Arizona sheriffs are pushing state officials to increase funding for border security.
Last week, the Arizona Sheriff’s Association sent separate letters to Governor Katie Hobbs and legislative leaders. Those letters requested Arizona to “double its contribution to local law enforcement to allow (sheriffs) to deploy more resources to interdict human and drug smugglers.”
The sheriffs opened their letter by pointing to the $12 million included in the 2023-24 state budget “to help law enforcement handle crime related to illegal border crossers.” Though these sheriffs were “grateful for the assistance,” they asserted that “the situation at the border has only worsened” since the funds were negotiated by the Arizona Legislature and Governor Hobbs.
David Rhodes, the President of the Association and the Yavapai County Sheriff told AZ Free News, “It is our local communities that are grappling day in and day out with the impacts of an insecure border. We are not just pulling over DUI suspects or patrolling neighborhoods. Sheriffs deputies across the state have become quasi-border patrol agents, seizing fentanyl pills, and arresting human traffickers. And the problem isn’t getting better, it is only getting worse.”
In their letter, the sheriffs wrote, “As Governor and the leaders of our Legislature, we understand you must balance spending priorities. And the federal government holds the ultimate responsibility for securing our border and stanching the flow of drugs and illegal crossers. However, can there be any doubt about the federal government’s abject failure in this area? Your eyes haven’t deceived you. Indeed, daily the media attention highlights the disastrous impacts of an open border. The scourge of fentanyl spreads like a cancer in communities large and small. Much of that deadly drug flows through Arizona. Arizona sheriff’s deputies seize millions of fentanyl pills every year. And the smuggling through our state’s highways shows no signs of abating.”
Just last month, a Cochise County Deputy Sheriff was seriously injured as he attempted to stop a suspected smuggler, who was trying to evade apprehension in her vehicle. When talking to local media about the rash of similar incidents plaguing his county and department, Sheriff Mark Dannels said, “Just this week alone, I’ve had a patrol car damaged, I’ve had two officers, deputies that were trying to be run over by smuggler drivers. This is every day down here.”
The sheriffs promised that, if the legislature were to appropriate more funds for border security in the next budget, they would use it for “more deputies patrolling the roads, more canine handlers and dogs to sniff out drugs, and better technology to match the wealth and equipment used by the cartels.”
As they ended their letter, the sheriffs added a plea for state leaders to heed their calls, saying, “No amount of state money will allow us to seal the 200-mile-long border to all illegal activity. But by making a small investment, Arizona will at least make a dent while improving the safety of our local communities. As this year demonstrated, our state leaders believe border security through effective law enforcement is worth an investment. We hope you see the wisdom in furthering that financial commitment.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels says that no border patrol officials can attest that the border is secure.
Dannels testified this during a joint congressional hearing in Sierra Vista, Arizona by the House Oversight and Judiciary committees on Tuesday. Dannels further accused the Biden administration of playing word games about the state of the border to foster a false sense of security among the American people.
“It’s a shell game, it’s a word game to make the American people feel safe when we know here at the community level — especially here in Cochise County — that that’s a false narrative,” said Dannels.
It’s clear from the @GOPoversight and @JudiciaryGOP joint field hearing about the border that @POTUS won’t meet with sheriffs in America or secure our borders, but is willing to create a false narrative about the safety of our communities and nation. #nc11#ncpolhttps://t.co/1dgRAfyH09
— Congressman Chuck Edwards (@RepEdwards) August 9, 2023
Dannels said he attempted to deliver a 16-point plan to secure the border, compiled by sheriffs nationwide, to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
According to Dannels, Mayorkas later claimed to never have seen the plan. Present at the hearing were Arizona Reps. Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ-06) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05), as well as Reps. William Timmons (R-SC-04), Chuck Edwards (R-NC-11), and Glenn Grothman (R-WI-06).
Biggs remarked that Democrats refused to attend the hearing, which he lamented as prioritization of party politics over solving the border crisis.
