By  Bill Hess

Sierra Vista Herald

9/16/10

SIERRA VISTA —  Are U.S. Border Patrol agents being properly deployed in Arizona? That’s a question Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords wants a nonpartisan federal agency  to answer.

She and Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chairs the House Committee on Homeland Security, signed a letter on Aug. 26 asking the Government Accountability Office to study “the approach used by the Office of Border Patrol … to deploy and manage Border Patrol personnel and resources to secure the U.S.-Mexico border in the state of Arizona.”

Giffords spokesman C.J. Karamargin said the action was the aftermath of a July 9 meeting the two members of Congress held in Douglas. The meeting focused on  border issues, and some people expressed concerns the Border Patrol does not do its work on the international boundary but rather uses a “defense-in-depth” strategy “up to 100 miles away from the border,” according to the letter to the GAO.

The congresswoman’s Republican opponent for the Congressional District 8 seat, which includes all of Cochise County, said the GAO letter is election-year politics.

“Gabrielle Giffords opposes the border fence and Giffords is against (Arizona) Senate Bill 1070, so now she is trying to distract the voters from her record of failing to protect Arizona,” Jesse Kelly said Wednesday.

Now, even though the congresswoman was against the fence in the past, she is expressing concerns that Border Patrol agents are not along the barrier, which has proven successful in the Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector. There, agents along the fences have “proven successful in securing the border,” he said.

However, some Cochise County residents who live along the border have said Giffords has been trying to have the border secured. Among those supporters is veterinarian Dr. Gary Thrasher, who says the congresswoman has been working hard on border issues.

He supports her re-election by being in a TV ad.

He said he constantly has questioned officials with the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector “to explain, reconsider and re-evaluate the strategy, to no avail.”

During the July town hall meeting covered by the Herald/Review in the border city of Douglas, the consensus of those attending was that the situation will not improve until federal agents inundate the border instead of patrolling miles from it.

At the meeting, Thompson listened intently and when Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever told him about the lack of ability to communicate in rural areas, the Mississippi congressman said he was told the issue had been handled. Saying he doesn’t like to be “told a lot of bull,” he promised he would look into the issue.

The sheriff’s view

As for requesting a GAO study of the Border Patrol strategy in Arizona, Dever said something must be done to get the attention of others in the administration and Congress.

People who live in rural Arizona, especially in the border areas, want security, and although there are Border Patrol agents on the international boundary, more are “many, many miles deep into the interior (of the state),” the sheriff said.

If a GAO study will turn the situation around, it will be a good thing, he said.

“There seems to be a disappointing number of people deployed along the border,” Dever noted.

The congresswoman noted in a Wednesday news release announcing the GAO letter that while there have been statements that the border is more secure than it ever has been, “serious questions have been raised by Southeastern Arizonans about the Border Patrol’s deployment strategies.”

In the letter to GAO, she and Thompson stated that the defense-in-depth strategy prioritizes border enforcement in urban and more populated areas, “which has diverted drug and human smuggling activities to more remote areas.”

Even with increased numbers of agents and assets, the area covered by the Tucson Sector of the Border Patrol continues to be the primary entry point for illegal immigrants and drugs, according to the letter.

“Ranchers and residents in rural areas in particular report an increase in burglaries, home invasions, cut fences, broken water lines and threats,” the letter states.

Earlier this year, Cochise County rancher Robert Krentz was killed, allegedly by a suspected illegal crosser from Mexico. The case is still under investigation.

THE REQUEST

In an Aug. 26 letter to the Government Accounting Office, two Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives — Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi — requested:

• A determination of how the Border Patrol deploys agents in Arizona and how it compares to strategies in gaining control in Texas and California.

• The extent to which the deployment strategies have increased the rate of apprehensions in both rural and urban areas of Arizona.

• How the Border Patrol decides when and at what level to redeploy staff and resources in response to changes in illegal activities in specific locations.