Agent Was Killed on Federal Land Where Border Patrol Has Hands Tied
Border Patrol Agent Nicholas Ivie was confirmed to have been killed on federal land (see map) where law enforcement access is stymied in favor of environmental protection, a Utah congressman said.
Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands, is behind legislation to lift Interior and Agriculture Department rules that tie the hands of agents and leave vast border areas overrun by dangerous cartels.
That bill passed the House with Democratic support on June 19. It stipulates that federal land management agencies may not prohibit enforcement efforts to “prevent all unlawful entries into the United States, including entries by terrorists, other unlawful aliens, instruments of terrorism, narcotics, and other contraband through the international land borders of the United States.”
But though it’s been passed twice in the House, and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) secured similar language by voice vote in an appropriations bill, Bishop’s legislation still needs its day in the upper chamber — which he’s hoping will happen soon.
“This is the problem right now and I need people to recognize that this is the problem,” Bishop told PJM today. “It is our policies that are causing the problem.”
Ivie, along with two other agents, responded to a border sensor in the early morning hours Tuesday about five miles into Arizona. Ivie was shot to death and one of the other agents was wounded.
They were stationed out of Naco, where the Border Patrol outpost was recently renamed in honor of another slain agent who worked there: Brian Terry of the “Fast and Furious” case.
Ivie grew up in Provo, Utah, which is Rep. Jason Chaffetz’s (R-Utah) district. Bishop and Chaffetz issued a joint statement after the Tuesday attack, offering condolences to the family and vowing to continue to pursue border security solutions.
Bishop said it took a day to get confirmation from the Department of Homeland Security and the state of Arizona that the coordinates where Ivie was killed were, indeed, on protected Bureau of Land Management territory.
The agents were on horseback, which can navigate the rugged terrain but also comply with the rules against Border Patrol agents using mechanized transportation on wilderness lands. Another option is sending agents out on foot.
Out of the more than 20 million acres of Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service land along the southern border, 4.3 million acres are classified as wilderness areas.
The Center for Biological Diversity has been one of the organizations charging that greater access for the Border Patrol on federal lands would harm the environment.
“Organ Pipe and Cabeza Prieta lie adjacent to each other along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona and have been significantly hurt by off-road vehicle use in recent years — much of the damage has been the result of Border Patrol vehicles riding roughshod over wilderness areas,” the center said in a September 2011 statement.
But restricted enforcement on federal lands has meant that drug cartels have freer rein over the corridors — and they’re not exactly environmentally sensitive.
“That’s ludicrous,” Bishop said of the environmentalist blame directed at the Border Patrol. “The bad guys are already using mechanized vehicles.”
While regulations prevent the Border Patrol from constructing any paved or unpaved roads in wilderness lands, cartels have already cut 8,000 miles of off-road tracks into the Arizona border territory. Law enforcement is also prohibited from constructing watch towers or landing aircraft in the wilderness areas, which are marred by piles of trash and waste left by smugglers.
“Because there are restrictions on what the Border Patrol can do on federal land… this has become the corridor of choice for the criminal element coming into the United States,” Bishop said.
Ivie was shot in an active smuggling corridor for the Sinaloa cartel, a powerful syndicate whose mules don’t lack technology or weaponry to outwit law enforcement. Mexican police arrested two men who may be connected with the shooting today, but no further details were offered.
The congressman also stressed that the same factors dissuading illegal immigrant workers have zero impact on the drug smugglers bringing their stashes north for sale and human traffickers smuggling women into prostitution rackets.
“They don’t care about eVerify and they don’t care about our economy,” Bishop said.
Thus the environmental restrictions — as smugglers trample and trash sensitive lands on their own, including cutting down majestic cacti to create traps on roads — just create blind spots along the leaky border. Eighty percent of drug smuggling takes place outside of official border points of entry.
“We could see a significant increase in the use of the more remote areas along the border by smuggling organizations,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wrote in an October 2009 letter to Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), then ranking member and now chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. “The ability of USBP to effectively patrol these areas has never been more critical.”
“Our policies encourage the bad guys,” Bishop said, noting that when he speaks with Border Patrol agents they don’t ask for better equipment or weapons, but access to these critical areas.
