Hamilton forum puts focus on northern border

[Brian503a]

http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2006 ... news07.txt

Hamilton forum puts focus on northern border
By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian


HAMILTON - The congressional road show on immigration policy and American border security rolled into and out of town Monday, leaving little in its wake.

Those who believe America's borders are too porous probably still feel that way. And those who feel the U.S. House of Representatives wants to write an immigration bill that flies in the face of America's immigrant history undoubtedly feel the same.

Montana's sole House member, Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg, brought the field hearing to Hamilton to hear from law enforcement and land managers about border problems and how federal land is impacted by current immigration and border policies.


The House is working on immigration reform legislation that is significantly different than a bill drafted in the U.S. Senate, and has also found itself at odds with the Bush administration. In general, House Republicans feel the Senate bill is too sympathetic to illegal immigrants already living in the United States.

Monday afternoon's hearing in Hamilton was one of 19 being held in 12 states as the House gathers information for its bill. The scope of the hearing was relatively narrow - border security and public lands - although Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., kept things interesting by occasionally veering from the federal lands focus to comment on Canadian immigration policy and offer his opinion about the recent shooting of a Mexican drug runner by two Border Patrol officers.

The Canadian borders, Tancredo said, are so porous they would allow Osama bin Laden, cleanly shaven and claiming to be a tent maker, to arrive in the country, receive $150 and be sent on his way.

That produced a few guffaws from the crowd, but more than a few winces, as well.

Tancredo, who chaired the hearing, opened the session by noting that issues along America's northern border with Canada are much different than those along the Mexican-American border, and he identified “terrorists and drug smuggling” as the primary concerns.

However, none of the five witnesses said anything substantive about terrorists. They did offer ample testimony about drug smuggling, and also made it clear that the best intentions sometimes don't lead to a safer border or better drug interdiction.

Both Glacier County Sheriff Wayne Dusterhoff and Jeremy House, a Billings police sergeant who supervises a drug task force in eastern Montana, said their agencies have considerable difficulty getting information from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. And House said investigations have sometimes been hindered by ICE.

“It's very frustrating,” he said.

That sort of information is instructive, Rehberg said afterward.

“For those of us in Congress, we need to hear about these areas where we can just do a better job versus areas where we need to make some changes with legislation,” Rehberg said.

In fact, none of the five witnesses said they needed any legislative changes to do their jobs better. None said they needed expanded authority to deal with immigration issues.

About the only real issue beyond cooperation appeared to be staffing and resources; nearly every agency had a relatively small number of officers or agents covering a huge expanse of the American-Canadian border.

And Jeff Copp, the special agent in charge of ICE in Denver, said his officers generate enough cases to where some extra prosecutors in the U.S Attorney's Office would be helpful.

Abigail Kimbell, Northern Region supervisor for the U.S. Forest Service, said her agency has 43 law enforcement agents who cover an area of 25 million acres in the region; only 15 of those agents are located within 50 miles of the border.

Even so, Kimbell said the Forest Service deals regularly with smugglers who try to bring drugs into the United States through public lands, and stands ready to cooperate with other agencies enforcing American law along the border.

Both Tancredo and Rehberg said they understood that agencies like the Forest Service do as much as they can in law enforcement, given their staffing levels.

“I understand there's a resource allocation problem,” Tancredo said.

Although some have worried that efforts to shore up America's northern border might lead to environmental degradation - there's even been talk of a fence between America and Canada - an agent from U.S. Customs and Border Protection said his agents just need good access to trails and roads that are already in place along the border. Tancredo repeatedly asked whether a “barrier” would help.

But Robert Harris, chief patrol agent of the agency's Spokane sector, said there is no reason to harm the other important resources like wilderness and national parks along the border.

“We just need trails, better access to the roads we already have,” Harris said.

Harris said better weapons in the fight against crime along the border are top-flight technology, good intelligence and good relationships between agencies and the two countries.

The principal issue, Harris said, is drug smuggling by air, a point echoed by other witnesses.

In that way, the hearing was less about immigration and more about border security and old-fashioned crime.

That didn't come as a major surprise to Bill LaCroix, of the Bitterroot Human Rights Alliance, whose members protested Monday's hearing with signs.

“We figured that it would mainly be about drugs, but nobody would really tell us what was going on,” LaCroix said. “We didn't even know who the witnesses would be until three days before the hearing.”

The human rights alliance was upset that members of the public weren't allowed to address Tancredo and Rehberg, and called the hearing “anti-democratic.”

“This is all about selling the House's Draconian immigration bill,” LaCroix said. “The question people need to ask is what freedoms they're willing to give up in the name of security.”

Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com

[Brian503a]

http://www.billingsgazette.net/articles ... earing.txt

Drugs, crime focus of field hearing on immigration
By The Associated Press

HAMILTON - Drug smuggling and border security were the focus of a U.S. House Resources Committee field hearing here Monday on immigration issues.

Several of the local and federal law enforcement officials invited to testify expressed concern about staffing and resources, saying a relatively small number of agents are responsible for large stretches of the border.

Abaigail Kimbell, Northern Region supervisor for the U.S. Forest Service, said her agency has 43 law enforcement agents who cover 25 million acres, and only 15 of them are within 50 miles of the border.

Even so, she said the Forest Service deals regularly with smugglers who try to bring drugs into the United States through public lands, and stands ready to cooperate with other agencies enforcing laws along the border. Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., requested the hearing to discuss border problems and the affect of immigration and border policies on federal land.

The House is working on immigration reform legislation that is significantly different from a bill drafted in the Senate. In general, House Republicans feel the Senate bill is too sympathetic to illegal immigrants already living in the United States.

Monday's hearing was one of 19 being held in 12 states as the House gathers information for its bill.

Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., said the U.S.-Canadian border is so porous, a cleanly shaven Osama bin Laden, claiming to be a tent maker, could arrive in the country, receive $150 and be sent on his way.

Tancredo, who chaired the hearing, repeatedly asked whether a "barrier" would help.

But Robert L. Harris, chief patrol agent of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Spokane sector, said there is no reason to harm important resources like wilderness and protected land along the border.

"We just need trails, better access to the roads we already have," he said.

Harris said important weapons in the fight against crime along the border include top-flight technology, good intelligence and good relationships between agencies and the two countries.

The main issue, Harris said, is drug-smuggling by air, a point echoed by other witnesses.

The fact that Monday's hearing focused less on immigration and more on crime was no surprise to Bill LaCroix, of the Bitterroot Human Rights Alliance, whose members protested the event with signs.

"We figured that it would mainly be about drugs, but nobody would really tell us what was going on," he said.

The human rights alliance was upset that the public wasn't allowed to address Tancredo and Rehberg, and called the hearing "anti-democratic."

"This is all about selling the House's Draconian immigration bill," LaCroix said. "The question people need to ask is what freedoms they're willing to give up in the name of security."


Published on Tuesday, August 29, 2006.
Last modified on 8/29/2006 at 8:39 am