WASHINGTON - Today, a budget amendment U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall helped propose to boost funding for U.S. efforts to fight violence caused by Mexican drug cartels along the U.S.-Mexican border was unanimously passed by the Senate. The proposal was offered as an amendment to the Senate Budget Resolution (S. Con. Res. 13) by a bipartisan coalition including Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME).
The amendment calls for an additional $550 million for federal agents, investigators, and resources to combat drug cartels and maintain law and order along the U.S.-Mexico border. It comes a week after the Obama Administration announced an initiative to redeploy more federal agents to the border.
"This amendment directs essential resources to the border region, and ensures that we are employing every tool necessary to protect New Mexicans and others who live in border communities," Bingaman said.
"This initiative will enable us to better fight against the Mexican drug cartels fueling a war on our borders and posing a serious threat to our communities and law enforcement," said Udall.
The amendment includes $260 million for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to hire, train, equip, and deploy 1,600 officers and 400 canine teams to the border to significantly increase the inspections of cars and individuals leaving the United States.
It also includes:
· $10 million for Bingaman's border law enforcement grant program, which assists law enforcement agencies along the southern border and in other high drug trafficking areas.
· $130 million to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for 350 full time investigators to work on firearm trafficking and money laundering investigations;
· $20 million for DHS to improve the tactical communications in the field for CBP and ICE;
· $20 million for CBP to modernize its database used to identify potential criminals at U.S. ports of entry;
· $30 million for Operation Stonegarden to reimburse state and local law enforcement for their participation in border actions;
· $50 million to the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agency to hire an additional 150 investigators and 50 inspectors to investigate firearms trafficking at the Mexican border;
· $20 million for the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to better coordinate investigations between federal, state, and local law enforcement;
· $10 million for DHS' Office of International Affairs and the Undersecretary for Management to oversee implementation of the Merida Initiative and to increase its staffing at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
The Senate is scheduled to vote on the entire budget proposal later this week.
