Texas questions border security cuts

Gov. Greg Abbott and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-McAllen) are asking U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Jeh Johnson for detailed information regarding border security cuts.

Of particular interest to Abbott and Cuellar is the federal agency’s decision to cut resources for aerial-based border security support in a program known as Operation Phalanx. Specifically, the Department of Homeland Security’s request for aerial detection, situational awareness and monitoring capability support for Operation Phalanx from the Department of Defense for calendar year 2016 was 50 percent lower than that of recent years.

The decrease came despite the governor’s Sept. 30, 2015, request for additional aerial observation resources along the border and despite the fact that Congress fully funded DOD support for Operation Phalanx in the recently passed omnibus appropriations bill, according to the governor’s office.

“Given the recent surge of migrants from Central America and Cuba along the southern border, we believe (DHS) should be requesting more surveillance and security resources, not fewer,” Abbott and Cuellar wrote in a Feb. 1 letter to Johnson. “Any decrease in aerial observation is not only imprudent but contradicts the very mission of border security enforcement.”

Abbott and Cuellar noted that DHS’s decision to decrease surveillance resources “is unsettling” and requested the following information:

·         Metrics used to determine that a 50 percent reduction in aerial resources would sufficiently support Operation Phalanx.

·         Detailed plans on how the cuts would impact staffing, resource allocation and operation levels in Laredo, the Rio Grande Valley and Tucson.

·         What resources the department plans to use “to backfill any gaps” the reduction presents.