Interior to send officers to border

Arizona and Texas to be aided with enforcement

The U.S. agency that oversees protected and public lands will be sending its law-enforcement officers to the Arizona and Texas borders to assist U.S. Border Patrol with its enforcement duties.

A report from the Hill, attributed to an internal email sent to employees, said the Department of the Interior will be sending 22 U.S. Park Police to two protected areas along the U.S.Mexico border starting this week.

The two sites are the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southwestern Arizona and Amistad National Recreation Area in southern Texas. According to the email, the officers would be sent in rotating 21-day periods.

The Department of the Interior has not responded to requests for comment about plans to send park police to the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees Border Patrol, hasn’t responded, either.

However, the department plays an important role in border security. It manages approximately 40 percent of the land along the U.S.-Mexico border, including most of the borderlands in Arizona.

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke toured the border in March for the first time since taking office. He spent several days in southern Arizona and took a horseback tour of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, west of Nogales. Zinke also met with Tohono O’Odham tribal leaders, and hiked Organ Pipe during his four-day visit to the state.

During his tour, he expressed support for construction of President Donald Trump’s border wall, even in protected areas under his department’s jurisdiction.

Zinke cited the damage illegal crossings can have on public lands, including trash accumulation. But he also highlighted the need for cooperation with Border Patrol to secure the border.

“There’s a lot of bad people that come across with weapons and drugs and things, and we have to make sure that we support the border,” he said back in March. “And it’s important that we all work together to do it.”

It’s unclear what sort of responsibilities U.S. Park Police officers would carry out during their assignments at the border. Traditionally, they patrol National Park sites in Washington, D.C., New York City and San Francisco, according to their website.

Currently, the Interior Department does have a few officers patrolling large swaths of protected areas along the border.

CBP must also coordinate with the department to receive access to protected areas and to build permanent infrastructure on public lands.

The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument remains one of the busiest human- and drug-smuggling corridors along the Southwest border. But its remoteness and ruggedness also make it one of the deadliest areas, where border officials and humanitarian groups routinely encounter stranded migrants and human remains.

The Sierra Club, one of the staunchest defenders of public-land protections, decried the move to send officers to help the Border Patrol.

“The decision to send park police to the border is yet another example of Ryan Zinke misusing taxpayer funds and failing to carry out his duties as Secretary of the Interior,” said Dan Millis, coordinator for the Sierra Club Borderlands Campaign.

“Our parks need maintenance funding, improved accessibility, and staff — not officers sent to harass and racially-profile people on our public lands.”