DHS head, Ducey tour San Luis border
Nielsen calls for wall funding, stricter immigration laws
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen toured the Yuma sector border fence and met with about 30 National Guard soldiers just deployed to the area during a visit to the area Wednesday.
Accompanied by Gov. Doug Ducey, Nielsen and other officials walked a section of the wall between San Luis, Ariz., and San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., comprised of Vietnam War-era metal landing mats, reaching 18 feet into the sky. They stood between that fence and a newer one about 50 yards north, of the same height but made of metal bars and screening.
She also greeted guardsmen who had just reached Yuma in response to President Donald Trump’s call to send military reinforcement for Border Patrol officers earlier this month, just under half of the 64 troops officials said will be sent to the Yuma Sector. They are part of the initial statewide deployment of 440.
Nielsen said the troops will take on roles such as logistical and administrative assistance, aerial surveillance and vehicle maintenance.
“Protecting our border is a shared responsibility and partnership, and DHS simply could not do the job without their assistance,” she said during a press conference held between the two border fences between San Luis, Ariz., and San Luis Rio Colorado, Son.
Arizona Department of Public Safety Director Frank Milstead, who accompanied Nielsen and Ducey on the tour, said the Guard deployment is well under way, assisting DPS’ Border Strike Force, which on Wednesday had sent 26 K-9 officers to the area and had seized a shipment of hydroponic marijuana during the first three hours.
“We are already deploying guardsmen and putting in our requests for them to work in the Arizona Counterterrorism Information Center, and they will be doing analytics, monitoring cameras, writing reports,” he said.
Ducey, a Republican, said the strike force was formed in response to “ne-
glect” of border security during the Obama administration. “Before this administration, we had to form what’s called the Border Strike Force,” he said.
The deployment follows a recent increase in Border Patrol interdictions of undocumented border crossers and smugglers, of both people and drugs. Statistics for last month found a 203 percent increase in border arrests and detainments over March 2017, according to the government.
The uptick is being seen in the Yuma sector as well, Nielsen said, where 12,847 illegal crossers were apprehended along the Mexican border during the last federal fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. “We are on track to meet that number today,” she said.
The National Guard troops are being sent in to fill behind-the-scenes roles so more Border Patrol agents can take on direct law enforcement roles, she said.
“More than anything, (Border Patrol officers) can tell you about the crisis that’s happening along our border today, as we speak,” she said. “Despite the steps this administration has taken to strengthen border security, we continue to see unacceptable levels of illegal drugs, dangerous gang and transnational criminal organization activity, and illegal immigration flows across our border. We will not allow the situation to become the new normal.”
She also used her remarks to push Congress on administration priorities that have not been fully funded or adopted, including the border wall that was one of Trump’s primary campaign promises.
Earlier Wednesday, she said, she saw another section of the border near Calexico, Calif., where guard personnel are replacing a two-mile section of border fence with a 30-foot barrier, using existing federal funding for border infrastructure repairs.
“The 30 foot high bollard style wall is a massive upgrade and exactly what the men and women of the Border Patrol have requested. It’s not just replacement of dilapidated, ineffective low border walls and vehicle barriers, it’s a new wall, and part of a wall system,” she said.
Congress has approved a small portion of the funding requested for the controversial border wall plans.
The 18-foot tall barriers in the part of the Yuma sector Nielsen and Ducey toured were erected during Operation Jump Start in 2006-08, the last major National Guard deployment to the Yuma sector. At that time, border arrests had surged to nearly 140,000 a year in the sector.
The southern wall was pieced together with metal military landing mats from the Vietnam War era, and the more modern-looking fence to the north is of brown metal bars and mesh. These and other improvements during Operation Jump Start are credited by some for the Yuma sector being under Border Patrol “operational control” today.
Nielsen said Congress also should change laws that delay deportations of families and unaccompanied minors until after a hearing is held. Apprehensions of immigrants in these categories, are up 800 percent and 600 percent nationally, she said.
Many of these children and families cross the border by turning themselves in to officials at border ports of entry, and have been a significant majority of those apprehended in the Yuma sector every month of the current fiscal year, which began in October, according to statistics on the Border Patrol’s website.
“In order for us to achieve border security, violating the law must have consequences,” she said.