Thread: AZ: Border Patrol Checkpoint Looks for Illegal Immigrants...

Border Patrol Checkpoint Looks for Illegal Immigrants and Drugs

Posted: March 6, 2008 07:36 PM PST


By J.D. Wallace, KOLD News 13 Reporter

As a ribbon of asphalt across the Sonoran Desert, Arizona Highway 86 cuts through the Tohono O'odham Reservation as it connects Ajo and Tucson. For many, it is the only route from the western desert to Tucson. But there's something new just outside the reservation.

"Good afternoon, U.S. Border Patrol immigration check. American citizen? Have a good day, sir," an agent will tell dozens of motorists who have to stop at the Border Patrol checkpoint less than a half mile west of the reservation.

The recently added checkpoint bothers Tohono O'odham Nation elder Ofelia Rivas.

"There (are) regulations you know that are keeping our people confined to the reservation," she said on Monday, with the checkpoint in the background.

She is not one of the confined. But she says that nation members who live in Mexico and try to go shop in Tucson are being turned away at the checkpoint.

"They are O'odham members and they are carrying tribal I-D cards to prove they are O'odham members," she said.

"(They are) Mexican nationals, basically, but they are TO(Tohono O'odham) members. If they come through a checkpoint, we have to determine what their alienage is, whether they're U.S. Citizens, whether they're here legally, whether they're here illegally," Border Patrol agent Jesus Rodriguez explained from Tucson Sector headquarters on Friday. He also said that violators are arrested. Rivas said that her relatives from Mexico were held and could have been arrested, but were allowed to return home.

Rodriguez said that the checkpoints are set up to catch drug smugglers and illegal immigrants. They target those coming off the reservation and areas farther west.

"It's an area that we think that there is some activity coming through," Rodriguez said.

The Tohono O'odham nation straddles 75 miles of international border with Mexico. Gates in that section allow its members to cross from one side to the other. While no one disagrees that drug and human smugglers come through the area, the O'odham also want to remain unified.

"It's true it might be an international border, but it's our home," Rivas said.

"That's their land, they're a sovereign nation, so you have to, and you have to not only be a good steward of the environment, you really have to work real closely with your neighbors," Rodriguez said.

With O'odham permission, Homeland Security is now building vehicle barriers. Some gates will remain.

The checkpoint will help look for who makes it past.

"So they may have to go off-road," Rodriguez said.

Agents said that they have already stopped loads of drugs that would have easily crossed the land.

"It's their problem as much as it is ours," Rodriguez said.

But some still don't like how they're trying to stop it.

"They should be at the border if that's their job," Rivas said.

Rivas showed her tribal identification card that allows her to cross the international border. Along with many other documents, it will continue to allow her entry into the United States until June 2009. United States citizens must have a Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative secure document for reentry into the country after that time. But Rivas worries that getting such a document will be a problem for those who have relied on the tribal identification card. Her own concern is that she does not have a birth certificate.

"The only thing that proves that we are O'odham is that we are enrolled members of the nation," she said.

Rivas has been involved in other issues in the Tohono O'odham Nation's land. Last year, she protested the construction of a toxic waste dump in Mexico near the O'odham village of Quitovac. The local government of Sonoyta has opposed its construction; however, Rivas remains concerned that the dump might still be possible.

http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=7979142&nav=14RT

Even if there is a Reservation, under treaty agreements with Mexico over the border, there is STILL A US/MEXICO BOUNDARY. It's sad to see they feel they have the right to go beyond the Reservation if they are Mexican. There are choices and unfortunately anyone born SOUTH of the border could lay claim OR there could be fraud under this system. If there are things these Natives need, then they better start making their lists and allowing fellow US tribe members to take care of their business for them. They still must somehow maintain the right to freely cross the international border.