Let’s end this shutdown and work on a smart border security plan, not a wall

President Donald Trump has a wall around his mind when it comes to border security.

He should listen to his own experts. At the end of 2017, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan came to my office. I asked the commissioner, a career professional who has served presidents of both parties, where he believed we could make the most effective investments in making our southern border more secure. He replied, “Technology and personnel.” I asked him to be more specific.

He told me about “Z Portals,” the trademarked name of a drive-thru, non-intrusive inspection system that allows our border inspectors to X-ray the contents of trucks, cars, buses and cargo containers. Commissioner McAleenan explained that this technology is critical to stopping those illegally shipping narcotics, contraband, weapons and even persons into our country.

How widespread is this technology at our ports of entry? According to the Department of Homeland Security, inspection systems such as Z Portals examine 98 percent of rail cars but only 18 percent of arriving cargo, passenger vehicles and sea containers combined.

We are facing the worst drug epidemic in our nation’s history: Opioids such as heroin and fentanyl have hit America hard, leading to so many deaths that life expectancy rates are falling. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that fentanyl is now the deadliest narcotic in America.

The Drug Enforcement Administration reports that fentanyl comes to the U.S. in parcel packages from China and is also smuggled across the southwest border from Mexico. How does the fentanyl from Mexico flow across the border? According to the DEA, Mexican cartels “most commonly” smuggle fentanyl concealed in private vehicles through legal ports of entry on our southwest border. And still we only inspect fewer than 1 of 5 vehicles.

How practical would it be to scan more vehicles and cargo coming into the United States? DHS tells Congress these inspection systems can examine cargo and passenger vehicles for contraband and weapons in as little as eight minutes versus 120 minutes for a physical exam. Last December at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, I asked Commissioner McAleenan how much it would cost to buy the technology to give us 100 percent vehicle and cargo scanning. He said $300 million per year. The Trump administration, while it fights for billions for a wall that the Mexicans were supposed to pay for, only asked Congress for $44 million for non-intrusive inspection technology.

At one of our ill-fated leaders’ meetings with the president discussing the wall and the government shutdown, I raised this issue and asked the president why his administration was underfunding this important technology. He said he did not know but was prepared to fund it at a higher level.

Putting more scanning technology in place to stop the flow of fentanyl and other deadly narcotics to communities in Illinois and across the nation would be money well-spent and supported by members of Congress in both parties. If we could end the president’s shutdown and his nonstop campaign for his wall, there are important things we could accomplish on a bipartisan basis to make America safer.