Rep. Lamar Smith: "Only 44% of the border is under operational control"
In advance of this afternoon's immigration speech by Pres. Obama in El Paso, Texas, House Judiciary Chairman offered a reminder to Americans that according to a recent Government Accountability Office study, the Department of Homeland Security only has 44% operational control of the Southwest border with Mexico.
"Only 44 percent of the border is under operational control and only 15 percent is under actual control," Rep. Smith said on FOX News earlier today. "If the President were to enforce immigration laws today, he could do a lot better job at securing the border. Unfortunately he is ignoring immigration laws, rather than enforcing them."
Rep. Smith also said that an estimated 1-1.2 million people cross the border illegally each year.
"If the President were to enforce the immigration laws we have today, we would do a much better job of securing our borders. But unfortunately, he is ignoring a lot of the immigration laws on the books," Rep. Smith said.
(View Rep. Smith's interview with FOX News)
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also spoke out ahead of Pres. Obama's speech on the Administration's inability to secure the border.
"We aren't sure what the President plans to say tomorrow, but it's highly unlikely he'll mention a recent GAO report that found only 44 percent of our southern border is secure," Sen. Cornyn said. "He probably won't echo his Director of National Intelligence who said the border poses a direct threat to our national security. And I don't expect him to bring up Secretary Clinton's comparison of the situation in Mexico to the insurgency in Colombia in the 90s."