American Sand Association

Mixing with off-roaders spurs controversial calls to close dunes
By Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 1, 2008

IMPERIAL SAND DUNES RECREATION AREA, CALIF. -- The dirt bikes and dune buggies swarm the sandy slopes by the thousands, turning these giant dunes at California's southeast border into anthills of frenetic activity.

Smugglers in nearby Mexico can't resist trying to blend into the crowd. They shoot across the border in souped-up vehicles loaded with illegal immigrants and drugs and elude U.S. Border Patrol agents by playing the part of dune enthusiasts: wearing helmets and decorating their bikes and all terrain vehicles with decals and flags.

The cat-and-mouse game turned deadly recently when a suspected smuggler driving a Hummer ran over an agent and fled back across the border over the dunes. The agent's death focused attention on the federal government's enforcement strategy in this remote corner of the border.

While the Department of Homeland Security expands fencing in other trouble spots on the Southwest frontier, officials say fortifying the border at the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area has been problematic because of shifting sands that render current barriers ineffective. By the end of the year, they say, they will have erected a new type of fortification that they hope will cut down on incursions.

But many critics, including the Border Patrol union, former federal law enforcement officers and environmental groups, say the plan to erect better barriers ignores the most significant problem: the recreational dune riders whose presence poses safety risks for agents and hampers enforcement efforts.

The dunes area is one of the few places on the American Southwest frontier where a major highway runs up against open border. Interstate 8 is generally less than three miles away and only 500 yards off in some spots, giving smugglers easy access to a major transportation corridor.

The public has been barred from other federally managed lands near the border, such as Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, much of which remains closed six years after an employee there was killed by a suspected smuggler.

Critics say the dunes remain open because of the powerful off-road industry, which is seeking to expand access to public lands and has gained the support of the Bush administration.

The border dunes are part of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, which is managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Officials there say they have no plans for any closures. Senior Border Patrol officials say preserving public access to federal lands fits the agency's goal of improving quality of life in border areas.

Chief Patrol Agent Paul Beeson, one of two chiefs responsible for the area, said the goal is to balance enforcement and public access. "I believe that the best way to control that area is through the use of tactical infrastructure, and through use of agents and through the use of technology," Beeson said. "I don't think at this point that depriving people from use of the those lands is the best solution."

The federal government's position on the dunes is different from its aggressive actions elsewhere on the border, where Homeland Security has moved to waive environmental laws and sue private landowners in the name of putting up barriers and tightening security.

Those advocating a dunes closure say it would need to cover a 7,842-acre area between the border and Interstate 8, which amounts to less than 10% of the 80,000 acres open to off-roaders -- most of that area lying north of I-8.

"It's mystifying that this out-of-control situation continues to exist, yet on other parts of the border the Department of Homeland Security seems willing to flex its muscles to get what it wants," said Daniel R. Patterson, southwest director for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and a former BLM ecologist.

"Border security should certainly trump the off-road industry," he said. "But it's not clear that's the case with this administration." The Imperial Sand Dunes, stretching 40 miles from the border to California's Chocolate Mountains, attract more than 1 million riders every year. The wind-sculptured dunes, evoking lunar landscapes and the vastness of the Sahara Desert, have served as backdrops for Hollywood movies such as "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi" and "Jarhead."

For smugglers, the dunes offer unique advantages. The area shares an eight-mile frontier with Mexico and has great freeway access. Crowd camouflage is easy when recreational enthusiasts visit the area in the winter months, especially on holiday weekends. More than 190,000 people have flocked to the area south of the interstate since October.

Smugglers send teams of lookouts into the crowds. Outfitted in full body suits and helmets, they look like everyone else. They roam around, monitor agents' positions and radio the all-clear at times.

Drugs often are brought across in Hummers and other sport utility vehicles. Sometimes teams of ATV riders wear marijuana-filled backpacks and file across the frontier in convoys of up to 10 vehicles. They unload their packs into ordinary-looking vehicles sitting among hundreds in crowded campgrounds.

Last year in and around the dunes area, federal authorities seized more than 48,000 pounds of drugs -- mostly marijuana -- and arrested 2,100 suspected illegal immigrants.

Compounding enforcement difficulties is the fact that recreational riders for years crossed freely back and forth across the border, sometimes going several miles deep into Mexico in search of smooth sand.

Authorities in January instituted a zero-tolerance policy that threatens riders with arrest, but agents say the cross-border jaunts continue, making it hard to distinguish smugglers from off-roaders.

"It's a honey hole" for smugglers, said Border Patrol Agent Quinn Palmer, an agency spokesman, who said keeping track of the cross-border traffic is "logistically impossible." "We have thousands of people out here on a busy weekend with no clearly defined border," Palmer said.


Unlike other frontiers, the first line of physical border defenses is not at the international boundary. It's along Interstate 8, where rail-like metal vehicle barriers line the highway. Authorities say they have been effective in funneling traffickers to choke points near highway onramps.

But critics say the strategy steers traffickers through campgrounds. The suspected smuggler who killed Agent Luis Aguilar in January sped past the Buttercup campground at an estimated 55 mph. Last year, gun-toting smugglers ordered campers to clear an area.

