Ariz. County Rejects Grant For Border Security - Because Trump

Eric Scheiner | February 8, 2018
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After taking federal funds for a decade to assist in securing the border, Pima County’s supervisors voted to reject federal money encouraging collaboration between the Sheriff’s Department and the Border Patrol.

Why? What’s changed for their border county? Well, Trump is in office.

According to Tuscon.com:

On a 3-2 vote along party lines, the Board of Supervisors rejected a more than $1 million Operation Stonegarden grant. The grant is meant to help agencies along the border pay overtime and buy equipment to coordinate efforts with federal agencies to improve border security.

Voting to reject the grant were Democrats Richard Elías, Sharon Bronson and Ramón Valadez; Republicans Steve Christy and Ally Miller dissented.

“It’s a new deal out there at the border and the board is concerned with having our sheriffs become more involved in working on federal immigration law,” said Elías. “Frankly, we have a different administration in the White House and we’ve seen a lot of change in the way ICE and the Border Patrol do business here in the borderlands.”

 

During the board meeting Tuesday, Elías expressed concern for the money being used for militarization of the border.

“In item 9, frankly it’s about equipment that’s even a more gregarious use of those funds in militarization,” Elías said.

You can watch this sentence actually come from Elías’ mouth in the video above. It's memorable. 

Sheriff Mark Napier said he was very disappointed in the decision, claiming the funds are used to fight human trafficking and to help local law enforcement work effectively with federal officials.

H/T Tuscon.com

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