Ted Poe: “According to the Secretary of Homeland Security, our southern border is secure. Well, not so fast with that…”

“According to the Secretary of Homeland Security, our southern border is secure. Well, not so fast with that pronouncement. According to the General Accounting Office--those are the people that we pay to actually give us the true facts on such matters--half of the southern border is not under the operational control of the Border Patrol. Forty-four percent is secure; the rest is not. So who operates the other 56 percent? And, further, a mere 15 percent of the border is considered airtight. Texas is the least secure border of all the Southern States. Our Border Patrol does a fine job but they need some help. The border sheriffs are superior lawmen, but they are overwhelmed with cross-border crime. With 37 percent of the people in Texas border jails being foreign nationals, those sheriffs, like the Border Patrol, are out-manned, out-gunned, and out-financed. There is a border war going on, and it's time to send the National Guard to the southern border to protect the homeland. Homeland Security should deal in reality, not myth and propaganda, and realize that over half of the border is the wide open spaces and that it remains porous to the drug bandits. And that's just the way it is.”