In letters sent today to Pima and Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s office, the ACLU of Arizona demanded that 911 operators not seek the assistance of Border Patrol agents, which are frequently the most immediate source of safety for illegal entrants starnded in the desert.
The demand suprised many as this week, is the beginning of the hottest and most deadly time of the year for entrants.
Specifically, the ACLU is demanding that Pima County and Santa Cruz County reform the practice of selectively referring certain distress calls to Border Patrol’s search and rescue unit, BORSTAR, while initiating traditional search and rescue operations for others.
“By law, counties cannot deny protective services to ‘disfavored minorities,’” said ACLU of Arizona Attorney James Lyall. “The policy and practice of referring immigrants’ distress calls to Border Patrol is discriminatory and unconstitutional.”
Relying on a “news report” from Al Jazeera, the ACLU claimed that the majority of 911 calls transferred to Border Patrol are not received by the agency, and “even when they are, Border Patrol agents sometimes choose not to search for missing individuals unless they are provided with the person’s precise coordinates, according to the ACLU press release.
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Border Patrol agents rescue illegal immigrant in Huachuca Mountains
Border Patrol agents rescue two illegal migrants from desert
Agents were angry when they heard of the ACLU’s claims. They say that they do everything they can to rescue anyone who needs assistance. They report that the most frustrating part of trying to rescue those lost in the desert is that the coordinates that are given are sometimes not even where the person would be found. Agents out in the field might receive coordinates plotted on Mount Hopkins, because that is where the cellphone would “ping” off, but the next “ping” could be from around the Pena Blanca Lake area. So, they say that if the stranded person moves, it greatly reduce the odds of them being found. Agents say it is disheartening when the stranded persons don’t stay put because the coordinates hit the closest repeater and those are the coordinates from which they must begin their search.
Agents always respond, it’s just that if the person doesn’t call back and keep walking, how can they find them, asks agents. The agents know the terrain and also know that if they are called off the task of rescuing entrants more of them will die – not less.
The Sheriff’s departments rely on Border Patrol agents to assist in rescues of hikers, as well because of their awareness of and experience with the terrain.
From 1998 to 2013, more than 2,700 bodies of men, women, and children were discovered in the Arizona desert, more than anywhere else in the country. Yet, the ACLU, No More Deaths, and Coalición de Derechos Humanos call for an end to Border Patrol aid, while claiming that it is the Border Patrol that shows an “indifference to migrants in distress.”
It is clear that the ACLU knows they are relying on nothing more than unreliable “news reports.” As a result, in addition to the letters demanding a policy change, the ACLU today sent Pima and Santa Cruz counties public records requests that seek to shed more light on the way the counties’ 911 calls are handled.