Vendors who sell helmets, flags and automotive parts to dune crowds frequently report thefts by border bandits.

Large smuggling organizations in Mexico specialize in trafficking through the area. A January raid by Mexican police of a gang hide-out in Mexicali turned up 81 ATVs and dirt bikes.

By closing the area, many agents say, they would get a clear picture of cross-border activity. Anyone heading north from the dunes area could be pinpointed. And smugglers wouldn't be able to offload their drugs easily.

One veteran agent described the dunes as "our nightmare" and added that most agents support a no-drive zone. Smugglers, he said, would lose their main advantage if they couldn't mix in with the crowds. "If we closed the sand dunes, anybody coming out of the area would be a suspect," said the agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Richard Pierce, executive vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents agents, said the enforcement strategy makes no sense. "To say we're trying to secure the border, and then leave that area populated . . is a joke. For the safety of the Border Patrol agents involved, those campers need to be moved north of the interstate," Pierce said.

But longtime dune lovers say a closure wouldn't be fair to the thousands of enthusiasts who flock to the area. James R. Broxholme, a vendor at the Buttercup Campground who sells flags that say "Dune Bunny" and "Ride Hard or Park It," said the best way to improve security is to build strong barriers on the border.

"The solution is simple. You create a physical barrier -- a wall or a trench -- and they won't drive over," he said of smugglers. Off-roading groups certainly would oppose any closure plan. For years, they have lobbied to get more of the dunes reopened after closures to protect endangered species. The Bush administration has favored the expansion of motorized recreation on federal lands in the West, including Yellowstone National Park and the Imperial Sand Dunes. But its plan to reopen about 40,000 acres at the dunes has been blocked by federal courts.

Bob Mason, president of the American Sand Assn., said closing the border dunes would be unacceptable, if not unpatriotic.

"That's part of the United States of America," he said. "To forgo that area would be tantamount to handing it over to the Mexican government."

Environmental groups have long criticized the administration for placing commercial interests and recreational uses ahead of conservation and for giving off-roaders extraordinary access. Now, they say, such access is trumping even national security.

Even some off-road enthusiasts question the current policy. Many have had brushes with border bandits and smugglers, or have seen pursuits through the dunes.

Lee Dove, an attorney who visits about twice a month, once saw a smuggler flash a weapon and said he sympathized with the Border Patrol's mission.

"If they were really serious about shutting down the traffic, they'd have to do something," Dove said. "I don't see how you can really enforce the border unless they have a no-drive zone from the border inland."

Luis Sanchez, a plumber from Tucson who rides the dunes with his wife and daughters, thinks closing the dunes to improve national security is a reasonable trade-off.

"There's plenty of other places to ride . . with miles and miles of dunes," Sanchez said.

richard.marosi@latimes.com

Interesting how an "ecologist" now knows the best answer for border protection. No concern here for any rare plants....

At what point will these incursions become acts of war?

I have to say, i do believe there is some merit in what the article is saying. I do not doubt for a second that the dunes and the visitors create a difficult situation for the border patrol.

but given all the area that has been taken away (even though the article claims otherwise), I would not be in favor of closing the south dunes unless the closure area was removed and possibly even some area north of the 78.

sad, too bad we can not objectively and honestly negotiate. instead we have gleeful environmentalists who are to be considered as expert in border security.

maybe...just maybe

by Presidential proclamation....

and his last act as President....

the dunes will be reopened..

naw, I'm just dreaming

This also came to mind... Pick pockets and child molestors blend in with users of city parks before they comit their crimes. Should we close city parks and other public places because criminals blend in there too? I hear they also use similiar vehicles to non criminals to escape these parks. So should we ban law biding citizens from driving cars?

Anchor in some barrier. Someone crosses it... 6 months in jail if they're American, back to their homeland if they're not.

I might get hammered here, but in the interest of protecting our borders, the safety of our BP, and the safety of duners, I beleive that there has to be a zone in which our BP can do there job without interference. It does not have to be all of the area South of 8, just an area/zone large enough for the BP to adequately provide surveillence and patrol.



Met Chief Patrol Agent Beeson at the San Diego ORVA Show while manning the ASA booth.........he's good to go

I've spoke with the agents that patrol out there. They have very good ways right now to know who crosses the border. The new electronic virtual fences are being put up elsewhere. If these are put up at the dunes there will be no way for them not to be able to track and intercept any one who crosses the border.

Even now there are 24/7 manned stations that watch that area. There are ground sensors that report movement. For the last year there have been more agents patroling than there have ever been before.

The Buttercup area does not need to be closed.

Touchy issue, I will always support making our border more secure and the area safer to patrol. Our border agents being killed is of great concern to me and I don't like to think for a second that I would choose recreation over their safety. I could support a closure only if an equal sized area that is now closed were to be opened.

There is no currently closed area of the ISDRA that could be considered viable for mitigation of this type. The current closures South of Hwy 78 are temporary and as such must be exempt from any mitigation consideration. The closed area North of Hwy 78 was closed by Congress and therefore can only be opened the same way.

