Statistics Don't Support Pinal Sheriff Babeu's Statement On Out of Control Border

Arizona's Pinal County Sherriff Paul Babeu has had a history of making outrageous statements on the border.   NDN has written about Sherriff Babeu in the past, but now the Arizona Republic has written up a piece showing that just about all of his claims are untrue. Dennis Wagner has the full story here:

Sheriff Paul Babeu issued a news release declaring that Pinal County is "the No. 1 pass-through county in all of America for drug and human trafficking." It's a line the sheriff has used countless times - most recently on Thursday in testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security - as he criticizes the federal government for failing to secure the border. There's just one problem: There is no data to support the assertion.

Just to review some of the claims made by Sherriff Babeu:

  • He predicted that his deputies would get into a gun battle with cartel members in the desert during the next 30 to 60 days. Said gun battle never occurred.
  • In an undated letter seeking donations for a legal battle against the federal government, Babeu says "things are just going from bad to worse now that our own federal government has sided with the criminals instead of law enforcement." The federal government has not sided with criminals and has in fact sent large amounts of resources to the Arizona to help combat crime along the border. Just ask Mayors who actually live along the border.
  •  Babeu told the Berkshire (Mass.) Eagle in February, "Out of the 3,000 counties in the nation, Pinal County ranks No. 1 when it comes to smuggling drugs and humans across the border." That claim appears to be incorrect. Although Babeu is often identified as a border sheriff, his jurisdiction is 70 miles removed from the Mexico line. Moreover, DHS records show Pinal County accounts for a tiny fraction of drug and immigrant captures, fewer than any of the three border counties within the Tucson Sector.
  •  On Fox News, the sheriff told host Greta Van Susteren he's facing "one of the highest crime rates in America" and crime is "literally off the charts in Arizona. "That claim also appears to be inaccurate. Pinal County does not have the highest crime rate in Arizona, which is listed 16th among the states for violent offenses, according to the Statistical Abstract of the United States.
  • Babeu says the Arizona border is so porous that national security is in jeopardy, based on arrests in Pinal County of undocumented immigrants from terrorist-linked nations. In the past decade, there is no known record of a terrorist entering the United States via Arizona's border. Since 2008, according to DHS and sheriff's records, only one undocumented immigrant - a Cuban - was detained from a nation on the State Department's list of state-sponsored terror nations. Three others were from Afghanistan and Sudan, countries with significant terrorism issues.

That's not all, residents in Pinal County are starting to get upset with the Sheriff's big talk:

Some county residents are concerned that the sheriff is overstating the crime rates in Pinal County. A group called Pinal County Residents of Responsible Leadership has been making automated phone calls in the area, with a male speaker criticizing Babeu's "irresponsible" rhetoric about border-related crime. Listeners who want to lodge a complaint with the sheriff's "political office" are transferred to the Arizona Republican Party.

All of the statistical data points to the fact that the Pinal County and Arizona as a whole is not a war zone under attack from Mexico. To underscore this point NDN was proud to host the Mayor of Nogales Arturo Garino (someone who actually lives and works along the border), and he was emphatic in stating that the border region is safe. In a speech during our 21st Century border day the Mayor gave an account of what really goes on along the border. Stay tuned, we should have that up soon.