Sen. Coburn's Pro-Enforcement Amendment to Interior Spending Bill Adopted
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) offered an amendment (SA 2523) to the Dept. of Interior spending bill (H.R. 2996) that would prevent any funds in the bill from being used to limit U.S. law enforcement activities, including immigration enforcement, on public lands near the border. The language is near identical to an amendment adopted during yesterday’s House debate and passage of H.R. 324 – the Santa Cruz National Heritage Area Act. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, requested a unanimous consent and the amendment was adopted without a recorded vote.
The Coburn amendment is needed to help combat threats to our border security, such as possible terrorist transshipment points, the drug movement, and the movement of large numbers of illegal aliens across border land under the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior. According to a recent Washington Times article, drug smugglers and human traffickers are using ecologically diverse sanctuaries to evade law enforcement officials, whose access is limited in some areas to foot patrols and horseback.
One of the reasons our national parks and other federal public lands are being targeted by smugglers is because environmental concerns limit the range of U.S. Border Patrol agents and complicate efforts to construct security barriers as specified by Congress in the 2006 Secure Fence Act. Thousands of roads and trails have been illegally created by smugglers across U.S. public lands, which have devastated the environment. Other environmental impacts from this illegal activity include: contamination of pristine areas with bio-hazardous waste and communicable diseases, contamination of water supplies for animals and local ranchers, as well as increasing the number of wildfires.
The amendment has been endorsed by the National Border Patrol Council, the union of rank-and-file Border Patrol agents.