good afternoon in march this subcommittee examine the rise of violent mexican drug cartels and other organized criminal groups and their impact on communities along the u s mexican border addressing this threat is one of the top priorities of the obama administration and of the subcommittee so they will revisit this topic to determine how far that effort has progressed and where it must go from here last week our subcommittee staff visited mexico city and the texas and arizona border regions to take stock of the administration's progress in implementing at southwest border an issue the initiatives goals include securing the u s mexican border working with mexican law enforcement and military personnel to combat cross border smuggling of illegal drugs weapons and money and reducing the violence associated with this criminal activity today progress can be cited but the overall results are mixed the old media reports indicate that violence and crime related to the cartels remain intense just last friday fifteen people were murdered in the border city of juarez including a university professor and a seven year old child the mexican police and military personnel in the border regions are subject to constant attack and pressure from the cartels the demoralizing impact of cartel violence touches all of mexico and while the mexican government as work strenuously to combat it security and mexico's problem areas has not improved as rapidly as had been hoped president calderon has deployed the military to keep the peace in states and cities along the border however the mexican military is not a police force and it has been criticized for a lack of coordination and lack of capacity to carry out to the law enforcement activities through the state department lead america initiative our government is assisting mexican officials to strengthen border security and build more robust law enforcement institutions customs and border protection c b p has enhanced out outbound operations and inspections along the southwest border immigration and customs enforcement ice is leading several interagency and intergovernmental initiated such as the border enforcement security task force or bass and is also updated inner agency agreements with the a t f to strengthen its investigations of narcotics and weapons smuggling and both c b p and i start working with state and local governments along the border to disrupt and dismantle smuggling networks they are witnesses while update us on these efforts we welcome maricopa silver president principal deputy assistant secretary for policy at the department of homeland security and her first appearance before the subcommittee on a silver we're interested in the department's relationships with its mexican counterparts and your assessment of the progress being made by the mexican government we're also interested in the d h s s role implementing the multilateral america initiative we will come back jason i hearn acting commissioner of the u s customs and border protection another new witness before the so committee is john morton assistant secretary for u s immigration and customs enforcement we look forward to learning how c b p and ice through their international and investigatory efforts are helping attack cartel networks and organizations are providing the expertise and support to help identify potential border threats and interdict them when they arise and are improving the security of international travel and trade between our two countries the cartels criminal activity is not limited to the border much of mexico mexican crime syndicates have also established themselves in cities and can throughout the united states including major marijuana cultivation and indian country vast that i mean and cocaine distribution network such as the recently disrupted us operations of the familia cartel and the appearance of operatives from the mexican zetas gang along the northern border of mexico still suffers the most from cartel violence with more than six thousand deaths in two thousand and eight directly  criminal activity in the conflict between criminal ring has asians and the mexican government at current rates cartel related murders in two thousand and nine record setting two thousand and eight levels the city of juarez has one of the highest murder rates in the world at over one hundred thirty three deaths per one hundred thousand inhabitants and fatalities have increased by thirty one percent just in the past year on the u s side of the border there recently have been several troubling incidents in may border patrol agent robert rose was ambushed and murdered while patrolling along the border in the san diego sector in september three vans loaded with seventy four undocumented alien tried to run through the sanusi drove port of entry resulting in gunfire injuries and closing the nation's busiest port of entry for the first time since the kennedy assassination there are also regular reports of violent kidnappings and gang warfare in the us border region all of which has likely ties to mexican criminal enterprise the city of phoenix for example had three hundred sixty six kidnappings in two thousand and eight three hundred fifty nine in two thousand and seven the highest reported rate in the u s many of which can be tied to human smuggling operations today we expect to hear more about how d h s s is responding to these problems there's also been positive news that we should not overlook in august the mexican military made their largest seizure ever of methamphetamine production complex in durango in october u s law enforcement arrested over three hundred affiliates of the last cartel the merit initiative continues to mature d h s s and other federal law enforcement agencies are in hansing their joint efforts with mexico including information sharing joint targeting and investigations better communications and stronger operational coordination the subcommittee has increased funding to expand on the southwest border and supported the department's reallocation of resources to address these issues the two thousand and nine defense supplemental provided one hundred million dollars for additional c b p officers inspection technology and ice in forstmann efforts the recently enacted twenty tannen appropriations act included seventy two million dollars for one hundred forty four new border patrol agents and one hundred fifteen c b p officers and one hundred million for ice operations along the southwest border all of these funds show the subcommittee's commitment to combat the cartels smuggling operations so we look forward to hearing about