A border patrol union leader reportedly charges a 10-mile stretch of the Arizona border with Mexico was left unmanned for two days, allowing two vehicles to drive into the United States and escape.
The Arizona Republic reports Brandon Judd, president of the 16,500-member National Border Patrol Council, testified at a subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee hearing earlier this week about the breach, saying surveillance cameras spotted the vehicles.
Agents who investigated also located tracks indicating the vehicles came through a hole in the fence, and evidence that attempts were made to patch over the cuts in the fence to hide the breach.
"The scariest part of those vehicles entering into the United States is we don’t know what was in those vehicles. We have no idea," Judd testified, the newspaper reports.
Judd –
a critic of President Barack Obama's border security policies – charges the incident only proves the border is much less secure than the administration claims, the Arizona Republic reports.
"The Obama administration and [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] Commissioner [Gil] Kerlikowske have repeatedly told the American public that the border is more secure today than it’s ever been," Judd testified, the newspaper reports.
"As a Border Patrol agent, I will tell you the exact opposite."
Judd said the portion of the border was left unmanned because the Border Patrol doesn't have enough agents, the newspaper reports.
He also said the incident was confirmed in management reports; he didn't specify exactly where the breach occurred. Arizona's border with Mexico is 372.5 miles long.
In a statement to the Arizona Republic, Dan Hetlage, a Customs and Border Protection spokesman, said the agency "uses technology, infrastructure and agents to secure the nation’s land borders, day and night, 365 days a year. We take this mission extremely seriously, and we’re constantly examining our operations to achieve the mission with which we’ve been entrusted."
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