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EP sheriff to get backup

Louie Gilot
El Paso Times

The chunk of El Paso County that hugs the Rio Grande is a labyrinth of winding rural roads, neighborhoods of clustered adobe houses, pecan orchards and cotton fields. But on most days, only three sheriff's officers patrol the area from San Elizario to Tornillo and north to Interstate 10.

"I'd say the biggest challenge for us is manpower," Sgt. Christopher Paz said.

The number of patrols is expected to swell soon under Operation Linebacker, the initiative by the Texas Border Sheriffs Coalition to beef up security at the border, mostly because of an increase in illegal immigration and violent incidents near Laredo. The plan has the support of Gov. Rick Perry, who unveiled his own border security plan this month and will allocate $9.7 million in state funds to local law enforcement agencies.

In San Elizario, Carolina Amparan welcomed the added police presence. Amparan moved her flower and dietary supplement shop from Alameda Avenue to Socorro Road in San Elizario after the store was robbed at gunpoint two years ago.

"They fired a gun. I had a heart attack," she said. "Here, it's more quiet. I keep the front door open so the people at the Good Time Store can see that I am in. That's what we do. We look out for each other."

But other residents were uncomfortable with what they see as targeting immigrants.

"I don't think they are criminals. They are people like us. They just want to work," Jorge Ornelas said.

While apprehensions of immigrants by the Border Patrol have increased noticeably in the El Paso sector, the crime rate in the county hasn't spiked.

The five major violent crimes and three major property crimes went up slightly from 2000 to 2003, then declined. Murders, roberries, assaults, aggravated assaults and sexual assaults went down 7 percent from 2003 to 2004, and burglaries, thefts and auto thefts fell 17 percent. In the first half of this year, the latest statistics available, crime was down slightly from the same period last year.

Under Operation Linebacker, so-named because sheriff's deputies would be a second line of defense to Border Patrol agents, crime could go down significantly, Sheriff Leo Samaniego said. During a two-month trial of the program a year ago, crime fell 40 percent around Fabens compared with the same period the year before. Sheriff's officials, who did not want to give more details about the trial, attributed the decline in crime to the extra deputies working on overtime pay who patrolled the Lower Valley streets for the project.

Perry put aside $3 million for overtime pay, and El Paso sheriff's officials expect to get some of it soon. But to launch Operation Linebacker along the border would take $35 million, Samaniego said. If Congress unlocks the funds, El Paso could get 24 new sheriff's deputies. The county currently has 252 deputies, detectives and supervisors to cover 808 square miles and a population of more than 115,000.

The increase could mean that a place like Fabens, which has one or two patrolling deputies, would have four or five, Sheriff's Office spokesman Rick Glancey said. The new recruits would be spread out on different assignments so that experienced officers could work as part of Operation Linebacker, officials said.

Sheriff's officials said they don't keep track of how many crimes are committed by undocumented immigrants. About 30 percent of inmates held at the county jail are undocumented immigrants but many are federal prisoners held on federal immigration charges.

The men who robbed Carolina Amparan's store were caught, she said. They were U.S. citizens.

About 23,500 undocumented immigrants were caught by the Border Patrol's Fabens station trying to cross into the United States in fiscal year 2005. But human rights groups said many people also live quietly in the Lower Valley without immigration papers, some for decades. Those people may become afraid to call the police for help if they believe police officers or sheriff's deputies will report them to the Border Patrol.

"I certainly hope it is not the case," Perry said when he visited El Paso this month.

Neither Perry's plan to secure the border nor Operation Linebacker gives officers any new arrest powers. Enforcing immigration laws is outside the authority of police and sheriff's deputies.

But they can stop immigrants they witness crossing in the country illegally and detain them until the Border Patrol arrives. They can also call the Border Patrol when they encounter an undocumented immigrant while investigating a police call.