the impact of these funding enhancements the current status of u s mexican cooperation and the prospects for ending cartel violence we will insert your complete statements in the hearing record so we ask you please to summarize your statements in a five minute oral presentation i will begin with principal deputy assistant is clear my question is whether or not we are up to the challenge and when i pose this question i am not wondering whether we have the proper resources and just disrupt organized crime all smuggling is perhaps our nation's oldest homeland security mission spanning back to the days of alexander hamilton and his recognition for the need to establish a customs service and what is now  night from mexico city i met with leadership from across the government of mexico as part of the ongoing u s government effort to ensure that our relationship is holistic and we must continue to work with our partners in mexico to build a resilient border that allows our goal is to promote smart and effective security at the southwest border by increasing coordinated security efforts between our two organizations are increasing foresman efforts to mitigate southbound weapon and currency smuggling fully support the govern investigative personnel stationed along the southwest border alone and another twenty eight in mexico we are also the agency charged with arresting detaining and removing aliens unlawfully in the united states including criminals and gang members to that end we have approximately twenty five hundred detention and removal personnel along the southern border simply put ice is in a unique and important position with respect to law enforcement issues presented in our work on the southwest border would not have been possible without the continuing million dollars in additional border funding and ten appropriations bill and fifty five million in supplemental funding this money will allow us to expand some key initiatives and fund additional criminal investigations against the cartels responsible for violence directly on the border initiative since then we've seen measurable success as a result of our strength and commitment to the issue let me just summarize a few of the successes that are outlined in great detail in my written statement first since march we've seen large increases in seizures b percent increase in many of the successes could not have been achieved without the excellent work for federal state local tribal and foreign law enforcement partners through these partnerships we succeeded in targeting investigating and dismantling criminal operations at the border  just a handful of these programs to note the border enforcement security task forces that i think we will discuss in greater detail shortly operation armas in which we collaborate with the mexican government to focus on arms trafficking operation firewall where we work with to stem the flow of cash across the border and the illegal drug project which is a brand new pilot we have entered into the justice department the mexican office turning general to prosecute narcotic smuggling offenses that arise in nogales but for which there's also jurisdiction in mexico to actually work with our mexican town of counterparts to prosecute them in mexico as a committee knows i've also taken direct steps to improve i is working relationships with both a t f both agencies are critical to good border enforcement i'm personally committed to seeing our relationships improve dition to our domestic efforts we maintain a strong presence in mexico for instance we have specialized vetted units and we are working on a third focusing on firearms a good example of our cross border work is the recent seizure just two months ago a forty one million dollars in currency that had been hidden in residence in tijuana being used for drug trafficking and the subsequent raid by the mexican military on that house turned up two point one million dollars as you can tell we are beginning to see real benefits from our efforts and i believe this success will continue that ice will continue to use its broad jurisdiction to crack down on the trafficking and smuggling and violent activities surrounding the cartels i just want to thank again the committee for the support it's provided over the years it interest in ice and the people the men and women who work for it i want to thank both the chairman and the ranking member for their leadership of this subcommittee particularly the bipartisan nature of it these are hard issues  challenging issues and i appreciate the work of the subcommittee has put into it work at the staff in the recent trip that we just took i don't pretend to have all the answers but it is good to see that kind of and sustainable international partnership to combat these organizations what are the remaining challenges to achieving that effect lasting system a lasting system not tied to a single personality to disrupt cartels in mexico and a sustainable operational partnership with mexico patrol agent cartel gunmen encounter a more desperate more politically violent smuggling of agents are regularly attacked occasionally injured by rocks and other projectiles presence along the border makes it a bigger target for the smugglers with over seventeen thousand agents on the southwest border over six hundred thirty miles of completed pedestrian and vehicle fencing and additional officers and more robust outbound can use can you say with confidence that this more muscular profile is having a deterrent effect on the cartels and then beyond that your testimony identifies two elements to ensure that agents can be safe and effective in this hostile environment between the ports of entry which surely applies to those ports as well these elements were situational awareness for optimal deployment and the capability to act in a lawful manner manner when and where have a significant responsibility to make sure mexico survives and mexico goes in the right track or they are banding in mexico or are we getting the support from those individuals those billionaires on chairman was to do whatever we can to make something happen but they also need to take responsibility mexico announced last month a significant part of that was in the inland empire of southern california one of the most violent drug trafficking cartels responsible for the vast majority of meth crossing into the borders and i want to commend the men and women on both are we seeing another cartel fill the void left by the methamphetamine drug trade and a follow up question is how are the u s and mexican government using any intelligence captured