Instead, Homeland Security has had to cough up funds — more than $9 million since 2007 — to the Interior Department to mitigate “environmental damage” caused by border enforcement.
Regarding Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Bishop said, “On this issue he’s kind of been AWOL.”
“The Border Patrol has great deal of flexibility on private and state property,” Bishop noted. “We don’t have control of this part of the United States and this is not what a sovereign nation does.”
“This hits home to us,” he said of the latest border murder. “It should not have happened and we should not allow this to take place.”
This would actually be funny, if it were not so pathetically sad; our Border Patrol agents cannot patrol specific sections of our border because it is off limits by order of the EPA. Really? So, the bad guys get a safe haven, a home base, and we just allow it to happen in the name of ….what? This is insane. But, what else would you expect from this crowd? Hell, we won’t even adequately protect our embassies so why should we protect our borders? 6 November cannot get here quickly enough…
When environment Nazis morph with out of control radical leftists, what can go wrong? EVERYTHING!
When gender ‘diversity’, pushed via a violent gay machine runs amok, what can go wrong? The kiddies become endangered!
EVERY time the radicals are in charge the rest of the citizens (average folks, or those working in an official capacity) become their prey. Pray tell, isn’t it obvious that the death of the agent – plus others too – is on the heads of those who claim the ‘moral’ high road?
Therefore, http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/10/03/when-does-a-pile-up-of-dead-bodies-not-lead-to-criminal-indictments-hint-when-perpetrated-by-the-obama-regime-commentary-byadina-kutnicki/
The purpose of executives is to make the difficult balancing decisions which can harm their organization. Thus somewhere up the organizational ladder, an executive had to consider the event that just happened, several cops, in the middle of the night, must check out a sentry device, an unknown something, or somebody was out there. They had to weigh the risks to the environment, due to various technologies, and the risk to the cops. This is not an oversight, a boss had to make this call.
In my judgment, lacking all of the environmental considerations, I would permit cops, in this situation, to place their lives above a concern for the environment. Of the 4.3 million acres which are classified as wilderness areas, surely there are techniques, advice, or means to keep the cops safe while doing their job, and limiting the harm to the environment.
It is a certainty that some high level boss put the environment above the lives of these cops. It is important, for the surviving families, for all cops, that this reasoning be exposed. It is important for voters, to know how our government thinks, what legislative act, and executive interpretation, contributed to this cop killing. This thinking is vile. Those executives should be purged from our government.
trouble is, such decisions are not made by our elected representatives. They are made by appointed or hired operatives deep within agencies created by our elected representatives. Thus there is no direct trail back to the ones we voters put into office. In other words, no accountability. And THIS is the root of the problem. This system of lawmakers creating agencies, which then create law, is an abdication of the power we have entrusted to our lawmakers. Until this entire system is changed, laws will continue to spew from these unelected alphabet soup agencies at an exonentially increasing rate, as has happened for decades now. Ron Paul has pledged to dissolve a number of such agencies, starting with the EPA. But he is “unelectable”, according to the ruling elites. Too bad.. we could use some housecleaning. This sweeping the filth under the rug is not working.
Would you people forget that old goat and instead hitch your wagon to his son?
What needs to happen is someone (like us tax payers) need to file a class action lawsuit against each and everyone of these agencies everytime they overstep their authority. i.e everytime they pass a rule or regulation outside of the original verbage in the law.
AND sue each and every individual in their chain of command responsible. Get it. Hold them personally responsible for their actions.
I guarantee after the first case goes public they will be running for the hills.
And the one thing that many of the administration’s bureaucrats have in common is not putting the safety and lives of US citizens first. Imagine this area is problably a wilderness area to keep the Miniature Amazon Desert Fly Eating Cactus Frog from being harmed. We’re in a war here CBD and EPA.
I wonder if this ‘boss’ would reconsider his decree if he were one of the people risking his life?
The f**king EPA is a threat to the environment. EPA Delenda Est.
This is a ideal metaphor for the amazing policy incoherence of the Left. Law enforcement authorities who are battling the most vicious criminals in the world are being hamstrung by environmental regulations that prevent them from using vehicle. There’s something almost insanely perfect about it.
I can just see the face of the mid-level EPA bureaucrat who came up with these rules. If asked he would probably say something like….
