Humane Borders Essays And Opinion Pieces: Subcommittee Testimony 03.10.03

Testimony of Rev. Robin Hoover, Ph.D., president of Humane Borders Inc., before the House Government Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources investigative hearing entitled "The Impact Of The Drug Trade On Border Security And National Parks." Tohono O'odham Nation Legislative Council Chambers, Sells, Ariz., March 10, 2003.

Subcommittee chairman Souder and Congressional Representatives, thank you for being in Arizona, and thank you for the opportunity to present this brief testimony.

Humane Borders, Inc. is a faith-based organization that places water in the deserts of the states of Arizona and California. We operate under federal and county permits and on private lands to reduce the number of deaths in the desert and to reduce costs to local governments. In 2001, we received a $25,000 contract from Pima County Government for these purposes. We advocate on both sides of the US-Mexico border for a political solution to the continuous human tragedy of death in the desert.
We also provide public education on border issues. I have included copies of our February 2003 "Report From the Border" for your files as well as 2002 maps indicating migrant death locations and location of our water stations. In limited ways, water stations are now part of the strategy of land managers to reduce the deleterious effects of the migration on public lands.

U.S. Border Policies are fatally flawed, and no matter how unintended, law enforcement strategies including INS operations continue to contribute to the death toll. Migrants are not crossing at Ports of Entry and urban areas, but choosing to run the gauntlet through the desert, or being led there by smugglers. In Southern Arizona last year over 200 men, women, and children died, the youngest known being 11 years in age. Unfortunately, no changes in border policies since 9-11 can rationally be predicted to lower the expected record number of deaths in the desert this year. Water must be placed in the desert and policies must change.

We work with federal law enforcement to remove death from the immigration equation. Our water stations give agents and officers more time to achieve their objectives of deterrence and apprehension, instead of spending time on search and rescue. We provide extra eyes and ears, and we frequently call US Border Patrol to effect rescues of migrants. Additionally, strategically placed water stations and frequent organized efforts to pick up migrant trash contribute to the protection of precious natural resources on federal lands. Our organization picked up over 300 cubic yards of trash last season alone.

Specifically addressing the goals of this hearing, I wish to comment on both macro and micro policies.

First, in order to improve the law enforcement function concerning both drug traffic and national security, the inexorable migration of workers from Mexico to the US must be moved from the deserts back to the Ports of Entry. This can only be accomplished with substantive policy changes. Neither further militarization of the border or significantly augmented law enforcement resources will accomplish this task. Such efforts only re-locate crossing points. It's like placing rocks in a stream. The water goes around the rocks. Well over 98% of the people federal law enforcement officers encounter in the deserts are workers whom employers reward with jobs, often arranged before they cross the line. These same employers successfully pressured Congress to eviscerate employer sanctions. Even if further militarization or enhanced law enforcement were successful, further employer dissatisfaction and policy resistance should be anticipated.

Second, on a micro level, current federal law enforcement practices routinely elicit complaints from US Citizens fearing life lived in this militarized zone. Regularly rotating Border Patrol agents from one station to another reduces cultural sensitivities of agents to resident populations. High-speed pursuits result in deadly auto accidents and additional costs. Agents and officers apprehend only healthy migrants to avoid paying local health care providers for services rendered in compliance with federal laws.
Moving the migration back through the Ports of Entry with necessary investigations, inspections and safeguards, informs us of who is here, where they are going, and what they are bringing. It is also the only responsible way to exercise national sovereignty. Moving the migration back to the ports of entry frees law enforcement resources to perform traditional policing functions in the desert and to change their assumptions about who is in the desert and what they are doing.

Anecdotally, one agent in this sector has also worked in San Diego Sector. He has been present at the recovery of more than 175 dead migrants. The first thing that goes through this man's mind when he gets a call on the radio is not to look for a terrorist.
So again, moving the migration back to the ports would dramatically reduce the impacts of the migration on natural resources, the impact of law enforcement deterrence practices on the lands, as well as search and rescue damage to the desert.

In Sum, the shift of roles and missions of federal law enforcement can be predicted to push the migration into even more difficult terrain resulting in more deaths. This shift can also be predicted to increase violence between US officers and both migrants and drug smugglers.

In our judgment, it is immoral to use the desert as part of a policy of deterrence. We believe that the US government has a moral responsibility to reduce the number of deaths in the desert by erecting and maintaining water stations, by strengthening law enforcement, by maintaining search and rescue capacities, and by moving toward what our President has called "regularization" of the migration.

For more information, please contact us.