Alonzo Pena, Department of Homeland Security Attache, U.S. Embassy, Mexico City, left, and John Leech, acting director, Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement with DHS, were among the many Obama administration officials who testified before House committees on securing the border between the U.S. and Mexico and the ongoing violence from drug trafficking. (CNSNews.com/Penny Starr)
(CNSNews.com) – Officials from the Department of Homeland Security have been testifying this week about ongoing efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and quell the drug-related violence that has killed more than 7,000 people over the last 14 months.
 
While the Obama administration says it is achieving success in some areas, the testimony revealed that the groundwork and policy measures aimed at combatting the violence were put into play by the Bush administration, in some instances many years ago.
  
With President Obama in office for less than two months, many of the statistics touted by Obama administration officials date back to the Bush years, including the more than 700 arrests of drug cartel operatives in the United States announced recently by Attorney General Eric Holder. Those arrests were the climax of an intelligence operation launched two years ago.
 
At recent House hearings on Mexico, many of the figures cited came from Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) annual report for Fiscal Year 2008, which was issued the day after Obama was elected president on Nov. 5, 2008.
 
Many of the statistics in the report provide evidence that the CBP is having measurable success on borders issues, as noted in the introduction to the report, which is posted online. 

“During fiscal year 2008, U.S. Customs and Border Protection made significant progress toward securing our nation’s border at and between the ports of entry,” the report says.
 
“Through targeted operations, increases in staffing and training, additional infrastructure, better technology, and the support of the President and Congress, CBP’s frontline personnel were better equipped in fiscal year 2008 than any period in the nation’s history,” it adds.
 
Some other statistics of note in the report, some of which were cited during this week’s congressional testimony on Capitol Hill:
 
-- Border Patrol agents improved border security, reducing the number of apprehensions at the borders by 17 percent in FY 2008. During FY 2008 Border Patrol apprehended 723,825 compared with 876,704 during FY 2007.
 
-- Border Patrol made significant progress with denying illegal entry to aliens from countries other-than-Mexico (OTM), with 62,059 OTMs apprehended in FY 2008.
 
-- The highly successful “Operation Streamline” (which was reported in one hearing to have increased apprehension rates to almost 90 percent) was expanded from Del Rio, Texas, and Yuma, Arizona Border Patrol sectors, to the Laredo, Texas, and the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol sectors resulting in an increase in criminal prosecutions and a reduction in apprehensions.
 
-- CBP seized more than 2.78 million pounds of narcotics during FY 2008.
 
On Tuesday, Obama’s Homeland Security officials testified in the House about the ongoing success of the Secure Border Initiative, which was unveiled on Nov. 2, 2005 by then Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.
 
At the hearing, officials said success requires a comprehensive approach that includes a border fence and technology, which is reported for FY 2008 to have included the procurement of 30 mobile surveillance units and 2,500 unattended ground sensors.
 
Press reports on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Web site show some successes over the course of weeks since Barack Obama took office.
 
Earlier this month, Border Patrol agents seized 799 pounds of marijuana in Arizona.
 
On March 10, $1.2 million worth of cocaine and marijuana were seized in El Paso by the Border Patrol.
 
A report on “a trio” of weapons seizures by the CBP over the last week was posted in a press release on CBP’s Web site on Wednesday.
 
Testimony at the House hearings on Mexico has spawned a wide range of reactions by Congress members, including from Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas), who pronounced an “undeclared war” south of the border.
 
Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) said he believed the violence in Mexico was a greater threat to America’s national security than the situation in Afghanistan.
 
Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) said that she had been meeting with Indian tribes that have land in both the United States and Mexico.
 
“They have had trouble crossing the border for ceremonial purposes,” she said.