Democrats’ uniform absence from Tuesday’s congressional hearing, as well as the Biden administration’s insistence that the border situation has improved, appears to be a lockstep party effort to reform public perception of the border crisis.
Last week, two of Arizona’s Democratic state lawmakers insisted that the current public perspective and reporting on the state of the border as a crisis is sensationalized. Mayorkas testified several weeks ago that he doesn’t believe the border situation constitutes a crisis, a view he has espoused consistently throughout this year. During Tuesday’s hearing, Biggs called Mayorkas’ disregard for existing law an impeachable offense.
Furthermore, DHS is changing the categorization of an illegal immigrant terrorist to “national security risk,” a potentially euphemistic shift that Biggs questioned.
“Why are you changing the language? Because it’s easier to hide the reality of the gravity of the situation,” said Biggs.
Biggs reported that cartels are actively recruiting minors via social media to smuggle illegal immigrants, citing reports out of Yuma, Cochise, and Pinal counties. These cartels promise to pay minors several thousand dollars to traffic illegal immigrants into Phoenix or Tucson.
A House-passed resolution to address the border crisis, HR2, has effectively been left to die in the Senate. Biggs remarked that Biden’s executive branch could improve the border by enforcing existing immigration laws.
Illegal immigrants have court dates as far out as a decade. While they await their day in court, these migrants are free to roam the country. The Biden administration’s practice has effectively revived the controversial catch-and-release practice of the Obama administration.
The border crisis has spawned other crises: crime and drugs. Fentanyl, the primary drug behind this latest addiction epidemic, has progressively killed more Americans: there were over 72,700 overdose deaths last year.
Legal migrants were naturalized at a historic rate last year: nearly one million, the highest since 2008.
Under Biden, there have been a historic total of 5.7 million illegal immigrant encounters at the southwest border (as of this report, July’s total hasn’t been released). This total doesn’t reflect the countless number of “gotaways” — those not encountered and remain in the country undetected.
Watch the full congressional hearing here:
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Several federal government defendants have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit recently filed by Gov. Doug Ducey in his attempt to determine who has jurisdiction over land near the border within the State of Arizona.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Forest Service and its Chief Randy Moore, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and its Commissioner Camille Calimlim, and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Thomas J. Vilsack argued in the motion that Ducey’s actions on U.S. lands “directly conflict” with numerous federal laws.
The motion to dismiss also argues that Arizona’s concurrent jurisdiction to land at the border does not convey a right for Ducey to occupy and use federal lands without federal authority. As a result, the State of Arizona must yield to the United States’ plenary authority over the lands, the motion argues.
Ducey will have an opportunity to respond to the motion to dismiss, after which U.S. District Senior Judge David Campbell will likely hold oral arguments in early 2023.
Also on Wednesday, Campbell granted the Center for Biological Diversity permissive intervention, finding the group has defenses to Ducey’s lawsuit “that share with the main action a common question of law or fact — whether the federal government may act with respect to the border lands of Arizona, including in the enforcement of federal environmental statutes.”
However, Campbell issued a warning to attorneys for the Center that the purpose of granting intervenor status “is not to convert this case into an environmental enforcement action or launch into broad ranging discovery on environmental issues.”
Instead, the purposed is to enable Intervenor to provide input on the claims and issues raised by Ducey. The judge further noted he will hold the Center “to its commitment not to unduly complicate this case, delay the proceedings, inject irrelevant issues, or repeat arguments made by the federal defendants.”
The Center has until Dec. 2 to file an answer in the case.
Ducey filed the six-claim lawsuit in October in an attempt to have the U.S. District Court determine important questions of law regarding jurisdiction over land near the border within the State of Arizona and the state’s own interests in protecting itself in the face of the crisis brought on by countless migrants illegally crossing unsecured areas of the border without action by the federal government.
