| Submit your comments on this article |
| Home Front: WoT |
| Yuma Border Patrol Station Busiest in U.S. |
| 2005-09-20 |
| ... There are three stations within the Yuma sector — Yuma, Wellton and Blythe [California]. Since the Wellton and Blythe stations are in relatively remote locations, it is the Yuma station that is "hands down" the No. 1 busiest station in the country... the Yuma station has made more than 119,000 apprehensions since the beginning of this fiscal year last October. The Yuma station has been labeled a focus station by Border Patrol headquarters... which means over the last year, it has received assets in the form of manpower, infrastructure and new technology...from every new class of 50 agents graduating every two weeks from the Border Patrol Academy, 12 are being sent to the Yuma sector. That means...that about 50 of the 550 agents at the Yuma sector are fresh out of the academy and still in their six-week training period, during which they learn the ropes by patrolling with a senior officer. Another 50 agents assigned to the sector are senior officers specially detailed here, which means they are experienced but unfamiliar with the area... Next year, the sector is tentatively scheduled to receive another 250 agents... a lot of the "senior agents" have only been around for three years. After Sept. 11, 2001, many senior Border Patrol agents from the Yuma station left to become air marshals... "We used to make about 60 to 80 apprehensions a day at the Yuma station; now it's like 300 to 500. So these agents have to learn quick," [Public Information Officer for the patrol's Yuma sector, Michael] Gramley says. On the border itself, just west of the U.S. Port of Entry in San Luis, Ariz., is where agent Jeremy Campbell wields his "war wagon." New stadium lights installed at the border illuminate what is a normal Border Patrol truck with windows covered with a metal chain-link guard. The guard keeps the windows from being shattered by rocks hurled at the vehicle when it passes along the fence line. Campbell is one of the senior agents detailed to help at the Yuma station. He says that despite all the new trainees and agents on detail duty, he would like to see more manpower. "They have distraction tactics, where they'll send out a group of two or three to distract us so they can send a larger group behind our backs... Physically, we just need more men"... The 100 yards or so between the fence and the houses on the Arizona side is a high-traffic area, Gramley said, where organized smugglers are constantly trying new ways to get groups of immigrants into the United States... "If all of our agents pulled off of the line here, I would give it five minutes before people started flooding through" Gramley says. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #3 "new ways to get groups of immigrants into the United States" IMMIGRANTS? WTF!?!??? Press bias is terrible. They are ILLEGAL ALIENS - non-citiznens (Aliens) who are trying to enter the country against the law (illegal). F'ing call them what they are. Enough of this orwellion bullshit dooulespeak that only serves to obfuscate, not illuminate. Bastards. |
| Posted by: Crick Slaving1509 2005-09-20 15:41 |
| #2 Mac, we sort of did that to the suburbs in 1847. They've still not gotten over it. Heh. |
| Posted by: Glereper Angolutle3263 2005-09-20 11:47 |
| #1 Chain link guard to prevent windows from being shattered by rocks? WTF? How about mounting machine guns on top of those crates and sending some hot lead back in response? If wading ankle-deep in Mex blood is what it takes to seal that border and teach those scumbags to respect American law, so be it. Hell, let's start with bombing Mexico City. |
| Posted by: mac 2005-09-20 05:57 |