SIERRA VISTA - Most people, including elected officials, in the United States do not know what is facing American citizens who live along the border with Mexico, Cochise County Board of Supervisors Chairman Pat Call said Saturday.
The U.S./Mexico Border Counties Coalition's goal is to help get the message out, he said Saturday.
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Starting in 2005, one of his jobs will be speaking for the organization made up of 24 American counties that border Mexico. He was elected on Saturday as president of the coalition.
On Friday and Saturday, the coalition held its legislative conference in Sierra Vista, bringing together elected officials, administrators and others.
David Austin, of the lobbying firm of Austin, Copelin & Reyes, said the genesis of the group began in 1998 when officials in Arizona's Santa Cruz County and California's Imperial County started discussing common border problems.
The drive was to find ways to have their counties reimbursed for costs to their taxpayers that should have been reimbursed by the federal government, said Austin, whose offices are in El Paso, Texas.
From that start, many officials from border counties in Arizona, California, New Mexico and Texas came together to put on a united front, Austin said.
Through lobbying efforts, the coalition successfully fended off the elimination of money to reimburse border law enforcement requirements due to illegal immigration and drug smuggling, he said.
Congress authorized $750 million a year for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program. In the first year, $525 million was authorized, Austin said.
But President George W. Bush then decided to "zero out" the line item in future years, which the coalition and other organizations fought, Austin said. The president reluctantly approved $250 million a year, but the object is to try to have at least $350 million a year authorized.
Austin said it bothers him that when Bush was governor of Texas, he supported SCAAP. But, he said, the president apparently no longer does.
He and others at the conference had good words to say about U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who pushed through a bill to reimburse medical facilities for treating illegal immigrants.
The $1 billion authorization will be doled out at $250 million a year for four years.
The coalition members understand they have to explain the importance of good border policies and programs and how they will help the entire country, Austin said.
"What people don't recognize is how diverse the border is," he said.
In some border areas, there are large cities like El Paso, which is across the line from the Mexican metropolis of Ciudad Juárez. San Diego shares the international boundary with Tijuana.
Other border counties are more rural, with small towns on both side of the line. Austin said this means the boundary has commonality and diversity.
Coalition members are concerned about a federal proposal concerning visas to visiting Mexicans. There is no parity in how Canadian citizens are allowed to enter the United States, according to some of those at the meeting.
Canadians can come into the United States for up to six months and go throughout the United States, whereas Mexican nations, only are authorized a 30-day permit and generally kept to within 25 miles of the border.
On Saturday, the consensus of the coalition members was to seek parity for citizens of the two countries that border the United States.
Call took some of the delegates on a trip of the border in Cochise County on Friday.
The delegates were surprised at the number of U.S. Border Patrol assets in the county, "where just about one out of every four vehicles you see is Border Patrol," he said.
Call said what Cochise County faces because of the thousands of illegal immigrants using the area "as a back door into the United States" is different than for other border counties.
Even though there are differences, the similarity is being a border county with Mexico. Call said there is a need for the border county officials to seek help from the federal government.
Dian Copelin, who is with the lobbying firm, outlined a number of areas the coalition has to be ready to address, especially in the next session of Congress.
Some of the critical issues that will impact border counties are part of the federal government's intelligence overhaul, said Copelin, whose office is in Washington, D.C. The third partner of the firm, Isaac Reyes, who works out of San Francisco, did not attend the meeting.
Copelin said there are differences between the House and Senate on how they want to revamp the nation's intelligence communities.
In one part of the proposed overhaul bill, the House seeks to add 2,000 full-time Border Patrol agents for five years and 800 new immigration and enforcement investigators each year for the same period, she said.
However, the Senate version calls for half the number of Border Patrol agents for the five-year period, while agreeing with 800 immigration and enforcement investigators as in the House version, Copelin said.
Both chambers of Congress call for federal standards for state-issued drivers' licenses, identification cards and birth certificates. But they will not allow Mexican matricular cards to be used as IDs, Copelin said.
Carlos Villarreal, administrator for Webb County, Texas, said border counties cannot remain passive on issues that impact areas north of the international boundary. Whatever happens along the border eventually causes problems in the interior of the United States, he said.
Webb County Commissioner Judith G. Gutierrez said border counties "suffer disproportionally." The first impact felt in the United Sates "is a hit at a border county level," she said.
Luna County, N.M., Commissioner Dennis Armijo remarked, "We are on the front line."
He, Villarreal and Gutierrez agree the federal government is responsible for controlling the border and reimbursing the counties for costs incurred.
"There has to be a good balance. It cannot be all on the counties," Gutierrez said.
SENIOR REPORTER Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
