BORDER CASES KEEP U.S. ATTORNEY BUSY

TUCSON - The number of federal border issue cases in Arizona is growing,
according to the top U.S. attorney in the state.

"Our border-related caseload last year was in excess of 5,000," said Paul
Charlton, who expects it to be even greater this year.

The 30 assistant U.S. attorneys in Arizona who handle border issues, which
range from prosecuting people and drug smugglers, as well as other violent
crimes committed by illegal border-crossers, have the heaviest caseloads of
any assistant U.S. attorneys anywhere in the nation, said Charlton, whose
title is U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona.

The 30 lawyers who specialize in legal issues involving the border each
have between 150 and 180 cases assigned to them, Charlton said during an
interview last week.

"It's an extraordinary caseload," he added.

Along the border, dangerous gangs, many from the tough narco-trafficking
syndicates, have taken over where "mom and pop" operations used to bring
people and drugs into the United States, Charlton said.

The days of when people and drug smugglers would quietly give up are over.
Charlton said smugglers will now fight for their cargo.

The danger to American citizens is increasing, as was noted when on Oct. 16
two Huachuca City residents lost their lives when a fleeing vehicle full of
illegal immigrants crashed into a number of cars and trucks waiting to make
a left turn on a highway in Sierra Vista. The accident also took the lives
of three illegal immigrants.

The trial of the four illegal immigrants - two from Mexico and two from
Honduras - charged with smuggling and causing the accident and the
resulting deaths is scheduled in October.

The accident highlights how dangerous illegal immigrant smuggling has become.

People smugglers are kidnapping illegal immigrants from one another,
sometimes violently. The crimes have raised to kidnapping and hostage taking.

"They (the smugglers) are not afraid to kill. They treat human life as
nothing," Charlton said.

Federal sentencing guidelines have to be updated, he said.

If a person is caught smuggling people and nothing else violent has
happened, the most a person can currently get in prison is a few months.

But because of the increased violence, Charlton said the crimes should be
considered more dangerous with "a matter of years or life" given a people
smuggler, much like that a drug smuggler faces.

People charged with securing the border are finding more people illegally
entering the United States who have criminal records in the country or are
wanted by law enforcement as suspects in crimes, Charlton said.

The border identification program is one of the best tools the government
has to apprehend such people, Charlton said. Those arrested in Arizona face
charges from his office.

The U.S. Attorney Office in Arizona

On a sunny morning last week, he looked out his fourth-floor office window
in the federal courthouse in Tucson and spoke about his job and that of his
staff. Charlton tries to visit the Tucson office at least once a week. His
main office is in Phoenix. He also has offices in Flagstaff and Yuma.

The Tucson office is sparse but there is a feeling of home. Behind his desk
are pictures his two sons, now 9 and 13, have done for him over the years.
The boy's artistic endeavors also are displayed at his other offices.

Half of his 250-person staff scattered throughout the four offices are
attorneys. The majority - 100 - handle criminal cases. The others work on
civil cases.

"We defend the United States," he said, noting the office is responsible
for acting as a defense attorney when people sue the federal government in
Arizona.

Some civil cases have included defending the Veterans Affairs against
malpractice and a number filed against Fort Huachuca by environmental
groups such as the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity. The office
also has successfully sued Boeing's plant in Arizona about a problem with
equipment on the Apache helicopter.

Charlton said many people don't understand the importance of the civil part
of the U.S. Attorney's Office in how they too ensure the American tax
dollars are protected.

"I've got the best people. I take a lot of energy and motivation from
them," he said.

Federal prosecutor has link to county

One of his employees, David Flannigan, once worked in Cochise County as a
private-practice defense attorney and as a deputy county attorney.
Flannigan also served as judge pro tem in the county's juvenile court system.

Now working in the Tucson federal prosecutor's office, Flannigan handles
mostly violent crimes on the Indian reservations.

But Flannigan said he had his share of cases involving border issues
throughout his career. He worked in Cochise County in the 1980s and early
1990s.

Flannigan handled mostly drug cases when he worked for the county attorney.
During that time, there was an unofficial rule of thumb that anything less
than 250 pounds of marijuana would be handled by local law enforcement and
not the federal government, he said.

