Rep. Martha McSally, R-Tucson, and members of the House Homeland Security Committee meet with members of the media on the Ladd Ranch in Sierra Vista following a border tour. January 24, 2015
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A bipartisan group of members of the House Homeland Security Committee spent Saturday meeting with Arizona border ranchers, seeing drones at Ft. Huachuca, and driving along the fence between Arizona and Mexico.
The 19 Republicans and two Democrats will consider a new Border Security bill this week. Six of the members on the trip were visiting the border for the first time.
U.S. Rep. Martha McSally, R-Tucson, is a member of the committee and acted as a tour guide for her colleagues. The tour took the group by areas of the border wall that had been recently breached by alleged smugglers, she said.
“So they see first hand and they hear first hand the concerns and fears border residents have,” McSally said.
On Wednesday, the full House is expected to take up the border security bill McSally has cosponsored.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson will be in Phoenix this week to deliver a speech on border security.
He has said he does not like the bill being debated by Congress.
An identical proposal cosponsored by Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona, is moving through the U.S. Senate.
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