Beginning with a trip to the El Paso, TX area in April, I am personally making assessment visits along our critical southwest border.  Last week, I continued my tour of the border by joining Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) in his hometown of Laredo, Texas.

Second only to Los Angeles-Long Beach, Laredo is the United States’ largest port of entry for trade. Everyday some 12,000 trucks and 25,000 non-commercial vehicles along with some 17,000 pedestrians legally come and go.

Each sector along the southwest border has its own unique geography, economy, and traditions, which drive the how the border security in that particular location is designed. In Laredo there is good cooperation with local law enforcement and good intelligence sharing. However, manpower is not at full capacity, and there could be higher productivity of the Border Patrol force. 

A principal and critical need is enhanced technology. Cameras on towers along the river, motion sensors, observation towers in more rugged terrain, and strategic use of aerostats (tethered observation balloons with extremely capable surveillance technology) are all crucial components of a secure border.

Our Homeland Security officials must continue to perform "gap analysis," looking for our weak spots and assessing the highest and most effective strategy to counter the weakness.  Like in any difficult endeavor, "one-size-fits-all" approaches are not effective.  Border security is a job of customizing the strategy to meet the need of terrain and access. For example, there are many rugged, privately owned ranch lands that are hard to access for Border Patrol personnel, and solving this problem provides its own unique challenges.

These brief, but informative, trips speak to the diversity of the challenge of the southwest border. They help me focus on our security debate and argue for a better plan to keep us safe from the intense criminal efforts to smuggle people and drugs into our country and guns and money out. 

As I visit additional sites on the border, I will share my observations about what is needed to give Americans confidence that our border will finally be secure.

Sincerely,

Representative French Hill

Capitol View: Rep. French Hill Talks Border Security
U.S. Rep French Hill joined host Drew Petrimoulx this week to discuss his recent trip to the U.S./Mexican border and the turmoil over the Speaker of the House race.

Last Friday, Rep. Hill assembled local realtors, mortgage lenders, and land title professionals in Little Rock to talk about his bill (H.R. 3192, the Homebuyers Assistance Act), which would provide a formal grace period during the transition to the new closing regime required under the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure (TRID) rule.

Two days prior to the meeting, Yahoo News published a story saying that mortgage applications took a substantial dive after implementation of TRID. Rep. Hill's bill would provide certainty to title companies, bankers, and others in the industry trying to comply with the complex TRID rule and prevent costly market disruptions and delays for homebuyers.