Border sheriffs: President Trump's border wall is not a 'silver bullet'

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s plan for a great wall along the Southwest border has been billed as the ultimate blockade to the future trafficking of drugs and illegal immigrants from Mexico.

Yet the local law enforcement authorities who patrol the rugged 2,100-mile expanse, stretching from the Pacific Ocean to the tip of south Texas, aren’t buying it.

Leaders of the vocal Southwestern Border Sheriffs’ Coalition, whose jurisdictions span four states, said the Trump administration has failed to consider complex economic, environmental and cultural conditions inherent to the border that make such a massive undertaking “impractical.’’

“The wall is not the answer,’’ said Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez, the coalition’s president whose own Texas county includes 84 miles of border with Mexico.

Martinez said little attention has been paid to such basic considerations as the acquisition of privately held land to accommodate a wall, which Trump has pledged to set in motion in a matter of months. Mexico's refusal to pay for the construction, a condition that was central to Trump's campaign, has raised new questions about how the multibillion-dollar project ultimately will be financed. It also prompted the first diplomatic crisis of the new administration when Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto on Thursday canceled an upcoming visit with the new American president.

"Regardless of who pays for it, building a wall on the border is likely going to put U.S. citizens and their property on the (Mexican) side of this thing,'' Martinez said, indicating that significant pieces of land on the U.S. side of the border will be needed for construction. "You can't just build on top of the Rio Grande River (the natural border between large swaths of Texas and Mexico). That is not a solution.''

More agents 

Martinez said more effective border security is better achieved with the deployment of additional federal agents and surveillance technology. The president also has called for the hiring of 5,000 Border Patrol agents and 10,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Tony Estrada, the longtime sheriff of Santa Cruz County, Ariz., whose Nogales office sits two miles from Mexico, said the fortification of physical barriers along the border have only served to intensify the Mexican cartels' drug and human trafficking efforts.

After President George W. Bush fenced hundreds of miles of the border as part of his own border enforcement effort, Estrada said drug cartels increasingly expanded their illicit portfolios to include human trafficking.

"The wall is no silver bullet,'' Estrada said. "A wall has never stopped anybody, and it's not going to stop desperate people who are seeking a better life. It is an illusion. People will find a way, they always have.''

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Estrada also is no fan of Trump.

Born in Mexico, Estrada, 73, said Trump's strident campaign rhetoric aimed at Mexican immigrants represented a personal affront to him and the broader immigrant community on the border.

"Donald Trump has every bit of personal wealth in the world,'' Estrada said. "How can he possibly relate to the people here.''

The proposed wall, Estrada said, may "sound good to people who are not from here.''

"It divides people; it divides cultures; it divides economies,'' he said. "I've never seen a beautiful wall.''

The border sheriffs', however, do not speak for all of law enforcement.

Divisions among law enforcement

Nathan Catura, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association whose group represents more than 25,000 active and retired federal officers, said Friday that the wall was a necessary component of Trump's border security plan.

"FLEOA is not unsympathetic to the plight facing those who desire to emigrate to the United States,'' Catura said. "But we are committed first to protecting the American citizenry and the unwavering rule of law.''

While the public debate aired stark differences over the effectiveness and financing of the proposed wall, the Senate Homeland Security Committee has scheduled a hearing next week to examine "lessons learned'' from the past border fencing effort.

Former Department of Homeland Security officials, including David Aguilar who served as acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner, are slated to testify Feb. 1.

Less than a week later, Martinez and some of his local law enforcement colleagues are slated to air their own concerns before a House committee where the wall proposal  is expected to figure prominently.

"A wall is easier said then done,'' Martinez said.

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