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Air Power on Southern Border Maximized
ABOARD A-STAR HELICOPTER - The pilot flew deep into Sweetwater Canyon, the downdraft from the whirling helicopter blades kicking up mesquite branches to show eight people in a huddle."Surprise, boys," grinned Border Patrol pilot Randy Herberholtz, circling the group of undocumented immigrants from 800 feet above the rocky canyon, about five miles north of the U.S.-Mexican border. As summer approaches, top U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection officials are ramping up air power above Arizona's deserts to an unprecedented level. The agency has assigned 52 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft there, more than double from just a year ago and the greatest concentration along the 1,950-mile Southwestern border. The reason for the increase is a simple, basic fact that smugglers have known for ages and agents now reluctantly concede. "The only way to patrol this," Herberholtz said, his hand sweeping over a map of Arizona's remote deserts, "is with aircraft." The added air power is a key component of the federal government's push to gain a degree of control along Arizona's 389-mile border with Mexico, the most popular and deadly crossing point for undocumented immigrants. In March, officials announced reinforcements as part of the second phase of the Arizona Border Control Initiative and temporarily deployed aircraft normally assigned to other stretches of the U.S.-Mexican border, hoping to drive down the record-setting death toll in Arizona. So far this fiscal year, which started Oct. 1, the helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft have been credited with netting more than 69,000 arrests, compared with almost 51,000 in all of last year. At the same time, the pilots, who are paired with search-and-rescue agents, have participated in about 95 percent of the Tucson sector's 260 rescue attempts, helping about 447 undocumented immigrants in distress, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics. But with the deadliest months still to come, the Border Patrol in Arizona is on pace to break last year's record of 172 deaths with 113 fatalities so far this year. On topographic maps, it's clear that large stretches of deserts are too vast, canyons are too deep and mountains are too steep for regular patrols. Certain areas, such as the Barry M. Goldwater Air Force Range or Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Refuge in the southwestern part of the state, are off-limits to the Border Patrol or only accessible on established roads, agents said. Even with ATVs and Humvees, some areas simply are too hard or impractical to patrol on the ground. The result: Smugglers gamble and cross through some of the most treacherous deserts in North America, betting that agents will be less likely to follow them. On the June morning, Herberholtz buzzed over the desert in the A-Star helicopter with a search-and-rescue agent riding shotgun. The helicopter flew over places found on few maps but with picturesque, if misleading names: Bluebird Pass, Locomotive Rock, El Camino del Diablo (Devil's Road). Particularly during the summer months, the helicopter response time in such remote areas becomes crucial, said Ron Bellavia, commander of the Tucson search-and-rescue squad. Rescues that would take 12 to 18 hours for agents on the ground, are reduced to two to four hours... "One of our main goals on the search-and-rescue team is to shorten the amount of time someone is out there in the middle of the desert," Bellavia said. The helicopters, he said, "increase our chance of finding those people alive and increase our ability to stabilize them. It's a very valuable asset." Posted by: Pappy 2005-06-17 |
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