El Paso lawmaker questions DPS border claims

Marty Schladen | El Paso Times

AUSTIN - Rep. Cesar Blanco, D-El Paso, is questioning Texas’ top cop’s claim that he was right this year when he said that the U.S. Border Patrol participated in a state operation that sent state police and National Guard troops to the border.

The claim by Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw drew criticism from many who said McCraw took credit for the Border Patrol’s work after leading Texas Republicans claimed the feds had been derelict in securing the border.

The Dallas Morning News reported that at a meeting this month of the Texas Public Safety Commission, McCraw played a video by produced by the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Sector. The video said Border Patrol and DPS were cooperating closely as Texas enacts an $800 million, two-year program under the name “Operation Secure Texas.”

McCraw told the commission, which is appointed by the governor and oversees his agency, that the video was proof that he was right when he insisted that federal authorities were involved in Operation Strong Safety, the Morning News reported.

The program was begun by former Gov. Rick Perry in 2014 in response to a surge of Central Americans who crossed Mexico and turned themselves in to U.S. authorities at the border.

Blanco, a prominent critic of Operation Strong Safety, on Tuesday refuted McCraw's claim, citing continued denials by Border Patrol leaders that their agency was involved in the operation.

“We still have a letter from Commissioner Gil Kerlikowski,” Blanco said.

He was referring to a May 18 letter to U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Gil Kerlikowski. It said Kerlikowski’s agency was never part of Operation Strong Safety.

The letter came after years of criticisms by Texas Republicans that the federal government had failed to secure the border.

Blanco fought a lengthy battle to get DPS to release statistics showing what its personnel had done during the $100 million border-security program, but the only numbers the agency released lumped activities by DPS and Border Security personnel together. Statistics in Kerlikowski’s letter show that, with the exception of methamphetamine, state personnel were responsible for only a tiny fraction of the drugs seized in the Lower Rio Grande Valley during Operation Strong Safety.

McCraw has justified the state’s refusal to disaggregate statistics for Operation Strong Safety by claiming the federal agencies participated in the program. He told the Public Safety Commission that the video, which touts cooperation between federal and state agencies, as proof that he was right. But the Morning News reported that federal officials continue to insist that Border Patrol did not participate in Operation Strong Safety.

DPS says it worked with Border Patrol during Operation Strong Safety - regardless how federal officials characterize it.

“We don’t want to engage in a battle of semantics, but U.S. Border Patrol (BP) agents have been actively involved in Operation Strong Safety (OSS), including BP agents physically co-located in the Operation Strong Safety Command Post to assist and coordinate with the everyday functions of the Command Post, BP agents sharing information and intelligence with law enforcement partners in the Command Post, BP reporting detections on the Texas-Mexico border to the OSS Command Post, and BP coordinating interdiction efforts with Operation Strong Safety missions,” Tom Vinger, a spokesman, said in an email.

Blanco said he’s pleased that federal agents and state police are communicating, but he still wants McCraw to honor an earlier promise to report the activities of just state personnel under Operation Secure Texas. The numbers are vital if leaders want to know whether taxpayers are getting value for their $800 million, Blanco said.

“We’re just being told we’re safe,” he said. “Are we?”

Blanco also took a shot at Gov. Greg Abbott, a relentless critic of the Obama administration. After so much criticism, it’s good to see DPS and the Public Safety Commission embrace cooperation with the feds, Blanco said.

“I’m glad Gov. Abbott and President Obama are working together on this,” Blanco, who has made multiple visits to the White House in recent months said facetiously.

Abbott’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Marty Schladen can be reached at 512-479-6696; mschladen@elpasotimes.com; @martyschladen on Twitter.



