Homeland Security Watch

The Subcommittee on Investigations of the House Homeland Security Committee recently released a report entitled “A Line in the Sand: Confronting the Threat at the Southwest Border,” which provides a detailed and compelling overview of the current threats at the U.S.-Mexico, in terms of smuggling, violent gang activities, and potential terrorist infiltration. It’s a useful report in terms of establishing facts on the ground for border security efforts, but it offers little that’s new as far as recommendations about how to improve the current border security regime.

Reading the report reminded me of another similar report from a couple of years ago, by the minority staff of the House Homeland Security Committee during the 108th Congress, entitled “Transforming the Southern Border: Providing Security & Prosperity in the Post-9/11 World.” It’s still the best treatise on the challenges of US-Mexico border security that I’ve read in the last few years, driven by dispassionate analysis of the facts on the ground at the southern border.. Unfortunately the report is not online anymore, as best I can tell, so I’ve taken the liberty tonight of putting it up on the blog, at this link.