The inaction of the Biden administration has resulted in “a mix of drug, crime, and humanitarian issues the State has never experienced at such a significant magnitude,” according to Ducey’s lawsuit.
Before filing the lawsuit, Arizona officials pleaded many time with the Biden administration to act, “but such pleas have been either ignored, dismissed, or unreasonably delayed,” the lawsuit notes. “Rather than cooperate and work together with Arizona, the federal government has taken a bureaucratic and adversarial role.”
Ducey responded to this inaction by directing that some gaps in the border wall be temporarily filled with double-stacked storage containers that will help control movement along the border.
The move got the attention of the White House, which now claims Ducey and the State do not have authority to undertake these types of protective actions. The six-claim lawsuit seeks answers to the authority of a governor to issue a state of emergency to protect the lives and welfare of Arizona citizens and their property.
In response to the lawsuit, the Center filed a motion earlier this month seeking to intervene in the case as a defendant along with the named federal defendants.
The Center contends the temporary barriers put into place by the State will block animal migratory paths as well as streams and washes. It also claims the temporary barrier effort will “trash the Sonoran Desert and public lands” while doing nothing “to prevent people or drugs from crossing the border.”
But the Center also alleges Ducey’s border barrier project is “part of a larger strategy of ongoing border militarization” that ignores damage to “human rights, civil liberties, native lands, local businesses, and international relations.”
Ducey opposed the intervention effort by the Center, while the federal defendants took no position on intervention, except that it be a permissive and not by-right status which can be discontinued by the Court if deemed necessary.
The federal government’s latest southern border data reveals that President Joe Biden set an all-time record for illegal immigrant encounters: over 2.1 million in one fiscal year. Under Biden, there have been over 3.6 million illegal immigrant encounters. That doesn’t include “gotaways,” which are illegal immigrants either directly or indirectly observed but not apprehended.
In all four years under former President Donald Trump, there were just over 2.4 million border encounters. If the border encounters under Biden continue at this rate — an average of over 183,300 a month — there will be over 8.6 million border encounters.
Texas farmer living near border shows footage of illegal migrants crossing onto his property and breaking into homes. He claims this happens almost daily. pic.twitter.com/6GWXu5kL6T
The National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) vice president, Art Del Cueto, told “The Conservative Circus” on Monday that the drug cartels, not Biden, are in charge of the border, and that Biden’s inaction makes him, essentially, their friend.
“Everything gets coordinated through them,” said Del Cueto. “[The drug cartels] have a budget, and their best friend is sitting in the White House today.”
Del Cueto explained that the cartel keeps an eye on border gaps and plans human smuggling nearly a decade ahead.
Del Cueto further explained that the asylum process isn’t safe for the American people. He shared that those awarded asylum are only vetted for crimes committed in America, not their home country.
“We don’t know what crimes they’ve committed in their own country,” said Del Cueto.
Art Del Cueto, VP of the National Border Patrol Council, discusses how the crisis on our Southern Border is being e https://t.co/HPhbBLjL2r
The Biden administration claims that the border is secure.
Earlier this month, Vice President Kamala Harris issued that claim to NBC. “We have a secure border in that that [sic] is a priority for any nation, including ours in our administration,” said Harris. “There are still a lot of problems that we are trying to fix, given the deterioration that happened over the last four years. We also have to put in place a law and a plan for a pathway to citizenship.”
However, a group of about 100 illegal immigrants dropped off outside Harris’ Washington, D.C. home last Thursday told Fox News reporters that the consensus among illegal crossers is that there aren’t laws governing the border. The illegal immigrants also acknowledged that they and all the rest of their ilk understand that what they’re doing is illegal.
“Everybody believes that the border is open,” he said. “It is open because we enter. We come in free, no problem. We came illegally, not legally.”
Yet, that same day, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre backed Harris’ claim.
“What we stand by is that we are doing everything that we can to make sure that we follow the process that’s been put forth,” said Jean-Pierre. “We agree that the border is secure, but there is still more work to be done.”
