Posted on 05/12/2006 7:39:34 PM PDT by SandRat
BISBEE — Congressman Jim Kolbe said he would be “closely watching” the Border Patrol’s management of traffic revision points in the area after the officer in charge of the agency’s Naco station said that a permanent checkpoint on Highway 90 would be reinstated.
Kolbe has long opposed permanent Border Patrol revision points, which he says are predictable and ineffective. Instead, he advocates roving checkpoints and has inserted a provision into Border Patrol appropriations bills requiring the agency’s Tucson Sector to relocate checkpoints on a regular basis. “The law allows checkpoints, but they must be relocated at least once every seven days to prevent predictability and ensure the element of surprise,” Kolbe said Thursday.
“I will be closely watching the Border Patrol’s management of their checkpoints in the Tucson Sector to see if the current law needs to be modified in next year’s appropriations law.”
The House began on Thursday to consider the appropriations bill.
On Wednesday, Darcy Olmos, the patrol officer in charge at the Naco Border Patrol station, told attendees at a luncheon at Fort Huachuca that a checkpoint on Highway 90 north of Sierra Vista — in place for years before being dismantled last month — would be reopened in the near future.
At the time that the checkpoint and two others like it on highways 80 and 191 were taken down, a spokesman at the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector headquarters said operational secrecy prevented him from commenting on the move.
But on Wednesday, Olmos said the checkpoint on Highway 90 had been brought to the Naco Border Patrol station for maintenance. She did not offer a specific date for its return to activity.
The Tucson Sector, which includes all of Cochise County, is the only Border Patrol sector to have a restriction on permanent checkpoints. Agency officials have said that constantly putting up and taking down checkpoints wastes time and resources, and they advocate an approach that combines the use of stationary and mobile revision points.
They worked in the past to circumvent the restriction by periodically shutting down and reopening checkpoints in the same location.
Kolbe represents Arizona’s Eighth Congressional District, which includes all of Cochise County as well as parts of Pima, Pinal and Santa Cruz counties.
REPORTER Jonathan Clark can be reached at 515-4693.
Kolbe causes trouble from Bisbee
The thing that wouldn't leave.
Wonder if he took Barney Frank there with him.
Sheesh...yeah.
There was a pretty good article in the Tucson afternoon paper this week about how Kolbe's endorsement of Huffman is backfiring for the endorsee...
At least past January, he won't be in office.
We must make sure the GOP wins in November, or else people like Kolbe will be in charge!
Oh wait...
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