enables and exacerbates this crisis by providing a strong supply of illicit versions.”
Securing the border, she added, requires more than just stopping the illegal movement of people and contraband between ports of entry. For example, modernized infrastructure and technology and more manpower, detection equipment and tools for CBP at these ports of entry could help, the congresswoman said.
“It is well known that the overwhelming majority of drugs, maybe as high as 90 percent, that enter our country come in through the nation’s ports of entry,” said Rep. McSally, noting their “deep concealment within vehicles or in cargo” by drug cartels.
“And they are very successful, despite the best efforts of the men and women of U.S. Customs and Border Protection,” she said, largely because “we can only X-ray a fraction of the vehicles and trucks that cross the border every day” to ensure the economically preferred fast movement of goods and people.
To block these pathways, Rep. McSally said the border must be secured and the nation’s postal system has to be strengthened. “In addition, we must increase the detection capabilities of law-enforcement, on every level, as they respond to this disaster,” she said.
But these are just one part of the solution, the congresswoman added.
“We cannot enforce our way out of this problem,” she said. “We must also tackle this crisis with treatment and recovery options that help restore individuals to health and break the cycle of addiction.”
Additionally, patients must be educated about the risks of taking properly prescribed opioids as part of standard medical practice, Rep. McSally suggested, and “with respect to those doctors who unethically prescribe these medications, they must be held accountable.”
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey during the hearing called the opioid crisis and the interrelated priority of securing the nation’s borders “one of the most significant public health and safety emergencies our nation and the State of Arizona has faced in a generation.”
Gov. Ducey, who was one of several witnesses, pointed out the success of a partnership the state and DHS started in 2015 with the establishment of the Arizona Border Strike Force, an intra-agency team that “has without a doubt made Arizona and our entire country safer,” he said.
The Border Strike Force’s many large-scale efforts include the recent Operation Organ Grinder, which resulted in the seizure of more than 4,000 pounds of marijuana and the arrest of 73 felons.
“To date, the Border Strike Force has kept 15.3 million hits of heroin off our streets,” the governor testified. “The collaborative process under which our plan was developed, with stakeholders from across the state, and the way Democrats and Republicans came together to pass it unanimously, is an example to our nation of what can be accomplished when we put politics aside.”
McSally’s proposed bill
On Capitol Hill, Rep. McSally said the U.S. House of Representatives could vote this month on her border security legislation, the Securing America’s Future Act of 2018, H.R. 4760, which is the only border security legislation in the House that President Donald Trump and Secretary Nielsen support, according to a statement from Rep. McSally’s office.
Rep. McSally and U.S. Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) are among the five original cosponsors of H.R. 4760, which was introduced on Jan. 10 by U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA). The measure currently has a total of 96 cosponsors.
Among the bill’s many provisions, H.R. 4760 would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to revise immigrant visa allocation provisions, including family-related visas, and would create a nonimmigrant classification for parents of adult U.S. citizens. If enacted, the bill also would eliminate the diversity visa program and revise annual immigration levels, the H-2C visa temporary agricultural worker program, and employment eligibility verification provisions, according to a congressional record summary.
Additionally, H.R. 4760 would increase the limit on the worldwide level of employment-based immigrants, authorize DNA testing to establish family relationships, and require that DHS establish an employment verification system, according to the summary.