Arizona’s frontline status with the crisis at America’s southern border led to a surprise, influential visitor this week.
On Wednesday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, in his official capacity, traveled to the southern border in Sierra Vista, alongside his Attorney General, Ashley Moody, who has been instrumental in filing many lawsuits against the federal government.
DeSantis convened two roundtables with a number of sheriffs from Arizona, Florida, and other states, listening to their stories and talking about solutions to mitigate the worsening crisis at the border.
After the meetings at Cochise College, Sheriff Mark Dannels, a national leader on border security and local enforcement, escorted his out-of-state guests to the border, where they gained a fresh, first-hand perspective of the deteriorating situation.
In a release sent out by the Florida Governor’s Office, Governor DeSantis used the visit to “highlight Florida’s successful actions to combat illegal immigration within the state and along the southern border.” Those measures include “new methods for combating human smuggling and drug trafficking across state lines and the relocation of illegal aliens who wish to be transported to so-called sanctuary states and cities.” DeSantis also announced that “Florida’s law enforcement agencies are offering trainings for other states that want to follow Florida’s lead on protecting citizens from the impacts of Biden’s Border Crisis.”
The second-term Sunshine State governor issued the following statement in conjunction with his mid-week stop in the Grand Canyon State: “Joe Biden is derelict in the performance of his duties and refuses to uphold the borders of our nation. In Florida, we’re stepping up even as the federal government falls down on the job. We enacted strong legislation to combat illegal immigration, sent law enforcement officers and equipment to the border, and have dedicated resources to divert migrants to sanctuary jurisdictions. Today we’re taking Florida’s no-nonsense approach to border enforcement nationwide.”
The chaos we are witnessing at our southern border is a direct result of the President’s dereliction of duty
If Joe Biden won’t do his duty to protect our people and our borders, Florida will step up. pic.twitter.com/TeYBKh2M8m
Dannels was extremely complimentary of the Florida team that descended on his county, appreciating their efforts to partner with him and other members of law enforcement, saying, “This is not about politics, folks. This is about doing what is right, which everyone in this room that works for government has taken an oath to do. So thank you guys for what you do. We pledge to you both and all our governors, all our sheriffs, all our law enforcement, our prosecutors, our county attorneys, our mayors to work united to fix these borders, secure our borders, and get America back.”
Sheriffs including Mark Dannels @TopCop_Cochise, PJ Allred (@GrahamCounty) William Ponce (La Paz) meet with Florida gov @rondesantis in Cochise County to discuss border issues. It was a good opportunity to discuss the issues sheriffs face in AZ pic.twitter.com/9qlg3I576i
Another Arizona sheriff, P.J. Allred of Graham County, was at the table with the Florida chief executive and gave the following remarks: “When most people come from the south to come to the United States, my little county is probably not their destination, but they come through us and we feel them when they come through us. When we’ve encountered them after a pursuit through the desert, when they see us as law enforcement and the vehicles come to a stop, they run to us as law enforcement to get away from the coyotes that were carrying them. I appreciate all of you for being here, being interested in our country, our freedoms, our rights.”
At least two state legislators appeared to be in attendance for DeSantis’ southern Arizona check-in: House Speaker Ben Toma and Representative Gail Griffin. Toma tweeted a picture with DeSantis, writing, “My pleasure to help welcome Governor Ron DeSantis to Arizona and to share details of our border crisis. Glad to hear we share the same determination to secure the southern border once and for all.”
My pleasure to help welcome @GovRonDeSantis to Arizona and to share details of our border crisis. Glad to hear we share the same determination to secure the southern border once and for all. pic.twitter.com/7CxsPU9w2f
Az Rep. Gail Griffin and Sheriff Mark Dannels talk to @RonDeSantis about how immigrants and smugglers scale the border fence. “The border’s wide open,” Dannels says. pic.twitter.com/cbPqam2Om3
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels was asked to address the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary last week about the southwest border crisis, and he did not waste the opportunity, expressing frustration with how the Biden administration is avoiding the situation.
“Our southern border, against all public comfort statements out of Washington, D.C., is in the worst shape I have ever seen it,” Dannels testified. “When one looks at Public Safety, National Security, and Humanitarian, our southern border is the largest crime scene in the country.”
Dannels, who is the immediate past-president of the Arizona Sheriffs Association and chair of the National Sheriffs Association Border Security, told Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan and the committee he has personally experienced “the good, the bad, and the ugly” while working in border communities for nearly 40 years.
The sheriff acknowledged there “has always” been some border-related crimes such as illicit drugs, human smuggling, and weapons trafficking by Cartels. But prior to President Joe Biden taking office in January 2021, Cochise County was “one on the safest border counties” thanks to a cooperative effort that included enforcing the law, Dannels explained.
