Good history lesson here, from one who lived it.
Posted on 05/29/2005 8:23:00 PM PDT by SandRat
HEREFORD - Stu Dutcher lives five miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border.
A field used by illegal immigrants trekking north is near his rural home between Hereford and Palominas.
The retired U.S. Border Patrol agent knows when illegal immigrants pass through the field. The area's "fleabag sensors," including his, sound an alarm.
"Dogs have different barks when its about humans, another bark when it's animals and a third bark they make just to bark," he said.
In some ways, dogs are more reliable than high-tech equipment because they help track the direction illegal border crossers go, he said.
"The only problem is they are so noisy," Dutcher said.
While dogs are good sensors, Dutcher said he is pleased to see the Border Patrol getting new and better technology.
The 63-year-old who once was the agent in charge of the Naco Station is not shy - "my mouth always got me in trouble" - about offering his view of the agency he once worked for, how it is managed and the border situation.
Border Patrol agent's job and management
The job of a field agent is the same as when he wore Border Patrol green, but it is different because of the increasing violence of those smuggling people and drugs, Dutcher said.
What hasn't changed too much is that some in the agency's top management, mainly those who don't wear a uniform, are out of touch with what is happening in the field, he said.
He saw some of the same symptoms when he served with the agency.
"There's no difference between the 'Puzzle Palace' and Disneyland West," Dutcher said. The Puzzle Palace is the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., and Disneyland West is the regional headquarters under which Arizona falls.
Some of the management problem is due to the massive changes with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, Dutcher said.
However, politicians, such as U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., stick their noses too deep into the daily operations of government agencies, he said.
On May 18, Kolbe announced in a press release support of the Homeland Security Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2006.
The $34.2 billion bill will fund the nation's third largest federal department and its more than 180,000 employees, Kolbe said.
Part of the bill is to authorize an additional 2,000 Border Patrol agents.
"America's borders must be secured to prevent thousands of illegal immigrants from crossing and they must be patrolled by trained and well-equipped agents," the congressman said.
But there must be close and continuing congressional oversight of the Department of Homeland Security, he added.
Oversight is necessary "because of the complexity of the DHS's missions and the challenges of management and operations," he said.
The department currently "is far from being as effective as it could be," needing strong leadership to tear down the inhibiting bureaucratic walls between the Border Patrol, Customs and Enforcement officers to improve our nation's security," Kolbe said.
But Dutcher said change has made the Border Patrol no longer "the bastard stepchild of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Being part of Customs and Border Protection is a better fit."
He knows Michael Nicley, chief of the agency's Tucson Sector, and the sector's former chief David Aguilar, who is now the top uniform officer in the Border Patrol.
Aguilar, who headed the Tucson Sector before Nicley, is a political appointee "and he will have a difficult time juggling the political thing and what he knows is best for the agency," the retired agent said.
As for Nicley, "Mike is nice, but he's still getting his feet wet," Dutcher said.
Both men, he said, are professionals and hopefully will do their job without getting too involved in the political game played by agency bureaucrats and members of Congress.
Dutcher said the problem is those in Washington, D.C., "do too much micro-managing."
Views on checkpoints
Kolbe, whose district includes Cochise County, has overstepped his bounds by dictating some of what Tucson Sector agents have to do, Dutcher said. The Tucson Sector is the agency's only area that cannot have permanent checkpoints because Kolbe added wording in a law prohibiting them.
Dutcher said the congressman cannot seem to understand that defending the border is not just having people along the international boundary. Defense in depth has always been part of the agency's operational strategy, he said.
In the past, Kolbe has said he doesn't believe permanent checkpoints are good, wanting agents to be put directly on the border. He prefers roving checkpoints.
"That doesn't work," Dutcher said.
Illegal immigrants can get around agents along the border, even if the agents were lined up within sight of each other, Dutcher said.
"If the checkpoints are operated at less than full time, all the smugglers have to do is to wait for them to go out of operation before moving their cargo away from the border areas," he said. "They have the time to store their cargo in stash houses and wait, for they know the checkpoints will close eventually."
The next line tries to apprehend someone who has crossed the border within miles of the international boundary before they make it to a major transportation hub and checkpoints.
Interior control, the third line of defense, includes stopping people at transportation hubs or rounding them up where their trip ends.
"If they get to rail, air or motor transportation areas, we're in trouble," the former agent said.
