Border Patrol: Leave security to professionals
By Karl Anderson / For the Las Cruces Sun-News
Article Launched: 05/05/2008 08:05:47 AM MDT


ALAMOGORDO - The Border Patrol says while it appreciates the tips generated by watchdog groups like the Minutemen, it would prefer if border security were left to the professionals.
The Minutemen and a second group, the Patriots Border Alliance, are very familiar to the federal agency.

"We have tried to discourage them from operating," said Doug Mosier, with the Border Patrol's office of public affairs in El Paso, Texas. "We would prefer they leave this job to the Border Patrol because they are not trained, as our agents are, for the potential dangers that are very real on our border."

But Mosier was very clear about the rights of these groups to be where they are.

"They have the constitutional right to be there doing what they do," he said.

He admitted that while the presence of these groups has been discouraged, there have been no problems to date with that presence.

"We have had no encounters with either group that would cause us to deem them a hindrance," he said. "And to their credit, they have provided information to us on occasion that has led to the apprehension of some illegal migrants."

But Mosier debunked some of the information given last Tuesday at the Eagle Forum meeting by Bob Wright, president of the Patriots Border Alliance.

In his talk Tuesday, Wright said he was shocked when he visited the border to find hundreds of people there, waiting for the opportunity to cross illegally.

"Where and when was that?" Mosier asked. "We
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have never seen anything like that, nor have we even heard of anything like that."
Another subject Wright spoke of were alleged "sex trees," where women are literally tied to trees and raped on the border.

"Again, we have never heard or seen such a thing," Mosier said. "I am sure if this was factual, we would have at least heard something about it."

But Mosier did admit is has been and continues to be dangerous at times for women, along with anyone in general, who attempts to cross the border.

"We know that some are attacked," he said. "But trees? No. That is not true."

Wright also mentioned that drug cartels control northern Mexico, and that effects of recent drug wars near the border have spilled into the United States to some degree. "That is a question for the Mexican government," Mosier said. "I think they are the only ones who can truly answer that. We do not have evidence to validate that one way or the other, and I don't think that assumption can be made by anyone."

Mosier said any spillage into the U.S. from a drug war is also speculative.

"Drugs have been a problem on our borders for decades," he said.

"I don't think a current drug war has caused this to now become a problem. It has been a problem for quite some time."

http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_9158043