I sit on the Joint Border Security Advisory Committee along with other legislators and members of the law enforcement community, like DPS Director Milstead and Cochise County Sheriff Mark Daniels. We had a meeting Dec. 12 and I want to report on the condition of the border.
In 2010, we were at the height of the illegal immigrant/drug invasion, and I was chairman of the Border Security Committee. Sen. Steve Smith was a member. We heard testimony from our Arizona citizens who lived on the border and who came to our committee to report on the destruction of private property and threats to public safety.
Senator Smith, out of frustration with the federal government for not protecting our border, ran a bill stating that Arizona would build a fence. I co-sponsored the bill and heard it in my committee. At the time, Senator Smith took ridicule from the press about this bill, but today, the fruits of that bill were reported.
A website was opened in 2010 and people from across this country donated close to $300,000 for this effort of protecting our southern border. This update is reporting to you what happened to the money and how a sheriff on the border has been more successful than the U.S. Border Patrol.