The facts prove the Southwest border of the United States is not secure, despite what a Texas Congresswoman said Wednesday, according to Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels, who is asking for more Arizona National Guard deployment to the border.
On Thursday, Dannels told KFYI’s James T. Harris that comments by U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) of the southwest border being both sovereign and secure is “100 percent not true,” as is her comment that the situation at the border is simply being “subjected to biased and unfair narratives for political purposes.”
Dannels noted there were 1,473,000 million encounters reported at the southwest border from Oct. 1, 2020 through Aug. 31, 2021, up 325 percent from the same period last year. Those who turned themselves in or were captured came from 164 countries, with 63 percent identified as citizens of somewhere other than Mexico, he added.
The sheriff also said 183,000 border crossers were taken into custody during that period in the Tucson Sector which includes 80 miles of border Cochise County shares with Mexico. He added that an estimated 115,000 “getaways” were reported, of which 85 percent appeared to be adult males traveling without family.
There have also been 162 migrants deaths along the 372-mile Arizona / Mexico border, all of which must be treated as an assumed homicide by the local sheriffs.
Those, says Dannels, are only a few of the “politically neutral” statistics which easily show the Biden Administration is not providing Americans a sovereign and secure border as Rep. Jackson Lee claims.
“Show me a stat that says we’re doing something well and I’ll sit back and apologize, but I’m not seeing it, I’m not experiencing it,” he told Harris.
Dannels said the reality is that drug smugglers and human traffickers are invading the United States, exploiting not only the southwest border but all communities across the country. And the Cartels are using border crossers to move a huge increase of drugs in as well.
To counter the lack of attention by President Joe Biden to the border, Dannels recently asked Gov. Doug Ducey and Major Gen. Kerry Muehlenbeck of the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs for more National Guard members at the border. In addition, Cochise County recently secured state funding for equipment and resources to address the local impact of the uncontrolled border.
In April, Ducey ordered several Arizona National Guard members to the border to assist county sheriffs with administrative and maintenance activities. This frees up more deputies to respond to calls and investigate crimes related to the border crisis.
The governor announced a one-year extension to the deployment, which was welcomed by Dannels, whose county is home to several sections of uncompleted border wall as well as the Douglas Port of Entry across from Agua Prieta, Sonora. What is needed now, said Dannels, is for a collective message directed at the White House.
“President Biden owns this, he’s the messenger on this,” said Dannels. “The blame game is over now, he’s been in office for 10 months. It’s time to accept responsibility and secure this border.”
When Gov. Doug Ducey pledged $25 million last month to deploy the Arizona National Guard to the Mexico border he did so after the Biden Administration ignored pleas from state and local law enforcement officials to address the influx of immigrants and smugglers making it unhindered across the border.
The governor noted the National Guard troops would be on State Active Duty to assist with medical operations in detention centers, help with installation and maintenance of border cameras, monitor and collect data from the cameras, and analyze the situation at the border to identify trends in smuggling corridors.
The deployment was well received by two border sheriffs -Cochise County’s Mark Dannels and Yuma County’s Leon Wilmot- who spent the last three months trying to get federal authorities to come up with a plan for the escalating public safety threat and humanitarian crisis at and well beyond the international border.
However, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos has insisted his agency does not need National Guard support even though the county shares nearly 130 hundred miles of border with Mexico. The same “no thanks” approach was expressed by Sheriff David Hathaway of Santa Cruz County.
The difference in the positions of the sheriffs falls across political lines – Dannels and Wilmot are registered Republicans, while Hathaway and Nanos are Democrats.
The same political division is reflected in an April 21 letter signed by one county supervisor from each of the border counties in which they chastised Ducey for not asking for their input about the border situation. The signers -all of whom as Democrats- serve as their counties’ representatives on the Arizona Border Counties Coalition.
