Checkpoint report scrutinized at town hall

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is heading back to Washington with an earful of advice on the Border Patrol checkpoint north of Tubac, but she supports moving forward with $1.5 million in improvements to create an interim checkpoint.

READ AN IN-DEPTH REPORT ON WEDNESDAY’S MEETING AND THE GAO REPORT IN SUNDAY’S GREEN VALLEY NEWS

READ THE GAO REPORT (under Aug. 31) AT: http://www.gao.gov/

About 200 people showed up Wednesday to hear a Government Accounting Office panel discuss a new study on the effectiveness of interior checkpoints in the Southwest and to hear a Border Patrol response to the report, which was critical of their accounting methods.

The GAO, called the “eyes and ears” of Congress, is given free reign to independently study issues, and was asked in 2007 by Giffords, Sens. Jon Kyl and John McCain and other lawmakers to launch the study.

The 147-page report, released Monday, says the 15 checkpoints in four Southwestern border states it studied are effective in seizing drugs and illegal immigrants. But it also said the Border Patrol uses flawed methods to measure just how effective, and to gauge the impact of its efforts on surrounding communities where smugglers go to evade checkpoints.

“We have failed in several areas,” Tucson Sector Border Patrol Chief Robert Gilbert told the crowd in Green Valley. But he said the agency is working with several universities and other agencies to develop new monitoring systems and increase effectiveness.

Gilbert called the flow of drugs and illegal immigrants through Arizona “staggering,” and said the Border Patrol will continue to push for a permanent checkpoint at kilometer 41, a kilometer south of the tactical checkpoint at Agua Linda Road north of Tubac.

Giffords supports the interim checkpoint but would not say yet whether she supports a permanent facility. Congress has told the Department of Homeland Security it wants to measure the effectiveness of the interim checkpoint before it OKs a permanent one.

Just one of the 30 people who signed up to address the crowd Wednesday favored a permanent checkpoint, and that person was among a handful who didn’t get to speak because of time, according to Giffords’ staff.

Richard Stana, who led the GAO study team, checkpoints “contribute to border security,” and that agents seize a large amount of drugs and illegal immigrants. He added that those apprehended help identify routes and offer other intelligence in the drug battle.

Stana said 4 percent of Border Patrol agents in the Southwest are at tactical checkpoints such as Tubac and are responsible for one-third of drug seizures. Gilbert said he has 10 percent of his agents in Arizona at the tactical checkpoints.

Stana said the key to a successful operation is continuous operation, full-time canine capability and non-intrusive inspections (X-ray technology), all hallmarks of a permanent facility.

FLAWED REPORTING

While the report acknowledged checkpoints are important, it said performance measures set up by the Border Patrol “do not indicate if checkpoints are operating efficiently and effectively.” It also said lack of oversight resulted in the Border Patrol overstating results in 2007 and 2008.

Stana said reporting errors include inconsistent gathering from sector to sector and location to location, and said oversight and guidance as to what is expected in a report is lacking.

COMMUNITY ISSUES

Stana said that permanent checkpoints in other parts of the country have “general support,” and that residents do not want the facilities removed. This includes checkpoints in rural and urban areas, though he pointed out that checkpoints in cities aren’t always open round-the-clock.

But he said concern in the Tubac-Green Valley area is heightened because of a dramatically higher number of illegal immigrants coming through.

Stana said the Border Patrol has a “tactical advantage in remote areas,” so there are advantages to going after people in the desert. But he said the Border Patrol often addresses reports of immigrants circumventing checkpoints “on a reactive basis” when resources such as manpower and helicopters might not be readily available.