Evening at Tubac protest shows both sides

A caravan of protesters, signs in hand and taped to car windows, slowly makes its way through a Border Patrol checkpoint north of Tubac.

Nearby, agents huddle around a green Toyota Camry idling in the northbound lane near the procession, trunk popped to reveal bundles of marijuana.

From a bench, two young immigrants quietly watch the scene. Caught trying to sneak into Arizona on a cross-border shuttle, they’re awaiting transport back to Mexico.

This busy Wednesday evening north of Tubac helps frame the contentious debate around the checkpoint along Interstate 19 at Agua Linda Road: Some residents don’t want the Border Patrol presence in their community but agents say the checkpoint has been effective in catching drug traffickers and illegal immigrants.

Protesting the expansion

Amid Department of Homeland Security plans for a $27 million permanent checkpoint here, the 11-car caravan of demonstrators gathered in a Tubac parking lot with plans to repeatedly drive through the outpost displaying signs reading, “Secure the Border at the Border.”

Garry Hembree, president of the Tubac Chamber of Commerce, organized the demonstration. He insists he has nothing against the Border Patrol, but he’d like to see a more efficient use of government money.

“The Border Patrol agency is the only law enforcement agency in the United States that thinks by building a $27 million checkpoint that the smugglers and criminals will drive through and turn themselves in,” he said. “We know they’ll just go around it; that’s what they do with this one.”

The checkpoint pushes immigrants and smugglers into the outlying residential areas, Hembree added. A permanent checkpoint would have the same effect permanently, he said.

“They’d be much better off putting resources at the border,” Hembree said.

It’s the second caravan protest organized by Hembree in as many months. In May, nine cars made the loop. This time, just 11 joined in despite Hembree’s insistence that support was growing.

Kim Etherington, another protester who lives west of the interstate in Tubac Foothills Ranch, said she’d prefer to see roving checkpoints to catch criminals by surprise instead of a stationary one that can easily be circumnavigated.

“It drives illegals and the drug activity into the neighborhoods,” she said. “Our safety is being put at risk.”

Waving a sign reading, “Where is the Border?” Tubac resident David Voisard stood on the overpass looking down on the protest. He said after hearing what he called machine gun fire near his home, he decided that he’s tired of living near so much law enforcement activity.

“They’ve turned our village into a staging area,” he said. “They’re making our community a drop zone for drugs, for travelers and for weapons.”

A permanent checkpoint

A temporary checkpoint has been here since 2007. Checkpoints have existed along I-19 since 1987, but were temporary and were required to move every few weeks, according to the Border Patrol.

Last month, funds were approved for a plan to expand the temporary checkpoint to a permanent one.

The $27 million plan could take years, with blueprints to install 10 buildings on 25 acres plus six to eight paved lanes and a covered inspection area just south of the Agua Linda Road exit.

Meantime, a $1.5 million plan would beef up the interim checkpoint to include a modular building with telephone and computer lines, outdoor lighting and a canopy to protect agents and dogs from the elements.

The construction is hinging on a Government Accountability Office report due this summer on the effectiveness of permanent checkpoints per language Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz, included in the 2009 DHS Appropriations Bill. But DHS spokesmen have said they plan to move forward with the plan anyway.

Is the checkpoint effective?

Supporters of the checkpoint say it is a necessary part of the strategy to catch the illegal activity that makes it past the U.S.-Mexico border.

At the same time the protesters were picketing, a drug-sniffing dog identified a sedan carrying seven bundles of marijuana that Border Patrol supervisor Roy Guerrero estimated weighed up to 300 pounds. He said the countless drugs and immigrants stopped here is the best indicator of the checkpoint’s success.

“It takes citizens to see a truckload to see how effective it is,” he said.

Guerrero said it’s ironic to see protest amidst a fruitful bust. He understands the citizens’ aversion to the Border Patrol presence in their town, but he said they’d change their tune if they understood the subtleties of the operation to catch smugglers.

“We push them out and then we have agents waiting for them at the outskirts of the checkpoint,” he said. “They expect for us to stop all the traffic at the (border) line and you just can’t. Look at the terrain.”

As the protesters made their second trip through the checkpoint, Guerrero received an intercom call about three smugglers on foot trying to make it to the river via the Tumacacori Camren Road exit five kilometers south of the checkpoint.

Regardless of Patrol presence, Guerrero added, smugglers like these would still utilize the topography to their advantage. A number of landmarks — the river, railroad tracks, power lines, gas lines, the observatory and the lights from the mine — guide travellers as they mark a route from south to north.

“Smuggling has been here for ages,” he said. “If we’d all get out of here, they’d go anyways.”

But equally undeterred are the Tubac residents who spent the evening circling through the checkpoint.

“We’ll keep doing it until they listen,” said Hembree, the protest organizer. “It’s important that we let them know we don’t want the checkpoint.”

Atop the bridge, overlooking the protest caravan, a car full of drugs and several illegal immigrants, Guerrero and protester Voisard spoke briefly, each passionately trying to convince the other of their point of view.

In the end, they respectfully agreed to disagree, both resolute to return another day to make their cases for and against the checkpoint.

dnewhauser@gvnews.com | 547-9749