Hundreds of illegals captured on Fort Huachuca this year
Old Trooper sends a link from News 4 Tucson in regards to the illegal immigrant problem that is being experienced at Fort Huachuca which is only 15 miles from the Mexican border. reporters have discovered that 331 have been arrested this year alone which is up significantly from last year’s 112 and less than a hundred the year before;
Stoddard tells the News 4 Tucson Investigators, Fort Huachuca’s location in the Huachuca mountains makes it an attractive illegal entry point for border-crossers.
“Once they get into the Huachucas, there is a very worn and established trail though there,” Stoddard says.
Stoddard says the problems of illegal immigrants slipping onto the post isn’t a new one.
“The military chooses to close its eyes and ignore it,” Stoddard says.
In fact, officials at Fort Huachuca refused the News 4 Tucson Investigator’s request for an on-camera interview on the issue, saying “apprehending undocumented immigrants is a Department of Homeland Security mission and not a D.o.D. one.”
Stoddard says he worries about the possibility that weapons could also be coming across the border, and through Fort Huachuca.
Yeah, well, it seems to me that security of the base is a DoD issue regardless of the nationality of the intruders
The video autostarts after the jump;
Category: Big Army, Illegal Immigrants
That video seems to have a mind of its own. Anyway, the mission of DoD is not, of course, to catch illegal aliens. However, I would hope that the MPs would be interested in nabbing trespassers on a US military post. And speaking of Mexicans, what in the wide, wide, world of sports is going on recently with TV commercioals? In the past two weeks, while watching it, I’ve suffered commercials for national products entirely in Spanish. And to think it all started with “con Gleam” in the 1960s.
Spent years down at Fort Huachuca back in the 80’s. Nothing quite as frustrating as having to shut down our armor maneuver operations, or the live fire ranges on account of reports of ‘unauthorized persons’ in the impact areas, or free maneuver zones.
Ran into the same problem in Florence Arizona a couple times, at the AZNG weapons qualification complex and field artillery range. Illegals making a break for it from the ICE detention facility that’s close by.
I wonder if they are using is as an opportunity for live exercises with the MI trainees?
What’s the big deal with security? It’s not like the Intelligence school is there or anything. :rolleyes:
BTW, is the big balloon (aerostat) still up there? It was in 1993 when I went to BNCOC. Supposedly there to watch for aerial infiltration (drug smugglers) across the border.
Nothing to see here, move along now.
Typical response from any authorities here in S. AZ.
@4 – Yup, aerostat still flies on nice days – I see it when I make my trips to Parker Canyon Lake to impersonate a fisherman.
Funny how when the feds even mention the word amnesty the illegal crossing becomes a flood.
Yea.. because ALL the illegals cross over via Fort Huachuca. Just another story spun to make this place look bad. Heck, going over the Huachucas is way easier than going right through the Coronado National Forrest.. or crossing at Douglass.. geesh!
Hey, its Huachuca’s fault the San Pedro is dry.. what ever!
I can’t believe they’re passing up the use of free training aids for UAV and GSR courses.
I spent a few years recently on Ft. Huachuca. The article fails to mention the Border Patrol “are” on Ft. Huachuca! They park their vehicles at the motor pool and drive up in the canyons everyday. So it is not a question of military or BP Agents getting the illegals…… the BP are their doing their job.
@10. Agreed. In very early 2000, I was walking the land nav course up at Site Uniform with my PSG as he was helping me prepare me for PLDC. An illegal alien pops out of the bushes and asks for the direction TO Mexico. He claimed he’d been in the USA but couldn’t find work. He was wearing an OD trousers and jacket circa 1968. Luckily, my PSG was a Spanish Linguist and he pointed him in the right direction. He asked for some water and we filled a little 12oz plastic throwaway bottle he had from a canteen. Dude went along his merry way. We called BP when we got back down into cell phone range. Surreal.
It is the JAGs fault if you drill down on it. That whole Posse Cometatus act thing and if the military seized the illegals and turned them over to DHS/ICE that a smart immigration lawyer will be all over that violation like flies to camel burgers. So avoid the legal issues by pulling that stunt at local HQ for LEs when asking about it.
Used to hear the same thing from P-3 friends who flew from Adak and spotted Soviet Fishing trawlers or Canadian Trawlers poaching in Alaskan Waters. They would have to call home to report it and home base would relay it to the USCG on unofficial channels for them to actually make the observed crime and arrest. Ditto for the anti-drug and immigration patrols in the Gulf and Carribean where USN ships have a USCG law detachment on board that actually conns the ship and makes the arrest.
Which is why some are asking if Posse Cometatus needs to be reformed.
Base Security is a MILITARY function. There’s a reason you have to submit to your vehicle being searched as a function of entering ANY base.
The fact that Huachuca is THE center of MI training means security should be even more heavily enforced.
But when any person says “undocumented,” they tip their hand as to why they are doing nothing to stop illegals.
And Posse Commitatus does NOT prevent the US Military from stopping incursions of foreigners into the US; not Soviet Trawlers, and not illegal aliens or drug runners. It particularly does not prevent the MP’s from arresting/detaining incursions onto US Military Bases, even if they are ILLEGAL aliens. It prevents the US Military from acting as an LE agent against US Citizens.
When we were stationed @ Laughlin AFB, Del Rio, Texas there were stories of illegal aliens coming into base housing, just brazenly walking up to the door and asking for food & water!
ALso, since my husband was going thru flight school there, the d/w’s got a tour of the radar hut and were shown how the AF was watching the board for low flying aircraft coz they said they were usually smugglers……good times!!
It’s just as bad or worse at Camp Pendelton. Not sure if its in the exact spot but there used to be a immigration checkpoint on the I-5 North which runs through the western side of Pendelton. Coyotes would drop off guys who would try to go through base to clear the CP and meet their buddies. It was nothing to go through the gate and see a group of illegals who were cuffed by the MPs trying to drive through. They would walk through training areas quite often. Public transportation that went through base ( the Amtrac and busses) often had them on it. When I was on area guard for 2 weeks only we caught over 30 in 5 different groups,
@9, LS – The US Army can see them but Posse Comitatus matters so that would involve ICE or Homeland Security. Seems to me that it would be really good payload specialist training for Gray Eagle crews.
@13 TN – at some point, people inside the US are, for legal purposes, US citizens until otherwise demonstrated and Posse Comitatus would apply. Or so I have been told.
At this time, FAA rules prevent pilots of Gray Eagle or similar devices to operate inside US airspace and outside military restricted airspace. Since Ft. Huachuca is restricted airspace anti-illegal training missions might make a useful joint FAA / US Army pilot project for the use of “drones” in US airspace.