Looking at a 4-foot-tall vehicle barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, a Republican congressman from Texas simply said, “This will stop cars but not people.”
 Bill Hess/Wick News Service Republican U.S. Rep. Ted Poe, of Texas, visited the U.S.-Mexico border while touring Cochise County Friday. Here he leans on a border vehicle barrier, south of Geronimo Trail, east of Douglas, as he looks into Mexico. |
On Thursday, when the Homeland Security secretary was in El Paso, Texas, she again exclaimed people who live on the U.S. side of the border, near the international boundary, are safe because it’s “better now than it’s ever been.”
It’s been her mantra and that of other officials involved in immigration issues to state what Poe and others say is not true.
A local rancher who asked that her name not be used because of safety concerns for her family has been part of a ranching family which has called Cochise County home since the late 1890s.
Saying the family has two ranches, one five miles north of the border and the other 30 miles north of that, she said although there have been some improvements, “the border is not secured.”
She has been told by Border Patrol agents the number of illegal immigrants coming through Cochise County has been reduced. They also said once the summer heat starts, illegal activities in Arizona’s western desert will drive human smuggling east and it will mean there will be an increase of illegal immigrants coming across the line.
As it is, illegal immigrants now travel by the ranch houses on both of her family’s properties ” five miles and 30 miles from the border ” which continues to be a concern, she said.
A Republican, she said she hopes Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords gets well soon and starts working on border issues as she has done in the past. The congresswoman understands the issues and she did get things done, she said.
Driving the congressman and a couple of his staff members as well as a staff members of the wounded Giffords, whose CD8 includes all of Cochise County, was local rancher and veterinarian Dr. Gary Thrasher.
He, too, says anyone who thinks the border is secured lacks knowledge of ground reality.
Poe said he came to Giffords’ district because the two have a good bipartisan working relationship.
Although he knows more about the border problem in Texas, Poe remarked it is best to have more of an understanding to find real solutions to what he called “a national problem.”
The problem isn’t something that affects only United States’ border residents, he said.
As a consequence of illegal activities crossing the border from Mexico it is an issue all Americans want solved.
As a former prosecutor and judge, Poe said the official numbers put out by Homeland Security and others may be true, as to the number of illegal immigrants apprehended or drugs confiscated. But from his legal background, if the problem continues it means more people and drugs getting into the United States.
“I’m very concerned about the problem,” Poe said.
Saying the reason he came to Arizona was to support Giffords, who understands what needs to be done on border issues, which concern or should concern every American citizen, the Texas congressman said.
When told that Arizona Republican U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jon Kyl are planning to reintroduce their 10-point plan for border security, Poe said it will have to be taken up by the U.S. Senate.
What is needed is a House bill to complement what may be introduced in the Senate, he said.
Saying he will be working on such a House proposal, Poe said he wished Giffords would be well enough to provide important input.
One part of the McCain and Kyl plan is the need to permanently have 3,000 National Guard troops along the border until it is secured.
But 3,000 isn’t Poe’s number.
“I want to put 10,000 National Guard forces directly on the border, not back from it, on it,” he said.
He disagrees with the national policy of putting most of the Border Patrol agents away from the border.
Noting in the initial 10 miles of driving along the border, he had not seen a Border Patrol vehicle, Poe said even though Homeland Security and other national agencies, including the Border Patrol, say they are controlling the international boundary while they are not.
Border security has been talked about for years and still it continues to be a subject of discussion because politics ” Republican and Democratic plans ” have failed, the Texas congressman said.
Noting there are 16 counties in Texas which share the border with Mexico, he noted when county officials were asked how many non-U.S. citizens were incarcerated in their county jails for misdemeanors or felonies, the average number was 37 percent, Poe said, adding that is a statistic which is an indicator of failed national border policies.
During his day in Cochise County, he met with the widow of rancher Robert Krentz, who was shot and killed in a homicide which happened a year ago Sunday and remains unsolved.
Saying during the visit with her, he could see how emotional the loss of her husband remains to this day.
The only people who must do something to control the border is the Congress and the federal agencies who oversee the issue, Poe said.
Action has to start in the halls of Congress, he emphasized, noting last year’s Arizona Senate Bill 1070, an attempt to control illegal immigraaton was a signal to the country of the federal government’s failure, the Texas congressman said.
“It is our (Congress’) responsibility to protect the people of the United States,” Poe said, adding that “members of both parties have to work together more.”
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