Does patrol back off of border? [Agents told some areas too dangerous, Sheriff Dever says]

PHOENIX — Border Patrol officers are being told by supervisors to stay out of certain areas because they’re too dangerous, Cochise County’s top law enforcement officer said Tuesday.

“Agents have told me — this isn’t second-hand — that there are places where they don’t work right along the border because it’s too dangerous,” Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever told Capitol Media Services. More to the point, he said the line officers told him they are simply listening to what they are told by their superiors.

“There is concern at the management level, at a certain level, that it’s too dangerous right there on the fence,” Dever explained. And he said there also is the fear of getting into a confrontation with illegal immigrants and smugglers right along the border, which would create an “international incident … with across-the-border shooting.”

Keith Bocharski, a vice president of the union that represents area Border Patrol officers, said supervisors do tell staffers to use caution. And he said there are times that individual agents make decisions not to try to apprehend someone right at the border.

But Bocharski, of Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council, rejected any assertion of a policy, official or otherwise, of declaring certain areas unsafe.

“That’s the type of work that we do,” he continued. “It’s inherently dangerous.

That was underscored by Lloyd Easterling, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“To be 100% clear, no such order has been given,” he said in a written response to questions by Capitol Media Services. “And any assertions to the contrary are false.”

He acknowledged that officers may be advised to make tactical decisions about their activities in given areas.

“Situations may exist where an immediate capture in close proximity to the border is not always prudent due to terrain limitations and response time constraints,” he said.

“For example, agents may choose to stage their vehicles in a position that gives them a better chance to actually pursue individuals entering the U.S. illegally,” he explained. And he said it isn’t always necessary to go after people right at the border.

“The U.S. Border Patrol uses a combination of personnel and technology to interdict smuggling activity along egress routes from the border,” he said.

Easterling bristled at any contention that certain areas are considered off limits.

“Our agents and officers put their lives on the line every day,” he said. “This is not a cadre of men and women who avoid areas that are too dangerous.”

Dever stressed that he wasn’t saying there was any sort of general order. In fact, he said, the directions given to officers vary from location to location.

“It’s not every Border Patrol manager,” he said. “It’s not every place along the border.”

But Bocharski, who works in the Douglas area, said the sheriff’s comments don’t represent the real situation.

For example, Bocharski said, he may find one person just north of the border but knows there may be a dozen just across the line.

“I don’t want to put myself in harm’s way and get killed because one guy’s trying to cross back south,” he said.

As to the question of creating an international incident, Bocharski said there are constraints on what agents can do.

“Somebody can be standing in Mexico and throw a rock or even gunfire with immunity, basically,” he said.

“There’s nothing that we can do to apprehend the person in Mexico other than calling Mexican authorities. So whenever you’re close to the border, there’s always a chance of some type of violence.”

He stressed, though, that agents are still on the border, even “miles from town.”

“These guys would wade through rattlesnake pits to get the job done,” he said.

But he maintained that it has become clear that there are certain locations along the border that for various reasons, including remoteness, that Border Patrol officers are advised not to go. And some are within his own county, though he would not spell out exactly where.

Dever said that, if nothing else, pointing out specific locations would identify the officers who are assigned to those areas.

“The hammer will fall on them if they’re pinned down and identified,” he said.

This was posted on the NAFBPO Facebook page.

THIS IS FROM A RANCHER IN COCHISE COUNTY:
On Wednesday August 4th I met with Supervisory Border Patrol Agent, Mark Monin. He had contacted me a few days earlier to discuss the possibility of using a high hill about a quarter of a mile south of Highway 80 at mile marker 400 to establish a camp for several National Guardsmen. They wanted to establish an observation post complete with modern optics and night vision capabilities. The purpose of this post would be to aid Border Patrol agents in spotting and identifying illegal alien groups. The hill referred to is on deeded land so Agent Monin needed my approval to proceed with the plan. My first response was to question his choice of this certain hill, it being quite high and steep, 4 or 5 hundred feet above the valley floor and having no established trail or road ascending to the summit. His response was that those obstacles could perhaps be overcome. I suggested a smaller hill on the opposite side of the hiway with a road to the top and easily accessed. This seemed fine at the time and we agreed to proceed.
It seemed odd to me that the much talked about Guard was to be deployed 22 miles north of the border so I told Agent Monin that I had thought the guard was going to be sent right to the border itself. His response was that no suitable spot had been found to that point. They had looked at a hill on a ranch very near the border with a view extended 10 miles both east and west, but had decided against it because the (the Border Patrol, and National Guard) thought it would be too time consuming to get up and down it and it was a long way from town.
Actually it is closer to town than either of the hills he was interested in on my place, and it had a road and trail already established going up to the top. I didn’t get it. Picking a hill 22 miles north of the border with no access and limited view after passing up the chance to establish a lookout right on the border? The rancher who controls the hill right on the border (we’ll call this Hill #1) pleaded with the Border Patrol to establish this new lookout there. The rancher has witnessed countless dope loads and outlaws cross the line within shouting distance of Hill #1 and was quite dismayed when they chose to go elsewhere. Hill # 1 is about 21 miles straight south of Hill #2 (the hill first mentioned at mile marker 400 on Highway 80). Several days after my meeting with Agent Monin, a Ford F-150 pick-up with over 1000 pounds of Marijuana was found at the Fairchild Ranch. The pick-up had Sonoran plates and so overloaded with dope that both rear tires had blown out. The driver escaped. The Fairchild Ranch where the pick-up was found is exactly half way between Hill #1 and Hill #2. Because of the lay of the land this truck could have never gotten north of Hill #1 undetected had there been an observation post established there. Actually in the first week of August there have been 3 drive-through loads of Marijuana pass through this same area, all easily detected from Hill #1. This isn’t counting the numerous loads going through that area on the backs of human mules.

