'Battle at the border'
Posted: Monday, October 09, 2006
Graffiti, some as confrontational as "USA -- death and destruction" -- runs along the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez. Critics say a border fence would be a slap in the face of a major trading partner. (Photo by James Gregg, Arizona Daily Star)
Stephanie Innes, Arizona Daily Star
When he was 16, Gonzalo Llamas left his home in Zacatecas, Mexico, and illegally crossed the border by paying $20 to use an American citizen's passport.
Though the passport holder was older and balding, Llamas made it across and began his new life cleaning restaurants for $9 a job.
Now 50, Llamas is a U.S. citizen and owns a construction company in San Diego. And he wants the border sealed. The reason? Violent crime.
''You have your good people and your bad people,'' he says. ''I'm really open-minded for people to make a better life for themselves without causing problems to anyone. But with a few bad ones, we all lose. You have to have some control.''
It's a common perception along the border -- more security means more safety. But along with tougher enforcement has come a spike in violence against those who police the international boundary.
Assaults on U. S. Border Patrol agents, including rock-throwings, doubled from 2004 to 2005 as the number of agents increased by 4 percent, and now are occurring at a rate of more than two a day, federal data show.
As security tightens, smugglers dig tunnels under fences, disguise themselves as members of the Mexican military, and, in general, become bolder, authorities say. Around Yuma, they've thrown rocks and Molotov cocktails and fired paintball guns and real firearms at agents.
In response, agents are firing non-lethal pepperballs. They also use their firearms, though U.S. Customs and Border Protection won't disclose how many illegal entrants have been killed by federal officers.
''It's a battle at the border,'' says Tyler Emblem, an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol's Search, Trauma and Rescue unit in the Yuma Sector. ''It's not like five years ago. When we showed up, they would run. It's making it harder for these smuggling organizations to make a living, and we are the enemy.''
Data from the Tucson-based human rights group Coalicin de Derechos Humanos says 11 illegal entrants since 2003 have died of gunshot wounds while crossing the Mexican border into Arizona, but the records do not indicate who fired the shots.
Aside from brazen smugglers, it's difficult to predict what will happen to crime and violence in the United States if the border is sealed. Some worry more fences will create social unrest. Others say fences and other security measures have dramatically decreased overall crime rates in areas such as San Diego and El Paso, though such border-tightening strategies also can move crime to more remote areas with less security.
That's what some say has happened in Arizona during the last decade, as heavier patrols in California sent drug trafficking and violent crime to remote areas, such as the Tohono O'odham Reservation and Organ Pipe National Monument. Ranger Kris Eggle was shot to death at the monument by a Mexican drug smuggler in 2002.
Since Eggle's death, the National Park Service has spent $18 million erecting 30 miles of vehicle barriers in Organ Pipe. The monument has doubled its law enforcement staff, the Border Patrol has increased its presence and the National Guard also has provided help.
Still, one-third of the monument remains closed due to public-safety concerns. Researchers in most parks along the border now must be accompanied by park personnel or agree to a buddy system and must check in with park officials daily.
Farther east, in Cochise County, Sheriff Larry Dever says his deputies now expect a fight when they see smugglers, who often are armed with high-capacity assault weapons with orders to protect their cargo at all costs.
The smugglers operate under the watchful eye of scouts equipped with sophisticated observation gear, Dever told a U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee this year. Failure to deliver is not acceptable and many who fail are executed, he says.
''Their way of doing traditional business, in this case smuggling, has been disrupted, and they take a hit financially,'' Border Patrol spokesman Todd Fraser says. ''Their response is that they become increasingly frustrated and turn to violence to get their smuggled loads through.''
Columbus, N.M.
Columbus, N.M., farmer James Johnson, of WH Johnson & Sons, owns 3,000 acres against the international border.
He's been threatened and has had guns pulled on him three times -- most recently in 2002.
In 1991, Johnson's father and uncle were held at gunpoint by two illegal entrants who stole their car. Johnson used to carry his own gun but stopped after he says federal officials warned him he was being watched by Mexican smugglers.
