Thread: TX: Checking out a checkpoint

Checking out a checkpoint


Friday, May 4, 2007 9:34 AM PDT

By Kathleen Vandervoet

A group of Tubac and Green Valley residents traveled to Laredo, Texas, on Monday to gain a better understanding of the impact of a new Border Patrol checkpoint planned for Interstate 19 in the Amado area.

The group visited a Border Patrol checkpoint opened on Interstate 35 in April 2006.

A temporary checkpoint on I-19 at the Agua Linda interchange has been a controversial subject, with Border Patrol representatives saying it helps in apprehending undocumented migrants and seizing illegal drugs. Conversely, many residents and business people say it is sending lawbreakers into residential areas in Tubac and Amado as they try to skirt the checkpoint.

Carol Cullen, executive director of the Tubac Chamber of Commerce, Gary Brasher and Sam Chilcote, officers with the Santa Cruz Valley Citizens Council, and several others flew to Laredo to meet with Border Patrol representatives and with members of the Laredo Chamber of Commerce.

Interviewed on Tuesday, Cullen said she was speaking only for herself. The group plans to meet later and decide about issuing remarks on the Laredo visit.

Seven lanes

BP Chief David Aguilar has previously said he would like to see a new Arizona checkpoint on I-19 similar to the Laredo facility, Cullen said.

The Laredo checkpoint, north of the border in east Texas, has seven lanes. Of those, three are for passenger vehicles, one is a bus lane, two are for commercial vehicles and high-profile vehicles and one is an oversized vehicle lane, according to a presentation by Carlos Carrillo, chief patrol agent in Laredo. There is an office building and holding cells for men and women.

In the past, Border Patrol representatives have said that a permanent checkpoint such as the one in Laredo will protect officers from bad weather and will have the newest technology, along with computer and phone links that aren't available now.

They have also said that traffic might flow more smoothly with additional lanes, which can only be created in a permanent facility.

Workgroup

The idea for the trip came about after U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), whose District 8 includes Tubac, Green Valley and parts of Tucson, visited the Laredo checkpoint on April 2, Cullen said.

Giffords is hosting meetings to gather community input on the Amado checkpoint. The first meeting was last Monday. The next session is Monday, May 14, from 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. in Green Valley at The Villages Recreation Center, 400 W. San Ignacio Rd.

The workgroup, open to the public, may make recommendations to Giffords and the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector Chief Agent Robert Gilbert.

Cullen said that Ron Barber of Giffords' office set up the Border Patrol contacts for the trip to Laredo. After seeing the checkpoint, the group then visited the Laredo Chamber of Commerce and talked with 10 chamber members.

Although the intent was to learn what types of impact the checkpoint has on business, Cullen said, "They don't know what it's like not to have a border checkpoint.

"They have experienced them forever, as they said. There have always been checkpoints."

The situation seems very different here, and Cullen said that the looming permanent checkpoint in Amado worries many people.

"The presence of a checkpoint causes illegal activity to go around it. People, desperate to get into the United States, for whatever reason, will do what is necessary to avoid being caught through a checkpoint. So it's a safety hazard," she said.

"The only point we all agree on, Border Patrol, business people, is that in an ideal world it's best to secure the border at the border.

"We start to differ on whether law enforcement, because of what they have to do, have to be here, and we have to sacrifice," she said.

Local plane used

The Laredo trip was made possible by Nan and Richard Warden, owners of Farmers Investment Co., in Sahuarita, which operates Green Valley Pecan Co. Their company airplane took the group to Laredo.

Nan Warden said she felt it was a necessary visit. She said the business has operated in the area for 60 years and they do a number of things that they think benefit the community.

Warden said they expect to take more small groups of interested individuals to see the checkpoint. In her opinion, "all the checkpoints in the world are not going to solve the problem" of illegal immigration. She wants to see the government enact comprehensive immigration reform.

The group that traveled on April 30 also included Joyce Finkelstein of the Green Valley Coordinating Council.

Kyl supports it

In a related step, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) wrote that he supports the permanent checkpoint. In an April 11 letter to Sen. Robert Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, he said he'll oppose any provisions in the 2007 emergency supplement appropriations bill that would limit the authority of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to maintain a permanent checkpoint in the Tucson sector, or eliminate funding for this authority.

In recent years, the funding was withheld because former Congressman Jim Kolbe was against it and was able to have language put into the appropriations bills that prohibited spending on a permanent checkpoint. Kolbe decided not to run for re-election last November, and Giffords was elected to the position.

http://www.nogalesinternational.com/art ... /news1.txt

So the Chamber of Commerce is going to be running the boarder?

Dixie

Originally Posted by Dixie

So the Chamber of Commerce is going to be running the boarder?

Dixie

Why not? They're running our immigration policy.