HEREFORD, Arizona (Border Report) – As they went up a hill overlooking Sonora, Mexico, a border agent pointed Roger Marshall to a shack on the other side of the border wall.
What he saw through binoculars was men keeping an eye on the American side from inside a structure the U.S. Border Patrol says is a scouting post for the Mexican cartels.
The message was clear: Take the knife off the enemy’s throat and he’ll come right back at you.
“The border is under control. There are 96 percent fewer crossings than there were a year ago. A year ago (last) December, there were over 2,000 crossings every day in this Tucson Sector, now they’re down to less than 50,” said Marshall, the junior GOP U.S. senator from Kansas. “Nevertheless, there is still significant human trafficking and fentanyl coming across this border.”
Marshall was in southern Arizona on Friday to visit with some of the 700 troops from Fort Riley, Kansas, stationed at the border and to discuss the way forward with U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials as GOP senators resume budget reconciliation talks next week.
Troops from several states were sent to Texas and Arizona to keep watch on the border wall when Border Patrol agents and CBP officers were overwhelmed processing migrants during the Biden administration. Now soldiers are gathering intelligence, flying helicopters and rushing supplies and equipment for the Border Patrol.
“They’re a force multiplier. […] We simply don’t have enough Border Patrol officers to control the amount of border – about 2,000 miles,” Marshall said.
Along those lines, the GOP senator said he will relay to his colleagues in Washington, D.C., the message he received from his talks with CBP officers and Border Patrol agents on the front lines.
“They need more border wall, they need more people, more assets, more technology,” Marshall said. He is convinced the budget legislation the House passed before Memorial Day will provide those resources – even though not one Democrat supported it because of huge, proposed cuts to health and social programs, among other things.
The reconciliation, baptized as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by Republicans, could provide $70 billion or more for border wall construction, hiring and retention of border agents and officers, technology and infrastructure.
Democrats also have characterized the One Big Beautiful Bill Act as a “tax break for billionaires” because it includes tax cuts to higher income earners.
But Marshall said opponents aren’t talking about how not approving the bill would mean the end of individual tax cuts, rates and brackets for all Americans set by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. That includes the end of a larger standard deduction set by the TCJA. That reduced taxpayers’ taxable income, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
Marshall was accompanied on his border visit by Kansas Bureau of Investigations Director Tony Mattivi.
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