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Monday, December 1, 2003

The Tohono O'odham Nation of Arizona has been forced to divert its own funds to pay for homeland security along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The tribe's police department spends about $2.5 million a year to patrol the border. The tribe also takes $500,000 a year from its hospital to treat migrants in need of care.

Ever day, as many as 1,500 Mexican migrants use the reservation to enter the United States. Last year, 85 of them died on the reservation, a record number.

In the past three years, tribal police have doubled the amount of drugs they have seized. Last year, the police confiscated 65,000 pounds of drugs, mostly marijuana.

The Department of Homeland Security doesn't provide funds directly to tribal governments.

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Reservation fights woes of trafficking (The Chicago Tribune 11/30)
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