The redundancy of the letter takes away a bit from the impact of this important and convincing letter. The long experience of sheriffs who have been responsible for that area should be heard and acknowledged as valid. Did anyone in the Fed. government ask their opinions before moving in equipment to build the fence? Whoever is responsible for building the fence should listen to the sheriff's now. Based the surveylence equipment in place now, what is the record of apprehensions of illegals now in that area? Data would help the sheriff point.
Based on the concerns raised by other Sheriffs along this stretch of the Texas-Mexico Border, no local law enforcement officials were consulted prior to decisions made in Washington, DC to needlessly expand the wall through this area of Texas. Here's a link to an earlier article I wrote about that: https://www.usbordernews.com/p/noems-ouster-reignites-texas-battle-against--a-big-bend-border-wall
What Sheriff Dominguez (and the other four Sheriffs who signed the joint letter with him before he wrote his own letter) propose is that the decision to build a wall vs using sensors and surveillance systems should be heavily weighted in favor of recommendations from Border Patrol Sector Chiefs/with input from local law enforcement (and backed up by the extensive data each sector has about illegal foot and vehicle activity there). They don't believe the cartels can overcome the extremely difficult terrain, coupled with the harsh desert conditions in these "badlands" to move a significant amount of people or drugs through just because there's no wall there.
Sheriff Dominguez makes the point that the natural terrain on both sides of the border for long stretches of his county are largely, practically, impassable. Other points to be made beyond unnecessary costs are ecological damage in interfering with animal migration, potential destruction of sacred sites and area tourism decline due to the scar of a border wall. We in El Paso have such an ugly scar on our Mount Cristo Rey and it is all for nothing. It is good to see the sheriff and his colleagues standing up for what is right.
The redundancy of the letter takes away a bit from the impact of this important and convincing letter. The long experience of sheriffs who have been responsible for that area should be heard and acknowledged as valid. Did anyone in the Fed. government ask their opinions before moving in equipment to build the fence? Whoever is responsible for building the fence should listen to the sheriff's now. Based the surveylence equipment in place now, what is the record of apprehensions of illegals now in that area? Data would help the sheriff point.
Based on the concerns raised by other Sheriffs along this stretch of the Texas-Mexico Border, no local law enforcement officials were consulted prior to decisions made in Washington, DC to needlessly expand the wall through this area of Texas. Here's a link to an earlier article I wrote about that: https://www.usbordernews.com/p/noems-ouster-reignites-texas-battle-against--a-big-bend-border-wall
Who ultimately decides what areas get a wall ? Will the cartels start using these no wall zones as new access points?
What Sheriff Dominguez (and the other four Sheriffs who signed the joint letter with him before he wrote his own letter) propose is that the decision to build a wall vs using sensors and surveillance systems should be heavily weighted in favor of recommendations from Border Patrol Sector Chiefs/with input from local law enforcement (and backed up by the extensive data each sector has about illegal foot and vehicle activity there). They don't believe the cartels can overcome the extremely difficult terrain, coupled with the harsh desert conditions in these "badlands" to move a significant amount of people or drugs through just because there's no wall there.
Sheriff Dominguez makes the point that the natural terrain on both sides of the border for long stretches of his county are largely, practically, impassable. Other points to be made beyond unnecessary costs are ecological damage in interfering with animal migration, potential destruction of sacred sites and area tourism decline due to the scar of a border wall. We in El Paso have such an ugly scar on our Mount Cristo Rey and it is all for nothing. It is good to see the sheriff and his colleagues standing up for what is right.
Richard: Thank you so much for sharing your opinions and subscribing to US Border News. Abrazos!