The Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, of which Sen. Susan Collins is the ranking member, held two hearings recently on violence on the nation’s southern border.
The first was a March 25 hearing in Washington, D.C.; the second, a field hearing in Phoenix, Ariz., April 20. Collins was a no-show at both hearings, even though she is the ranking Republican on the committee.
The violence at the border has reached a loud enough crescendo that politicians in Washington, who have been ignoring border problems for years, have finally realized a need to focus on the issue.
The seriousness of the border violence was characterized by David W. Ogden, deputy attorney general, U.S. Department of Justice, a witness at the March 25 hearing, as the “greatest organized crime threat in the United States today.” This problem may be primarily along the southern border, but it reaches clear up to Maine.
Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, a witness at the Phoenix hearing, stated, “The criminals don’t drop anchor here. We’re just a gateway. They continue on to Washington and Oregon, Iowa and Kansas, Maine and Connecticut.”
The chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., stated that the cartels distribute drugs to more than “230 cities from Anchorage, Alaska, to Hartford, Conn., and everywhere in between.”
Collins recently boasted about casting her 4,000th consecutive vote; too bad she isn’t as diligent about her committee responsibilities, especially when they are about the nation’s safety and security.
Robert Casimiro, Bridgton
Executive director,
Mainers for Sensible
Immigration Policy

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