It turns out illegal aliens have a very simple reason for wanting to come here, and according to Cochise County, AZ Sheriff Mark Dannels, they are more than willing to share it.
“The majority of people — we have an interdiction team that goes out daily — yesterday, they were out for their shift and had 15 smuggling events … the majority of people we talk to, the majority of migrants that have been smuggled, which I call modern-day slavery what they’re doing to these people, they tell us the reason they’re here is because of President Biden and [give] a welcoming sign.”
Sharing a simple message like this with the House Judiciary Committee on February 1st was a bold and honest choice for Dannels to make. Getting such an unvarnished and raw outlook into the grim realities of the border is something Biden nor the rest of the Democrats are ready for, even though they claim to be ready for their arrival.
For people like Dannels, his rural county along the border is a hotbed for illegal activity. With the sprawling but incredibly remote base of Fort Huachuca straddling the border and serving as one of the largest employers in the county, there is a lot at risk. As these illegals come over from Mexico they are faced with a choice- take the easier route through the mountains but across a remote military installation, or take a lot longer and go across to come out in the middle of nowhere?
No matter the choice they make, they leave a path of destruction in their wake. From field exercises to vehicles to homes, these illegals invade and steal what they need as they cross through. Many of them are smuggling drugs, and the levels of human trafficking along this corridor are some of the worst in the state. Large seizures of people and narcotics go under-reported on the liberal mainstream news, so many don’t see the issues they bring with them.
In Dannels’ opinion, “Currently, this is the ugliest I’ve experienced.” For someone with the record he has and the history in the area, that is a very bold statement. Given the surge in millions that his department has had to spend on housing the illegals they detain, it becomes an epidemic.
By that metric alone just two short years ago Cochise County was one of the safest border counties in the nation. “Border-related bookings, detention costs counting the year 2022 was $4.3 million, absorbed by my local and state taxpayers … in a rural community, that’s a huge impact.”
Making that impact felt even harder has been the reallocation of units from Ft Huachuca to other military installations. As a result, many of the contracting gigs have disappeared. While many companies still call the rural county home, growth has become stagnant. With other towns like Bisbee, Hereford, and even Tombstone flatlining as well, it makes forecasting anything positive for the area difficult.
Unlike El Paso, he has not had the reach out of the AZ governor, or governors from other states to help ship out the illegals to other sanctuary cities. While the base and the town of Sierra Vista share a decent-sized airport, it goes vastly underused with no major airlines operating out of it and would be a prime location for transporting illegals awaiting word on their status. Yet the Sherriff and his deputies have done a steady and solid job patrolling the border and have kept one another very safe.
While this county doesn’t report the numbers places as El Paso does, they are also much more rural. This widespread of people and the impossible-to-track number of people crossing makes them the least likely to have accurately reported figures even with new tracking tech. This is no fault of their own, but rather a byproduct of Biden and other leftists’ diversion of money to grow their voter base with thousands of “asylum seekers.”
