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| Desert Researchers Face Border Dangers |
| 2005-08-09 |
| TUCSON - Researchers studying the wildlife of the Sonoran Desert are increasingly becoming targets of smugglers and desperate border crossers, leading to more safety precautions for the scientists. Researchers are drawn to the long-protected desert wildlife, but they face growing fears as assaults on Border Patrol agents become more common and they find themselves the victims of crime, including stolen cars and trailers. One University of Arizona student was robbed at gunpoint. Recreational users of public lands are allowed to visit without restriction and are responsible for their own safety, but scientists visit under special permits from land managers. The researchers face more danger, too, because they often work in isolated areas at night. To combat the risk, researchers in most parks along the border must be accompanied by park personnel or agree to a buddy system. They must check in with park officials daily and must clear out of dangerous areas if necessary. At Organ Pipe National Monument, researchers must have armed law enforcement officers in some places closest to the border. Scientists say they are spending more time on paperwork, applying for multiple grants so they can hire more workers to avoid working alone. The result: less focus on protected species... Staff biologists at Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge are now told to wear nondescript T-shirts rather than uniforms when they are doing field research so they don't get mistaken for law enforcement and become a target, said manager Mitch Ellis. He asks visiting researchers to check in with law enforcement and advises them to let their vehicles go if border crossers try to steal them. Violent crime along the border seems to be increasing. In the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector, which covers most of Arizona, 216 assaults against officers have been documented since October. That's up from 118 in all the previous year. Some of the increase is the result of more officers, but the numbers are still worrisome, said Border Patrol spokesman Jose Garza. "The assaults are also going up in severity," he said. "In the outskirts, they're using the vehicles to try to ram our agents, shooting our agents in an attempt to avoid arrest." And the "yes, but" ending: Still, some researchers say they've had few problems with border crossers. James Cain, a UA doctoral student who studies desert bighorn sheep, said he has met crossers just three times in four years. He's never had any problems. |
| Posted by:Pappy |
| #10 Let's not even go into the medical costs... |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-08-09 23:08 |
| #9 AzCat - these are the "peaceful immigrants looking to better themselves"? Bullshit. They broke laws coming in and they and their coyote guides are stealing cars/B&E homes. I say kick their asses out and shut the border. San Diego, et al face HUGE prison costs for these "immigrant workers" who're here preying on your fellow citizens. Wanna get me in Rant mode? Let's go... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-08-09 19:42 |
| #8 BaR, you have the patience of a Saint... |
| Posted by: Tony (UK) 2005-08-09 17:51 |
| #7 I'd rather live in a town full of illegal immigrants than a town full of the northern California moonbats I deal with on a daily basis. Neither offers any advantage over the other. A fair number of Mexican immigrants (largely illegal) live in my apartment complex, and it's no picnic. Shopping carts constantly have to be taken off the property to the curb every damn day, a bunch of kids making all kinds of damned noise, POS cars occupying unmarked (read: unreserved) parking slots for weeks or months at a time, overcrowded apartment units, and general stupidity, such as their buddies honking the horn repeatedly instead of knocking at the door, putting household waste in the recycling bins (can't they read?), and overloading garbage bins, even to the point of either tossing in sofas or couches, or shoving them off to the side in the expectation that the garbageman will pick them up. (never mind that the apartment rules prohibit dumping of furniture in that manner) Seeing this behavior is absolutely infuriating, and it happens almost DAILY. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-08-09 17:31 |
| #6 It bears repeating that the overwhelming majority of folks who cross the border are looking for nothing more than the opportunity to work hard and build a better life. That's just pure transnationalism. Why not several million Chinese who want to come here or a quarter of the rest of the world, but who do not border the continental US? Ok then, lets make it better for even more. Annex Mexico, shoot the drug lords and their corrupt political call boys, open the market up and create jobs and opportunity south of the 'old' border. Oh, horrors, that's imperalism. Critics want it both ways, the official Mexican government imperialism is good, but any American imperialism is evil. So America must surrender its sovereign borders in the name of the poor of the world. Sounds a hell of lot like Transnationist as it gets. |
| Posted by: Flash Hupomoling8954 2005-08-09 12:18 |
| #5 It bears repeating that the overwhelming majority of folks who cross the border are looking for nothing more than the opportunity to work hard and build a better life. The "better life" claptrap is simply an excuse for the greedy, the vote whores, and the special-interest apologists. It should be self-evident why the US does not grant asylum based on economic hardships. The losers are the legitimate applicants, the victims of torture, ethnic cleansing, and terror. And, of course, the real losers are the legal citizens who face the inevitable violence from unsecured borders as well as the huge economic burden. What bears repeating is they are here ILLEAGALLY. |
| Posted by: DepotGuy 2005-08-09 11:57 |
| #4 There was a talk at our local herp (reptile) society from somebody looking for the rare stuff that comes over the border area from Mexico. He had some run ins with the Border Patrol over what he was up to. The main thing that sticks in my mind was all the discarded backpacks he found littering the desert from all the drug smugglers. |
| Posted by: bruce 2005-08-09 08:12 |
| #3 It bears repeating that the overwhelming majority of folks who cross the border are looking for nothing more than the opportunity to work hard and build a better life. They could start their better lives by obeying laws. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-08-09 07:48 |
| #2 The "yes but" ending is the norm. It bears repeating that the overwhelming majority of folks who cross the border are looking for nothing more than the opportunity to work hard and build a better life. I'd rather live in a town full of illegal immigrants than a town full of the northern California moonbats I deal with on a daily basis. |
| Posted by: AzCat 2005-08-09 02:32 |
| #1 Quick, send in the ACLU spies. |
| Posted by: Captain America 2005-08-09 01:14 |