“Gang violence has never been a severe problem in Southern Missouri, where we all know our neighbors and work together to police our neighborhoods.  But one thing which is changing about rural America is the level of exposure to problems we once only thought to affect big cities.

 

Gangs are a major problem within this category.

 

Methamphetamine is a terrible thing on its own, destroying lives and causing irreparable harm to the users’ physical and mental health.  But meth also afflicts the children of those who use it, those who sell it, and those who traffic it.  The drug trade attracts gangs like moths to a flame. 

 

Since an estimated 90 percent of the methamphetamine in the U.S. is trafficked in from Mexico, it makes sense to increase the scrutiny at our borders – not just the inspection of cars and packages at checkpoints, but also the different forms of surveillance used to patrol the spaces in between the checkpoints.  In addition to the traffickers of drugs, we need to stem the tide of gang members who, once they slip into the U.S., become nearly invisible until they are caught committing a crime.

 

A 2005 study by the Government Accounting Office found that, of 55,322 illegal aliens studied, they had been arrested for nearly 700,000 offenses (an average of about 13 offenses each), roughly 24 percent of which were drug-related.

 

Gang violence and crimes associated with the trafficking and distribution of methamphetamine are a serious problem for our region, and for all of rural America.

 

I’m glad to report that the U.S. House of Representatives has initiated several measures to combat these difficult problems.  Already, the president has signed the measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security for the coming fiscal year, a bill I worked closely on as a member of that subcommittee in Congress. 

 

The Homeland Security bill includes $2.27 billion for the Border Patrol, which will help add 1,500 new Border Patrol agents, bringing that force up to 14,800 agents total. For additional border fencing, vehicle barriers and new technologies, the bill contains $1.2 billion.  And the last major portion of the bill regarding our borders is $5.2 billion for the Secure Border Initiative, a new program to assess and provide the tools and personnel needed to prevent terrorists and other criminals from crossing our border.

But perhaps the most important part of this bill is not included after a dollar sign.  We will have tough, new penalties for crimes under our border as well as along it.  A new penalty of up to 20 years in prison is in place for an individual who constructs a tunnel under the U.S. border or finances that construction.  People who permit the construction of those tunnels on their property can expect to spend up to 10 years behind bars.  And penalties have been doubled for anyone caught using such a tunnel to smuggle illegal aliens, drugs, weapons, or terrorists. 

 

Not only do we have more resources in place to catch criminals along our border, we also have brand new punishments in place to prosecute those who would jeopardize America’s security and bring drugs into our country.

 

New measures are also being put into place that would assign gang members to criminal categories similar to those used to prosecute terrorists.  Really, that’s what gangs do: they terrorize our communities with lawless actions and facilitate the spread of drugs.  If that doesn’t demand the attention of our Homeland Security, then I don’t know what does.”