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
The White House’s denial that migrants are walking across the border sparked backlash from Governor Doug Ducey and Border Patrol (BP) leaders.
This week, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed that illegal immigrants don’t merely walk across the southern border. Fox News reporter Peter Doocy had asked Jean-Pierre why the unvaccinated traveling by plane were refused admission into the U.S. while unvaccinated illegal immigrants could walk into the U.S. and stay.
“It’s not like somebody walks over — that’s not how [it works],” responded Jean-Pierre.
Watch what happens when Peter Doocy asks Karine Jean-Pierre why illegal aliens are released into the country even if they don't have the COVID vaccine, but Novak Djokovic isn't allowed in for the U.S. Open: pic.twitter.com/Jdqmo0IpEN
Jean-Pierre’s denial prompted Ducey to call the White House “clueless.” He stated that the Biden administration’s negligence further affirmed his decision to finish Yuma’s border wall himself. The state closed those gaps last week.
“If only President Biden visited the border, he’d see the mass amount of migrants walking across the border,” wrote Ducey.
The White House is clueless. If only President Biden visited the border, he’d see the mass amount of migrants walking across the border.
This negligence is exactly why Arizona took action to close the border wall gaps near Yuma. 1/ https://t.co/9XQdJe5OJU
The denial prompted similar criticism from the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC). Jean-Pierre’s denial — along with discovery this week of BP Chief Raul Ortiz’s admission in July that Biden’s border policies lacked consequences for illegal immigration — prompted NBPC to demean the Biden administration as the “Barney Fife” administration, a slang term for ineptitude and incompetence.
“[This administration is] importing millions of fraudulent ‘asylum’ seekers,” declared the NBPC. “This mess will take decades to clean up, if it can ever be cleaned up.”
We've been saying it for nearly 2 years. The Barney Fife Administration is single-handedly causing the disaster on our border. They're importing millions of fraudulent "asylum" seekers. This mess will take decades to clean up, if it can ever be cleaned up.https://t.co/bzth4Pv4uB
Along with the historic number of illegal crossings, there have been historic highs of drug trafficking. Earlier this month, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) reported that fentanyl, meth, and heroin seizures increased greatly from June to July.
CBP Releases July 2022 Monthly Operational Update
In July, fentanyl seizures at Arizona Ports of Entry were up 218% over June. The number of fentanyl seizures also increased by 128%.
As AZ Free News reported at the beginning of this month, hard drugs have largely replaced marijuana for drug smugglers. The main substance seized by far is fentanyl.
NEW: @CBP agents at the Nogales, AZ port of entry seized 625,000 fentanyl pills in five smuggling busts over the weekend, including another 12,000 that were rainbow colored to have a similar appearance to candy or ecstasy. Agents also seized 4lbs of fentanyl powder. @FoxNewspic.twitter.com/Orr38BdFXR
What’s more, smugglers are now disguising fentanyl with rainbow coloring to look like candy or ecstasy, dubbed “rainbow fentanyl.” On Tuesday, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued an official warning that the rainbow fentanyl has been discovered in 18 states. Officials warned that drug traffickers are targeting children and young adults with the rainbow fentanyl to spark addiction.
NEW: The DEA has put out an official notice warning Americans of the “alarming” new trend they began seeing this month w/ rainbow colored fentanyl being smuggled into the country & appearing 18 different states. They say cartels are using it to appeal to children & young people. pic.twitter.com/tTtTK85u2B
It appears that the White House isn’t the only leadership sector apparently unconcerned with the state of the border. A source informed the Daily Caller on Monday that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was vacationing in Maine.
NEW: A source tells me DHS Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas is currently on vacation in South Casco, Maine while the border crisis continues to get worse and worse every day. He had security surrounding him at a picnic tonight. Yet, our border is being flooded with drugs and criminals.