from this operation to make sure our efforts are not related with those families and the drug trade but again we may not actually have a criminal case in this country one point i want to make is every day every day seems to be something states is on our side of the border to is just indicated an awful lot of the weapons that are that the cartels buying are coming from the united states and three the money that's made from the sales of drugs are coming from the united states and i would hope mr chairman perhaps the next hearing on this border i think it's terrific hearing i hope perhaps we could have some the mexican officials here indicating what  they see is the concerns remember they have another border that's just even more problematic for them where their resources are which is the guatemalan border and we don't give them any credit for what they do to on the guns the silver and then perhaps for mr morton is what role the do does ice play in reducing the southbound flow weapons do you see any as as a central challenge or what do you see as the central efforts and that's something that i have worked on a lot since i have become and secretary as you may know we signed a new memorandum of understanding with a t f to try to get at that exact question  we need to work very closely with c b p on outbound inspections actually looking for weapons going south we would provide investigative support to what c b p is doing the way of inspections intersections and then very importantly we have to work very carefully and closely with our mexican counterparts because as commissioner a her noted we're not seizing yet the level of guns that the mexicans on the other hand are discovering on their side and discovering some very significant caches and one of the things that i have worked on when i've been to mexico this is three times in the six months that i've been assistant secretary and many do again here shortly is to work with the mexican military and with your so that we can have a much closer relationship that we can have more immediate access to the weapons caches so that we can work hand in glove with f to trace those weapons a significant portion of trace back and we can investigate and prosecute those people either in the united states or in mexico i understand that our married a project we have were supposed to be giving them a lot of equipment technical officers and we have to go through the final polygraph training and that's fully funded by merit and i'm happy that merit is doing that we i'm not aware of a lot of technical equipment question is we need to locate those additional places along our border that make the most sense for disrupting the flow but also to work closely with one of the key things about bass's it's not only a domestic partnership we are working the mexicans are actually assigning people to the best we have five s s p officers colombia the colombian national police just assigned three mexican customs just agreed to assign people so we're moving to community really supports this mr chairman and i would certainly recommend it to the committee is an issue that we need to continue to support its forward commonsense way to deal with this terrible problem that is just uniformed in addition maybe on a wall in some areas policy but if you're captured by the border patrol with less than five hundred pounds in the tucson sector you have a good chance of being at home in time for dinner and you will not be prosecuted it's bizarre but they turn everybody i've been there and it's amazing actually  a workload on justice department agencies and i'm wondering is the department of homeland security working with coordinate budget requests  are exactly right there is a direct correlation between the increase in resources and the increase of work at ice and c b p for the work of the department of justice and it's not just in a criminal context is very much in the civil context because all of the  administrative removal hearings are conducted by the department of justice and the attorney general's authority so the short answer to your question sir is yes we actually had our first conference about two months in to my ten years assistant secretary where we invited the executive office for immigration review to look at exactly this issue and how can we go forward in a way that is coordinated and thoughtful and we don't just increase one to that problem because there is have been concerns expressed of lack of coordination and having responsibility funded by justice because of your good work the solution is just as you suggest it is coordination where we haven't in the office for immigration reform on the civil side and i have been meeting with assistant attorney general for the criminal division on the criminal side putting the issue squarely on the table and there's a recognition that we need to start doing this thoughtfully and i think you'll see as we go forward at least on my end you know where there is such a direct correlation between an increase in ice resources that i'll be pushing this myself i come from the department of justice i was a federal other words if you get an increase and i don't know border patrol that that will result in a corresponding increase in the arrests and  to and i will tell you it's a work in progress these are big institutions they have long histories strong institutional interests but i find that if you have people of goodwill at the top who are willing to try to make a difference they can things like this hearing the focus on the challenge in mexico and that this isn't some passing concern this is a serious concern really bring us together we've got to get this  thank you let me turn to a matter of a couple of you mentioned briefly in your oral statements and that is the efforts that have gone on the past four years or so to prosecute a certain amount of  provided they were charged with crimes against mexico i'd be interested in your assessment your brief assessment here and maybe you can elaborate for the record and how that program has worked and what kind of leverage it has prosecution reasons by the u s attorney's office have been turned over in coordination with ice and c d p to mexican prosecutors and they are prosecuting those cases and it is important to have a consequence it is important  where the resource issues on our side will lead to somebody just walking the streets or getting removed that we have a consequence i think it also helps build the other idea that we are trying to push in mexico which is institution building to  work with the mexicans to build robust enforcement capabilities that