“While we regret the death of the Border Patrol agent we should not allow it to divert us from our primary mission of protecting the environment. If the Border Patrol is allowed to use vehicles in this fragile ecosystem then it would double the damage already being inflicted by the undocumented citizens belonging to the alleged “drug cartels.” There will be far less environmental impact in this area if the so-called drug smugglers alone continue to use these vehicles. We regret that the cartel leaders have not returned our phone calls and seem unwilling at this time to sit down with us so that we can explain the serious nature of the environmental damage being caused by their activities. Note that I do not say “illegal activities” since to do so would sound like I am passing a judgement on their business practices.”
OMG,chambers you stole their notes, didn’t you?
Seriously? How bout we turn our guys loose with whatever it takes to stop this nonsense and we’ll be the only ones causing damage to the wilderness? That would leave the damage at status-quo and we’d have the added benefit of the illegals not crossing the border… The idea to just let them alone and then the damage would not be double is ludicrous…How about we just bury some land-mines, I mean it works so well in the Mid-East why not at our border? Your reply is without merit and not much thought was put into it..Are you an illegal or maybe your parents?
Whoa – Easy Hoss! I was being sarcastic. I’ve spent a good deal of my life dealing with federal bureaucrats and this is my take on what some middle-management enviro-nerd would say when confronted with the death of a federal agent under these circumstances.
Proof positive that to a ‘proggy-lib-dem’ government regulations trump the right to Life. In fact, government regulations trump anything given by the Creator. Even common sense.
The same EPA that’s done this.
The EPA’s Disturbing Human Experiments
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/arnold-ahlert/the-epas-disturbing-human-experiments/
The Center for Biological Diversity is a hard left Marxists organization who’s real aim is the destruction of capitalism and freedom. The group needs to be recognized as an enemy of the United States. The entire staff should be charged with treason and murder along with every Judge who ruled in their favor.
That doesn’t surprise me. After the “fall of communism” in the early 1990′s a huge number of professional Marxists/Progressives/Social Democrats/Whatever-You-Want-To-Call-Thems migrated from straight political and economic issues to environmentalism. It wasn’t because they suddenly developed a sudden burning love for giant sea turtle. They recognized that the environmental movement promised the possibility of political POWER! Not only that but it promised a type of political power that dwarfed anything that Marx could offer.
Marx and traditional socialism primarily seeks to regulate economics and wage class warfare. Environmentalism is concerned with everything. If all human activity can be interpreted as a threat to the “eco-system” THEN ALL HUMAN ACTIVITY MUST BE CONTROLLED! It replaces the concept of the Earth as a solid but expansive rock hurtling through space to something like an overcrowded lifeboat in an endless sea where every action, every movement and every form of consumption must be rigorously controlled (at gunpoint if necessary) by a “leadership class.” Any disagreement is easily dismissed with the assertion that “we’re trying to save everyone.”
That’s what lights the wick of the Left. Most could give a toss about old Ma Earth. But by posing as her protectors they can justify any action and any suppression of individual liberty in the name of “saving the planet.” That’s why the Left has infiltrated most of the mainline “enviromental watchdog” agencies. They are trying to sell the idea that the Earth is doomed if the rest of us don’t knuckle under. And that’s what they want – Knuckling under.
I can’t tell you the disgust I have for whoever thought up these stupid, politically-correct, environmental laws. Its obvious the prairie dog and jack rabbit are more valued than a Border Patrol Agent. Its time someone in charge caught up with reality and took their responsibility seriously.
Shame on the EPA.
I agree to most of all the above comments…but how stupid (and this isn’t the only one)can the government be to pass a law like that,,,The lives of the Border Agents are far more important then any environmental issue there is,why don’t the ones that passed that bill, go down down and give the agents time off, and patrol the border themselves, and see how they would like it… I think it is IMORAL< and makes no sense at all..SHAME ON ALL that are RESPONSIBLE for the idiotic law!!!!!!
And which comments do you NOT agree with?
So what’s the problem with using helicopter gun ships? Do the beating rotors of helicopters count as noise pollution? Does the Sierra Club get a special waiver for their four wheel drives to do endangered species research? Is everyone in government that dumb? Are there just to many overlapping political economic agendas that preclude securing the border? When Marx observed that capitalists produce their own grave diggers did he have in mind their government boot licks also?
