Posted on 05/12/2006 12:51:11 PM PDT by Spiff
Kolbe watching BP checkpoints in area
By Jonathan Clark
Herald/Review
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 has announced his retirement after facing years of angry protestors and shout fests at his town halls in his home district. The front runner in the Primary Election right now is Randy Graf - a true conservative. Kolbe, however, has endorsed a Kolbe clone named Steve Huffman. Just like Kolbe, Huffman is pro-abortion, pro-open borders, pro-big government, etc. With that endorsement, Huffman is getting a share of Kolbe's HUGE campaign fundraising machine. Graf will be fighting that campaign cash behemoth until the Primary. He needs your help. Go to votegraf.com and see Randy Graf for yourself and see what you can do to help.
ping
That's my Congressman for you
Soon to be ex-congressman, right? He's not running: so what does the replacement candidate say?
I was out your way in March...... drove all the way from east of Douglas where we saw evidence of illegals all the way to Nogales. We saw illegals in custody west of the Coranado park and on the hoof just east of Nogales.
Great country.
Based on this article, I would agree with Kolbe that permanent checkpoints are useless (except, of course, on the border, itself). That is, unless you place them on ALL points of entrance. Otherwise, the lawbreakers will just choose some other permanent path. Random checks are much more likely to locate offenders.
There are only a handful of roads that lead from the border North in this sector. There were permanent checkpoints on those roads and mobile checkpoints that moved around based upon what the Border Patrol was trying to do. ALL of the roads leading north were covered. Kolbe shut down the checkpoints on those roads.
If you talk to any Border Patrol agent, he'll explain the necessity of the permanent checkpoints. In addition, there's no excuse for a so-called Republican who allegedly represents a border district to remove a critical tool from the Border Patrol's arsenal of border enforcement tools.
The guy Kolbe has endorsed is a well-known RINO down here. The front runner in the contest is Randy Graf who is a well know conservative down here. Graf scored 43% of the primary vote against a well entrenched, extremely well financed and powerful incumbent. That kind of success is unheard of in such a race. Graf is pro-life, pro-border security, pro-family values, etc. He is one of the authors and organizers of Arizona's successful Proposition 200 and was a charter member of the Minuteman Project and has been featured as a keynote speaker at some of their big events. He is a Reagan Republican. The Kolbe clone votes with the Democrats, betrayed Republican leadership in the state house 2 years ago and voted to pass a big-spending Democrat budget. The Kolbe clone gets a 100% rating from Planned Parenthood as he is pro-abortion just like Kolbe.
And if Kolbe was right, and he's not, why aren't the permanent checkpoints outside of his district also effected?
You aren't making this clear: did Graf LOSE a primary with 43% of the vote? To whom?
Tucson Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol
Local 2544
March 23, 2006
Jim Kolbe Assists Illegal Immigration - Mr. Kolbe has done more to hinder the Border Patrol agents in Tucson Sector, and to help illegal aliens successfully further their illegal entries into this country than any other politician we can think of. Kolbe forces the Border Patrol in the Tucson Sector to move its checkpoints every seven days, for reasons only known to Mr. Kolbe himself.
You will not find one Border Patrol agent or manager who agrees with him. Without ever making one arrest or spending one minute patrolling the border he's a self-proclaimed expert on border law enforcement (riding in parades and having your picture taken with real Border Patrol agents doesn't count). He refuses to listen to the experts who do the job every day.
Alien smugglers utilize these mandatory checkpoint moves to their advantage. We could cite plenty of specific examples here, but we won't because we don't want to give them any ideas. Kolbe also directly causes inexcusable safety and health problems for our agents.
There are no safe checkpoints in this Sector because of Jim Kolbe. He won't allow us to build them properly. Our agents are inexcusably exposed to dangerous situations at the checkpoints every day because of Kolbe. This has been going on for years.
Despite all of his excuses and despite all his wasteful government-funded studies and "investigations" into this checkpoint issue, we defy him to give us one good reason for making our jobs so much harder and for making it so much easier for illegal immigrants to get into this country.
Local 2544 represents Border Patrol agents and non-supervisory employees in the Tucson Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, covering most of the State of Arizona. We are the largest Local in the Border Patrol.
Graf challenged Kolbe in the 2004 Primary. Graf was able to get 43% of the vote overall, and actually beat Kolbe in my County.
Ok, but you still aren't answering my question: if Kolbe is out---he said he is retiring---this time, who is the candidate?
This is one of the kinder things that the Border Patrol agents in Local 2544 have said about Jim Kolbe. The stuff they've posted about him on their website in the past has been pretty damning.
There is a Primary Election in September of this year. It will determine who will replace Jim Kolbe. Kolbe has endorsed a RINO to replace him. The voters will decide.
Wow, you guys have a LATE primary!! We already had ours.
Now you're defending Kolbe? That figures. Is there a RINO in this entire country that you're not going to defend?
Please educate yourself on the Border Patrol's tactics and their stated need for these permanent checkpoints and the damage that it does to their efforts to enforce the security of the border before you open your mouth again. I live here. I see the checkpoints go up and down. I see the effects. I talk to the Border Patrol agents as I have several who are my friends. And I've been tracking Kolbe and his RINO dirtbag votes and behavior for over a decade.
We had some IDF soldiers down here doing some training and when they saww the illegals roaming all over, there comment was "So you have a Palestinian problem also."
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