House Homeland Security Committee Hearing on Border Security
On 2/13/13 at 10:00am (ET) the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Rep. McCaul (R-Texas) will hold a hearing on border security.
Chairman McCaul on the hearing:
“Americans have seen that promises of border security are empty unless they are enacted before changes to our immigration system. This Committee bears the responsibility of ensuring that border security is a prerequisite to immigration reform.
“As part of my agenda, next week I will lay out a framework for legislation to gain operational control of our borders. It is this Committee’s duty to oversee the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs and Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, and we must ensure they cohesively develop a long overdue comprehensive plan to secure our borders.
“The Administration has made clear that unless we force it to take border security seriously, immigration reform would occur without the security component. Until we have operational control of our borders, we will continue to be vulnerable to terrorists, drug cartels and criminal aliens who enter the United States undetected.”
“Unlike recent proposals, this strategy needs to include metrics to measure success based not on resources, but on proven results. DHS can no longer subjectively grade its own work and claim the border is secure. As extremism continues to find international safe havens and terrorists merge with other transnational criminal groups, they will grow stronger and capable of striking our homeland. Our inability to control who enters and who exits our country remains one of our greatest national security risks.”
Chairman McCaul’s (R-TX) Opening Statement
Chairman McCaul’s “Guiding Principles for Border Security”
Witness List
Admiral Thad Allen
Senior Vice President, Booz Allen Hamilton
Mr. Shawn Henry
President, CrowdStrike Services
Mr. Michael Leiter
Senior Counselor, Palantir Technologies
Hon. David M. Walker
Founder and CEO, The Comeback America Initiative
Mr. Clark Kent Ervin
Partner, Patton Boggs, LLP