Feds feud while land is overrun

A draft Government Accountability Office (GAO) report has confirmed what The Examiner has been reporting since February: federal land managers are actively preventing the Border Patrol from sealing the southern border with Mexico. Worse, this nearly decade-old feud between Homeland Security and Interior Department officials is undermining the core mission of both departments. “The severity of the crisis along the border cannot be underestimated,” says Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, who joined other members of Congress to commission the GAO report. “This report reveals shocking details that illustrate how so-called environmental policies are contributing to the ongoing crime and violence along the southern U.S.-Mexico border.” Although the report is highly critical of Interior officials, it also points the finger at BP officials who refuse to press the issue. “Positive projects are being stymied at a local level by both the Border Patrol bureaucracy and land managers,” GAO found...more