Thread: Tour shows border-security challenge

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... r0306.html

Tour shows border-security challenge

Mike Madden
Republic Washington Bureau
Mar. 6, 2006 12:00 AM


NACO - The dusty roads and barbed wire fences of the U.S.-Mexican border are nearly 2,000 miles from the ornate offices and hearing rooms of the Capitol, but this is where Rep. Jim Kolbe thinks his colleagues need to be as Congress considers expansive changes to immigration and border security laws.

So Kolbe, R-Ariz., brought eight Republican and Democratic House members and their aides to Cochise County this weekend at the tail end of an official trip to meet with Mexican legislators, hoping a tour might bring perspective that testimony and government reports in Washington can't.

"There's nothing more important than hearing from the folks here," Kolbe said.

For Kolbe, the trip was something of a last stand on an issue that has consumed much of his time and energy in recent years. Along with Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Kolbe sponsored a House version of a proposal by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., that would set up a temporary-worker program and allow the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants already in the United States to adjust to legal status.

Breaking with most GOP lawmakers, Kolbe opposed a border security bill the House passed in December that would make illegal presence in the United States a federal crime. It also calls for 700 miles of fencing between the United States and Mexico.

After 22 years in office, he'll retire in January, regardless of whether Congress passes immigration legislation. But by bringing lawmakers to Arizona, the most heavily trafficked state for illegal immigration, Kolbe said he was trying to show them why he believes more money for enforcement alone won't solve the problem.

"I don't know if we changed that many minds," he said. "If we could get 435 members to come down here and see this, that might do it, but little by little, we're making some progress."

During the tour, lawmakers flew along the border between Naco and Douglas in Customs and Border Protection Blackhawk helicopters, with Kolbe and Border Patrol agents pointing out trails used by immigrants to cross into the United States illegally and mountainous terrain that agents can't easily cover. They visited the Naco Border Patrol station Saturday night as agents processed more than 30 undocumented immigrants caught earlier in the evening. They also watched cameras track suspected border-crossers near the Naco fence.

During the weekend, members met with Cochise County officials, hospital workers and ranchers, hearing about the strain that illegal immigration puts on tight budgets.

All the members on the trip belong to a joint U.S.-Mexico Interparliamentary Group, headed by Kolbe, that meets annually with counterparts from Mexico to discuss bilateral issues. The delegation included members from Texas and California, who were familiar with border issues from their own districts, as well as lawmakers from as far as Erie, Pa., Rockford, Ill., and American Samoa.

Even for lawmakers from border states, the trip made an impact.

"I just can't get over how massive this is, compared to (the border) in California," said Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., a Los Angeles-area lawmaker who co-wrote the House bill's mandate for miles of fencing, including some in Arizona. "In California, it's so tiny. The prospect of a wall is kind of a tough, tough thing (in Arizona)."

Though Kolbe chattered constantly to lawmakers about the area's history and economy, the trip covered territory that isn't necessarily friendly to the Tucson Republican. He lost Cochise County by 6 percentage points in a primary election in 2004 to Randy Graf, who hammered Kolbe for not doing enough about illegal immigration.

While Kolbe's group toured Naco on Saturday night, Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., who disagrees strongly with Kolbe on immigration and border issues, was the featured speaker at the county GOP's annual fund-raising dinner in Sierra Vista.

"What the Congress needs to do, they need to sort of step back a minute," said Glenn Spencer, founder of the conservative American Border Patrol, who flew overhead looking for undocumented immigrants while the congressional delegation examined the border fence Sunday morning.

"Stop running down and looking at barbed wire, because that's silly. you can't learn anything, it's like taking a snapshot of a basketball game and asking who's winning."

Even Kolbe acknowledged the Border Patrol had gone out of its way to accommodate the lawmakers, with several public information officers from Tucson and a congressional liaison from Washington joining members all weekend. Five helicopters, three of which were borrowed from the Arizona National Guard, flew the delegation around Saturday, and lawmakers traveled in a Border Patrol convoy all weekend.

"There's no doubt, as with any agency, I don't care where you go . . . any time the boss comes you're going to put on the best show," Kolbe said.

But advocates for immigrants said they were glad Kolbe had organized the trip.

"We've got a lot of people that have these incredible illusions about what can be done and what should be done, and the facts on the ground always trump a theory, so we want them to know what's really happening down here," said the Rev. Robin Hoover, founder of Humane Borders, a Tucson organization that puts water stations in the desert for migrants.

And some Cochise County residents the lawmakers met just wished they could have left them with a deeper impression.

"They need to spend more than two hours," said John Ladd, a Naco rancher the delegation visited.



Reach the reporter at mmadden@gannett.com or 1-(202)-906- 8123.

To see what? Haven't the Minutemen already proven time and again that the illegals waiting on the other side to cross just go somewhere else or wait until the people standing around are gone before they cross?

It's just like Chertoff coming to the border in El Paso. There's nothing to see if you don't know where to look or what to look for.

What people did they talk with? The American people or the Mexican people?

This is a pretty lame article if you ask me. I'm glad Kolbe is retiring. That is one less corrupted politician we have to vote out of office.