Congressman Says Some Iraq Money Would Be Better Spent on Border Tech

WASHINGTON — The United States should spend more money on technology to secure its border and less money on police actions in Iraq, a member of Congress said Tuesday after a two-day tour along the border with Mexico.

Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Fla., said he does not believe the United States should build a roughly 2,000-mile fence along the Mexican border because much of it could be better monitored with updated ground and satellite technology.

Mahoney was one of seven freshmen Democratic congressmen on the trip headed by Rep. John Barrow, a second-term Democratic lawmaker from Georgia.

Noting that President Bush has asked for roughly $190 billion to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, Mahoney said, "The money that we are going to spend this year (in Iraq and Afghanistan) is more than enough money to give the Border Patrol the money that they need to do the job."

Acknowledging that the United States needs to continue fighting terrorist groups such as al-Qaida in Iraq, Mahoney said most of the U.S. funding is going "to police a civil war" there.

"This is a place we need to have resources deployed to protect America," Mahoney said of the border. "This is a front on the war on terror."

The lawmakers got a close look at the border fence separating the urban areas of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico, and huddled on a mountaintop past midnight Monday with border patrol agents monitoring the Rio Grande.

They interviewed agents who were monitoring vast areas with 1970s-era infrared sensors.

Agents are frustrated with the antiquated technology, Mahoney said. The infrared devices can see only about two miles, compared to more modern devices that can see about 12 miles with much clearer resolution.

"Every year for the last three or four years they have put in a request for a better unit, and every year it has been denied," Mahoney said. He said the agents claimed their requests had to compete with similar requests from Tucson, Ariz., and San Diego, Calif.

Mahoney said there were patches in the existing border fence beyond El Paso roughly every 50 feet, an indication that the fence had been breached repeatedly.

He said border agents told the lawmakers that no matter what kind of barrier was erected — concrete, wire or razor wire — it would merely slow down illegal crossings in rural areas.

Anti-immigration forces in Congress have been pushing for a roughly 2,000-mile fence along the southwestern border. Mahoney has voted in Congress to build about 800 miles of fence, but said he would not support one along the entire border. He said he would rather let the Border Patrol decide what resources it needs to stem the tide of illegal immigration.