But Dannels told the Congressional committee he and other sheriffs have had “little to no success” in trying to partner with the White House to address the growing crisis caused by Biden’s open border policies the last two years.
As a result, the “intellectual avoidance” of border issues by Biden is being exploited by the Cartels to support their reign of “violence, fear, and greed,” Dannels said.
“Violence against innocent citizens, public officials, law enforcement, and rival drug / human trafficking groups in Mexico continues to escalate,” Dannels testified, adding it has left communities in Cochise County feeling “neglected and abandoned.”
Cochise County typically does not experience the type of mass self-surrenders seen in Yuma and some border crossings in Texas. Instead, the county’s 80 miles of international border are preferred by what Dannels called “Fight & Flight” crossers, many of whom are convicted criminals who go to great lengths to avoid detection.
This has now resulted in an all-time high of border crimes in the county, Dannels testified. And it is not just property crimes the sheriff was referring to – he pointed to a significant uptick in aggravated assaults, injury traffic accidents, and homicides directly related to Cartels exploiting the border.
According to Dannels, Mexican drug trafficking organizations operating in Cochise County “are highly sophisticated and innovative in their transportation methods” and utilize “sophisticated and technical communications and counter surveillance equipment to counter law enforcements interdiction tactics and strategies.”
It raises the question, the sheriff noted, of who actually controls our borders.
“By allowing our border security mission and immigration laws to be discretionary, these Criminal Cartels continue to be the true winners,” Dannels testified, adding that the continuance of deaths and hardships as Congress and the Biden administration “intentionally avoids reality is gross negligence.”
Dannels provided the House Judiciary Committee with several suggestions for how the federal government could quickly secure the border and address the violence.
“One would hope the priority of securing our border doesn’t become just about a price tag and/or political posturing, but rather the legal and moral requirement to safeguard all of America, which so many heroic Americans have already paid the ultimate price for,” Dannels said.
Dannels reiterated his frustration later in the week during an interview with KFYI’s James T. Harris.
“We have a border that is out of control,” Dannels told Harris, adding that his pleas did not appear to resonate with many of those in power in the Beltway because “it’s not in their Washington, D.C. backyard.”
Prosecutors in Arizona’s border counties have long complained of having no consequential option for charging people who engage in transportation of undocumented non-U.S. citizens (UNCs), but that could substantially change if Senate Bill 1379 is enacted.
It is currently only a Class 1 misdemeanor under Arizona Revised Statute 13-2929 if a person “unlawfully transports, moves, conceals, harbors or shields undocumented immigrants.” A Class 1 misdemeanor conviction provides for a jail (not prison) sentence of no more than six months, and in many courts it can take that long just to get a case to trial.
But SB1379 would reclassify human smuggling transportation activities involving one UNC as a Class 6 felony, making prison time an option. Felony convictions also trigger a loss of many civil rights, including the right to possess or use a firearm.
In addition, the bill would allow state and county prosecutors to charge those involved in the transportation of 2 or more UNCs with a Class 4 felony. This significantly changes the current group prosecution option under ARS 13-2929, which requires at least 10 UNCs to be in a vehicle in order to charge as a Class 6 felony.
SB1379 even redefines who can be charged under state law with engaging in human smuggling transportation. Currently a person must already be in violation of another “criminal offense” in order to be charged under ARS 13-2929. The bill rewords that prerequisite to a violation of a criminal “law or statute.”
The Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB1379 on Thursday. It is waiting to clear the Senate Rules Committee next.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent patrolling in Cochise County suffered several cuts after being assaulted trying to take an undocumented immigrant into custody Wednesday morning, leading to at least one shot being fired from a USBP-issued gun, Arizona Daily Independent has learned.
It remains unclear whether the gun was fired by the injured agent, another agent, or the “combative subject” as John B. Mennell, a CBP spokesman called the person the agent was trying to apprehend.
“Neither the subject nor the agent was seriously injured during the assault,” Mennell wrote in a statement Thursday. “The case remains under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation who will provide additional details as appropriate.”
Very little is known about the assault which sent nearly two dozen law enforcement and public safety vehicles to the Coronado National Monument south of State Route 92 around 5 a.m. when USBP agents encountered a small group of people suspected of illegally entering the United States.
The agent’s injuries reportedly involved cuts or stabs on the hands and face, and were not life-threatening, according to Carol Capas, spokeswoman for the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office. The agent was taken from the scene for emergency medical care; no statement has been issued by CBP, USBP, or the FBI as to the agent’s condition.
