In the News

U.S. Rep. French Hill, R-Little Rock, spent Thursday on the Mexican border to learn more about border security and customs enforcement.

In a telephone interview, Hill said the visit had been very informative. He was able to tour about a 30-mile stretch of the border fence with local sheriffs and visited the border crossing where billions of dollars of goods travel between El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico.

Hill said the fence — and a boost in border patrol officers — has substantially reduced the number of people crossing the border illegally. Still, he said, there are gaps in the fence that need to be addressed.

“That is something both local sheriffs and border patrol would like enhanced,” he said.

Hill, a freshman, has not signed on to any border security legislation pending in Congress but is considering co-sponsoring a comprehensive border security bill written by House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, as well as another by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.

That was one of the reasons, he said, that he decided to visit the U.S.-Mexico border with Reps. Ralph Abraham, R-La., and Will Hurd, R-Texas.

“For me, this was a good way to begin that due diligence,” he said.

###