Homeland Security has invested heavily in drones for domestic surveillance, as have some police departments, the border patrol should do the same. If America can put a rover on Mars why can’t they put a few in the desert as recon units. When agencies like the EPA and The Center for Bio Crap can overule standard law enforcement practices and priorities to desert habitats outweigh the lives of men then it’s time to put such groups on an endangered agency list. A man is dead because of bureaucrats stuck on stupid. The EPA should be required to wear a warning label alerting the public to the fact that it is known to be a cancer to common-sense which can lead to the death of innocent people.
The entire situation would be unbelievable had we not been slowly indoctrinated through little outrages to bigger and bigger outrages.
By now we’re so caught up in each new set of details that the astounding big picture is ”just a statistic” as Mr. Stalin would say.
The big picture is that the cartels have had their rat lines to Chicago made as safe as humanely possible without the game having become that one scintilla too obvious, so that we-the-people could no longer ascribe it to ‘misguided liberal policies’.
The next step, of course, would be wondering what kinds of deal the two gangs –Mexican ‘drug’ and USA ‘official’ –have made. It appears that one of the stipulations is something like,
“Well, as you mi amigos understand, politically we can’t just grant you safe passage, nor can we disband the Border Patrol. So you have to be willing to take a hit now and then, for appearances sake. But what we’ll do is tie the BP’s hands as much as possible, and order that any trooper who makes an arrest or fires his weapon be put through such an ordeal by his own organization and the various courts up to and into the DOJ, that our boys will have to think hard before they go after your boys, and this will destroy morale to the point that you guys can operate pretty freely, and in time probably neutralize our whole system. Will that work okay for you?”
“Si, Senor! Nos gusta mucho!
Perhaps some enterprising investigative journalist, if there are any not too busy looking for dirt on Romney and Ryan, could see if any drug money is helping support the environmental groups that are pushing to restrict law enforcement in these area.
“This is the problem right now and I need people to recognize that this is the problem,” Bishop told PJM today. “It is our policies that are causing the problem.”
If there is a large problem with Cartels controlling this area, then yes it is our drug policies that are the main force behind causing this problem. I assume that the good Representatives will soon be legalizing all use of Marijuana so that this doesn’t continue.
Just because an area has been designated as wilderness doesn’t mean that there are no dirt/gravel roads within the wilderness protection boundaries. The wilderness land act locked up millions of acres of western public land during the Clinton administration but this land was previously used by small mining, logging and open range cattle firms for decades and old roads crisscross these “new wilderness” regions.
Remember the “cattle guard” fiasco?
The fed locked Americans out of our own land under false pretenses and now the only people accessing the wildernesses are drug cartels. The same thing is happening on the Western Slope of the Plumas National Forest.
Wow. Most of you should watch Idiocracy. We’ll be there soon enough. Wilderness is keeping us from getting there too soon, tho. I’m a Liberal. And a Veteran. Do those cancel each other out?!
As Obama’s cover story comes down, the curtain goes up on the USAO’s cover-up of J.J., Jr.’s role in the Blago story
http://illinoispaytoplay.com/2012/10/05/as-obamas-cover-story-comes-down-the-curtain-goes-up-on-the-usaos-cover-up-of-j-j-jr-s-role-in-the-blago-story/
The constitution trumps the EPA any day of the week. The US BP needs to grow some ba11$ and tell the EPA to stuff it. The US Government is bound by the constitution to protect our boarders. I do not see any articles in the constitution that mention the EPA.
I have an idea. Suppose that every time the Border Patrol is called out, unarmed agents of the EPA and other organizations like it are sent out with them. Why, not only with them but ahead of them so that they can marked the least environmentally damaging route to the suspected crime scene. Problem solved, all the little lizards, and cacti and standing rocks would be safe from those destructive Border Patrol Agents and everyone would be happy. Of course it wouldn’t be long before we would need some more EPA agents.
You might want to re-think your argument in light of today’s news that the Border Patrol geniuses shot each other.
Wilderness areas can be reclaimed. Dead people can’t.
This is so far beyond intelligent it beggars description, much less response.