Thread: Texas has money to spend....

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Plan puts police at border to catch car thieves
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 10/04/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT


El Paso District Attorney Jaime Esparza spoke during the Border Security Council's El Paso meeting Wednesday in the City Council chambers. Esparza urged the council not to endorse state involvement in enforcing federal immigration law. (Rudy Gutierrez / El Paso Times)The Border Security Council helping Texas Gov. Rick Perry decide how to distribute about $100 million in border security money may create permanent southbound police checks at the international bridges, the council's chairman, Carlos Cascos, announced Wednesday at a hearing in El Paso.
The southbound checks would help reduce car thefts and other crimes in El Paso, experts said.

The council was in El Paso to gather ideas from local elected officials and community members on how the money should be spent.

At the end of the 2Ã¥-hour hearing, Cascos asked Texas Homeland Security Director Steve McCraw to work with local law enforcement agencies on the southbound checks project. State money could help pay overtime for the officers making the

Auto theft checkpoints
Do you think southbound police checks at the international bridges are a good idea?
Total Votes = 132
Yes.
90.15 %
No.
9.848 %

checks, Cascos said.
"That's something that could be done quickly, but it has to be on a full-time basis," said Cascos, the county judge in Cameron County. "Is it going to slow down traffic? Probably. But we have to change the way we do business."

Cascos said that the idea was a recurring one at the council's two previous hearings, Monday in McAllen and Tuesday in Laredo, and that it popped up again in El Paso.

El Paso Police Chief Richard Wiles told the 11-member council that El Paso's car theft rate was up by 35 percent this year, and that sustained southbound checks would help catch car thieves headed for Mexico.

He said sporadic southbound checks are not as effective because scouts at the bridges call thieves to report when


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police leave.
Cascos said that southbound police checks have been in effect in Cameron County for 10 years and have been instrumental in reducing car thefts.

Police would only check cars that arouse officers' suspicions.

Business and community leaders who told the panel about the negative effect of long bridge lines on quality of life and on trade at the border were perplexed by the announcement.

El Paso immigration lawyer Kathleen Walker, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said she foresaw a new set of lines made up of cars headed to Mexico and clogging El Paso streets.

"There have been some random southbound checks in the past, but you always end up with backup. Southbound checks? Is that really a security issue?" Walker asked after the meeting.

The long northbound bridge lines -- up to three hours for cars and up to an hour and a half for pedestrians -- were a topic at the hearing.

El Paso Mayor John Cook told Cascos that he would like to have been able to take him to Juárez -- not for a tour, but to experience the wait in line.

"I don't have two hours," Cascos joked back.

In McAllen on Monday, the panel, which includes one El Pasoan, Scott McLaughlin, president of Stagecoach Cartage and Distribution, heard the overwhelming opposition to the border fence.

In El Paso, the focus was on whether the state's money would be used to have local law enforcement enforce immigration laws.

El Paso officials generally urged the council not to fund such operations or operations that could be construed as targeting undocumented immigrants. At times, exchanges were testy.

When El Paso District Attorney Jaime Esparza said immigration law enforcement should be left to federal agencies, Maverick County Sheriff Tomas Herrera, who sits on the council, replied, "We don't want to be Border Patrol agents. There is nobody in the (Texas Border) Sheriffs' Coalition doing immigration arrests."

"It's not so much what you're doing but the perception of what you're doing," Esparza said.

Some state-funded border security operations by border county sheriffs have been criticized for resulting in many more detentions of undocumented immigrants than arrests of criminals.

A dozen speakers offered their wish lists for the border security money Wednesday.

Chief Wiles said he needed money to train new officers because so many of his officers are leaving him to take higher-paying jobs at the Border Patrol and other federal agencies. Since January, he said, 57 El Paso police officers have retired or left, including 30 who went to federal agencies.

"There's a burden on the taxpayer to pay for training for these officers just to see them leave," he said.

Training a new officer costs $25,000 to $30,000, Wiles said.

Terrell County Judge Leo Smith asked the council to keep the border security money in the counties, as opposed to sending it to state agencies.

"You'll never see a (Department of Public Safety) black-and-white off the highway patrolling the Rio Grande. It'll never happen," he said.

A lot of the funding has been designated for overtime pay, but Smith said that with only two sheriff's deputies, one of whom is on sick leave, his county doesn't need overtime money.

"We need money for boots on the ground," he said.

But like Wiles, Smith said he finds it hard to compete with federal salaries when recruiting officers.

Business representatives pleaded for the panel to do something about border congestion, including lobbying federal officials.

"Without a strong economy, we cannot afford the security we need," said Richard Dayoub, president of the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce.

Not all felt the same urgency.

"Public safety must overshadow economic concerns," said George Brenzovich, who lives on the county line between El Paso and Hudspeth counties. "I waited three hours at the Houston airport to take a plane to El Paso. What's the big deal?"

Chairman Cascos also said Wednesday that some money could be spent on removing vegetation from the river levees to improve visibility.

The Border Security Council may have more hearings, Cascos said, although not necessarily in El Paso.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131.

Big business wil make any arguement they can to see that we don't enforce our laws.