About 24 hours after the attack, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels took to the airways to bitterly criticize the Biden Administration and the leadership of Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of U.S. Department of Homeland Security for the unsafe conditions for residents of his county and the heightened dangers to law enforcement personnel.
Dannels told KFYI radio host James T. Harris that the attack on the USBP agent was just the latest incident of escalating violence. There was recently an assault on another USBP agent, as well as a local officer, and one of Dannels’ own deputies, he told Harris.
“It’s not getting better. In fact, just the opposite and we’ve been talking on this, preaching on this, for the last year,” Dannels said. “I’ll just say this – the failed leadership by this president and this administration to recognize, secure our border, secure our communities, and secure our country is devasting to us right now.”
The agent was attacked near Montezuma Canyon, which lies a few miles west of the USBP Brian A. Terry Station in Naco. Agents assigned to that station are among the 3,800 employees of the USBP’s Tucson Sector.
It would not be until 5 p.m. that FBI spokeswoman Brooke Brennan issued a short statement confirming the agency was conducting the investigation. At 6:30 p.m., Brennan issued a one-sentence supplement advising local residents there was no threat to the public.
However, several first responders familiar with the incident have told Arizona Daily Independent the “all-clear” notice could have been provided hours earlier. This would have relieved the worries of several local residents and tourists in the area.
Even USBP Tucson Sector Chief John Modlin ignored the assault on his agent. Modlin was active on social media throughout Wednesday but never bothered to address the morning incident. But he did have time to share a video of a May 2021 rescue of a migrant in California.
CBP recently acknowledged more than 1.7 million people were “encountered” or arrested at the U.S. southwest border in 2021. That figure does not include whistleblowers’ accounts among USBP agents as well as public comments from officials like Dannels of several thousands of migrants who escape arrest.
While USBP agents were dealing with the attack in southern Cochise County, agents with the USBP Yuma Sector were meeting with Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In his radio comments Thursday, Dannels told Harris that the Western States Sheriffs’ Association has taken a position of “no confidence” in Mayorkas.
The association, which represents the 17 contiguous states west of the Mississippi River, issued a declaration in November calling on President Joe Biden to replace Mayorkas with someone “who will work with our federal enforcement partners and the administration to restore security and safety on our nation’s southern border.”
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and the majority of Arizona’s sheriffs are tired of waiting for Congress to do something constructive about the unsecured Arizona / Mexico border. So they are joining together to support draft federal legislation which would bolster border security, along what the governor has described as “a patchwork of federal, state, tribal and private lands.”
On Tuesday, 11 of Arizona’s 15 sheriffs took part in the meeting with Ducey to discuss the overwhelming problem of human trafficking and illegal drugs coming across the 372-mile border. After the meeting, the sheriffs in attendance voted to advocate for the legislation drafted by Ducey’s staff in hopes of persuading Sen. Mark Kelly and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to get on board.
“It’s not just an Arizona problem,” said Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb. “It’s an America problem.”
Lamb was joined at the meeting by Apache County Sheriff Joe Dedman, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, Coconino County Sheriff Jim Driscoll, Gila County Sheriff Adam Shepherd, Graham County Sheriff P.J. Allred, Greenlee County Sheriff Tim Sumner, La Paz County Sheriff William Ponce, Mohave County Sheriff Doug Schuster, Navajo County Sheriff David Clouse, and Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes.
Ducey’s meeting with the sheriffs came one day after his State of the State address to the Arizona Legislature.
“In Arizona, we will secure our border. We will protect public safety. We will not back down,” Ducey said in his speech. “We will fight this fight until Washington, D.C. finally acts.”
The governor used his State of the State address to highlight his commitment to a multifaceted, coordinated border security effort.
“No member of the Arizona congressional delegation that actually cares about the safety of our communities should vote ‘yes’ on any legislation until the president agrees to language that does the following: secures our border with a wall, a physical barrier and virtual surveillance; increases resources to the local communities that have been devastated by these dangerous open border policies; and makes it clear that our border is not open to illegal immigration,” Ducey said Monday before going on to call out Kelly and Sinema by name.
Just two weeks ago, Dannels and Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot met with new CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus and U.S. Border Patrol leaders to discuss the border.
“In short, we shared our frustration with the lack of shared action plans and no-end being in sight,” Dannels told AZ Free News of the Dec. 28 meeting. “I asked what this administration’s end-game was. I received no answer.”
Dannels said local law enforcement officials, which included San Luis Police Chief Richard Jessup, commended the dedicated CBP officers and USBP agents working the border under such challenging circumstances.
“I asked Commissioner Magnus to provide supportive leadership to these officers and agents during this crisis,” Dannels said.
