By Calvin Biesecker
The federal government is considering establishing some type of interagency task force that would help the nation better cope with threats along the southwest border that is the scene of relentless drug smuggling and related violence, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials said yesterday.
The idea of such a task force has been discussed for the past year within the Interdiction Committee of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, John Morton, assistant secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement at DHS, told the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee.
Morton said he has also discussed the issue at length with Alan Bersin, the new commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, who also served as the special representative for border affairs at DHS the past year. The question is whether a task force focused on the southwest border should be modeled after the Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF- South) and house it within the Justice Department’s El Paso (Texas) Intelligence Center (EPIC) or create it as a separate entity, Morton said.
Given the growing drug related problems along the southwest border, “it seems to me that we need a single place where all of the agencies, military and civilian, are headquartered, much like JIATF-South,” Rep. Hal Rodgers (R-Ky.), the ranking member on the subcommittee, said. “So that you can call instantly on any asset of any of these agencies that may or may not be needed and get an instant response.”
Morton replied that, “I don’t think few people would argue with your basic premise both as to JIATF-South and whether something like that would be quite useful along the border. I think we think it does.” Later in the hearing, he told Rodgers, “I think the momentum though is very much in favor of the general concept that you outlined and it’s just a matter of time.”
JIATF-South is based out of the Naval Air Station Key West, Fla., and conducts anti-drug operations in the Caribbean. The multi-service task force includes representatives from the military services, U.S. Southern Command, agencies and components of the DHS and DoJ as well as the intelligence community. It collects intelligence and also draws up plans and conducts operations using assets assigned from the different components.
EPIC is a tactical operational intelligence center led by DoJ and is focused on the southwest border serving federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies focused on drug, alien and weapons smuggling as well as counter-terrorism.
Morton and Bersin agreed to provide the congressional panel a report within 90 days describing the status of discussions and plans toward creating some type of interagency group that would be focused on the drug war in the southwest. Rodgers and Alan Mollohan (D-WVa.) said that 90 days would be too late for Congress to consider it as part of the FY ’11 budget deliberations.
Bersin said that given the complicated and “transformational” nature of coordinating such an effort across the federal government it is a budget issue after FY ’11. Rodgers countered that Congress may go ahead and direct such a “radical change.”