Crane's Border Security Package Passes Committee

Representative Eli Crane's (R-AZ) funding package for border security has passed the House Homeland Security Committee and is soon expected on the House floor.

Specifically, Rep. Crane's bill includes $46 billion to finish President Donald Trump's border wall, $7 billion to hire and train Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents and provide incentives, and $5 billion for border security technology.

"As Arizona's only member of the House Committee on Homeland Security, I'm proud to support President Trump and his team as they secure the border," Rep. Crane said in his press release, adding, "By heavily investing in overlapping deterrents, our plan will significantly reduce human trafficking, fentanyl overdoses, and unlawful entries. This package will provide reinforcements for our brave agents on the ground and fortify our defenses for years to come. I appreciate Chairman [Mark] Green's (R-TN) leadership and look forward to sending the President long-overdue assistance."

Last March, the Arizona Congressman spoke with Cactus Politics about border security ahead of then-President Joe Biden's State of the Union address. He told us from his experience as a Navy SEAL that "Security has always been and always will be overlapping deterrence," describing how he would return to a walled base with various defense measures after missions.

The following September, the House passed Crane's Subterranean Border Defense Act, which aims to detect and destroy tunnels under the southern border built by smugglers, similar to anti-tunnel tactics used by the State of Israel against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

"It is hard for us to really allocate resources if we are not getting reporting and we do not have situational awareness of that threat," the Arizona Congressman told us in a May interview. "It is definitely a concern to many of us that have tried to be the canary in the coal mine about threats coming over the southern border and why Joe Biden's policies are so dangerous."