Posted on 07/04/2008 6:27:25 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
WASHINGTON — Besieged Texas sheriffs have vowed to press the White House and Congress to deliver emergency assistance to law enforcement officers battling drug cartels along the Mexican border to match the $400 million on its way to Mexico.
The sheriffs said they were frustrated that President Bush and Congress agreed to provide assistance to Mexico as part of the Merida Initiative, without offering additional federal help to their departments.
The officers said they'd seek direct federal assistance, as well as changes in Department of Homeland Security restrictions to permit local law enforcement departments to use homeland security funds to hire more officers. Regulations now require local police and sheriff's departments to devote Homeland Security money to equipment, technology and officers' overtime.
Implementation of the Merida Initiative is “really disappointing and disheartening, because Washington seems totally oblivious to what we're facing on the Mexican border,” said Webb County Sheriff Rick Flores, chairman of the 19-county Texas Border Sheriff's Coalition. “If they allocate resources and money to Mexico, they should also consider protecting our side of the border first.”
Flores, who said he has faced death threats three times in the past three years, has received $1.8 million in federal assistance over the past 36 months. He said he needs $14.5 million in additional federal help over the next five years to hire 25 new deputies to join his hard-pressed department of 37 deputies.
Mexico will receive “all the equipment,” Flores said. “They're going to be two notches above what we have. We would really like to have one of those helicopters in our neck of the woods.”
The Merida Initiative calls for the U.S. to provide eight 13-passenger transport helicopters to Mexican security forces.
Hidalgo County Sheriff Guadalupe Trevino criticized assistance going only to Mexico.
“You would think there would be a bilateral approach to attack the problem from both angles when we're giving money to a foreign country to fight a drug problem that greatly contributes to our problems,” Trevino said.
Bush signed the Merida Initiative into law on Monday, as part of a multifaceted emergency budget supplemental package that provided money for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan through next summer.
The legislation included $400 million in the first year for U.S. training, equipment and other assistance to bolster Mexican President Felipe Calderón's $4 billion campaign against drug traffickers, using 30,000 security forces against well-funded cartels that have killed more than 4,000 people over the past 21 months, including an estimated 450 security forces and local officials.
Bush's overall plan calls for $1.6 billion to be spent over three years to help Mexico, Central America, Haiti and the Dominican Republic combat drug traffickers. Of that amount, $1.4 billion is intended for Mexico.
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, had added $100 million to the emergency supplemental spending bill during Senate deliberations to bolster U.S. law enforcement agencies along the 1,947-mile border. But the House knocked out the added spending in the final compromise.
John Walters, the Bush administration's drug czar, defended the Bush administration's decision to funnel assistance to Mexico without providing matching assistance to U.S. law enforcement.
Assistance to Mexico “magnifies what can be done” with the billions of dollars that the federal government already provides state and local law enforcement, Walters said. “We don't see this as either-or.”
Where does the federal government get that money, John?
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
Ya , just where does the gubmunt get the money?
"To Promote the General Welfare", no doubt.
Sounds like a reasonable request to me. Considering the general state of corruption within the Mexican government I can’t help thinking that our 400 million dollars in cash and equipment will be squandered somehow.
”Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, had added $100 million to the emergency supplemental spending bill during Senate deliberations to bolster U.S. law enforcement agencies along the 1,947-mile border. But the House knocked out the added spending in the final compromise.”
You mean the final capitulation.
All I have to say is where is RR II,we need leadership badly.
I honestly don’t know, but I hope it doesn’t take 4-8 years of an ‘Obama’ to find him or her as it did a ‘Carter’ to find the original.
For sure, we have a severe leadership void.
“To Promote the General Welfare”, no doubt
About 99% will go to promote the general welfare of the corrupt Mexican officials benevolent association.
I’m sorry, but that kind of money doesn’t get passed out unless someone on BOTH sides is getting a cut.
“Where does the federal government get that money, John?”
Yea, and who does the FedGov ask when they want to spend that money?
But what would you expect from a guy who made a mint off the taxpayers in a stadium deal after doing nothing? He was raised to do what his grandfather and father did. Mooch off the American people. Niel, Jeb, George and the whole clan are not any more capable of worrying about money as the Kennedy clan, Pelosi, etc, etc. And now the Clinton's too.
Just a bunch of people on welfare. Bums. Leeches.
You can solve any problem if you throw enough money at it. Or not.
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