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Illegal Aliens Suck Money Out of Indian Tribal Guvmints, Too...
But they are a boon to the economy!! Really!!From a remote mountaintop overlooking the vast Tohono O'odham Reservation, the smugglers have created their own sacred spot, a shrine to the Virgin de Guadalupe covered in prayer cards and candles. Slowly over the years, the Tohono O'odham Nation has tried to take its land back from people-smugglers and drug runners, tribal leaders say, giving the U.S. Border Patrol unprecedented access to their reservation in hopes of stemming the tide of illegal activity. But tribal leaders are crying out for more help from the Department of Homeland Security, saying they are incurring $3 million annually in costs associated with the federal government's failure to secure their 75-mile stretch of U.S.-Mexican border. The tribe is seeking compensation for costs ranging from migrant autopsies to police overtime. I doubt the illegals even contributed $3 total to the Tohono economy in the meantime.... "We're caught in the middle of this whole problem," Tribal Chairwoman Vivian Juan-Saunders said. "It creates a really high stress level for our people." Juan-Saunders said the problem stems directly from a piece of legislation, the Homeland Security Act of 2002, that did not recognize Indian nations as sovereign governments. So the 25 tribes along the nation's northern and southern borders have to go through states for security funding, adding a layer of bureaucracy and leading to consternation by tribal members. They have complained that they are often left out of federal decision-making. Meanwhile, the Feds are busy consulting with the Mexican government to ensure their feelings aren't hurt by us taking effective enforcement action.... U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said he wants to help the Tohono O'odhams, but the window to get a bill passed this session is closing. "They're supplementing this enforcement activity, and they deserve to have a direct pipeline," Grijalva said. "I think their request is more than justified; I think it's overdue." In the meantime, the Tohono O'odhams say they are having trouble controlling the illegal crossings through their land, which has been crisscrossed with at least 160 smuggling trails. Agents have made more than 187,000 arrests since Oct. 1 in the "west desert," a 160-mile stretch from Sasabe to the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge that includes the Tohono O'odham Reservation. Because the tribe's land is so vast and remote, roughly 2.8 million acres, comparable to the size of Connecticut, the smugglers still operate in some areas with impunity. They built their shrine, leaving piles of pesos in the wooden box that holds the figurine. Whoops, my bad, I guess this is their "contribution" to the Tohono economy. Nearby, smugglers have discarded empty canvas bags used to carry The Tohono O'odham Police Department, with 65 sworn officers, spends 60 percent of its time on illegal immigration. Border Patrol agents scour the tribe's land, and the tribe recently approved allowing the National Guard onto the reservation. The nation has tons of trash dumped on its land by undocumented immigrants, even on sacred sites, Juan-Saunders said. It has paid for the autopsies of at least 51 migrants, including three children, since January, at a cost of $1,200 to $1,400 each, she said. "These resources should be spent on education and health care and infrastructure and economic development," she said. "But we have no other choice than to do what we can to protect our people." Posted by: Swamp Blondie 2006-08-18 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=163328 |