http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... der29.html

Border checkpoints at issue
Patrol's leader wants Ariz. sites to be permanent
Billy House
Republic Washington Bureau
Apr. 29, 2005 12:00 AM

WASHINGTON - The head of the U.S. Border Patrol told a Senate hearing Thursday that his agency is hampered because it is not allowed to establish permanent checkpoints on roads leading north from the border in southeastern Arizona.

No such prohibition exists for areas near the Mexican border in Texas, California and New Mexico, David Aguilar said.

But appropriations language that provides funding for the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector requires that any checkpoints be temporary and moved at least once every 14 days to various highway locations. advertisement

The Tucson Sector stretches across southern Arizona from the New Mexico line to 261 miles west and is the busiest corridor for undocumented immigration in the nation.

The use of such checkpoints, which force everyone on the road to pull over and be inspected, have been debated in southern Arizona for years. Most checkpoints are on major roads within 100 miles of the Mexican border.

Critics say they represent potential disruptions in trade and traffic.

But Aguilar said the permanent checkpoints in other states have proved effective tools in curbing undocumented immigration and smuggling in those areas.

Aguilar was pressed by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee's Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security subcommittee, about why such permanent border checkpoints on southern Arizona highways are prohibited.

"Appropriations language," Aguilar explained.

The lawmaker responsible is GOP Rep. Jim Kolbe, Arizona's only congressional member who sits on an appropriations committee, and who has opposed establishment of the permanent checkpoints for several years.

Aguilar said that he and Kolbe "have sat and debated the issue" but that nothing has changed.

Kolbe's office on Thursday issued a statement from the congressman that said, "(F)or the past seven years, language has been included in the annual appropriations bills regarding Border Patrol checkpoints.

"Permanent checkpoints are not the answer to solving our immigration problems. If the checkpoints are permanent, illegal immigrants will easily be able to sneak around them."

Aguilar disagreed. He said permanent checkpoints are effective, in part because they allow for improved on-site infrastructure such as sensors, communications and equipment, and computers to do background checks.