Posted on 05/31/2005 5:29:06 AM PDT by Convert from ECUSA
U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints near the Mexican border are essential in stopping the flow of illegal aliens and drugs into America, say law-enforcement authorities, but permanent checkpoints in southern Arizona are not allowed. While Border Patrol agents in Arizona accounted for more than half of the 1.15 million illegals caught last year, Congress -- led by Rep. Jim Kolbe, Arizona Republican -- steadfastly has approved appropriation bills that prohibit permanent checkpoints along a 260-mile section of the Arizona border known as the Tucson sector. Tucson is the only one of 20 Border Patrol sectors nationwide not permitted to set up permanent checkpoints. Last year, according to the Department of Homeland Security, agents working at permanent checkpoints in the other 19 sectors detained more than 51,000 illegal aliens -- about 140 a day -- and seized nearly 450,000 pounds of marijuana and cocaine, valued at more than $700 million. Mr. Kolbe, senior member of the House Appropriations Committee, has vigorously argued that permanent checkpoints are not the best use of available Border Patrol resources, saying: "If it's permanent, then everyone knows where the checkpoint is and they just go around it." In helping to draft legislation blocking the creation of permanent checkpoints in the Tucson sector, which he represents, Mr. Kolbe has said taxpayer funds could better be used "towards additional vehicles, night-vision gear, sensors, lights, fencing or other needed equipment." While Mr. Kolbe has endorsed the use of "tactical mobile checkpoints that move from place to place," Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar, who formerly headed the Tucson sector, told a Senate subcommittee last month that permanent checkpoints south of Tucson would help agents apprehend more illegal aliens trying to sneak into the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
ping
And it's not permanent. They are required by law (written by Kolbe) to shut it down periodically.
Stupid, stupid, stupid. Other checkpoints are apprehending approx. 140 illegals per day. That means they are effective.
And the checkpoint you speak of (along with the ones on AZ80 and AZ83) seals off the only route between the border and I-10.
As for going around, well...the BP agents know the trails used to go around their checkpoints and have eyes on those, as well.
Closing the checkpoints gives the slave-traders carte blanche to move their cargo north without interference from the BP.
Protect our borders and coastlines from all foreign invaders!
Be Ever Vigilant!
Minutemen Patriots ~ Bump!
No, it isn't, not in terms of vehicular traffic. There are only three roads out of Cochise County between the border and I-10...and all three are sealed when the checkpoints are up and running.
Sorry, Kolbe is dead wrong on this issue. He's either listening to the wrong advisers, or...well, anything else is conjecture.
You are right of course. Money corrupts.
Pointing out that BP planned intermittent outages are a tool to goad the traffickers into gambling on when the checkpoint goes back up. It's true that they are "obvious", but that can be used effectively.
Thanks for explaining it more clearly. Now I understand how it works. The article's description could have been of pike fishing for all it's clarity.
Aguilar vs. Kolbe: he said, he said. Which one do you believe? I go with Aguilar, since he's the one on the job not just a puffed up pol.
Somebody is pulling Kolbe's strings. I guess he has ambitions..
260-mile is not a huge area?
It is huge in terms of land mass, but that is absolutely irrelevant when talking about the purpose of the checkpoints.
It is between 40 and 50 miles from the border to the main transportation artery, Interstate 10. Nobody walks that, the slave-traders use vans and pickup trucks to transport their loads north.
There are only three roads in the County that take you to I-10, and each has a checkpoint. And you can't just go around the checkpoint, because there aren't any roads that go around...not even jeep trails...that the Border Patrol can't control.
Think about getting food into your stomach...it goes from mouth to throat to esophagus to stomach. Close the throat, and you're not going to eat. It's the same here...the checkpoints effectively close off traffic north.
Despite what others on this thread have said, Kolbe is clearly not "all right." It's time to stop making excuses for anti-border-control RINOs, and start removing them from office.
Kolbe isn't just a problem for his congressional district, he is a national security problem and an embarassment to the Republican Party. He has had two strong conservative challengers in the last two Primary elections, but has defeated them. He outspent the first one by something like 20 to 1. He outspent the second, stronger challenger by 10 to 1. He was able to put a bunch of outright lies together in the last 2 weeks of the campaign and put them all over radio and TV. The challenger couldn't begin to counter that. That's why YOU and everyone reading this needs to go to www.votegraf.com and help the campaign by donating something to it. You can help send a message to the powerful groups in Washington who materially benefit from our unsecured borders by removing Kolbe from office.
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