Valley chiefs lobby governor for greater say on border issues
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August 19, 2010 9:07 PM
By JARED TAYLOR, The Monitor

McALLEN — Police chiefs in the Rio Grande Valley have long said they need more state and federal money to combat border violence.

But in a region that boasts more than 1 million residents but just two cities with a population greater than 100,000, getting policymakers to listen has not always been easy.

Nine Valley police chiefs hope that changed this week

Gov. Rick Perry met with the top law enforcement officials – including Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia – during a closed-door meeting Thursday morning to discuss how area communities are dealing with the rise in drug violence that enveloped much of northeast Mexico this year.

The chiefs described the meeting as a first step toward keeping an open dialogue with Austin when it comes to directing more law enforcement grant money to cities.

Perry, meanwhile, said local police are the reason widespread violence seen in Mexico has not crossed into Texas.

"That river is just a river," he said. "The reason we don’t see the same type of activity is the people who are willing to stand between our citizens and those who are doing harm. We’ve got to support them."

McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez has recently criticized federal grant programs available to local law enforcement along the U.S.-Mexico border for requiring officers to assume tasks that fall within federal jurisdiction, such as enforcing immigration law.

He finalized plans for Thursday’s meeting, saying that in the past cities have not played as significant a role in policy-making as more organized law enforcement groups like the Texas Border Sheriff’s Coalition.

That group prompted border police chiefs to speak out at a May 2006 meeting in Laredo with chiefs from 45 Texas counties. But since then, little seems to have changed, Rodriguez said.

"Sheriffs’ organizations have had a role in the process, and for whatever reason, we have not," he said.


‘WE FEEL THE IMPACT’


Given state lawmakers will face at least an $11 billion budget shortfall when they convene in January, exactly how much more the state could spend on border security remains in question.

But municipalities are also feeling the hurt.

In recent months, cities across the region have watched their operating budgets diminish with less sales tax revenue, while fewer Mexican nationals from affluent cities like Monterrey arrive to shop in area malls.

That leaves municipal police departments with less money to hire more officers and pay them overtime, officials said.

"As the violence increases over there, we feel the impact," said Mercedes Police Chief Olga Maldonado, whose city reaps revenue from the area’s only outlet mall. "You can see it all over the Valley — not just here."

At a press conference after the meeting, Perry mostly stuck with the critical shots he’s fired at the federal government on border security issues, saying more funds are needed to help local and state authorities.

"I don’t think they understand fully what’s going on along the border with Mexico," the governor said of federal officials.

He did not, however, mention the controversial term "spillover violence."

Despite a sometimes heated debate here and nationwide on whether Mexican drug violence has crossed the border into the United States, some department heads conceded they have had to pull some resources away from less-severe crimes.

Putting more officers toward border issues pulls investigators more toward violent crimes and away from smaller violations that also erode the area’s quality of life, Mission Police Chief Leo Longoria said.

Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia said his city has seen a 10 percent jump in violent crime in the past year — and that only counts incidents reported to the police.

"Victims are not coming forward," Garcia said. "We are not getting a true gauge of what is happening in our community."


‘FAN THE FIRE’


Absent from the gathering were sheriffs from Hidalgo, Cameron and Starr counties — who have endorsed Perry’s Democratic opponent Bill White — as well as police chiefs from smaller towns along the Rio Grande.

Hidalgo Police Chief Vernon Rosser — whose city shares an international bridge with McAllen and sits across the river from Reynosa — said he did not learn of the meeting until after it had already took place.

Hidalgo has seen more property crime recently, but Rosser attributes that to the weak economy, not Mexican drug cartels.

"A lot of desperate people are out there," he said. "It’s just hard times, you know?"

Rosser said the governor’s appearance Thursday only gave "an opportunity to come down here and show his face before the election" in November.

And despite the pessimistic tenor of other local leaders, the chief said his city still has not seen any violence cross from Reynosa.

"If you want a big blaze, you fan the fire," Rosser said.

www.brownsvilleherald.com