Thread: 4 S. AZ counties get $12.8M to beef up border security

Tucson Region
4 S. AZ counties get $12.8M to beef up border security
By Brady McCombs
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.05.2009
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Law enforcement agencies in Arizona's border counties will receive a larger share of federal border security funds this year, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security announced in Tucson on Thursday.
The Operation Stonegarden grant program will award the state's four border counties $12.8 million of $60 million being granted nationwide. That's 21 percent of the pie, up from the $9.85 million, or 16 percent of the total, Arizona received in fiscal year 2008.
The share of funds designated for the four Southwest border states increased to 76 percent from 59 percent last year.
"This, quite frankly, is where the risk is greatest," Janet Napolitano said at the JW Marriott Star Pass Resort, where she was for an appearance at a conference for Arizona and Sonora police. "I view this as common sense."
Southern Arizona law enforcement leaders said it's appropriate Arizona received a bigger chunk. Nearly half of all marijuana seized along the Southwest border is seized in Arizona. Arizona also accounts for half the number of illegal immigrants caught along the U.S.-Mexican border.
"We have a huge funnel here of problems coming through our border, so I think it's only appropriate we get a larger share of the pie," said said Tucson Police Chief Roberto Villaseñor.
"This is where the majority of the problems are right now," said Nogales, Ariz., Police Chief William Ybarra.. "We are the front lines."
The grant money has traditionally allowed law enforcement agencies to pay overtime and mileage and buy equipment to help the Border Patrol's efforts.
Starting this year, the approved uses of the funds will be broadened to integrate the program into the administration's larger battle against the cartel violence in Mexico, Napolitano said.
She said the program is being adjusted, widened and amended so that the funds can help border law enforcement "to assist and ensure that violence does not spill over into our border counties," she said.
For example, Stonegarden funds can now be used to activate part-time reserve and law enforcement, for travel or lodging at the Southwest border. The funding also allows greater use of overtime and deployment of existing law enforcement personnel. She didn't, however, go into more detail about what "greater use" of overtime would mean, and local law enforcement officials said they have not received detailed guidance.
At least one agency, the Pima County Sheriff's Office, is going to use the funds to help perform southbound inspections looking for guns, ammunition and cash at ports of entry.
The three counties within the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, Pima, Cochise and Santa Cruz, will get $8.2 million. Yuma County, in the Border Patrol's Yuma Sector, will receive $4.6 million, Napolitano said. Three tribes will also receive funding, including the Tohono O'odham Nation, which is located west of Tucson.
How the money will be divided among agencies has not yet been determined. Using the funds to pay officers overtime to work on border security is the most common use.
"It means a lot more people out there that I can go ahead and employ in areas where normally we don't have officers," said Ybarra, the Nogales chief. "And, we're hoping we are going to be able to get some equipment out of this."
While the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office focuses mainly on finding illegal immigrants and referring them to the Border Patrol, the agency also uses funds to handle investigations of deaths, burglaries and armed robberies when illegal immigrants are involved, said Santa Cruz County Sheriff Lt. Raoul Rodriguez.
Contact reporter Brady McCombs at 573-4213 or bmccombs@azstarnet.com.
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one would think, she, as arizona governor, would have known before going to washington that this was the most imporant thing and made the most sense. I cant believe it took her 5 months to figure this out