During his career with the federal office, he has continued to see the
result of a number of border cases, including work on a case regarding the
drug tunnel that went from Agua Prieta, Sonora, into Douglas. The alleged
architect of the tunnel is expected to go to trial in October.

Flannigan is a fluent Spanish speaker and has been sent to El Salvador on a
couple of missions. He also is fluent in Italian. He recently applied for
an assignment to be the judicial attache at the U.S. Embassy in Rome.

Charlton said people like Flannigan take on extremely hard cases, and their
tenacity in prosecuting the cases ensures those who commit federal crimes
serve prison time.

Charlton's career and thoughts

Charlton has seen many sad cases during his career as a federal prosecutor.
One that sticks in his memory is the Navajo woman who shot and killed three
of her five children because she was mad at their father. The woman was
sentenced to life in prison.

But sometimes humorous things happen.

When he recently had a press conference announcing the discovery of
marijuana plots in a national forest in Arizona, the story made it to other
states. A friend in Wyoming sent him a copy of the story that appeared in
that state with the accompanying photo. The caption under the photo
identified Charlton, but unfortunately the picture used was that of a horse
with a goat on its back.

"I told him (his Wyoming friend) I was the goat," Charlton said with a laugh.

But what troubles him is "there is more and more corruption" on the U.S.
side of the border, which includes federal agents who have taken an oath to
protect the nation.

Charlton said it is depressing when U.S. Border Patrol agents, National
Guard soldiers, Air Force members and employees of the Arizona Department
of Motor Vehicles become involved in shady actions to make money. These
actions lead to drugs coming into the United States, illegal immigrants
making it past the border, and documents that can be used for welfare
benefits or by terrorists to travel freely in the nation.

With 40 percent of Mexicans from all socio-economic backgrounds saying they
want to live in the United States, there is a need to address that issue,
Charlton said. Like many others, he said Mexico's economy has to grow so
that nation's people will see a future for themselves and not want to leave
their own country.

"The problem is the economic uncertainty in Mexico," the top federal
prosecutor for Arizona said, adding the vast majority who enter the country
illegally are Mexican nationals.

The United States isn't just an economic beacon. It also is the torch of
freedom that many in the world seek, Charlton said.

Fluent in Spanish, Charlton has made trips to Argentina, Chile, Colombia
and Venezuela as an instructor on a number of U.S. Department of Justice
courses to prosecutors in those nations. And, he has met with his Mexican
federal counterparts.

Of the American federal court system, Charlton said the courts in Arizona
are bursting with cases, many involving border issues.

On the job

At least 90 percent of the cases docketed in the Tucson federal courthouse
require a Spanish interpreter, he added.

He ventured that the caseload for the Arizona federal judges, like for his
assistant attorneys, is the highest in the United States.

While there are those who come to the United States for a better life, a
number come to attack America's way of life. Charlton said that is why the
U.S. attorneys around the nation have an important job.

Saying he feels fortunate to be the only U.S. Attorney for Arizona - other
states can have two or more - Charlton said it is easier for him to meet
with heads of other federal agencies in the state, especially the special
agents in charge, to review what actions to take.

"When we get together, we speak with one voice" he said.

Working together is not limited to federal agencies in the state, he added.

Charlton said he talks with Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard many
times in a month, sometimes over lunch or by phone. He also keeps up with
Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer and Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever.

Arizona law enforcement - which includes prosecution - includes federal,
state, county and local functions, Charlton emphasized.

Charlton has a particularly low tolerance for child sexual predators.

Last week, a German man and a French man were each sentenced to more than
four years in federal prison for coming to Tucson for a sexual rendezvous
with young teens.

The men did not know it was a computer sting operation by the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement - a sting that ended in their arrest
after they landed in Tucson, Charlton said.

"These kind of perverse persons and the like-minded sick people who offer
children for sex have to be stopped," he said.

Parents have to be careful in how they allow their children to use
computers because that is how children are snared, he said.

It was fortunate a sting operation took the men off the streets, but the
unanswered question is what if the persons responding to the two men were
actually children.

"That's the scary part," Charlton said.