Report: Lack of Permanent Checkpoints Lowers Arizona Defense
"Congress' decision to bar the U.S. Border Patrol from building permanent
highway checkpoints on the Arizona-Mexico border has led to a 'substantial drop' in the arrests of illegal aliens at temporary checkpoints now operating in the nation's busiest immigration corridor, according to a report," the Washington Times writes. "The 260-mile stretch of border, known as the Tucson sector, is the only one of 20 Border Patrol sectors nationwide not permitted to set up permanent checkpoints . . . Rep. Jim Kolbe, Arizona Republican, was the chief sponsor of legislation outlawing permanent sites in the Tucson sector. His bill requires the agency to relocate the checkpoints every 14 days, although the requirement is expected to be lowered to seven-day intervals in fiscal 2006."
Read the full story
Another disturbing story from Arizona. I appologise for the length. J.D. Hayworth should run for President in 2008. This money was probably spent in WA to promote open borders. Read on.
House to see if border money was misspent
By Mark Flatten, Tribune
East Valley Tribune
USA - The House Committee on Homeland Security will investigate accusations by a federal whistle-blower that technology money that could have helped secure the Arizona border was misspent.
Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., turned the matter over to the committee after the Tribune reported Sunday that Charles Cape, the regional head of the Department of Homeland Security's wireless program, had filed a complaint accusing top administrators of misspending tens of millions of dollars earmarked for anti-terrorism wireless projects on the border.
Committee spokesman Bailey Wood and Hayworth said the committee will research Cape's allegations. Hayworth and Rep. John Shadegg, R-Ariz., also enlisted the aid of Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of an appropriations subcommittee on homeland security and a frequent critic of the agency's spending.
An internal Homeland Security investigation was dropped during a routine staff shift, but then reopened after Hayworth made inquiries into its status, according to Hayworth.
Cape contends in his complaint that money for the system was misspent by administrators in Washington. Cape told the Tribune that money needed at the Arizona border instead went into bureaucratic initiatives in violation of congressional mandates.
Shadegg said he was told the staff director of Rogers' subcommittee has contacted Homeland Security and demanded a written response to Cape's allegations.
"His complaint is consistent with my experience with the department," said Shadegg, who led a homeland security subcommittee last congressional term. "I will be extremely surprised if the substance of his allegations isn't fundamentally correct. It may not be that they've misappropriated as much as he thinks. But I will be quite surprised if in fact the essence of his allegation doesn't prove to be accurate.
"If there is a dime that was supposed to be spent on the border that was spent in Washington, that's an outrage."
Cape was sent to Arizona in June 2004 to devise ways to use wireless technology to help secure the border and prevent terrorist infiltration. He recommended immediate deployment of several devices to improve communications for U.S. Border Patrol agents. He also wanted to install radar systems, already being used by the military, to detect illegal border crossings.
But when Cape tried to get funding, he said he discovered there was no money available. When he researched agency spending, he concluded that as much as $60 million set aside by Congress for wireless initiatives was misspent in fiscal 2004 alone.
Cape filed complaints with his agency's inspector general and with the independent Office of Special Counsel.
Hayworth said the explanation he got from the inspector general's office was that as personnel were transferred, the investigation into Cape's complaint was dropped.
"I guess it should come as no surprise that they are now saying that review has been reactivated," Hayworth said.
Officials at the inspector general's office did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Larry Orluskie, spokesman for the Homeland Security office in charge of the wireless program, said he could not comment on the inspector general's investigation. But he did say the agency has not misspent money meant for wireless technology at the border.
Orluskie acknowledged that Cape was put in charge of building a system linking wireless technologies to help secure the border. But Cape is mistaken in his belief that the systems he requested are not getting funded because money has been spent on things that were not authorized by Congress, Orluskie said.
The reason the equipment Cape requested has not reached the border is it must go through normal testing and procurement channels, Orluskie said. Cape's requests also must be balanced against those from other zone managers
nationally, he said.
"It doesn't happen overnight," Orluskie said. "It's happening. It may not be happening fast enough for that one individual. But it's happening at a pace that makes sense and is not dangerously too fast."
Orluskie did not have an estimate as to when the technology Cape requested would reach the border.
Elected officials from Arizona slammed such explanations as bureaucratic dodges.
"These guys measure results by setting up desks and drawing in another box on an organizational chart," Hayworth said. "That's not getting it done. If we're going to fight the war on terror this way, I shudder to think how long it's going to take to finally get to work."
Gov. Janet Napolitano said Wednesday that if Cape is right, it would explain the lingering delay in securing the border.
"If his allegations are true it's fairly outrageous and it's part and parcel of a trend that we've seen where money, particularly for law enforcement, just isn't getting on the ground where it needs to be," Napolitano said.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., issued a written statement calling on both Homeland Security and the Office of Special Counsel to find out quickly whether Cape is right.
"Mr. Cape's allegations are serious and, if true, quite troubling," McCain said.
