Inland border security checkpoints, vital to stemming the influx of drugs and illegal immigrants into the country, have been closed for months as police officers were diverted to administrative duties, sources told The Post.
“You’re preventing agents from doing their jobs,” said Martin Polchas, supervisor of Yuma County, Arizona, noting that three roadside checkpoints in the area are closed. , told The Post.
“This affects the whole of the United States because drugs go through checkpoints and are done.”
checkpoints are placed 25 to 100 miles north of the US/Mexico border Acts as a second line of defense. Sources explained that once smugglers and drug traffickers cross the border, they start to let their guard down and the extra checkpoints often catch them.
Drugs are running in Arizona. In October 2022, an Arizona Department of Public Safety traffic stop carried 52 pounds of suspected fentanyl tablets, 16 pounds of suspected fentanyl powderIt was smuggled from Mexico.His Nogales border crossing in the state said in early January that the amount of fentanyl he had already seized in the past three months was Entire previous fiscal year.
Inland checkpoints are also well-suited for catching immigrants trying to cross the border into the United States in private vehicles or commercial buses.
Inland border crossings were forced to close as agents were transferred to administrative duties.
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Closed inland checkpoints have made it easier to smuggle drugs into the country, said Martin Polchas, the Yuma County supervisor.
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If an immigration officer notices suspicious activity, they can also search your vehicle for drugs at one of 110 centers nationwide. Yuma is overrun with migrants seeking asylum It has been one of the busiest points along the southern border for immigrants entering the United States since last April.
“I can’t remember when the last time was because my anxiety exploded.” [the checkpoint] Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd explained that it’s been almost a year since the inland checkpoint was last manned.
Border Patrol has been understaffed for years. The problem has been exacerbated by the ongoing border crisis. At least 2 million people flood the country Throughout 2022, piles of paperwork will be created and officers repurposed to the front lines.
The agency has been able to cover up shortages by renting workers from less busy areas of the country, and now agents in Texas are being asked to volunteer for a 30-day deployment in Yuma.
A spokesperson declined to tell the Post how long Arizona checkpoints have been closed, but most of the migrants who arrived in Yuma did not attempt to sneak into the country unnoticed and were subject to federal investigation. I pointed out that I could look for an officer and surrender and ask for exile. They must then be detained while they are evaluated, denied and sent back across the border, or processed and given a court date to pursue their asylum application.
“Checkpoints are open and closed due to operational considerations,” Border Patrol spokesman John Menell said. “We are assigning personnel according to the operational situation.”
Asylum seekers walk under a gate after crossing the border in San Luis, Arizona, January 28, 2023.
Immigrants processed by Border Patrol agents in San Luis.
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According to Brandon Judd, president of the National Border Patrol Council, the checkpoints are not open “due to an outburst of unrest.”
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Inland checkpoints in California and Texas remain open and manned. Even with more power to tackle drug smuggling in the latter state, Operation Lone Star, law enforcement is still seizing large amounts of drugs, Fentanyl, in particular, can be lethal at as little as 2 milligrams.
“To seize more than 356 million lethal doses statewide [since March 2021], it is important. Because we don’t have the luxury of being in port and having an X-ray machine,” Lieutenant Chris Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety recently told The Post.
