Congresswoman wants lawmakers to hear directly from those impacted by the crisis on Arizona’s border
WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has invited a fifth-generation Cochise County rancher to testify at a congressional hearing on border security.
William McDonald will tell lawmakers of the challenges of living and working in a community that has been hit hard by the failure of the federal government to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
“I want my colleagues to hear directly from the people who are experiencing the border security crisis in Southern Arizona,” said Giffords. “Congress can’t come to Southern Arizona but Southern Arizonans can come to Congress and talk about living in a community under siege by drug smugglers and illegal immigration.”
McDonald will appear before a joint hearing of two House panels at 10 a.m. EST tomorrow. He is among seven people who will testify before the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and the Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Terrorism.
Details about the hearing are here and below.
Giffords, whose 8th Congressional District includes 114 miles of international border, serves on the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere.
Last week, Giffords invited Cochise County rancher Gary Thrasher to hear Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s address to a joint meeting of Congress. Thrasher and Giffords met with Calderón briefly after the address.
And last night, after announcing the deployment of National Guard to the Southwest border, Giffords spoke about border security on the floor of the House for an hour.
The congresswoman has been dogged in her pursuit of increased border security since the March 27 murder of Cochise County rancher Rob Krentz. She also been critical of the federal government’s slow response to the tragedy.
Giffords was interviewed about the need for increased border security today by CBS News and last week on National Public Radio.
The congresswoman also has introduced legislation aimed at cracking down on drug smugglers and money laundering by drug cartels.
McDonald’s family has been ranching in Southern Arizona for 103 years. He has held leadership positions in local and statewide cattle growers' associations in Arizona and spent twenty-five years as a supervisor of a Natural Resource Conservation District.
McDonald has won the Arizona Association of Conservation Districts' Outstanding Supervisor, the Arizona Game and Fish Commission's Outstanding Wildlife Habitat Steward, and a MacArthur Fellowship.
He is a founder and the executive director of the Malpai Borderlands Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to conservation of the land on which its ranching members live and work.
The McDonald ranch is located in the far corner of southeastern Arizona. The southern boundary of the ranch lies approximately 5 miles north of the Mexican border while the headquarters lie 7 miles north of the border in Sycamore Canyon, near the New Mexico line.
WHO: Cochise County rancher William McDonald testifies before a joint hearing of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere and the Subcommittee on Border, Maritime and Global Terrorism
WHEN: 10 a.m. EST, Thursday, May 27
WHERE: 311 Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C.