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Presidio officials, county judge, state representative object to program, too Governor urges end to |
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By STERRY BUTCHER
PRESIDIO – The Border Patrol’s repatriation program that buses illegal immigrants from the Tucson Sector to Presidio has drawn sharp criticism from Gov. Rick Perry and other officials.
The Alien Transfer and Exit Program began Sunday. Every day of the week, 94 male immigrants are unloaded from buses at the international bridge in Presidio, where they walk into Ojinaga, Chihuahua.
Removing the detainees from well-established Arizona smuggling operations will disrupt the smuggling cycle, according to the Border Patrol. The program will continue, says the BP, until the smuggling cycle is broken.
Gov. Perry’s office found out about the repatriation plan last Friday. Perry fired off a letter the following day to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
“Turning the Presidio area into a way station for the repatriation of illegal immigrants adds responsibility to local authorities and holds the potential of increasing the strain on local and state infrastructure resources,” he wrote. “This plan will increase the likelihood that these individuals will immediately cross back into Texas, which is already bearing an uneven burden in dealing with immigration and border security issues along the Texas-Mexico border.”
He urges Napolitano to stop the program.
Katherine Cesinger, a spokesperson for Perry, said that the governor had not yet heard back from Napolitano, though, of course, it’s only been a few days.
“We’re hopeful that the federal government will respond,” she said on Tuesday. “We can’t have homeland security without border security. And we can’t have illegal immigration reform without border security.”
DHS spokesman Matt Chandler said that Napolitano will indeed respond, though what she’ll say isn’t immediately known.
“She’ll respond directly to Gov. Perry,” Chandler said from his Washington, D.C. office. “The department doesn’t respond to correspondence in the media.”
Perry wasn’t the only elected official to find disfavor with the repatriation effort.
“This is one of the worst policies I’ve ever seen,” growled County Judge Jerry Agan, who is a retired Border Patrol assistant chief. “It astounds me they would do this. It’s not well thought out.”
Tuesday was the third day of the program and the Presidio office of Mexican Conul Hector Raul Acosta Flores was busy. Upon their arrival in Ojinaga, detainees are offered a bus ticket back to their place of residence, whether it’s in Chiapas or Chihuahua.
“The federal Mexican government has the intention to support their needs to return to their residence,” Acosta said.
Critics of the Border Patrol’s repatriation plan worry that the detainees may stay in Ojinaga, or try to cross illegally into the United States at Presidio. So far, all the detainees have taken advantage of the government’s bus ticket offer.
“Everybody has left from the border,” Acosta reported on Tuesday. “Up to now, no one has decided to remain behind.”
The bus ticket offer is underwritten by Mexican immigration authorities and the bus company Transportes Chihuahuenses, which has slashed prices 50 percent for the detainee program.
The Arizona-to-Presidio repatriation plan wasn’t initially embraced by Mexican officials, he said.
“Mexican authorities through my embassy in Washington, D.C. have been trying to negotiate,” he said. “We were not agreeing that repatriation take place through this port of exit due to the conditions of the region on both sides of the border. Nevertheless, they’ve started the program. And we have to coordinate for the benefit of our nationals and provide them with assistance.”
The strong Border Patrol presence in Presidio County and the area’s extreme terrain would deter detainees from attempting to re-cross in Presidio, Marfa Sector Chief Patrol Agent John Smeitana told reporters last week. Regardless of that level of confidence, police in Presidio this week are a little more watchful.
“We’re worried about the ones that don’t take up the offer of a free ride,” said City Administrator Brad Newton. “We’re on alert for the possibility of more burglaries and that sort of thing.”
Newton said he was glad that the governor had sent the letter to Napolitano, asking for the dissolution of the Presidio program.
“We certainly don’t see it as a good thing for Presidio,” he said. “I know the BP will beef up their watch along the border. And I know they do have substantial penalties for people who do return. But it only takes one or two guys to create havoc in town.”
Various officials have complained that they weren’t notified about the program until it implemented.
“My biggest disappointment is that it’s hard to have a partnership when one of the partners doesn’t talk to you,” state Rep. Pete Gallego said this week. “If we’d had an opportunity to ramp up and check infrastructure and it was a partnership that everyone knew what, there might’ve been a different reaction.”
Gallego, along with U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez and state Sen. Carlos Uresti, have been in contact with federal officials about the repatriation effort through Presidio. “My experience is that turning wheels of government up there is a pretty slow process,” he said. “I think we need to continue talking.”
Repatriating detainees from one site to another isn’t a novel procedure. Agan had seen a similar program years ago in the Border Patrol.
“I don’t want this to become like El Paso, where you’re afraid to hang your clothes on the line for fear someone will steal them,” he commented. “They tried this from El Paso, bringing aliens over here. It created a mini-crime wave. I’m worried about crime coming up.”
Agan was aghast at the sheer number of detainees who will arrive in Ojinaga, nearly 700 a week, for an indefinite period of time.
“The Border Patrol isn’t worrying about the impact on locals,” he said. “I’m sorry that Tucson has a problem. But why do we have to take on their problem?”
Late Wednesday afternoon, the Marfa Border Patrol Sector issued this statement: “The Alien Transfer and Exit Program (ATEP) is a critical component of CBP’s efforts to strengthen security along the Southwest border. ATEP places significant pressure on smuggling organizations by removing their supply line and denying these groups additional opportunities to move human cargo. In fact, statistics show that 65 percent of ATEP repatriated Mexican citizens have not re-entered the United States.
“For years, repatriation programs like ATEP have been in place along the Southwest border, including Arizona, California, and Texas. To ensure public safety, no criminal aliens are eligible to take part in these programs. CBP is confident that this operation is being conducted in a manner that provides for the safety of border communities while providing our Federal, state, and local law enforcement partners with the tools they need to strengthen the security of our borders.” |
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