With $5 billion dollars in its budget to spend on Border Patrol facilities, the Department of Homeland Security is moving to expand the existing I-19 checkpoint between Tubac and Amado.
But residents, who say they’re in the dark about the most basic details of the project, are pushing for answers.
“No letters, no notification, nothing,” said Genaro Rivera, a former deputy chief with the Tubac Fire Department who’s lived in the area for more than 50 years.
Instead, Rivera said he learned about the project when he noticed contractors laying white survey markings near his home. Then, he noticed a drone flying overhead.
“Typically, a project of this magnitude would give neighboring homeowners … a notification that this is going to be something in the making,” he added, speaking Monday after attending a community meeting on the checkpoint.
More than 200 people packed into the St. Ann’s Community Hall in Tubac that morning to discuss the project. The meeting, organized by the Santa Cruz Valley Citizens’ Council, drew local residents that ranged from an art gallery owner to the county sheriff. Some questioned whether an expanded checkpoint would negatively impact tourism to Santa Cruz County, while others told personal stories about family members who fear crossing the checkpoint under an administration that has detained nearly half a million people in the last fiscal year alone.
“When I went to elementary school, we were told that there are other totalitarian governments in the world where you have checkpoints where you have to show your papers as you drive through those countries. I was told we don't have that in the U.S.,” Sheriff David Hathaway told the crowd at one point.
Rivera, the former assistant fire chief, said he didn’t oppose the idea of a checkpoint, but acknowledged that the wait time could be a hindrance on the way to doctor’s appointments and other time-sensitive matters. He and his daughter, who are Native American, have been questioned and pulled aside at the checkpoint for secondary inspection — something that’s even deterred his daughter from visiting him, he said.
“When you’ve got new agents there, they're doing their job. They don't know you yet, and I'm sure they’ve got to do their screening based on whatever their training is based on,” he said.
Border Patrol a no-show at checkpoint meeting
Mary Vanis, president of the Citizens’ Council, said she felt encouraged by the large turnout Monday.
“You can never underestimate the strength of our community,” she said.
There was one noticeable absence, however: U.S. Border Patrol agent Jose Maheda, who’d been slated to attend the meeting and speak with residents about the project.
Maheda had canceled prior to the mee
ting, to Vanis’s disappointment.
“The community was wanting to see him, because I think they need to put a face with an issue, and in a positive way, because I think he is very personable,” Vanis said. “And I think he could have really done a lot of good, had he been here.”
In a statement to AZPM, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Border Patrol personnel had been unable to attend the meeting “due to operational reasons.”
The agency did not provide further specification.
“CBP highly values community input and transparency,” the statement continued. “As such, we are planning to reschedule an opportunity for community discourse in the near future.”
Public details about the project remain scarce, though a previous entry in DHS’s Acquisition Planning Forecast System described plans for a new facility adjacent to the current I-19 checkpoint near Tubac and Amado. The cost estimate ranged between $50 million and $100 million, with a completion date slated for 2029.
Then, in late September, the federal database USAspending.gov revealed a $63.4 million contract for “a new checkpoint facility located at Nogales,” the Nogales International reported at the time. DHS awarded the contract to Brasfield & Gorrie LLC, an Alabama-based construction firm.
While the September contract appears to match the Acquisition Planning Forecast System’s Tubac-Amado checkpoint expansion, CBP did not respond to AZPM’s inquiry attempting to confirm that it was the same project.
Even county manager Jesus Valdez acknowledged a lack of insight into the project Monday.
“Have you received any letters that you can share with us? Any word, a single word, anything?” resident Kathleen Vandervoet asked him, referring to a question about whether the federal government was preparing to exercise eminent domain on two adjacent properties.
“Unfortunately, I have no information on that,” Valdez answered.
FOIA requests and staffing questions
The Santa Cruz Valley Citizens’ Council is also attempting to glean information about the project. The organization has hired legal counsel, who filed an expedited Freedom of Information Act request on the project, Vanis said.
The attempt to expedite the FOIA request was denied – meaning the Citizens’ Council will have to “wait in line” for the federal government’s answers on the project, she said.
Lack of information was a repeated complaint at Monday’s meeting, as residents questioned the project’s impacts on traffic, the local ecosystem, and the effectiveness of additional lanes at the checkpoint.
“This isn't about being against Border Patrol. It's about asking whether a $63 million expansion is necessary, justified and appropriate for our community,” said Celeste Wisdom, president of the Tubac Chamber of Commerce and a fourth-generation resident.
Some residents wondered why the checkpoint’s current lanes aren’t always fully staffed to begin with.
“I would like to see us request of the Border Patrol that they open that third lane that they already have, before they spend millions of dollars increasing the number of lanes that they're not going to staff,” said resident Roy Farrell.
Twenty-five miles south of Tubac, Nogales residents have voiced similar complaints for years about insufficient staffing at the Deconcini Port of Entry, which is slated for expansion in a separate project.
