Committee talks border security
By Jonathan Clark
http://www.svherald.com/articles/2006/08/18/local_news/news2.txt
Herald/Review
SIERRA VISTA — Three members of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee peppered a panel of local and regional law enforcement officials with questions about border security and surveillance during an open hearing on Thursday. What they heard was that Southern Arizona remains a hotspot for smuggling activity, and that while the potential exists for terrorists to penetrate the nation’s porous southern border, there is little evidence that they are doing do.
During his opening remarks, ranking committee member Rep. Rick Renzi, a Republican from Arizona’s 1st Congressional District, told the audience that human- and drug-smuggling networks operating along the border present a national security risk.
“If not well-monitored and managed, the sophisticated smuggling networks may look to expand their activities,” said Renzi, who grew up in Sierra Vista. “Their success in exploiting our security gaps could potentially draw the attention of terrorist groups, like al-Qaida.”
A recently prepared intelligence report had suggested a connection between Mexican human and drug smugglers and international terrorist organizations, Renzi said.
When the congressman asked the panel if drug smugglers were taking on human trafficking, Victor Manjarrez, deputy chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol Tucson Sector, said his agents had not seen any evidence.
John Comer, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, was skeptical of a cartel-terrorist relationship.
“The drug cartels do not want to attract attention to themselves by forming alliances with terrorists,” he said.
Other questions seemed to baffle panel members, such as when Renzi asked, “Are we watching the growth of mosques in Mexico?” and “How are we monitoring the radicalization of Muslims in Mexico?”
Darrell Issa, R-Calif., pointed to what he said were “widely published reports” of Hezbollah operations in Mexico, and asked what the panel members knew of that activity.
Manjarrez said he was not aware of any Hezbollah presence in Mexico, but added that while his agency relies on intelligence in its operations, it is not an intelligence-gathering entity.
The committee’s lone Democratic member at Thursday’s hearing, Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey, asked the panel if there was any concrete evidence that illegal immigrants arrested in the area had been connected with terrorism, or if there was any evidence suggesting smuggling networks are willing to assist terrorists.
“There is always a potential for that, but to date we have nothing documented,” Manjarrez said.
Holt said terrorism and smuggling were being erroneously conflated in the immigration debate.
“People often mix up the different aspects of the problem and they marshal arguments that are peripheral and irrelevant,” he said.
During their opening comments, several panel members spoke of the problems of human and drug smuggling without evoking the threat of terrorism.
Comer told the committee of a federation of Mexican narcotics cartels based in Culiac‡n and Guadalajara that will use “every means necessary to get drugs into the country,” while Manjarrez said the Tucson Sector is confiscating an average of 1,800 pounds of marijuana and arresting 1,123 illegal immigrants per day — 104 of whom have prior criminal records.
And while panel members said there was still room for improvement in Mexico’s anti-organized crime efforts, they had seen significant improvement during the administration of President Vicente Fox. Comer pointed to Wednesday’s arrest of fugitive drug kingpin Javier Arellano Felix as an example of increased U.S.-Mexico cooperation in law enforcement.
Perhaps the most compelling comments on the day came from Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever, the lone locally elected official or member of the local community to participate on the six-member panel.
Dever thanked the committee for coming to the area, but added some would say they came too late. He showed the legislators a copy of an Arizona Sheriff magazine from 1987 in which a Border Patrol spokesman promised to heed a congressional mandate to secure the southern border against narcotics traffickers and illegal immigration.
“Twenty years later, we have a growing, not a diminishing, problem,” Dever said. “Sadly, the answer to the question ‘Who is crossing our borders?’ continues to be ‘Anyone who really wants to.’ ”
Dever talked about his experiences during the inaugural Minuteman campaign in April 2005, and suggested they provided a template for how to effectively manage law enforcement intelligence on the border.
The sheriff said his office met extensively throughout that month with every interested law enforcement agency in the area — including those on the Mexican side of the border — to share information in a spirit of trust and cooperation. As a result, he said the disaster that many had forecast for the Minuteman launch was averted.
An ongoing, monthly meeting of area officials grew out of this cooperative effort and continues to be fruitful, Dever said.
Approximately 100 members of the local public — along with a rotating cast of high school classes — turned out for the event held at the Buena Performing Arts Center. Some of those who came expressed disappointment that they were not given the opportunity to address the committee.
“They don’t want to hear from the public, they just want to hear from the bureaucrats,” said Ed Kolb, a local resident and anti-illegal-immigration activist. “But a Border Patrol agent is not going to speak out against his supervisors’ position.”
Speaking afterward, Renzi told the Herald/Review that he was sensitive to such concerns.
“There’s a fair criticism that the people should have been able to come to the mic, like at a town hall,” he said. “But this wasn’t a town hall. This was a hearing of the United States Select Committee on Intelligence.”
Thursday’s event was one of almost two dozen immigration field hearings being promoted by House Republicans during the August legislative recess in hopes of winning support for its enforcement-first immigration bill. The Senate passed a comprehensive, bipartisan bill earlier this year, and now the two houses must try to reach a compromise.
Jerry Covey, head of the Democratic Party in Cochise County, said the Sierra Vista hearing had done little to move the debate forward.
“It’s unfortunate that we’ve got a Republican-led House and a Republican-led Senate that can’t agree, even with all the information they have been given,” he said. “None of this is new, this is all established.”
Covey also objected to statements made by Renzi that he felt equated mosques with terrorism.
“That’s a terrible assumption, and it’s not true,” he said.
A small group of volunteers from the Democratic Party stood outside the event holding signs reading “Stop talking, get to work,” “Security now” and “Stop wasting tax dollars.” Inside the hall, other attendees draped a “Stop the invasion” sign over a seat in front of the stage and wore buttons bearing the same slogan.
In addition to Dever, Comer and Manjarrez, other panel members included Jim Woosley, director of the Southwest Field Intelligence Unit of Immigration and Customs Enforcement; Martin Vaughn, director of air operations for U.S. Customs and Border Protection; and Robert Halladay, commander of the Arizona Counterterrorism Information Center.
JONATHAN CLARK can be reached at 515-4693 or by e-mail at jonathan.clark@bisbeereview.net. |
