The 2.8 million acre Tohono O'Odham Reservation, the second largest in the United States, just west of Tucson, Arizona, is an illegal immigration battle ground.
A Senior Customs Patrol Officer looks across the desert after discovering a footprint, or sign in the desert. He will track them until they are caught.
It is a "border security crisis that has caused shocking devastation of our land and resources. ...illegal immigration levels have sky–rocketed causing a flood of crime, chaos and environmental destruction on our Reservation," Ned Norris, Jr., Vice–Chair Of The Tohono O'Odham Nation told the Senate.
The reservation has become "a prime avenue of choice for undocumented immigrants and drug traffickers traveling into the United States. 1,500 immigrants illegally invade the Reservation daily, making it the "busiest corridor of illegal immigration in America
"The Nation's longest international border of any Tribe in the United States has created an unprecedented homeland security crisis for America,"
Don't Cross This Three–Strand Barbwire Fence
The border that stretches along the Reservation is ‘protected' by a deteriorated three–strand barbwire fence that has been torn down repeatedly by the never–ending swarm of illegal immigrants.
There are 160 illegal passageways along the 75 mile shared border with Mexico – in 36 locations there are no barriers at all.
Using traditional Native American tracking techniques, these four Senior Customs Patrol Officers are personally responsible for hundreds of thousands of pounds of marijuana being interdicted on the Tohono O'Odham reservation in southern Arizona.
The trespassers have trashed the reservation with garbage and litter, creating a sanitation catastrophe.
Six tons of trash per day is littered on the Reservation, resulting in 113 open pit dumps that need to be cleaned up.
The Nation, struggling for financial survival, diverted $7 million from tribal revenues to try to maintain the sovereignty of the reservation from 2001 until June 2004.
The Nation blames the federal border security policy that concentrated on sending available agents and assets to close down key points of entry such as San Diego (CA), Yuma (AZ), and El Paso (TX).
The flood of immigrants just shifted gears, and headed for the defenseless reservation.
"Rather than preventing illegal immigration into America, this policy created a funnel effect causing the flow of undocumented immigrants, drug traffickers, and other illegal activity to shift to other less regulated spots on the border," Norris said.
The Reservation Becomes A Stolen Car Lot
"Tribal members live in fear for the safety of their families and their properties. Homes are broken into by those desperate for food, water and shelter.
The 28,000–member Nation fights hoards of illegal immigrant drug and human traffickers, robbers, and rapists.
The Nation's seventy–one member police force apprehended 71,700 illegal immigrants in 2002 and seized 65,000 pounds of illegal narcotics.
In 2003, police confiscated over 100,000 pounds of illegal drugs. From October 2003 to June of 2004, 180,000 pounds of narcotics were seized. 130,000 pounds of marijuana were seized by the end of 2004.
The police enforcement efforts cost $3 million dollars through mid 2004, but a bigger cost is the corruption of Indian teens and other tribe members.
Drug traffickers offer the unemployed and poverty stricken Indians thousands of dollars to smuggle in their drugs, running carloads of drugs outside of the reservation. In addition to turning into criminals and ruining their lives, many of them have become addicts.
In 2002, 4,300 vehicles were used for illegal drug and immigrant smuggling. A total of 517 stolen vehicles were recovered on tribal land.
From January 2003 to June 2004, 2,675 abandoned vehicles were found on the reservation with 308 stolen vehicles used for criminal activities en route to Mexico, according to Norris.
The Nation Police assist the Border Patrol and other federal law enforcement agencies in making drug busts and apprehending criminals.
Some of the poorest Americans in the world, in the spirit of American compassion, give the little they have to take care of the uninvited strangers.
"They wanted food and we were eating so we gave them a couple of plates. We thought they'd be on their way, but they grabbed a bag of clothes on the way out. They want to dress like Americans to blend in, so they stole my grandson's clothes right under our noses," an Indian woman told the San Francisco Chronicle. She didn't have much to give.
Nation members reported a per capita income of $8,000 in 2000, almost two thirds less than the average American and 1/3 less than other Indian tribes, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Other than starvation, Immigrants die of dehydration during the brutal summer, when desert temperatures reach 110 degrees.
Here a Customs Patrol Officer looks at a fiber left on the end of a plant. He is trying to determine if it is just clothing or burlap used for transporting bales of marijuana.
In 2003, sixty–nine people died on the Reservation and in 2005, 145 illegal immigrants perished. That is onethird of all reported deaths of illegals crossing the Mexican border.
The Nation was stuck with the bodies, and was obliged to pay $1400, per body for each autopsy.
Two million dollars a year are taken out of the Indian Health Care funds to provide emergency health care treatment for undocumented aliens.
Sick and ailing Indians were unable to receive necessary health care services when the fiscal budgets dried up.
Our Tohono O'Odham Indian citizens are being psychologically, physically, and financially devastated while politicians agonize over how to get elected and big business figures out how to line its pockets with cheap labor.
The opinions expressed above do not necessarily represent the views of Soldier of Fortune.
