U.S. Gives Mexico Millions for Security

In the real world, meaning that which exists outside the Beltway, expenses are reviewed to determine how effective the expenditure has been in bringing about the desired results. For at least the last ten years the US has sent Millions to the government of Mexico for improving their efforts at border and drug control.

The U.S. government has sent more than $376 million to Mexico in the past decade for that country's military and police to help stop alien and drug smugglers, guard against terrorists and protect America's southern border, including $50 million due this year.

The money, quietly authorized through State and Defense department programs, has been used to train and equip the Mexican military and police, drawing disagreement on whether those institutions are part of the solution for U.S. border security, or are part of the problem.

It would seem the time has come to spend this money on our own border patrol. The Mexicans have not demonstrated any capacity to manage the corruption in their military and police, nor does their President hold a favorable view on helping us with illegal aliens coming from his country. Now the Arizona Legislature has a bill ready to allocate $10 million to bring the National Guard to the border. The Governor wants to wait for the Fed to pay for it but the legislature has decided that action now is necessary.

Unwilling to wait for federal help like the governor, a House panel voted unanimously Monday to use state tax dollars to deploy the National Guard along the state's southern border.

HB 2579, would put $10 million into the budget for Gov. Janet Napolitano to mobilize at least some of the state's 4,000 Guard troops.

The bipartisan move comes a month after the governor offered to have Guard troops along the border - but only if the Department of Defense picks up the cost. But nothing has been done because Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has yet to respond to her request.

$50 million would go a long way to relieving the states from the burden of dealing with what should be a federal responsibility.