Former BPA Speaks of Dangers Along Boundry

By Bill Hess  Herald/Review

SIERRA VISTA —  While many federal officials claim the American border with Mexico is safe, a retired U.S. Border Patrol Supervisory Agent vehemently disagrees.

“It’s more dangerous than I’ve every seen it during my 26 years in the Border Patrol,” Zach Taylor said Sunday afternoon.

Speaking to more than 40 people at the Cochise County Building in Sierra Vista at an event arranged by the Cochise County Republican Committee, Taylor said the Border Patrol, which is now under the Department of Homeland Security and not under the Department of Justice as it was prior to 9/11, has become more of a political tool for those who do not seem to be willing to address border issues as a law enforcement matter, he said.

One of the founders of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers, he said agents of the former organization he served are being denied the right to do their jobs as federal law enforcement agents.

This is particularly true when access to portions of federal land along the border is denied to agents not only trying apprehend illegal immigrants who are seeking jobs in the U.S., but more importantly the growing criminal elements involved in a number of smuggling activities, Taylor said.

During his career he worked in the field, supervising “from a truck,” actions involving the agency’s Nogales Border Patrol Station. He still lives in Santa Cruz County and his talk was mainly about that specific area as a major pathway for hardened criminals supporting different drug cartels.

What people in the U.S. have to be wary of is the Mexican criminal activity from Mexico, which is growing in America, Taylor said. In 1952, a congressional act granted the Border Patrol unlimited access to private and state lands from the border up to 100 miles into the U.S., he said.  But now agents are denied law enforcement rights on federal land in the same area and, as many in Arizona know, many large areas of federal land abut the border and continue into the state for many miles, Taylor said.

The Mexican criminal gangs know the constraints facing the agents and that is why many of the federal land areas along the border have become access points for illegal activities, he said.

For Americans to think that Mexican gangs are only a problem on the border would be a mistake, the retired agent said. In the United States, “2,500 cities have Mexican gangs,” he said. Those gangs support different cartels and gangs in Mexico, meaning blood shed is not just limited along the border but also within the heartland of America, Taylor said.

Although the State Department has no direct oversight of the Border Patrol, it has interfered with the agency and other federal agencies in providing the correct information to the American public, so as not to upset the political leaders in Mexico, Taylor remarked.

As an example, reports by another federal agency, The U.S. Forest Service, concerning summer fires in Arizona, specifically the Monument Fire in Cochise County and the Murphy Complex Fire in Santa Cruz County, had statements that the fires were started by illegal aliens excised from its reports on the direction of the State Department, he said, as he held up what he said was a copy of the report which has been removed from official files.

Firefighters working wildfires on federal land have reported they have been shot at during their attempts to put out a blaze, Taylor said. Again such information is taken out of any official federal report, Taylor said.

The people who are crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S. now are not the same type as they were years ago, when even drug smugglers in those bygone eras did not carry weapons, Taylor said.

Saying he has twice testified before congressional committees and has escorted members of Congress along the border so they can see the real-world people of Arizona and the Border Patrol face, Taylor emphasized his growing concern of harden criminal activities taking deeper roots in Arizona to the detriment of the state’s citizens.

While he is most familiar with Santa Cruz County aspects of illegal activities, he said he will be studying Cochise County between Douglas and the New Mexico state line soon.

America’s relationship with Mexico is at a point where traffic coming out of the neighbor to the south will create more harm than good unless the federal government stops ignoring the real issue, which is that Mexican drug cartels and gangs do not care who is hurt in the process of making a profit.

During his presentation, he showed photos of dismembered bodies and heads, some of which were found in the U.S. because of gangs and cartels fighting each other over lucrative smuggling routes. “The border has become lawless. The whole dynamic has changed,” Taylor said of what he envisions as more horrific events happening in the U.S.