Border states declare crisis
Blaming U.S. inaction, Arizona, N.M. react to drug violence

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By Stephen Franklin and Hugh Dellios, Tribune staff reporters. Stephen Franklin reported from Arizona and Hugh Dellios from Mexico City; Tribune news services contributed to this report

August 17, 2005

NOGALES, Ariz. -- Saying their states are reeling from growing drug trafficking and illegal migration, the governors of Arizona and New Mexico have declared states of emergency along their borders with Mexico.

Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona has freed up $1.5 million in disaster funds to assist state agencies and border counties while New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson defended his recent decision to declare an emergency, saying states must take security into their own hands because the federal government has failed to fix the problem.

In response, Mexican officials have described the governors' declarations as exaggerations. They rejected the idea that only Mexico can solve the problem and called for cooperation between the two countries to calm the border area.

"My call to the U.S., whether it's to a state government or the government of President Bush, is that in place of pronouncements, we make proposals, in place of each working on his own side, we work together. Only like that will we be able to win [against the criminals]," Mexican President Vicente Fox said on Tuesday.

Violence, fueled by wars between drug cartels, has plagued Mexican border towns, leaving more than 300 people dead, including 110 in Nuevo Laredo, a city of 350,000 people across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas.

In Nogales, Ariz., Cochise County Sheriff Tony Estrada said, "This thing has gotten unbelievable," referring to problems linked to drug trafficking and illegal migrations.

"I have a jail built 31 years ago for 52 inmates, and today I have 110 inmates and 50 percent of them are Mexican nationals being held on state charges," Estrada said.

Spokesmen in Washington defended efforts by the U.S. and Mexico to stem violence and drug trafficking. And on Tuesday night, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza said in a speech to be delivered in Denver that immigration reform is "crucial to the national interests of both of our countries."

In her emergency declaration Monday, Napolitano criticized the federal government for "moving too slow" on border security. Her office said security is a federal responsibility, and the federal government is not meeting it.

The governor acted days after New Mexico's Richardson, a fellow Democrat, issued a similar declaration of emergencies in four southern counties: Grant, Hidalgo, Luna and Dona Ana.

Richardson complained that the federal government has failed to stem smuggling-related violence and said he would spend $1.75 million on security improvements in New Mexico. He even suggested bulldozing a Mexican border town popular with smugglers of people and drugs. Richardson is the nation's only Hispanic governor.

The $1.5 million in Arizona will be distributed by the state's Division of Emergency Management, and will go to state agencies and four border counties: Yuma, Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise. The money is coming from $4 million set aside annually for disasters, and this is the first time Napolitano has used the fund for border issues.

A few miles from downtown Nogales, which is separated from its Mexican sister city by a much-repaired metal fence, U.S. Border Patrol workers were processing the latest migrants caught coming across the border. About 1,000 migrants pass through the Nogales center daily, officials said.

Funnel point for crossings

Indeed, the 350-mile Arizona-Mexico border, much of which is only a few strands of barbed wire in places, has become the funnel point for illegal migrants, pushed here by high walls and stepped-up protections elsewhere. And as the tide has swelled, so have migrants' deaths. The Border Patrol's latest figures show 176 migrants deaths here so far this year, compared to 119 for the same time period last year.

In addition, Border Patrol agents in Arizona have seized 449,969 pounds of illegal drugs so far this year, up from 398,837 pounds at the same time a year ago, officials said.

The governors' actions as immigration reform seems to be at a boiling point, with different solutions offered from the White House to Congress to immigration activist groups.

Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl is backing a bill, for example, that would call for 10,000 new Border Patrol agents and force millions of individuals without documents to return to their home countries after five years.

In comparison, his fellow Republican from Arizona, Sen. John McCain, is calling for a law to let undocumented migrants remain in the U.S. if they pay a fine and take part in a guest-worker program.

With Minutemen groups vowing to return to the border to protest the flow of illegal migrants, and their foes promising to stand up to them, immigration is expected to be a key issue in next year's midterm elections, both nationally and at the state level.

It also is an issue on the Mexican side of the border, where much of the violence comes from a war between two powerful drug cartels battling for control of smuggling routes, officials say.

Fox has sent soldiers and federal police into several border cities as part of a program he calls Safe Mexico, but the program's effectiveness has come under criticism as the bloodshed continues.

In recent weeks, Fox launched a second phase of the security program after the U.S. government temporarily closed its consular office in Nuevo Laredo because of the violence.

Mexican officials deflect blame

Mexican officials regularly turn the focus of the problem back on the U.S., saying it would not be so acute an issue if the U.S. would adopt immigration reforms demanded by the Mexicans. Such changes once were being considered by Bush, but the issue was shoved to the back burner after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Out in the vast Sonora Desert, which stretches from Arizona deep into Mexico, there were reminders everywhere Tuesday that the area is a busy highway for migrants fleeing northward despite the risks.

Empty water bottles and food wrappers were strewn at sites where migrants often meet up with smugglers, and on one deserted road, an old van, apparently heavily weighted down, hurriedly sped off as visitors approached.

Returning from a long drive into the desert to fill water cans left for migrants, Rev. Robin Hoover, who heads a group called Humane Borders, reacted to the Arizona governor's declaration, saying, "We've had an undeclared state of emergency a long time. ... It is just one more sign that the border is broken and the state needs to fix it."

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sfranklin@tribune.com

hdellios@tribune.com