By TODD SPANGLER
The FREE PRESS

WASHINGTON – All 17 members of the state’s congressional delegation signed a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Thursday insisting that her department be prepared to pay the full costs for security if the trial of suspected terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab takes place a the federal courthouse in Detroit.

The letter comes after U.S. Rep. Candice Miller, a Harrison Township Republican, raised concerns about the Department of Homeland Security’s plans for securing southeast Michigan and Detroit in the event of a trial for Abdulmuttalab, who is accused of working with an al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen in a failed attempt to blow up an aircraft as it descended into Detroit Metro Airport on Dec. 25, 2009.

Unsatisfied with the reply the department gave Miller, the delegation wrote Napolitano saying it’s not enough for her to suggest that Detroit could apply for funding – especially from a source that the House stripped from an appropriations bill – and that Homeland Security will have to share its plan for securing the city and how it, not the state, will cover those costs.

“If the Federal Government pays for security-related matters for the New York trials, it must be prepared to do the same in Detroit,” the letter read.

The letter went on to ask whether Napolitano considers the federal government responsible for the security of the citizens of metro Detroit during the trial and how it intends to carry out that responsibility, requesting a reply no later than Aug. 28.