Border Patrol checkpoint in doubt
by Blake Morlock on Aug. 22, 2007, under Local, Nation/World, SpecialA permanent U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 19 may not happen, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords said.
Earlier this year, Congress approved the eight-lane checkpoint 25 to 30 miles north of Mexico, to the consternation of residents along the interstate. The money to build the checkpoint has yet to be approved.
“It’s a long way from getting the funding,” Giffords said Tuesday, after a tumultuous three-hour town hall session at Sahuarita High School.
Most of the roughly 700 people who crowded into the school’s auditorium opposed the checkpoint, fearing it would drive immigrants and drug trafficking into their backyards.
The checkpoint would provide a second layer of border defense, officials said.
Giffords, a first-term Democrat, has been working with the Border Patrol and neighbors in the area to find common ground. She hosted the Sahuarita meeting to discuss proposals from residents.
She got two proposals. One resident recommended allowing the checkpoint and another demanded that Congress protect the border at the border and not 30 miles to the north.
Robert Gilbert, chief of the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector, said he would “love” to stop the flow of illegal immigration at the border but doesn’t have the resources.
Gilbert promised to include recommendations from both community proposals so that the checkpoint would have a minimal impact on residents and the Santa Cruz River valley. The patrol uses temporary checkpoints now.
The Border Patrol has wanted to build the permanent checkpoint – Tucson is the lone sector along the border without a permanent checkpoint – for years. But former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe used his seat on the House Appropriations Committee to block the project.
