"There's a lot of people cryin' wolf,” he added.
In his written testimony to the Senate Homeland Security Committee, entered into the Congressional record in March 2015, Cochise County Sheriff Dannels stated six specific crimes, which he intimated were being inflicted upon the people of Cochise County by undocumented immigrants and their smugglers. Those offenses were:
• Reckless high speed pursuits.
• Assaults on citizens.
• Rapes.
• Kidnappings.
• Murders.
• Home invasions, including burglary.
According to records obtained from the Cochise County Sheriff's Office, from 2011 through 2016 (the most recent year for which records are available), CCSO only had
only three reports of burglary for which there was believed to be an "undocumented immigrant nexus," as CCSO Public Information Officer Carol Capas phrased it.
Records relating to incidents believed to have an "undocumented immigrant nexus" were obtained from CCSO in response to public records requests seeking reports of the six major crimes enumerated by Dannels before the Senate, dating from 2011 through 2016, related in any way to individuals who had crossed the border illegally.
In none of these burglary cases were any arrests made, and in at least one of these reports there was no reason for suspicion of undocumented immigrants given.
During this same period there were only two reported kidnappings with an "undocumented immigrant nexus" reported to the sheriff's office – both of which were cases in which the immigrants claimed to have been abducted and forced to carry bundles of marijuana across the border, CCSO records show.
Additional records show that from 2011 through 2016 there were only six pursuits in which CCSO deputies took part that had an "undocumented immigrant nexus." These pursuits resulted in the apprehension of fewer than 30 undocumented immigrants. At least two of these six reported pursuits, were alleged to have been perpetrated by U.S. citizens.
During this same time period there
were seven instances of assaults with an "undocumented immigrant nexus" reported to the sheriff's office, records show. Two of these reported assaults were alleged to have been inflicted on Border Patrol agents by individuals attempting to enter the country illegally. In one of these instances, an officer was allegedly punched by a man who was resisting arrest. In the other Border Patrol-related case, an agent claimed to have been hit in the face by a bundle of marijuana while apprehending a smuggler (on April 20, 2015) who was "attempting to cross bundles of marijuana into the United States."
The remainder of these reported assaults – five in total – were alleged to have been inflicted on undocumented immigrants by either their smugglers or American citizens. In one case, a juvenile from El Salvador claimed to have been assaulted in a stash house in the Douglas area that he believed to have been owned by English-speaking American citizens. The boy said smugglers had attempted to extort more money from his mother, and that he was assaulted when his mother was unable to pay.
According to records obtained from CCSO, from 2011 through 2016 there was one rape with an "undocumented immigrant nexus" reported to the sheriff's office. The woman who claimed to have been raped was a Mexican national. No information was given in the report relating to her assailant.
During this same six-year period there were
only two murders with an "undocumented immigrant nexus" reported to the sheriff's office, CCSO records show.
One of these was reported on July 16, 2016, when the body of a man covered by a sleeping bag was found by the entrance of a guest ranch near U.S. Interstate 10. The body was reportedly that of Ramon Contreras Ramos, a Mexican citizen.
Members of Ramos' family, contacted by phone, advised CCSO personnel that Ramos had entered the United States a few days earlier. They had been contacted by someone traveling with Ramos who said Ramos was suffering from chest and back pains, and that they were dropping him off at a specific exit on the Interstate. A motion-activated camera on the ranch gate reportedly captured images of Ramos being deposited at the gate by individuals traveling in a pickup truck, near midnight July 15.
CCSO classified Ramos' death a homicide because the "unknown subjects in the vehicle had the means/opportunity to deliver Ramos to a hospital for medical care and failed to do so."
The second, and final, homicide with an "undocumented immigrant nexus" reported to CCSO during this time occurred on the night of January 16, 2014, in the remote desert off State Route 80 near Apache, Arizona.
The victim, later identified as Gabriel Sanchez-Velasquez, a Mexican citizen, had been shot twice –once in the chest, and once in the head – by Border Patrol agent Nathan Woods.
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