lead to criminals going to jail and suffering the consequence in mexico and not just the united states thank you with limited time i want to i want to move on to the merit initiative which of course is not my responsibility of the subcommittee in terms of the funding that i do have some questions though that ask you to respond to for the record about  the kind of the future of that program and the kind of funding requests you anticipate one aspect of this has come up today though and i want to raise it and that has to do with the fact that the original concept for the married an initiative did incorporate central american governments as as you know as well as the united states and mexico in the fight against drug trafficking organizations but the initiative has pretty much developed into into about lateral matter into a nation program but we've heard again today that drugs and weapons trafficking from central america and the mexico remains a major threat to mexican and central american government disrupt those trafficking routes should that original concept of america be resurrected to incorporate central american government remains a challenge but things like the seizure of the forty one million dollars which was done in very very close coordination with mexican and colombian law enforcement the fact that the b up from the jails and then i think it would go a long way for us to notify the mexican officials as to where we letting them go and who they are and the types of criminals that because it's a pretty substantial number  on description of the situation on the ports of entry in the fact that you know that it's an adequate we really need to beef up on customs and or the border group the commission recommended waiting periods do hurt us and i don't have to tell you i've said this time and time again the terrorists want to hurt us economically and we don't need to do that to ourselves and we are you know there's no doubt about it that stimulus money and i know that's maybe under the current of the two year but it's an important issue that we begin to move in that direction it talks about how we can coordinate efforts because i had a tornado in eagle pass when i lost seven lives i just and it talks about manmade disaster i just had a major flood in the city of caused by the dams that let go of the water in the mexican side so somehow you know that's a great agreement we just need to put some teeth into it and put some resources into it and maybe it comes from another committee but a fema i know is one that could be helpful in that area through homeland security and the particular it also talks about the that and and mainly i guess from from a female perspective but i would you know next time i know you'll probably be coming to this coming year again i will be asking you where we're at on on that particular agreement with mexico and canada that on the canadian side when we went down there they would tell me that i mean i mean they're just being produced in just coming in on the canadian side and we didn't have my god you talk about fences on the southern side we didn't have a single fence that we had immediate i mean even in texas doing a road we have median with with barriers we don't even have a barrier between the median on the canadian and the u s side not to mention the fact that up here we get stopped twenty sixty would be accurate to say they're coming from the south the border primarily military former military  is where did those weapons come from and how did they get there you may be in the right venue or that you might want to address the issue of the fully automatic weapons that are being used in mexico the present time by the drug cartels where all those weapons coming future concept for expanding the role of a market coordinating interdictions of noncommercial aircraft transport contraband and specifically financial instruments or cash from the united states to mexico the department homeland security and performance report for fiscal year zero eight sets a goal for detecting and apprehending thirty percent of illegal activity at ports of entry in two thousand and nine which says it's seventy percent at least getting through without band caught what percentage today other than of course in the del rio laredo sectors and in yuma where you're catchin and arresting and prosecuting a hundred percent of those you do catch what percentage  you could by sector in the prosecution right for those that you are apprehending because it is still a stand we really got to focus on that tucson sector and do we can to get green line up and down the border thank you very much thank you mr barr like this follow up on good percentage of all of the country five thousand gun shows along the border do you in your working this new relationship with the a t f is there any effort here to prevent proxy purchases from federal fire line licensed dealers the short answer to your question is is no from isis perspective because we have no statutory authority at all for dministrative regs would only allow one inspection unannounced inspection and in any of these licensed entities or gun shows only one a year and if they were personnel were doing and then ice couldn't go and do any inspection even on follow up so it just cramped their ability to follow up on some of these leads if they had is that been worked out i don't think so but i also don't think that it did i think your point is that t the gun shows either we clearly have some deficiencies in the data and differences in information i am going to formulate a request for that for the record there have been i don't think there's any the mexican side far far exceeding what what we detect by southbound inspections so i we're going to ask of you your best estimates here we've we've had a lot of figures and characterizations thrown back and forth so we're going to ask you to and then of course any any any suggestions that you have or any discussions you have underway about how you can make it more difficult how how our government can make it or difficult for smugglers to it where weapons for the  want to see that we want to see that carried out even though we may have somewhat different assessments of the of the scale of the problem so we will be we will be formulating our request for that information for the record mr chairman we  obtainable with that we do need to adjourn for the votes on the floor i want to thank all three of you for your good work and for your testimony here today this is this is a hearing obviously that is a follow up from last spring and believe me as the budget season approaches we'll be