Pima County supervisors oppose permanent checkpoint

Saying it wants to preserve the tranquility of residents, the Pima County Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday to oppose creation of permanent Border Patrol checkpoints on Interstate 19 in Santa Cruz County and elsewhere.

The board unanimously resolved Tuesday to oppose “permanent U.S. Border Patrol checkpoints” in Southern Arizona, including the one on I-19, one near Ajo and another in Cochise County.

The Border Patrol says permanent checkpoints are superior to temporary or “tactical” checkpoints in stemming the flow of illegal immigrants, drugs and other contraband.

Opponents say permanent checkpoints are ineffectual and force criminals off the highways and into nearby neighborhoods.

Currently, there’s a temporary checkpoint at Interstate 19’s exit No. 42, the Agua Linda interchange in Santa Cruz County.

Chief Robert Gilbert of the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector has said there will be permanent checkpoints. At an earlier press conference Gilbert said only Congress could stop them by withholding funding.

The city of Nogales supports permanent checkpoints.

U.S. Rep. Raœl Grijalva has opposed a permanent checkphoint, while U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl supports the concept of permanent checkpoints.

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has yet to take a stance, saying she’s awaiting a report from the Border Patrol.

The resolution said the Government Accountability Office has found no measurable effectiveness of permanent checkpoints and that there is probably more violent crime “as criminal elements and desperate people” try to avoid them.

It also repeated an oft-heard argument that the U.S. government “has an obligation to guard the border at the border and not in the interior.”

Among things the supervisors resolved was that Congress should implement a comprehensive immigration policy that secures the border, “while maintaining the tranquility and economic well being of existing U.S. homeowners and business people.”

Supervisors Richard El’as and Sharon Bronson sponsored the resolution.

Bronson said her work with other county supervisors along the international border helped influence her to sponsor the resolution.

All 24 counties on the border in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California bear a large cost of enforcing laws broken by illegal immigrants.

She said she believes that a permanent checkpoint will inflate those costs, and she questioned whether permanent checkpoints really are effective.

She said other county supervisors from Texas, New Mexico and California told her they’d like to get rid of their permanent checkpoints.

Permanent checkpoints are a hazard to people living nearby, she said. “The people who live in the traffic corridor are in imminent physical danger,” she said.

She also warned that border enforcement that’s performed miles north of the actual border will lead to “Mexican drug wars” on U.S. soil where there are staging areas. Those are places where smuggled drugs are assembled for the trip north. There have been incidents where some illegals have been shot in Santa Cruz County.

The Tucson Sector is the only one of the Border Patrol’s 20 sectors without a permanent highway checkpoint. Former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe successfully blocked legislation to create one for at least 10 years before he retired from Congress.

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