It's common for people to drive through the flimsy barbed-wire fence that marks the border and flatten his crops. One car recently ended up in a drainage canal. Often, the drive-throughs include high-speed pursuits.
The wide-open border is disheartening, Johnson says -- he'd like to see a security fence. It wouldn't solve the problem, he says, but it would help.
New Mexico has 1.2 miles of border fence -- near the city of Sunland Park. The rest of the state is divided from Mexico by fences made from three strands of barbed wire, which often are cut or run over by drivers.
The National Guard has helped drastically reduce vehicle pursuits in the area, Armijo says. But the soldiers' presence has given many Columbus residents the false impression that crime will end, he says. The police force has a tough time keeping up with the problems of a border town, he says, particularly the level of drug activity.
What's needed, Armijo says, is a better-working plan to allow Mexicans to cross the border and work legally. He also wants the United States to teach Mexico how to do more to help its own people. He says a big fence or a wall would create more problems in his community and for U.S. law enforcement.
''The more barrier you put up, the more force they are going to use to get across and you are just asking for trouble,'' he says. ''When people are desperate to go make a better life, a better living, they are going to do whatever it takes.''
Laredo, Texas
On July 11, the U.S. State Department issued a warning to border visitors that drug-related violence had increased and showed no sign of abating. Most of the violence, it said, had been aimed at drug-trafficking organizations, criminal-justice officials and journalists.
The worst was centered in the city of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, the agency said, where the FBI reports at least nine U.S. citizens have disappeared in the past two years.
One mile of fence divides Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and Laredo, Texas, behind Laredo Community College. College officials say they put it up with $350,000 from the Department of Homeland Security after drug activity hit the campus, including stashes of marijuana left on the tennis courts.
Calling their effort ''Operation Sovereignty,'' members of the armed Minuteman civilian patrol took binoculars and other surveillance gear to the Laredo area in September, saying they wanted to stop another terrorist attack.
''This is our most dangerous border town and that's why we selected it to launch Operation Sovereignty on 9/11,'' Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist said that day. ''The president could solve this problem tomorrow with an executive order and the Minutemen could go home. But until he does, we'll be here We cannot afford another 9/11.''
Still, Nuevo Laredo violence hasn't had a big impact on Laredo, Laredo Police Department spokesman Juan Rivera says.
''There are a lot of problems going on in Nuevo Laredo and we like to feel comfortable saying that those problems are staying in Nuevo Laredo,'' he says. ''We've been working for decades to keep Laredo as safe as it is now.''
San Diego
In San Diego, crime rates dropped significantly after border security in the area tightened with Operation Gatekeeper in 1994.
Per-capita aggravated assaults, burglaries, robberies and murders now are less than half what they were in 1993, San Diego Police Department records show. The Border Patrol's San Diego Sector says Operation Gatekeeper reduced crime by 82 percent.
Yet others question if border security was responsible for the drop. San Diego Police Department spokeswoman Monica Muoz, for example, says it would be inaccurate to assume lower crime in her city had anything to do with border security.
''It's because we've been so strenuously involved in community policing,'' she says. ''Nobody here would tell you our drop in crime is due to the border fence. A good number of people we arrest are not Mexican nationals.''
Also, the plummeting crime rates in border cities such as San Diego, El Paso and Laredo in the last 10 years mirror a national trend -- crime rates dropped across the country in the same time period, notes Pedro H. Albuquerque, an assistant professor of economics at Texas A&M International in Laredo. He studies border violence and has compared murder rates on both sides of the line.
''Basically, law enforcement on the Mexican side is not efficient. They don't enforce the law. But the American side has been quite successful in keeping groups out,'' he says. ''There is some exaggeration that living in these cities is like the front line of a war, and that is not really happening.''
With the border tougher to cross, criminals tend to stay in Mexico. When violence spills over, it usually stays in certain spots and among certain people, says Jorge Santibez, president of a university-based think tank at Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana.
''It's not a social violence,'' he says in Spanish. ''It continues to be a sectorized violence.''
Star reporter Brady McCombs contributed to this story.
Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at (520) 573-4134 or at sinnes@azstarnet.com.
When he was 16, Gonzalo Llamas left his home in Zacatecas, Mexico, and illegally crossed the border by paying $20 to use an American citizen's passport.
Though the passport holder was older and balding, Llamas made it across and began his new life cleaning restaurants for $9 a job.
Now 50, Llamas is a U.S. citizen and owns a construction company in San Diego. And he wants the border sealed. The reason? Violent crime.
''You have your good people and your bad people,'' he says. ''I'm really open-minded for people to make a better life for themselves without causing problems to anyone. But with a few bad ones, we all lose. You have to have some control.''
It's a common perception along the border -- more security means more safety. But along with tougher enforcement has come a spike in violence against those who police the international boundary.
Assaults on U. S. Border Patrol agents, including rock-throwings, doubled from 2004 to 2005 as the number of agents increased by 4 percent, and now are occurring at a rate of more than two a day, federal data show.
As security tightens, smugglers dig tunnels under fences, disguise themselves as members of the Mexican military, and, in general, become bolder, authorities say. Around Yuma, they've thrown rocks and Molotov cocktails and fired paintball guns and real firearms at agents.
In response, agents are firing non-lethal pepperballs. They also use their firearms, though U.S. Customs and Border Protection won't disclose how many illegal entrants have been killed by federal officers.
''It's a battle at the border,'' says Tyler Emblem, an agent with the U.S. Border Patrol's Search, Trauma and Rescue unit in the Yuma Sector. ''It's not like five years ago. When we showed up, they would run. It's making it harder for these smuggling organizations to make a living, and we are the enemy.''
Data from the Tucson-based human rights group Coalicin de Derechos Humanos says 11 illegal entrants since 2003 have died of gunshot wounds while crossing the Mexican border into Arizona, but the records do not indicate who fired the shots.
Aside from brazen smugglers, it's difficult to predict what will happen to crime and violence in the United States if the border is sealed. Some worry more fences will create social unrest. Others say fences and other security measures have dramatically decreased overall crime rates in areas such as San Diego and El Paso, though such border-tightening strategies also can move crime to more remote areas with less security.
That's what some say has happened in Arizona during the last decade, as heavier patrols in California sent drug trafficking and violent crime to remote areas, such as the Tohono O'odham Reservation and Organ Pipe National Monument. Ranger Kris Eggle was shot to death at the monument by a Mexican drug smuggler in 2002.
Since Eggle's death, the National Park Service has spent $18 million erecting 30 miles of vehicle barriers in Organ Pipe. The monument has doubled its law enforcement staff, the Border Patrol has increased its presence and the National Guard also has provided help.
Still, one-third of the monument remains closed due to public-safety concerns. Researchers in most parks along the border now must be accompanied by park personnel or agree to a buddy system and must check in with park officials daily.
Farther east, in Cochise County, Sheriff Larry Dever says his deputies now expect a fight when they see smugglers, who often are armed with high-capacity assault weapons with orders to protect their cargo at all costs.
The smugglers operate under the watchful eye of scouts equipped with sophisticated observation gear, Dever told a U.S. Senate Judiciary subcommittee this year. Failure to deliver is not acceptable and many who fail are executed, he says.
''Their way of doing traditional business, in this case smuggling, has been disrupted, and they take a hit financially,'' Border Patrol spokesman Todd Fraser says. ''Their response is that they become increasingly frustrated and turn to violence to get their smuggled loads through.''
Columbus, N.M.
Columbus, N.M., farmer James Johnson, of WH Johnson & Sons, owns 3,000 acres against the international border.
He's been threatened and has had guns pulled on him three times -- most recently in 2002.
In 1991, Johnson's father and uncle were held at gunpoint by two illegal entrants who stole their car. Johnson used to carry his own gun but stopped after he says federal officials warned him he was being watched by Mexican smugglers.
It's common for people to drive through the flimsy barbed-wire fence that marks the border and flatten his crops. One car recently ended up in a drainage canal. Often, the drive-throughs include high-speed pursuits.
