Defining a secure border

Texas legislators talk so often about securing the border it’s almost a cliché. So is it too much to expect they have a clear sense of what “border security” looks like?

Turns out, it is.

At a state Senate Budget Committee hearing last Monday, lawmakers inquired how exactly the $815 million allocated for border security efforts in the upper chamber’s biennial budget proposal would be spent.

Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, said those details were “intentionally” omitted “to leave it up to the committee’s discretion how we want to do that.”

Fair enough.

But it became apparent as the discussion ensued that no one on the committee — Democrat or Republican — was prepared to supply a definition of what that funding was intended to achieve.

Apparently, they discovered, the Lone Star State doesn’t have a definition of border security.

And that makes it difficult for Texas leaders to measure whether or not it has been achieved and what future level of spending is justified.

Securing the state’s southern border has always been a high-priority issue. In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform from Washington, top Texas officials have felt compelled to take matters into their own hands.

Still, there is increasing frustration among legislators and citizens over rising costs — Texas has spent nearly $1 billion on the Texas-Mexico border since 2008 — and shifting metrics for success.

A Department of Public Safety report obtained by the Houston Chronicle claimed credit for reducing illegal border crossings, which spiked last summer and prompted then-Gov. Rick Perry to order a surge of DPS officers to the border.

The border surge not only cost more than $100 million, it compromised the department’s ability to combat crimes in the state’s interior.

Is that the security Texans are seeking?

Gov. Greg Abbott outlined a plan to hire and send 500 permanent DPS officers to the border over the next several years.

The proposal is one of five “emergency” items on which he’s requested expedited legislative action.

Before the Legislature acts, it should agree on a definition of border security and determine if the plans that have been put forward are the best ways to achieve it.

This story was originally published February 27, 2015 at 7:28 PM with the headline "Defining a secure border."