Thread: Border sheriffs give an earful, plea to feds

Published: 01.22.2007
Border sheriffs give an earful, plea to fedsFront-line counties need money, lawmen say
HEIDI ROWLEY
Tucson Citizen
The federal government should supplement the budgets of the sheriffs who patrol the U.S.-Mexico border, the sheriffs say, and today those 25 sheriffs will meet with federal officials to illustrate their daily struggle with a border that is not secure.
Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik said he believes there are parts of the Arizona border where "an aircraft carrier could come across and nobody would notice."
As co-host of the two-day Southwest Border Sheriff's Coalition in Tucson today and Tuesday, Dupnik said his deputies are "aggressively fighting" border-related crime such as drug smuggling and auto theft, but without enough resources.
If the counties along the Southwest's border made up the 51st state, it would rank first in federal crimes, according to a study by the Institute for Policy and Economic Development at the University of Texas at El Paso.
"We're concerned because of crime's impact on people," Dupnik said. "We're all greatly affected by what happens on the border."
Dupnik said the formation of the coalition may not make a dent in border crime, but it helps each sheriff by allowing them all to share strategic and tactical information.
"It's allowed me to share issues of common interest and provide one loud voice to the southwest border," Dupnik said.
Yuma County Sheriff Ralph E. Ogden said, "It also gives us contact persons so we don't have to reinvent the wheel every time we encounter a problem.
"From my perspective, sometimes you get embattled, and you think you are the only person in the world who has that problem. It's helped us realize we have similar problems," said Ogden, who is this year's chairman of the multistate coalition.
Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas will take turns hosting the 10-month-old coalition four times a year.
The 25 Mexican border counties and three others within five miles of the border came together in March after the Border Law Enforcement Act of 2005 was introduced in Congress. The act, which died on the House floor, would have allocated $100 million to the border counties to fight crimes.
The coalition gave a unified front in support of the legislation, but when the bill was changed to require the sheriffs to house illegal immigrants to qualify for the funds, the group withdrew its support, Dupnik said.
He said 10 percent of his $100 million annual budget goes toward border crime. Ogden said his deputies spend up to a quarter of their time dealing with crimes committed by people in the country illegally.
However, illegal immigration is not a focus for the border sheriffs. As state agencies Dupnik said, the sheriffs do not focus on immigration, legal or illegal, but on the drugs and escalating violence that spread from Mexico, across the border and into their towns.
Santa Cruz County Sheriff Antonio Estrada said he doesn't have the manpower or the money to deal with all the border issues in his area.
"Every time someone crosses over the border illegally. . . they get lost, they get sick, they get involved in accidents," he said.
And every time that happens, Estrada said, his deputies find the lost, aid the sick, investigate the deaths and write accident reports for the ones involved in crashes.
In Pima County, extra money would mean the creation of roving patrols that would target stolen vehicles, Dupnik said.
"A lot of smuggling takes place as a result of stolen vehicles," he said.
"It would put a significant dent in stolen cars and a dent in the drugs coming across the border."
Arizona's sheriffs have been encountering problems with drug smuggling for decades.
The difference now, Ogden said, is the escalation in violence by smugglers toward other smugglers, illegal immigrants and law enforcement.
Estrada said an increase in federal agents in Nogales has caused smugglers to use rural routes to bring illegal immigrants into the country, thus placing more demands on county sheriffs.
"You can't keep plugging the holes, because they keep going around," Estrada said.
For these sheriffs, border crime is not a trendy issue.
"What frustrates me and all the border sheriffs is the number of people who have come down from Washington and listened to us for 30 minutes, say they understand and then go back to Washington when they don't really have a clue what's going on," Ogden said. "We hope they listen."
Estrada echoed his sentiment.
"This is a problem that's impacting the whole nation," he said. "And we are right at the lion's mouth. We are right here."
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/local/39346.php

It all falls on deaf ears! They only understand votes and money!

I don't usually advocate land mines but in this case and survival of my nation I will.


I think land mines across the entire length of the border would stop alot of drug smugglers. If you put huge signs, in SPANISH of course, and let them know what their heading into they have only themselves to blame!


Just a thought. I know they could never do it. We'll just sit defenseless and let the criminals, murderers, rapist, pediphiles, drug dealers, ect.. keep us hostage in our own land!

Anybody have another suggestion?