Pat Dollard

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The mayors of three Arizona border towns have asked Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu to tone down comments about border security issues.

In a letter dated Feb. 9, the mayors of Nogales, Douglas and San Luis urged Babeu to stop “cultivating a culture of fear and to start being accurate about border security.”

“While your misstatements about efforts to keep communities along the U.S.-Mexico border may keep national media coming to Arizona, at the same time your consistent inaccuracies hurt cities and towns like ours by causing those who live and travel to the border to fear for their safety when in our communities,” the letter said.

In a response letter dated Monday, Babeu told the mayors to “feel free to ‘drink the Kool-aid’ of (Homeland Security Secretary) Janet Napolitano, Dennis Burke and (President) Barak Obama all day long, yet this threat to America remains until our border is secured.”

Babeu is an outspoken critic of U.S. immigration policy and continues to claim that the border is “out of control,” despite Department of Homeland Security assertions that American border communities are safer than ever.

The mayors’ letter struck a similar tone as a DHS memo released earlier this month, targeting critics like Babeu.

“It is simply inaccurate to state, as too many have, that the border is overrun with violence and out of control,” said the memo, titled “Representing the Facts on Border Security.”

“Not only does this ignore all of the statistical evidence to the contrary, but it also belittles the significant progress that effective law enforcement has made to protect this border and the people who live alongside it.”

Nogales Mayor Arturo R. Garino told The Republic comments like Babeu’s have perpetuated a fear that keeps tourists away and prevents businesses from relocating to the region. He also said the the publicity has made it difficult for local hospitals centers to recruit doctors.

“If they listen to the news, why would they want to go to Nogales” Garino said. “This is what the media is creating. It’s time we put a stop to this. … We need to work as a community to improve our image.”

Garino, Douglas Mayor Michael Gomez and San Luis Mayor Juan C. Escamilla are urging Babeu to partner with local, state and federal authorities working in southern Arizona to “help the efforts on strengthening security on our border. We say as one voice, ‘Creating panic where only vigilance is warranted helps nobody.’ ”

Babeu said that while federal officials say border apprehensions are down and deportations are at an all-time high, Pinal County continues to face a “serious public safety threat¡Kdue to an unsecured border with Mexico.” He said that as long as drug and human traffickers use Pinal as a pass-through county, “the threat from an unsecured border is real.”

“I do not represent you or the citizens of your community, yet I do represent the nearly 400,000 citizens of my county and the viewpoint of the solid majority of Arizonans, who laugh at Secretary Napolitano’s suggestion that our border is more secure than ever,” Babeu wrote the mayors.

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