Border czar promises crackdown on I-19 cooridor

Green Valley, Sahuarita and other communities along the Interstate 19 corridor can expect more effective immigration enforcement at the border and in the workplace, and stepped up prosecution of illegal immigrants who commit crimes such as rape, murder and burglary, President Obama’s border czar said Thursday in Tucson.

“All three are required to build a situation (in which) the American people would support comprehensive immigration reform,” said Alan Bersin, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for international affairs and special representative for border affairs.

Bersin and several DHS officials visited Tucson as part of a tour of the Southwest border to listen to policy recommendations from the U.S.-Mexico Border and Immigration Task Force and local leaders from communities near the border.

“This meeting is a result of us insisting that when high-level officials come down to the border... they also need to take the time to sit down and listen to community members,” said Jennifer Allen, a task force member and executive director of human rights group Border Action Network. “We know this region. We know what works well, we know what doesn’t work well.”

Among the recommendations were tougher accountability and oversight, a streamlined complaint process, and ongoing constitutional and human rights training within the Border Patrol.

The group also called for decreased militarization of the border region and strengthened links between communities and local and federal law enforcement to combat drug and human smuggling.

Task force member Randy Mayer, pastor of Sahuarita’s Good Shepherd United Church of Christ, said the constant patter of helicopters overhead, school lockdowns and frequent high-speed chases foster a culture of fear and scar border communities.

“Our residents in our community far too frequently witness the blood and the brutality of our border policies,” he told DHS officials. “In the past, this was a relatively quiet phenomenon, but in recent years it has become a very, very loud scream that has consumed our communities.”

Also at issue was the DHS’s controversial 287(g) program, which provides federal grants to train state and local police to identify illegal immigrants involved in crime.

Marty Moreno, a former Sahuarita councilwoman, told the officials that the program could detract from local police departments’ primary law enforcement duties. Sahuarita recently accepted the funding.

“When we start melding the responsibilities of police departments and Border Patrol or any other agencies out there, we start crossing the lines,” she said.

The group also suggested upgrades to border infrastructure and ports of entry and a halt to border fence construction.

Bersin responded to individual concerns, assuring that DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and the community see eye-to-eye on a number of issues.

“We have a trucking infrastructure that is more suited to the 1930s or 1940s,” he said. “We need to build an infrastructure that will help honor the bilateral trade agreement (NAFTA).”

Bersin said Napolitano has already ordered a halt to border fence construction beyond what has already been appropriated by Congress, adding that “if the Border Patrol sees that there is a critical need for more fencing, she will review it on a case-by-case basis.”

He said DHS is willing to field complaints that identify a specific officer within a reasonable timeframe.

But Bersin added that the 287(g) program is working and it’s up to the community whether to apply for funding. He said scaling down patrols is not yet an option in “the most lawless corridor in the United States.”

“Unless we have enforcement, there will not be support for comprehensive immigration reform” which is a chief goal of this administration, he said.

But despite some disagreement, he’ll keep engaging the community and listening to their concerns to try to find a solution, he said.

“Absent that dialogue, you will never reach and find that common ground,” he said.

That’s already an improvement over the last administration, Moreno said.

“I saw a person who looks like he’s willing to help,” she said. “He’s believable and he follows through.”