Sheriff Babeu berates border mayors

[Pinal county Sheriff Paul Babeu addressed this letter to the mayors of Nogales, San Luis and Douglas, Ariz. who recently criticized his rhetoric.]

Pinal County is the number one pass through county in the United States for drug and human smuggling. Our pursuits and drug seizures tied to drug and human trafficking far exceed those of the all four border counties. The threat from an unsecured border is real, where 241,000 illegals were apprehended last year by the border patrol and an additional 400,000 got away just in Arizona alone!

These are failing grades by anyone’s score card.

You speak of improved safety, yet Pinal County has doubled the confiscation of drugs, calls to the Border Patrol and has had 340 vehicle pursuits in 2010 – up from 289 the year before and 140 the year prior.

We have a serious public safety threat in my county due to an unsecured border with Mexico and our nation’s citizens should be highly concerned about the more dangerous national security threat that is presented with other than Mexicans (OTM’s) and persons from countries of interest (foreign countries that harbor/sponsor terrorist and actively speak against America and our values).

Here are some recent Pinal county annual statistics:

2007: 28,093 pounds of marijuana seized, 142 pursuits and 188 calls to the Border Patrol
2008: 19,619 pounds of marijuana seized, 140 pursuits and 169 calls to the Border Patrol
2009: 44,963 pounds of marijuana seized, 289 pursuits and 270 calls to the Border Patrol
2010: 44,819 pounds of marijuana seized, 340 pursuits and 370 calls to the Border Patrol

Sadly, these numbers do not reflect other violence or violent crimes related to drug smuggling that has taken place during the past year; including two officer-involved shootings, the execution of a drug cartel member in Casa Grande and the killing of two illegals transporting drugs (killed by bandits or competing Cartels), a man who was kidnapped in Phoenix and because he was unable to meet the ransom demand shot twice in the back in the Vekol Valley, as well as another victim who was stabbed in Casa Grande as part of a “Cartel Hit.”

On the human smuggling side of this issue, my deputies have acted with great heroism and risked their own lives to save the lives of illegals who have been abandoned by their “Coyotes.” Pinal County Sheriff’s Deputy Russell Warren jumped into a deep canal to save five Hondurans, while five others could not be saved and drowned. Deputy Warren nearly drowned himself as he fought to save the five survivors.

Another case includes a 6-year-old and 11-year-old who were abandoned by “Coyotes” and forced to drink their own urine for two days in order to survive. I forgot to mention they were abandoned along with their parents, since they were too slow for the main group, so they were simply discarded and left to die in the desert. Where is your outrage and concern for these victims and the many other crimes committed against illegal immigrants?

Just this week, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Pinal County has a minimum of 75 mountains/high terrain features that are occupied by “Scouts, or lookouts” for the Mexican drug cartels. How have we arrived at this point in America that this has become acceptable to have foreign born criminals controlling the safe passage of drugs and other illegal activities in an entire region of our Arizona?

Feel free to “drink the Kool-Aid” of Janet Napolitano, Dennis Burke and Barak Obama all day long, yet this threat to America remains, until our border is secured. Their agenda is clear – they want “immigration reform” and must convince the public that everything is just fine.

The complexities of this problem will not be solved by SB1070, employer sanctions, lawsuits, other future interior enforcement measures, or even thousands of new Border Patrol Agents. We must secure the border. This is achieved by the McCain/Kyl 10 Point Border Security Plan. Only then can we have a reasonable discussion about “immigration reform.”

If your intent was to establish dialogue with me, you would have called, or at least waited for your letter to arrive by mail at my office, prior to releasing it to the media. You have done the very thing they accuse me of doing. I do not represent you, or the citizens of your community, yet I do represent the nearly 400,000 citizens of my county and the viewpoint of the solid majority of Arizonans, who laugh at Secretary Napolitano’s suggestion that our border is more secure than ever.

Paul Babeu is sheriff of Pinal County. His letter is addressed to Arturo R. Garino, Mayor of Nogales, Juan C. Escamilla, Mayor of San Luis, and Dr. Michael Gomez, Mayor of Douglas.

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