GIFFORDS SAYS SHE FAVORS PERMANENT CHECKPOINT

GREEN VALLEY - U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., on Friday
announced her support for a permanent U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint
south of Green Valley.

Giffords said a checkpoint should remain where the temporary facility
is located, north of Tubac on Interstate 19, rather than moving
further north toward Green Valley. The Border Patrol has agreed to
limit the size of the station, she said.

The Border Patrol station was a contentious issue in the corridor
between Sahuarita and Tubac. Senior citizens and business leaders
feared a permanent station closer to Green Valley would force illegal
immigrants and drug smugglers off the interstate and into their
neighborhoods.

"The Tucson sector is the weakest link in our nation's immigration
enforcement system along the U.S.-Mexico border," Giffords said in a
statement. "Every other sector has far more infrastructure than ours
and most have checkpoints. There are 34 interior checkpoints between
Texas and California. So it is not a coincidence that Southern
Arizona is experiencing an unprecedented flow of illegal immigrants
and drugs."

Giffords said an increase in arrests of illegal immigrants and an
increase in drug seizures led to her support for a permanent facility.

"During the past 12 months, the Tucson Sector has accounted for
approximately 370,000 of the 838,369 illegal immigrants apprehended
along the U.S.-Mexico border - about 44 percent of all
apprehensions," she said. "The total number of marijuana seizures
during this same period was 1.8 million pounds - 900,000 pounds of
that were seized in the Tucson Sector alone.

As a U.S. representative for this area, I cannot and will not stand
by and allow this sector to remain the major route for smuggling into
our country."