Tubac checkpoint still draws cheers, jeers

COMING SUNDAY: TUBAC BUSINESS OWNERS FIGHT CHECKPOINT

From staff and wire reports

Work will begin on a $1.4 million upgrade of the Border Patrol’s interim checkpoint on Interstate 19 north of Tubac just as a federal report on the effectiveness of checkpoints in the United States is expected.

Members of Congress requested the report, due in June, from the Government Accountability Office and it is eagerly awaited by the Department of Homeland Security and residents who traverse I-19 from Nogales to Green Valley.

The Tubac interim checkpoint is controversial, with people voicing disapproval at spending taxpayer dollars without having facts about its effectiveness. Others say they support whatever Border Patrol leaders insist is necessary to accomplish their mission.

Business owners in Tubac say the checkpoint scares off shoppers and pushes illegal immigrants and drug smugglers off the interstate and into residential areas.

Omar Candelaria, a spokesman for the Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, said the funding for the interim and permanent checkpoints is included in the 2008-09 fiscal year budget for DHS. The project budget is $28.2 million. Of that, $1.4 million will be spent for interim improvements, Candelaria said.

He said the agency wants to move ahead on the checkpoint construction but must wait for the GAO report on the effectiveness of checkpoints because “the language” in the federal appropriations bill requires that.

Plans call for a modular building, a third paved lane for semitrailers, a paved and expanded area for secondary inspection, and a canopy that will cover the three lanes and secondary inspection area at the interim checkpoint.

John Fitzpatrick, division chief in the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, said he’s hoping construction will be done by the end of summer.

While the agency has been operating the makeshift fixed checkpoint under an overpass north of Tubac since November 2006, officials have struggled to get the interim facility up and keep plans for a permanent facility farther north near Amado moving forward.

In May 2008, area residents were given the impression that work would begin within a few months on the interim checkpoint at Agua Linda in the northbound I-19, and that a permanent checkpoint would be under construction by now.

Candelaria said April 23 that the environmental assessment has not been completed although “initial assessments have been completed on most of the area.” He also said the needed land has not been purchased. He said the Border Patrol is waiting to review the results of the GAO report. But a critical or negative GAO report would not halt the checkpoint.

“The Border Patrol wants to move forward,” he said. Fitzpatrick said much the same thing when he spoke in Tubac last year.

The permanent checkpoint will be much larger, with about 10 buildings on 25 acres of land. Six to eight lanes are to be constructed to take vehicles through the inspection area.

The Coalition for a Safe and Secure Border, composed of a small group of Tubac and Green Valley residents and business people, opposes the checkpoint.

“We’re waiting to see what the GAO report says,” group chairman Gary Brasher said. “We’re still steadfastly opposed to a permanent checkpoint at that location. It’s a wholly inappropriate location.”

Includes information from Kathleen Vandervoet, special to the Nogales International, and Associated Press.