Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever accuses U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin of profiling
Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever has stepped down from a post representing Arizona sheriffs in a collaborative border security initiative with federal officials following comments made last week by a high-ranking government official.
“I cannot buy into the politicization of the whole dang thing,” Dever said in a news release last week. “I simply cannot be a party to this federal government hypocrisy and duplicity. I’ll continue to fight the battle for security, but I won’t participate in spreading propaganda based on false statistical premises.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin said last week in Tucson that the Alliance to Combat Transnational Threats, also known as ACTT, has helped drive down illegal border crossing and has pressured cross-border smuggling organizations operating in the Sonora-Arizona corridor.
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Dever doesn’t agree that the border is more secure, and called the figures cited by Bersin as “meaningless statistics that reflect nothing in terms of quality of life.”
Dever, a Republican, and Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, also a Republican, have been at odds with the Democratic administration of President Barack Obama since the Department of Justice announced it would sue the state of Arizona over the immigration enforcement law, SB 1070.
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Dever took particular exception with Bersin’s use of the Spanish phrase, “no mas,” when the commissioner spoke about increasing consequences for illegal border crossers caught in Arizona.
“If you try to enter this country illegally through the Arizona-Sonora border, you will face a consequence,” Bersin said on Feb. 8. “‘No mas.’ No more returns without consequences if you act illegally and cross through this border.”
In his news release, Dever pointed out that the Department of Justice lawsuit points out a potential for racial profiling with the law.
“Commish Bersin uses the term ‘no mas, mas,’” Dever wrote. “How do you say ‘no more’ in Mandarin Chinese, or Farsi, or Russian or any other language spoken by illegal border crossers? Is there not some profiling or at least stereotyping going on there?”
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