Pubdate: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 Source: Brownsville Herald, The (TX) Copyright: 2006 The Brownsville Herald Contact: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/contact.php Website: http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1402 Author: Jeff Raymond ORTIZ: GOVERNMENT PASSING RESPONSIBILITIES TO LOCAL SHERIFFS If border law enforcement isn't broken, it's about to be, U.S. Rep. Solomon Ortiz told the Rio Grande Valley Law Enforcement Chiefs Association Friday. The 23-year congressman and former Nueces County sheriff spoke to the group during its monthly meeting at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College. Ortiz, D-Corpus Christi, began his law enforcement career in 1964 with his election as constable in Robstown. "The landscape has changed drastically in the last few years," he said, describing how police in the Valley now face different problems than those he saw as Nueces County sheriff and were expected to fight organized crime, the drug war and illegal immigration, using local resources. "What I see, and it's very disturbing, is that the federal government is passing on its responsibilities to you, and I don't think that's fair," he said. Calling the Border Patrol "completely overwhelmed" by the lack of space for its detainees -- some 19,000 beds nationwide -- a growing number of other-than-Mexicans, or OTMs, and inadequate staffing, Ortiz said the agency sometimes knew who it had caught, sometimes not. "I think that the justice system is completely overwhelmed. I think that if it's not broken now, it's partially broken, and we need to do something to fix it," he said. Noting the United States was fighting simultaneous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Ortiz suggested the Bush Administration do more to secure the nation's own "completely open" borders. "We know there are terrorism cells in the United States. That's no secret. They're here," he said. Ortiz, however, noted the fiscal restraints of a deficit budget, a "me-too" attitude of states seeking part of the Homeland Security largesse, prosecutors with a crushing caseload and the attitude that South Texas ends with San Antonio. "We came here to tell you that we want to help you," he said. "You have a hard job ahead of you, but we're with you." Ortiz also blasted the Department of Homeland Security's priorities and communication. "The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing," he said, noting that more preparedness money went to Wyoming than to Houston. Ortiz spoke of attending a terrorism seminar in which no one from the nation's intelligence and law enforcement agencies knew about the Mara Salvatrucha gang. Any border police chief certainly would know about the violent gang. "Now we know that there's a serious flaw in communications. We need to correct that," he said. Among the problems in communication, Hidalgo County emergency management coordinator Oscar Montoya said, was a list of pre-approved equipment that had left local law enforcement agencies and first responders with gear but not necessarily what they really needed. Brownsville Police Chief Carlos Garcia agreed. "We're on the same page regarding homeland security," he said of his Valley counterparts and Ortiz. "All the time, we're looking for =85 more resources. On a related note, Ortiz said he opposed the proposed wall along the border, which some Mexican media have dubbed the "wall of shame." "We have to look for methods with more imagination," he said in Spanish. "I don't think the wall is going to help us." Switching to English, he said: "Mr. Bush, bring that wall down." - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin