Texas Border Business
WASHINGTON – Following up on a request from House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX10) and Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX28), the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) today released a report following a review of federal government efforts to identify and address property damage to private lands and infrastructure that occurs along the United States-Mexico border, as a result of illegal immigration, contraband smuggling, and the subsequent law enforcement pursuits.
In the report, GAO recommends more training for CBP Border Patrol agents on how to interact with the ranching community and how to leave a minimal footprint when entering private property. Furthermore, GAO recommends tracking and record keeping of that training which is not currently required.
“Private property owners along our nation’s southwest border know better than anyone the consequences of a porous border,” Chairman McCaul said. “Farmers, ranchers, and private citizens along the border live in a state of continual fear and frustration over the constant flow of illegal border crossers, many of whom have no regard for private property and cause expensive damage. I’ve had the opportunity to meet with many of these landowners and one thing is clear: they, along with a majority of Americans, want Congress to take meaningful steps to secure the border once and for all. Private property owners shouldn’t have to shoulder the daily costs of this administration’s failure to secure our borders. The GAO’s findings only reconfirms what we already knew, the time for border security is now.”
“I want to thank GAO for their work on this report. The training and record keeping recommendations are a good first step, but our work is not done,” Congressman Cuellar said. “Land owners along the border in Texas are seeing significant damage to their properties through no fault of their own. I will continue to work with federal, state and local law enforcement officials, farmers and ranchers, and Susan Durham at the South Texans’ Property Rights Association, as well as border communities to find ways to compensate private landowners for damages incurred.”
Because law enforcement pursuits of undocumented immigrants, illegal human and vehicle traffic, waste, and trash discarded by illegal immigrants and other cross-border violators visibly affect the land and come at a substantial cost to the property owner, Cuellar and McCaul wrote a letter requesting the review by GAO in June of 2013 as part of first steps toward providing landowners with compensation for damages or private property due to criminal activity by undocumented immigrants.
