Thread: Border sheriffs plan to unite

Ontario, CA, 3/20/2006

Border sheriffs plan to unite
Friday meeting in El Paso will aim to form a new coalition

Sara A. Carter, Staff Writer

In an act of unity, sheriffs from every southwest border county in the United States will meet Friday in El Paso and pledge to protect the nation from a porous border as well as promise to provide a second line of defense for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents.

The Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition also hopes the meeting will result in its organization expanding. The sheriffs coalition, which currently includes 16 Texas sheriffs' departments along the southwest border, wants to create the Southwest Border Coalition at the meeting. The new group would be a combination of all of the sheriffs' departments within the 24 southwest border counties, located from California to Texas.
The Texas sheriffs coalition was formed in response to a lack of federal protection along the border in Texas, after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, chairman of the Texas sheriffs coalition, said the federal government has been slow to respond to the dangers and costs assumed by border county law enforcement departments.
The lack of federal response has left the counties with no other alternative than to join forces, he said.
''Basically, we're hoping to organize so we can all speak with one voice,'' Gonzalez said. ''It's true, there is strength in numbers. Instead of fighting each other we are going to work together to protect the American people from what we see as a serious national security risk.''
Gonzalez said that the federal government's abandonment of the nearly 2,000 mile southwest border, has put the lives of residents and law enforcement officials in danger. Further exacerbating the issue is the cost to state and local law enforcement departments that must contend with illegal immigration, human smuggling, environmental damage and narcotics traffickers.
Recently, the Texas sheriffs coalition initiated Operation Linebacker, which was conceived as a means to integrate law enforcement resources to increase both public safety and national security at major entry points along the Texas border. If formed, the new border coalition would likely expand the operation to the entire southwest border.
Representatives from Imperial County in San Diego are expected to attend the meeting and will speak about the growing violence in their communities, Gonzalez said.
Sheriff Larry Dever of the Cochise County Sheriff's Office in southern Arizona and Sheriff Todd Garrison of the Dona Ana County Sheriff's Department in southern New Mexico plan on attending the El Paso meeting. Both men provided testimony to House and Senate leaders at immigration reform hearings two weeks ago in Washington, D.C.
Dever's jurisdiction, which was cast in the national spotlight during last year's Minuteman civilian patrols at the border, includes 83 miles of the nation's most traveled corridor for illegal immigrants.
At the immigration hearings, Texas sheriffs spoke candidly to legislators about the increase in armed confrontations with narcotics traffickers and the growing violence against border patrol agents in their communities.
Sheriff Arvin West, of Hudspeth County, Texas, testified that in January his deputies had armed confrontations with men they believed were Mexican military personnel who were assisting narcotics traffickers across the Rio Grande.
Rafael Laveaga, spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Washington D.C., said that investigations conducted by the Mexican government concluded that the January incursion, which was filmed by Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers, was nothing but narcotics traffickers dressed up like Mexican military officers.
So far, Mexican law enforcement officials have not made any arrests in the incident, Laveaga said.
West said the continuous cover-ups by the Mexican government combined with U.S. complacency is creating a dangerous situation for both countries.
''From everything I've seen so far, our legislators are talking a lot but in all reality they're walking around doing nothing,'' West said. ''Our American officials cow down to Mexico because it's lucrative to make money off of Third World countries.''
West added that Mexico has the resources and capability to have a prosperous nation but ''it all boils down to the same thing - drugs and corruption,'' he said.
Last month, a 2005 report released by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime stated that 90 percent of all narcotics enter the United States from Mexico. Corruption in Mexico is widely considered the main barrier curtailing the country's growing strength of narcotics traffickers.
During the March hearings, Senate leaders suggested that local law enforcement officials need to develop relationships with their counterparts on the southern side of the border.
Texas sheriffs attempted to do just that when they returned from Washington, West said.
The sheriffs contacted Juan Carlos Foncerrada-Berumen, the Mexican consul general in El Paso, who promised them, last week, a list of Mexican law enforcement officials working along the southern border.
However, the sheriffs never received the list. Instead, the group received the Magistrates Guide to the Vienna Convention, which warned them to contact the consulates office and report any illegal immigrants arrested by U.S. officials.
''We have no relationships with our Mexican counterparts,'' West said. ''Basically, Berumen was telling us that we have to contact them every time we arrest an illegal immigrant. It was just unbelievable.''
Foncerrada-Berumen could not be reached for comment.
Sara A. Carter can be reached by e-mail at sara.carter@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 483-8552

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_3619785

I am so glad to hear this!

Quote:
West said the continuous cover-ups by the Mexican government combined with U.S. complacency is creating a dangerous situation for both countries.
''From everything I've seen so far, our legislators are talking a lot but in all reality they're walking around doing nothing,'' West said. ''Our American officials cow down to Mexico because it's lucrative to make money off of Third World countries.''
West added that Mexico has the resources and capability to have a prosperous nation but ''it all boils down to the same thing - drugs and corruption,'' he said.
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I think its wonderful that the sheriffs want to organize to fight Mexico's corrupt mess and protect our borders. 'Hats off' to them!
Shame on our government officials. As far as I'm concerned, Homeland Security is a worthless agency, run by worthless cowards, and unqualified ones to boot.
Mexico does have the resources to create a better environment for its people as well as business interests. I dont believe they have the capability though, or they wouldnt be encouraging people to migrate. Why should Mexico go to all that trouble when America has everything 'ready-made' for them to benefit from.
The drug cartels, gangs, violence and crime, is spreading, and OUR GOVERNMENT is beginning to PERFORM MORE AND MORE LIKE MEXICO. Good job Bushy.