To me the significance of this is profound. Why would the Border Patrol and our National Guard pass up an opportunity to establish a look out in an excellent spot right on the border, only to choose a spot of lesser quality 22 miles north of the border? Is this mere coincidence? In my opinion, “No.” It is planned and deliberate incompetence.

On August 5th the Washington Times printed an article written by Kerry Picket. It states that 7000 ICE employees have cast a unanimous vote of no confidence in the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), John Morton, and the assistant director of the ICE office Detention Policy and Planning, Phyllis Coven. The Times article mentioned a letter posted by the Center for Immigration Studies and authored by ICE Union President, Chris Crane. Quoting the article, “According to CIS, the letter provides a litany of examples of how ICE’s mission is being skewed toward supporting an unflinching goal of amnesty by refusing to allow agents to do their job, allowing criminal aliens to roam free, depleting resources for key enforcement initiatives that preceded this administration, misrepresenting facts and programs, demeaning the extent of the criminal alien problem, and geared to support amnesty.”

When I read the Times article, it really hit home because I’ve been seeing and hearing these thing for years. I’ve had no less than a dozen Border Patrol agents tell me there superiors purposefully do things to make them unsuccessful. I mentioned this one time to Congresswoman Gabriell Giffords and Border Patrol Tucson Sector Chief, Robert Gilbert, and I thought they were going to have me arrested. After the meeting where this happened, I had an out-of-uniform Border Patrol Agent hug me and thank me profusely for speaking the truth.

This deliberate incompetence (I’m sorry, but putting a National Guard lookout post 22 miles north of the border, when there is a much better spot right on the border is incompetence) that we’re seeing here on the frontier isn’t the fault of agents like Mark Monin, or even the station or sector chiefs. This is a deliberate method of operation that comes straight from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. The border patrol and ICE agents and the Guard are mere pawns in a grander scheme that is being directed by a President who has repeatedly shown that he is the biggest open border advocate alive. Certainly traditional taxpaying Americans are something to be suspect. Since Rob Krentz’s murder on March 27, 2010, neither Barack Obama nor anyone in his administration has ever contacted the Krentz family to make any kind of a statement, even though Rob’s murder has been and still is one of the biggest news stories of the year! The minute Jan Brewer signed SB 1070 into law, Obama and his entire cabinet lit up like a slot machine making hay over a law that a majority of Americans support.

The petty fracas between professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley instigated the much televised beer bust that was no more than another photo op for Barack Obama – but no mention from Obama of the deliberate disenfranchisement of ranchers who have the misfortune of living south of Interstate 10.

Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, laud the imagined inequity of holding radical Islamic terrorists at Gitmo but refuse to make a statement condemning Samir Shabaz standing outside a polling place with a club in his hand intimating voters.

One can’t help but compare the current administration with King George III and the American colonies in the mid 1700s. Good King George miscalculated the mood and capacity of the Americans for reprisal and revenge. But perhaps I’m wrong. Maybe Obama knows what trouble lays ahead for him come election time. That’s why he wants all these Mexican outlaws to make it north to freedom and amnesty. Good ole Barack can get his buddy Samir Shabaz to protect all these illegal outlaws (who tramp through my neighborhood) while they go inside and cast a vote for the Democratic ticket.

While all this nonsense is going on the poor people on both sides of the border continue to suffer because of the current administration’s perpetuation of a bogus border policy that is doomed to fail. Hypocrites like Barack Obama, Janet Napolitano and Raul Grijalva cry about the poor Mexican people when the trail they are leading us down enables the Cartels to get rich and abuse the poor and innocent. And cowboys like myself get blamed for it.

E.A.
Apache, AZ
August 10, 2010

“If this doesn’t get peoples’ attention, FRiends, we are doomed as a nation.”

Arthur there is another good article today about life on the border....pay attention to this snip:

“We live miles south of the warning signs, so the forest is not the most popular tourist area. Additionally, the United States Postal Service recently halted mail delivery to the homes. The mail carrier had a scary experience involving an illegal border crosser. So, mail is sent to a group of lock boxes in the forest. I was informed by the post office that the lock boxes do get broken into. Therefore, I have my mail sent to town, about 20 miles away......
It is certainly baffling that the government acknowledges a problem with the warning signs and also refuse to deliver mail to the homes, due to dangers faced by mail carriers. Yet, according to what is presented by the media, the border is safe as it has ever been. Well, the mail used to be delivered to the houses, so the fact that the mail carriers won’t deliver mail to the homes tells me that this statement is not entirely true.

A UPS driver also had a scary experience here. Due to that, there is some talk of UPS also halting service to the area. UPS still delivers at the moment. Their brown truck resembles a brown streak these days. It roars through this area like a Pony Express rider with a band of Apache in pursuit. UPS driving at high speeds through the area must minimize their chances of a dangerous encounter with an illegal.”

Life on the Arizona-Mexico border: A look at life in my neck of the woods
http://tucsoncitizen.com/tc-off-topic/2010/08/20/living-on-the-border-a-look-at-life-in-my-neck-of-the-woods/

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