“We are disappointed that you failed to consult with the various Boards of Supervisors of each border county on this matter,” the Coalition letter states. “If asked, we would have requested assistance for transportation services, specifically buses and drivers, to provide those transportation services that we are now left to arrange on our own.”
The letter was signed by Sharon Bronson, Pima County; Ann English, Cochise County; Bruce Bracker, Santa Cruz County; and Tony Reyes, Yuma County.
Chief of Staff Mark Napier of the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) serves as his county’s point of contact with the Arizona National Guard. Last Thursday more than 30 troops arrived in Cochise County to perform a variety of non-law enforcement duties, including working with an extensive camera system utilized by the Southeastern Arizona Border Region Enforcement (SABRE) team to monitor cross-border traffic.
The troops are also providing support in CCSO’s jail and other clerical activities which allows sheriff’s personnel to deal with “other service demands and address the increase in challenges associated with the border crisis we currently face,” Napier explained.
On Friday, Napier told AZ Free News he and Sheriff Dannels had no advance notice that Supervisor English was signing the letter to Ducey, but they do not see the supervisor’s stance about deployment as being in conflict with CCSO’s position that the border crisis “presents a public safety, national security and human rights issue” which must be addressed in collaboration with federal, state, and local partners.
“The letter expresses some frustration over the lack of engagement between the Governor and Supervisors with respect to the deployment of AZNG personnel,” Napier said. “That is a matter between those Supervisors and the Governor.”
Napier added the Coalition’s letter also states border security is a responsibility of the federal government, “which in fact it is.” And the letter does not deny there is a public safety concern related to the current conditions along the border, he noted.
The Coalition’s letter makes no mention of the frequency or cost of transportation services any of the counties have had to provide or arrange for.
On Tuesday, in response to the crisis on the U.S. Mexico border, Governor Doug Ducey announced he is deploying the Arizona National Guard to the border and issued a Declaration of Emergency as part of the state’s effort to support local law enforcement efforts.
Up to 250 Guardsmen will be sent to border communities and will be available to support other law enforcement agencies, like state troopers. The Arizona National Guard will:
Assist with medical operations in detention centers;
Install and maintaining border cameras;
Monitor and collect data from public safety cameras; and
Analyze satellite imagery for current trends in smuggling corridors.
The State will provide up to $25 million in initial funding for the mission.
NEW: The federal government won’t act — but Arizona will. To address the crisis at the border, I’ve issued a Declaration of Emergency and am deploying the brave men and women of our @AZNationalGuard to support law enforcement efforts and protect Arizonans. pic.twitter.com/EdFkiM2C5t
U.S. Customs & Border Protection in March had more than 170,000 apprehensions at the Southwest border. Nearly 19,000 of those apprehensions were unaccompanied children — more than four times the number of kids apprehended in March 2020.
“The federal government’s actions have made the border less secure. This threatens the safety of our communities and law enforcement,” said Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels. “Border towns and officers need support as the crisis at the border escalates. I’m grateful to Governor Ducey for taking action and sending the National Guard to help. We welcome immigrants with open arms — but it needs to be done legally and orderly to ensure we are protecting our communities, state, and nation.”
Ducey’s decision was also welcomed by Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone, a Democrat, who said “the issues at the border affect the whole state, to include Maricopa County.”
“The availability of Arizona National Guard resources in support of law enforcement demands is an asset for our depleted resources. I appreciate Governor Ducey’s commitment to law enforcement organizations,” concluded Penzone.
“The crisis at the border is serious and cannot be taken lightly,” said Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot. “The Arizona National Guard will provide much-needed support to our officers and safety officials, and will help ensure Yuma and other border communities are further protected from dangerous and illegal activity. By deploying National Guard assets, the Governor will allow me to deploy more first responders to mission critical tasks where we will work side by side with our federal partners to target, apprehend and prosecute transnational criminal organizations. My thanks to the Governor for taking action to protect Arizonans, law enforcement and legal immigration.”