The wide-open border is disheartening, Johnson says -- he'd like to see a security fence. It wouldn't solve the problem, he says, but it would help.
New Mexico has 1.2 miles of border fence -- near the city of Sunland Park. The rest of the state is divided from Mexico by fences made from three strands of barbed wire, which often are cut or run over by drivers.
The National Guard has helped drastically reduce vehicle pursuits in the area, Armijo says. But the soldiers' presence has given many Columbus residents the false impression that crime will end, he says. The police force has a tough time keeping up with the problems of a border town, he says, particularly the level of drug activity.
What's needed, Armijo says, is a better-working plan to allow Mexicans to cross the border and work legally. He also wants the United States to teach Mexico how to do more to help its own people. He says a big fence or a wall would create more problems in his community and for U.S. law enforcement.
''The more barrier you put up, the more force they are going to use to get across and you are just asking for trouble,'' he says. ''When people are desperate to go make a better life, a better living, they are going to do whatever it takes.''
Laredo, Texas
On July 11, the U.S. State Department issued a warning to border visitors that drug-related violence had increased and showed no sign of abating. Most of the violence, it said, had been aimed at drug-trafficking organizations, criminal-justice officials and journalists.
The worst was centered in the city of Nuevo Laredo in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, the agency said, where the FBI reports at least nine U.S. citizens have disappeared in the past two years.
One mile of fence divides Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and Laredo, Texas, behind Laredo Community College. College officials say they put it up with $350,000 from the Department of Homeland Security after drug activity hit the campus, including stashes of marijuana left on the tennis courts.
Calling their effort ''Operation Sovereignty,'' members of the armed Minuteman civilian patrol took binoculars and other surveillance gear to the Laredo area in September, saying they wanted to stop another terrorist attack.
''This is our most dangerous border town and that's why we selected it to launch Operation Sovereignty on 9/11,'' Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist said that day. ''The president could solve this problem tomorrow with an executive order and the Minutemen could go home. But until he does, we'll be here We cannot afford another 9/11.''
Still, Nuevo Laredo violence hasn't had a big impact on Laredo, Laredo Police Department spokesman Juan Rivera says.
''There are a lot of problems going on in Nuevo Laredo and we like to feel comfortable saying that those problems are staying in Nuevo Laredo,'' he says. ''We've been working for decades to keep Laredo as safe as it is now.''
San Diego
In San Diego, crime rates dropped significantly after border security in the area tightened with Operation Gatekeeper in 1994.
Per-capita aggravated assaults, burglaries, robberies and murders now are less than half what they were in 1993, San Diego Police Department records show. The Border Patrol's San Diego Sector says Operation Gatekeeper reduced crime by 82 percent.
Yet others question if border security was responsible for the drop. San Diego Police Department spokeswoman Monica Muoz, for example, says it would be inaccurate to assume lower crime in her city had anything to do with border security.
''It's because we've been so strenuously involved in community policing,'' she says. ''Nobody here would tell you our drop in crime is due to the border fence. A good number of people we arrest are not Mexican nationals.''
Also, the plummeting crime rates in border cities such as San Diego, El Paso and Laredo in the last 10 years mirror a national trend -- crime rates dropped across the country in the same time period, notes Pedro H. Albuquerque, an assistant professor of economics at Texas A&M International in Laredo. He studies border violence and has compared murder rates on both sides of the line.
''Basically, law enforcement on the Mexican side is not efficient. They don't enforce the law. But the American side has been quite successful in keeping groups out,'' he says. ''There is some exaggeration that living in these cities is like the front line of a war, and that is not really happening.''
With the border tougher to cross, criminals tend to stay in Mexico. When violence spills over, it usually stays in certain spots and among certain people, says Jorge Santibez, president of a university-based think tank at Colegio de la Frontera Norte in Tijuana.
''It's not a social violence,'' he says in Spanish. ''It continues to be a sectorized violence.''
Star reporter Brady McCombs contributed to this story.
Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at (520) 573-4134 or at sinnes@azstarnet.com.
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BORDER PATROL wrote on Oct 9, 2006 10:32 AM: