Thread: Border Patrol buildup helps fuel the county economy

http://www.svherald.com/articles/2007/0 ... /news3.txt

BISBEE — New Border Patrol jobs created in Cochise County over the past five years have not only helped reduce local illegal border crossings, they have also spurred economic growth, experts and officials say.

The Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector headquarters reports that 909 agents were posted to the Naco, Douglas and Willcox stations as of Oct. 1, 2006, up from 699 on Oct. 1, 2001. According to Robert Carreira, director of the Cochise College Center for Economic Research, that five-year job-growth rate of 30 percent is more than double the overall countywide rate of 14.4 percent during the same period.

And not only is the Border Patrol creating new jobs, it is creating good-paying jobs. With salaries beginning at $34,966, not including overtime, the Border Patrol pays its entry-level field agents 30 percent more than the county’s median wage.

“This means Border Patrol agents have greater purchasing power, providing a boost to local sales and thus creating other jobs in the local economy,” Carreira said.

Those local Border Patrol agents who settle in the towns where they work have an especially significant impact, Carreira said. That’s because wages in Douglas, Willcox and Bisbee/Naco have historically lagged behind the county average.

Agents’ increased purchasing power in these areas not only helps local businesses, Carreira said. The influx of agents also creates a demand for higher-priced homes, which could spur development and job growth.

Melissa Clayton, president of the Southeast Arizona Association of Realtors, has seen the impact of Border Patrol agents’ home-buying on the county’s smaller real estate markets.

“It’s been a benefit for Willcox for sure,” she said. “I’ve sold several homes in Willcox (to Border Patrol agents), and I know that has been a major help for them because that’s a very slow, depressed market.”

Douglas is currently experiencing somewhat of a real estate boom, Clayton said, and it is being fueled in part by Border Patrol agents.

“I never hesitate to say that the fact that the Border Patrol is in Douglas because of illegal immigration has been a boon to this community,” said the city’s mayor, Ray Borane.

Asked if he had seen any economic downside to the growth of the local Border Patrol station, Borane, who has been critical of other aspects of border militarization, said he hadn’t.

Some in Bisbee who work in lower-wage jobs complain that Border Patrol agents and their higher salaries drive up local rents and housing prices. Carreira said that if such an effect exists, it could, in fact, have a long-term benefit.

“When high-wage jobs move into an area, the effect is to drive up wages in other jobs and to increase the demand for higher-quality, and thus more expensive, housing,” he said. “The living conditions tend to improve for everyone, making the community more attractive to live in.”

One local economy that has unquestionably suffered from the local Border Patrol buildup is Naco, Sonora. For years, Naco’s service sector was supported by migrants who came to the town to make an illegal border crossing into the United States.

Now, with tighter border security in Cochise County, the migrants are going elsewhere. As an indicator of the change, Mayor Lorenzo Villegas said the number of local boarding houses catering to migrants has gone from 65 to 10 over the past decade.

But Villegas said the economic hit may serve a much-needed kick in the pants for Naco’s business community.

“We’re looking for new sources of employment so that Naco doesn’t have to depend on this type of economy that is fleeting and unsustainable,” he said. “We need an economy that can grow regardless of whether people are coming or not.”

HERALD/REVIEW reporter Jonathan Clark can be reached at 515-4693.

Our Border Patrol can only make a positive influence on the economy in the long run. If people feel safe, they will be willing to buy homes there.

WILCOX, Az is the home office of one BP Agent Rene Sanchez who called the El Paso office inquiring into the events regarding Ramos/Campeon.

HE was the one who recieved a phone call from his mother in law who got a phone call from the mother in law of the drug runner. Thus the phone call to the DHS and his childhood friend, the drug runner. Thus the begins of the destruction of TWO border patrol agents and their familes. Makes one wonder where his loyalties actually are

IF it wasnt for this person, i dont think today we would know who Ramos, Campeon. and Davila (the drug runner) are and they would still be working and doing their job. the one we the people of the US entrusted these two heroes to do in the first place.