Illegal felons: They're heading your way

"They're running over us and they're headed your way."

Whoa! I wasn't prepared for that response to my question: "What's the bottom-line message about illegals crossing our border?"

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Those were the words of Sheriff Larry Dever on my KSFO-San Francisco radio program last week.

A 30-year Cochise County law enforcement veteran, and in his third term as sheriff, the Arizona lawman is on the front lines of border problems. For the last nine years, his county has been the most besieged area of the country for illegals and drug smuggling. He's not happy about it and didn't mince words.

He'd also just returned from testifying, along with other sheriffs from Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, before two Senate committees in Washington about the border problems – illegals, drug smuggling, human smuggling and escalating violence.

If he's not enthused about politician's reaction to his testimony, it's understandable. He's done it five times before. Each time, the problems are worse. Their reactions are not encouraging.

Dever and his deputies confront the illegal alien problem daily, coming face-to-face with inadequate local and state support, the contradictions faced by the Border Patrol and the almost total ineffectiveness of federal involvement. His county has 83 and a half miles of border with Mexico.

That border is porous and the problem is increasing. He says, "More people cross illegally and get away with it."

Dever told me that what's "scary" about it is that "anyone who wants to get in – can."

Where are they from? "Mostly Mexico, but also Central America, South America, the Middle East, Poland, Russia, Asia."

The Pew Hispanic Center just released a report on illegal aliens in this country. Those figures show that 56 percent of the illegals are Mexican and 22 percent from other Latin countries.

That means 22 percent are "OTMs" – in border parlance, "other than Mexicans." That means the rest of the world. Terrorists? Maybe.

Dever and his deputies know that no matter how many illegals they pick up, more than double that number get through into the country and essentially disappear.

We see them on construction crews, in restaurants, in building and garden maintenance, businesses, working in schools, businesses, factories, farms and homes. They're in emergency rooms and hospital beds, classrooms, social welfare offices, churches and prisons.

Dever is right. They're not only headed our way, they're here by the millions; estimates are upwards of 12-14 million.

Has anything been done to help? He conceded that on one level, things might seem a bit better. He said 10 years ago in the Tucson Sector, stretching from that city to Cochise County (a 90 minute drive), there were about 200 Border Patrol officers. Now there are 1,300.

The problem, he told me, is that the increase might have slowed the illegal crossings in that area a bit, but New Mexico and Texas are hurting because illegals moved their crossings there.

According to Dever, law enforcement tries to catch up but with no infrastructure, plan or resources, those two states have severe problems. He gave the example of El Paso, which the Border Patrol has under control. Says Dever, "The city is OK but around it, things are worse."

Cochise County is some 6,300 square miles with a long Mexican border. Interstate 10 cuts through the northern part of the county and is used by illegals to get to Phoenix, their ultimate destination. They need cars. Dever says hijackings by illegals are common.

He says that in just one night, along a 300-foot stretch of border in his county, 600 illegals were caught.

Forty percent of Arizona is private property; the rest is a mix of state, trust land, federal land and federal land leases. Those distinctions make no difference to illegals, who cross the border into, as Dever puts it, "our own back yards, leaving piles of trash, cut fences, ruined water sources, dead livestock, stolen property and violence."

He says the Border Patrol estimates that one illegal is caught for every three or four who get away; locals say it's more like one caught for every seven to 10 getting through.

There are eight police departments in Cochise county (staffs ranging from four to 40) plus the sheriff's department. They find the illegals and tell the feds, who are responsible for transporting them to the border. But they're told, "Sorry, there's no help" – no transport, no place to put them or no courtroom available.

"What happens in the meantime?"

"They just hang around in the neighborhoods."

According to Dever, crossing the border the first time is a misdemeanor.

A second crossing after a first time conviction the charge is a felony.

But, he says, "virtually none of those caught are charged, let alone convicted." There's just an administrative hearing and they're let go on their own recognizance – with a promise to return for a court hearing. Few do.

Dever asked if I realized "what really was crazy about that?"

He said, "More than 10 percent of all those apprehended by the Border Patrol have criminal records in this country!"

In other words, they were here before, broke the law and been convicted.

For what? "Homicide, sexual assault and everything else."

According to him, these are the people who "land in our communities."

The other problem for law enforcement is organizations defending illegals. Dever was subject to a $32 million dollar lawsuit filed by MALDEF for "failure to protect migrant rights."

He says police "are between a rock and a hard place. What do we do? How do we cope?"

That he's not happy with the feds is clear. He emphasized: "Every federal action has a local reaction."

He said the 1994 plan to close the borders at El Paso and San Diego forced illegal crossings into Arizona, New Mexico and the rest of Texas. The idea was to force them into a more hostile, desert/mountain environment, thinking the illegals would give up their attempts. It didn't work. Dever said the plan was "stupid at best."

But at the committee hearing, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., commented that the pressure at the San Diego border "worked" because illegal crossings there decreased. She saw it as a victory.

The only problem, according to Sheriff Dever, was that "it broke our backs." Arizona was inundated with illegals.

"If the feds had put the pressure all along the border, there would be no border problems." In fact, he added, "They wouldn't have been there that day."

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., told him he "shouldn't bother coming back" because "if no one gets your message, this won't go anywhere."

The only surprise is that such effrontery hasn't caused Dever to give up. Indeed, he says, he just keeps going – that "the way to keep from falling off the bicycle is to keep pedaling."

"Never mind Washington," he says, "the policy and decision makers" don't talk to him.

Sheriff Dever says people smuggling has increased, but "there seem to be fewer penalties if they're caught." The criminal mindset has changed, too. The drug trade has increased. He says, with federal pressure on Florida and the East Coast, the trade moved to the Mexican border. Police face "the Mexicans who usually buy protection and now the Colombians who use intimidation and force, whatever it takes up to homicide."

"Twenty-five to 30 years ago, guys would jump the fence but give up if caught. Now, they run, on foot or with vehicles," Dever says, adding his deputies "expect a fight every day" and that "they're outgunned, both in numbers and kinds of weapons."

According to Dever, the only solution is that "we have to have the political will to stop it."

He believes strongly that "no one will care for the border until they suffer in their own communities."

He adds, "That's happening now."

Maybe. Meanwhile, it's dangerous out here.