Editorial: Giffords, Border Patrol forge workable consensus

Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Green Valley News & Sun

Residents and businesses in Green Valley and throughout the corridor between Sahuarita and Tubac deserve a medal for their persistence and patience.

They’ve prevailed in their battle to keep a huge, new U.S. Border Patrol station from being built near Amado.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., listened to local concerns and won concessions from the Border Patrol to keep the checkpoint near the current facility at Interstate 19 rather than at Kilometer 50 or 52 near Amado.

The interim facility near Tubac is nine miles south of Green Valley near Kilometer 42, far enough away to alleviate concerns about illegal immigrants and drug runners flanking around the checkpoint into local neighborhoods.

Chief Robert W. Gilbert of the Border Patrol Tucson Sector wrote to Giffords last week, saying the agency reassessed the location of the interim checkpoint and the size of the permanent facility because of community input and Giffords’ concerns.

“After revisiting proposed site locations, the sector has determined the interim checkpoint will best serve the operational requirements of the Border Patrol and the concerns of the surrounding communities by remaining at kilometer 42 or just south at kilometer 41.5,” Gilbert wrote. “This will ensure that operational adjustments and technology investments already made at the kilometer 42 site will continue to contribute to the effective mitigation of traffic associated with the checkpoint.”

Giffords’ decision to look carefully at the checkpoint issue unfolded over more than nine months. She asked two workgroups to analyze the issue and report to her and the Border Patrol. The reports allowed her to win concessions from the Border Patrol, a compromise that keeps a massive permanent station out of the area while allowing agents to crackdown on illegal activity.

“This is a significant concession,” Giffords said of keeping the facility near Tubac. “It will not please everyone, but I believe it goes a long way in meeting the concerns of the residents along I-19 while also giving the Border Patrol the tools it needs to do its job.”

Key factors in Giffords’ decision were statistics on the number of illegals apprehended and drugs seized. During the last year, the Tucson Sector accounted for 370,000 of the 838,000 border crossers arrested on the border. More than half of the marijuana, 900,000 pounds, was found in Southern Arizona.

“The Tucson Sector is the weakest link in our nation’s enforcement system,” she said. “Every other sector has far more infrastructure than ours, and most have checkpoints. There are 34 interior checkpoints between Texas and California. So it is not a coincidence that Southern Arizona is experiencing an unprecedented flow of illegal immigrants and drugs.”
Critics argued that permanent checkpoints are ineffective everywhere, a waste of taxpayer money. Giffords called for an independent review of their strengths and weaknesses, a move we support to answer questions based on facts, not anecdotes.

“Workgroup members recommend establishing clear measurements to determine the effective of interim checkpoints,” Giffords said. “I agree and have asked the Border Patrol to report to Congress every six months on apprehensions, seizures, levels of community violence, costs, traffic patterns and environmental impacts.”

None of these changes or scrutiny would have been possible without the public’s input at community meetings and without Giffords’ workgroup.

We’re impressed with the work, analysis and consensus.

The border needs to be secured. A stationary checkpoint near Tubac will not solve every problem. But it will be a second line of defense and cause less of a disruption to our lives than one near Amado.

Click Here to read the article in the Green Valley News & Sun