http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.p...no_oapos;odham
U.S. chief of security angers O'odham leader
She says she is never consulted about federal measures put in place along Arizona's border.
The busiest and deadliest stretch of Arizona desert is "ignored" by U.S. border enforcers, angry Tohono O'odham officials said after the new U.S. security czar canceled a trip to the Nation.
Michael Chertoff, who took over the Homeland Security Department from Tom Ridge in February, will make his first visit to the border tomorrow. Chertoff will stop in Douglas and Yuma but not the reservation, though it is plagued by drug smuggling and illegal immigration.
Tohono O'odham Chairwoman Vivian Juan-Saunders said the oversight is only the latest example of the department's failure to effectively work with the tribe.
In March, the Border Patrol announced the second installment of the Arizona Border Control Initiative, designed to reduce deaths and stop illegal immigration on the Nation through more agents and better coordination with local law enforcement.
Juan-Saunders said she wasn't told or consulted about the effort beforehand. She said she heard about it over the car radio on her way to work and was then bombarded with calls from journalists. She had little to tell them.
"I'm tired of being ignored," Juan-Saunders said, "just as we were ignored when a federal policy was formed that pushed traffic through our 75 miles of the border."
In the early '90s, the federal government cracked down on illegal immigration in Texas and California, forcing migrants into Arizona, which shares about 350 miles of border with Mexico. Officials believed the harsh terrain would act as a natural deterrent, but it didn't. Migrants began to pour across the border and onto the desolate, sparsely populated lands of the O'odham. Today the so-called "Western Desert" - stretching to Yuma and including the O'odham Nation - accounts for more than half of all migrant deaths in Arizona.
Border Patrol figures put the number of dead last fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, at 172, but county officials put the toll at 221.
Juan-Saunders said that tribal members have been aiding desert crossers for more than a thousand years, but that the recent flood has overwhelmed their resources.
"We have so many needs here on the Nation," she said, "and yet we spend $7 million annually to do their job."
The tribe has never been compensated by the federal government, and with a 40 percent poverty rate, it's money the tribe can't afford to spend, she said.
The Nation has gone to great lengths to work with the Border Patrol, leasing land to it and agreeing to the installation of vehicle barriers along the border, Juan-Saunders said. But she questioned the agency's effectiveness, given the gaps in communication and coordination.
The Department of Homeland Security did not return calls for comment on the tribe's concerns.
A spokeswoman for Sen. John McCain, who, with Sen. Jon Kyl, will accompany Chertoff, said the chairwoman's input was crucial and McCain hoped she would attend a meeting scheduled in Yuma.
Juan-Saunders said she would send representatives but had no plans to attend herself. Instead, Chertoff should come to the reservation, she said.
"It's very important that he come here," Juan-Saunders said. "He needs to see this for himself."
makes one think
