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Border proposal may hit local unit
Aviation branch may be broken up

By ERIC FINLEY efinley@sastandardtimes.com or 659-8262, Staff Writer
November 27, 2005

A Homeland Security Department proposal that aims to secure the U.S.-Mexico border could break up the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Aviation branch in San Angelo.

The branch comes with about 130 skilled jobs and adds millions of dollars to the local economy.

U.S. Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Midland, said he is opposed to the plan, which could take planes out of San Angelo and spread them to other locations along the border. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Aviation branch flies missions along the U.S.-Mexico border and in the Caribbean.

The operation here also includes a maintenance facility for federal airplanes. The branch is based in offices at San Angelo Regional Airport/Mathis Field, where U.S. Customs pays $15,800 a month in rental fees, and border patrol pays $2,100 a month.

The Homeland Department's proposal cuts no jobs but merely redistributes them.

A spokesman with the U.S. Border Patrol in Del Rio said he has not been briefed on any potential changes.

Conaway, whose congressional district includes San Angelo, said he thinks the plan is faulty because it puts too many people in charge of different missions at different locations. Missions now are flown from only four locations, one of which is San Angelo.

''If you have the same number of planes and one person responsible, you can cross cover a variety of missions,'' Conaway said. ''But if you spread the mission over 10 people ... it is a bit cumbersome.''

Conaway has the support of U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, who is a member of the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security. The committee passed a Homeland Security Bill earlier this month to strengthen border security.

Included in the bill is a provision to change ''inefficiencies and poor communication between the two main border security agencies,'' which could lead to the restructuring of operations in San Angelo. The bill also includes measures to stop the releasing of illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico, referred to as OTMs, in cities such as San Angelo.

The bill must go before the full House for vote.

San Angelo Chamber of Commerce President Michael Dalby, San Angelo City Manager Harold Dominguez and City Councilman Joe Holguin met with Conaway and Sessions in Washington, D.C., this month and discussed the issue.

Dalby said he used much of the same argument he made to keep Goodfellow Air Force Base from closure - San Angelo is a practical, cost-effective place for the federal government to do business.

Dalby said he understands the argument to have more federal planes closer to the border. Planes from San Angelo can fly to areas of the border in fewer than 30 minutes, he said, and do so from an organized, central location.

''You don't have to be smack up against the border to do that work,'' Dalby said. ''...We feel like this mission operates well out of San Angelo.''