Diana recently signed a letter to the President of the United States requesting that certain military assets be utilized to help better secure the Texas/Mexico border.

September 1, 2010

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Re: Request for Transfer of Operational Control of MC-12 Aircraft to the Texas Air National Guard

Dear Mr. President:

With the conclusion of Operation Iraqi Freedom and the corresponding reduction in military forces and assets in Iraq, the group of undersigned members of the Texas House of Representatives respectfully request that all available military assets be utilized to help better secure the border. The level of violence and bloodshed on the Mexican side of the border is tragic. Texas does not have the resources needed to address this public safety and humanitarian crisis.

Specifically, we ask that as MC-12 aircraft are no longer needed in Iraq, that one to two of those aircraft be transferred to the operational control of the Texas Air National Guard along with related support and maintenance resources. The MC-12 is a military version of the King Air that is packed with electronic surveillance equipment. That surveillance platform, built by L-3 Communications in Greenville, Texas, has tremendous capability on the U.S.-Mexico Border. It has the potential to be a “virtual” wall and a force multiplier to assist in interdiction operations.

Assuming an OPCON transfer is not a possibility now, we alternatively ask that crew training for MC-12 be transferred to the Texas Air National Guard. Current crew training is conducted by the Mississippi Air National Guard. We believe it is a better use of resources for those crews to use the Texas-Mexico border to train for their overseas counter-insurgency surveillance and interdiction operations.

We appreciate the steps taken to date by your Administration to help Texas secure the border. If we may answer any questions, please contact Representative Allen Vaught, below, who chairs the House Subcommittee on Border Security, Health and School Centered Emergencies or Representative Veronica Gonzales, who chairs the House Border & Intergovernmental Affairs Committee.

Respectfully,

Representative Allen Vaught
Representative Veronica Gonzales
Representative Donna Howard
Representative Jose Menendez
Representative Allan Ritter
Representative Valinda Bolton
Representative Jim McReynolds
Representative Eric Johnson
Representative Stephen Frost
Representative Ellen Cohen
Representative Mark Homer
Representative Paula Pierson
Representative Diana Maldonado
Representative Chris Turner
Representative Robert Miklos
Representative Kirk England
Representative Kristi Thibaut
Representative Carol Kent