Many critics of permanent checkpoints say illegal immigrants can just walk around the vehicle control area. But, Dutcher said, they do not recognize that agents are keeping a watch to see what paths the border crossers used to go circumvent checkpoints.
Stationed in Naco
The amount of traffic, people and drugs has multiplied from when he began his job as a Border Patrol agent.
Dutcher reported for duty at the Border Patrol's Naco Station about two decades ago.
The former Marine Corps pilot and Arizona Highway patrolman spent four years with the agency in Southern California and another four years in south Texas before being assigned to Arizona.
At the time, the Naco Station was small.
"I was either the 10th or 11th agent at the station," Dutcher said. "We arrested less than a thousand (illegal immigrants) a year."
By the time he retired, Naco Station agents apprehended 2,000 a month. That number is even higher now.
A new station was built in 1989. Twenty-eight agents were assigned there.
In the early 1990s, the agency put pressure on the sectors in El Paso, Texas, and the San Diego, Calif. The Texas effort was called "Hold the Line." the California action was "Operation Gatekeeper."
As that occurred, Arizona became the major funnel for illegal smuggling activities.
By 1994, tighter access in Texas and California had a major impact in Arizona. Agents at the Naco station were taking 4,000 illegal immigrants a month into custody, he said.
The Tucson Sector was in a reactive mode, Dutcher said.
During his time as agent in charge of the Naco Station, he said he prepared plans and sought technology, only to be rebuffed.
State of the border
Dutcher said he believes "the southern border is going to pieces" because of years of inaction by senior management. Until the U.S. government decides it will control the border, the influx of illegal immigrants will continue, he said.
Some U.S. congressmen have proposed plans to revise border policies and create a new guest-worker program. Some include allowing those in the country illegally to stay if they turn themselves in.
"I don't like it. It's wholesale amnesty," he said.
In 1964, the bracero program ended. The program allowed for Mexican agricultural workers to come to the United States. Dutcher said the more logical policy would have been to keep the program and expanded upon it to allow for more workers in other fields to legally enter the United States.
As more agents and technology flow into Arizona, as part of the Arizona Border Control Initiative, Dutcher is hopeful the border will be better controlled than it has since the major influx that started more than a decade ago.
Phase I of the initiative was announced in March 2004 and targeted Cochise County. Phase II, announced this past March, has the West Desert Corridor as its main point of emphasis.
There are now more than 300 agents assigned to the Naco Station, which at one time was the number of agents in the sector, an area that includes all of Arizona except for the area near Yuma. Nearly 2,500 agents are now assigned to the sector.
Not bashful about expressing his view, Dutcher said the rumors that floated around that Border Patrol agents at the Naco Station were told to keep the number of illegal immigrant apprehended down to not make volunteers of the Minuteman Project look good is laughable. Agents are bound by their oath of office to disobey such an order, he said.
During April, Minuteman Project organizers claimed it was their presence that led to a downward number of illegal immigrants crossing the border.
Dutcher said he believes the civilian volunteers had some impact, "but not as much as they claim."
Rather, he said, the work of agents in the field, their increased numbers and new technologies are the main reason for the downward trend.
Dutcher has a split personality when it comes to controlling the border.
"I'm optimistic it will be done. At the same time, I'm pessimistic that the politicians will screw it up," Dutcher said.
Long read on the border situation from the view of a retired BP agent.
Good history lesson here, from one who lived it.
Cave canis! I like that.
Why can't the politicians keep their noses out of it and let these men do the jobs we're paying them to do? We all know the answer to that one...
He's wrong about the MMP not having a large impact.
They stopped the illegals cold for a solid month and proved that it could be done. Another upper echelon agent
loyally covering the *ss of his department.
"The $34.2 billion bill will fund the nation's third largest federal department and its more than 180,000 employees, Kolbe said.
Part of the bill is to authorize an additional 2,000 Border Patrol agents."
This is so insane, I cannot find words to show my anger .
"Another upper echelon agent
loyally covering the *ss of his department."
EXACTLY
"By 1994, tighter access in Texas and California had a major impact in Arizona. Agents at the Naco station were taking 4,000 illegal immigrants a month into custody, he said"
Gee Wally
Yeah, Beve
The BP's are catching 4000 a month out of 60,000 per month coming in. Don't they get a raise or sumpin??
Yeah, my middle finger, Beve
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
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