Thread: TX: State border security initiative show mixed results

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/4580240.html

Feb. 25, 2007, 1:10PM
State border security initiative show mixed results


© 2007 The Associated Press

EL PASO, Texas — Gov. Rick Perry's border security programs showed mixed results in their first year of operation, with crime decreasing about an average of 8 percent in border counties but increasing by as much as 38 percent in some of the region's more populated counties, the El Paso Times reported Sunday.

The newspaper, which analyzed two years of crime data, found that violent crimes including murder, rape, robbery, and assault dropped an average of 14.7 percent in the state's 16 border counties in the year after Perry's operations began.

Property crime also decreased by nearly 7 percent in the same year.

Perry's initiatives to fight border crime began in September 2005. He has since spent more than $24 million in state and federal dollars, primarily in border counties.

State officials said the statistics show that the state-led operations are preventing and reducing crime on the border, and are not a strategy to detain illegal immigrants.

But some state lawmakers and civil rights advocates have said they fear some local officers are using grants meant to combat drug-related and violent crimes to target illegal immigrants.

Smaller counties reported the biggest drop in crime. In Presidio County, crime fell 83 percent, from six crimes to one crime. In Hidalgo County, crime fell about 8 percent; violent crime fell more than property crime.

The El Paso Times also found that crime increased in four of the 16 border counties.

Webb County, which includes the city of Laredo, saw the biggest jump — with a 38 percent increase in overall crime, 10 percent more violent crime and 46 percent more property crime. Laredo neighbors Nuevo Laredo, which has one of Mexico's highest rates of drug-related violence.

El Paso County also saw a 2.9 percent increase overall, as property crimes rose and violent crimes dropped.

However, El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego said the three areas where he conducted operations reported a slight decrease in crime. Samaniego said the border security efforts may have kept crime from increasing more.

Crime also increased in Brewster, Maverick, Dimmit and Webb counties.

Perry's border security operations had their genesis in El Paso County, where Sheriff Samaniego developed the plan for Operation Linebacker, which received nearly $10 million in state funding. Under the plan, deputies are put on overtime to police expanses of rural areas that Border Patrol agents couldn't.

In February 2006, Perry launched Operation Rio Grande, making state resources available to sheriffs and centralizing intelligence communication at the Texas Department of Homeland Security's operations center in Austin. Most recently, Perry launched Operation Wrangler, awarding $4 million to 88 police and sheriffs departments statewide to increase patrols for one week.

The operations have raised concerns from The Border Network for Human Rights and other civil rights advocates who say the initiatives are being used to target illegal immigrants.

An El Paso Times investigation found that during six months, sheriffs participating in Operation Linebacker caught immigrants seven times more often than they arrested criminals.

Under Operation Wrangler, reports showed that officers turned over migrants to Border Patrol twice as often as they made arrests.

The operations have raised concerns from The Border Network for Human Rights and other civil rights advocates who say the initiatives are being used to target illegal immigrants.

An El Paso Times investigation found that during six months, sheriffs participating in Operation Linebacker caught immigrants seven times more often than they arrested criminals.

If Perry had made the effort to keep illegals out before, he might have fewer for his law enforcement folks to contend with now.