Tubac, GV crowds debate border checkpoint

Santa Cruz Valley residents packed the house at two events last week to debate the Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 19.

Border Patrol officials reiterated at a Tubac community meeting Wednesday that despite public opposition and construction delays, the northbound checkpoint at Agua Linda Road north of town is both necessary and effective in combating drug and human smuggling from Mexico.

On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona told a Green Valley audience that the checkpoint and many Border Patrol actions near the border are violating civil liberties.

The Tubac Chamber of Commerce called the Wednesday meeting to provide an update for residents, many of whom are staunchly opposed to the checkpoint.

“We hear you and we understand you when you say you don’t want a permanent checkpoint in Tubac,” John Fitzpatrick, Tucson Sector division chief, said of plans to expand to a $27 million permanent post.

Nevertheless, Fitzpatrick said there is a critical operational need for the checkpoint. He said the I-19 corridor has been ravaged by drug cartel smuggling in part because of “years of vulnerability created by restrictive policies on our checkpoints.”

The temporary checkpoint has been in place since 2007, when a rule, championed by former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., expired requiring the Border Patrol to change sites every two weeks.

Since the checkpoint has been in use, Fitzpatrick said, drug cartels have had to forgo the highway and use tunnels, ramps and low-flying aircraft to sneak drugs into the country.

“They would not be resorting to these tactics if we weren’t making a difference,” he said. “As we continue to get better at what we do, we will continue to push traffic out of the corridor, and that’s what we intend.”

But Nan Stockholm Walden, co-owner of Farmers Investment Co. in Sahuarita and a member of the Coalition for a Safe and Secure Border, said the checkpoint pushes illegal activity off the highway and into towns and neighborhoods.

Its effectiveness is unproven, she said, and there is no way to tell how much drug activity isn’t caught.

Walden said the area would be better served with stronger enforcement at the border, roving checkpoints that utilize the element of surprise and more accountability.

“We need to know that these massive investments that are made will pay off,” she said. “Our major concerns continue to be that after 30 years of checkpoints, the smuggling continues along the border.”

Permanent post

The permanent checkpoint’s completion date is open-ended, said Al White, Border Patrol agent in charge of the Nogales station. But construction on a $1.7 million interim upgrade, to include a modular building, a canopy and a paved inspection lane, has been delayed until May, after an internal audit revealed the need to review structural and security issues on the facility.

White said the agency didn’t know permanent design standards had to be applied to a temporary facility.

About 150 people listened as Border Patrol agents showcased this year’s historic marijuana busts in the Tucson Sector, which includes most of Arizona. More than 1 million pounds of pot have been seized since the start of the fiscal year Oct. 1, the most seized ever in any sector.

Agents at the I-19 checkpoint were responsible for confiscating about 37,000 pounds, and also found 40 pounds of cocaine, 24 pounds of methamphetamines and six weapons, according to the Border Patrol. They also seized 222 vehicles involved in smuggling and arrested 461 illegal immigrants and 226 U.S. citizens involved in smuggling.

The crowd packed into the Tubac Community Center appeared by-and-large unconvinced of the post’s effectiveness, and spontaneous outbursts rebuking the officers marked much of the meeting, which was streamed live on KGVY radio’s Web site.

In a question and answer session, residents voiced wide-ranging concerns, including the need for comprehensive immigration reform, sluggish patrol response times, ineffectual dispatch operators and a negative public perception of Tubac that the checkpoint projects.

“I feel like a potential criminal every time I pull up there,” said Judith Noyes, a Tubac resident. “As an American citizen, I am offended that I have to be questioned and stopped when proceeding from one point in the United States to another.”

Ann Groves, a Tubac shop owner, said the checkpoint deters business to a community already hard hit by the economic recession.

“The commerce of Tubac has been affected,” she said. “Yeah, the economy is affecting us, but we felt it long before.”

Several people — patrol agents and residents alike — voiced anticipation for the Government Accountability Office report, to be released next month, that will outline the effectiveness of checkpoints. Regardless of the report, the Border Patrol has said it still is moving forward with a permanent checkpoint.

ACLU meeting

ACLU of Arizona’s Thurday meeting, held at the Joyner-Green Valley Branch Library, was as diverse and heated, if not more so, than Tubac’s gathering.

The group’s executive director, Alessandra Soler Meetze, said the meeting was a response to a perceived lack of Fourth Amendment constitutional rights in communities near the border.

“We’ve been getting lots of complaints from you all, from members of the community,” Meetze told the audience of about 100 people. “It should be a concern to everyone that the Constitution is basically being suspended in this 100-mile zone, this Constitution-free zone.”

Several local residents, though expressing support for the general mission of the Border Patrol, complained of experiencing what they call invasive searches and rude encounters at the checkpoint and elsewhere.

Willie Armijo, a Vietnam veteran who lives near Amado, said while he was riding his bike, he was stopped by agents who suspected him of being an illegal immigrant on what he thinks is racial grounds.

“I’m sure people have looked at me and said ‘I wonder if he’s a citizen,’” he said.

Tubac business owner Garry Hembree said he has lodged several formal grievances against the Border Patrol for rudeness to him and his daughter, a Nogales nurse, at the checkpoint.

Supporters of the Border Patrol showed up, too, one holding a sign that read, “Checkpoint, Yes!” while he and others interrupted the speakers.

Dana Willens, of Green Valley, voiced her support for U.S. immigration enforcement saying the threats of narcotics, criminal immigrants and terrorism are too important to ignore.

“Part of the point of being an American citizen is to help law enforcement do their job,” she said.

Margo Cowan, a Pima County public defender who spoke on behalf of the ACLU, said even though I-19 corridor residents face a unique threat, they shouldn’t cede Fourth Amendment rights. She said current immigration policy and the “militarization of the border” encourage racial discrimination and give way to warrantless searches that stretch the limits of probable cause.

“Jurisprudence is out of focus in the heat of the war on the border,” she said.

dnewhauser@gvnews.com