The bottom line, at least as I see it, is that the Federal Government has no viable lands to bring into mitigation.

I'm not for closures, & I noticed they didn't list the amount of closures they have already placed through the work of CBD, Sierra Club, etc... They will use any excuse to close more acreage, & make it sound like the Bush administration is trying to open new areas ! If you've been to the Border you know it's almost nonexsistant from the ground . They could mark or barrier it better. Many of the Duners who make the trips into Mexico for the smooth sand don't even know they are in Mexico . Closing the Buttercup camping/riding area would be like giving you bad nieghbor part of your yard, because you didn't want to put up a fence ! Did anyone send a rebuttle to the Times with Pictures of the unfenced & almost unmarked border I would, but I'm computer challenged & haven't even got my ASA member logo on my signature ? The Border...Mark It & Enforce It !

Astro

The Virtual Fence has been delayed until 2011 due to bad technology. A cost of $20,000,000 to American taxpayers, then add on another $64,000,000 to improve it Wonder what the BP thinks, i.e. if they could use some of that $$$$$ right now Is the technology going to work after the additional $64,000,000 is used up

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=4360290&page=1


Homeland Security officials have told federal lawmakers that the "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona doesn't meet contract requirements for detecting border intrusions, and some of its technology will have to be replaced by this summer.

Video
Hitches in the Virtual FenceAgency officials, testifying Wednesday before the oversight panel of the House Homeland Security Committee in Washington, D.C., said plans to expand the system from the border near Sasabe, Ariz. to the Yuma, Ariz., and El Paso, Texas, areas will be pushed back three years to 2011 because of technological deficiencies.

The Sasabe network, called Project 28, was intended as a cornerstone of the government's multibillion-dollar border strategy.


As hundreds of miles of physical barriers and thousands of Border Patrol agents are being added, technology anchored by the virtual fence was to fill the gaps.

"Project 28 was supposed to be an example of how we could use technology to secure the border. The lesson is we can't secure 28 miles of our border for $20 million," said committee member Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-N.J. "After so many years of promises and tests and millions of dollars spent, we are no closer to a technological solution to securing the border. This is unacceptable. It's what's holding up comprehensive immigration reform."

Critics say contractor Boeing Corp. never consulted border agents before engineering the system.

A Boeing executive testified that the company spent more than double the value of the $20 million contract to set things right and is now refining the network.

The Department of Homeland Security awarded Boeing a $64 million contract to improve the network in December, two months before the government accepted the Sasabe work.

Amy Kudwa, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, said that the virtual fence is not in full operation and that the agency continues to test the system.


$20M 'Virtual Fence' Pushed Back to 2011

I wouldn't be surprised to see a Border Patrol check point set up on the Gray Wells road some day. It is the only way in or out of the area South of I-8 except for the Herman Schneider Bridge and it is monitored 24/7 now. It would seem reasonable to me for them to do this before any closure be considered.

That would be a reasonable approach for consideration....do the obvious 1st, before jumping on the call for closure; even if it is only a strip, no tellling where they would go with that....it is unfortunate that criminals can mix in with crowds so easily; but that is anywhere people assemble....so to say the recreationists at the ISDRA pose an impediment to law enforcement, is like telling everyone to stay off the streets during certain times, because criminal activity cannot be easily detected....so the obvious answer to the brainy few is "no activity" for if there is no activity, then any movement disturbing the nothingness, can certainly be more readily observed....

I think the Agent was killed on the Interstate 8...

Maybe they need to close the freeway no?

Actually the Border Patrol Agent was killed just South of Gray Wells Road, right across from where the new South Dunes Operation Center is being built. The article says, "Hummer ran over an agent and fled back across the border over the dunes." This statement makes it seem like the guy in the Hummer escaped thru the dunes when actually he drove on Grays Well Rd. to the area West of the dunes, down by the Old Plank Road he turned South and entered Mexico, he didn't go over or thru the dunes.

There already is a buffer zone for the border dunes..... It's on the Mexican side! Monitor any traffic on THAT side. THAT is the suspected traffic not the traffic on this side of the border! I have always wondered at the logic of setting up BP check points in inland areas far from the border. Hasn't the BP already failed if smugglers make it to these points? Wouldn't those resources be much better ON THE BORDER?

http://www.firesociety.com/forum/thread/21364/US-Border-Patrol-Agent-killed-Sat-Morning-by-Smugglers-from-Mexico/

"Luis Sanchez, a plumber from Tucson who rides the dunes with his wife and daughters, thinks closing the dunes to improve national security is a reasonable trade-off.

"There's plenty of other places to ride . . with miles and miles of dunes," Sanchez said. "



Wonder how many folks they talked to for this response.

Yeah. Anybody who knows a Luis Sanchez that is a plumber, slap him up side the head for us, would you?

Everyone does know waht the L A stands for in LA Times, right?

Liberal Agenda. All the news that we want you to know! Conveiently omitted for the furthering of our Liberal Agenda...the other side of the story. Oops, they did talk to Jerry Seaver, but I'd bet that he had more to say about this issue than what got printed.

Unbelievable. Now it's our fault the border is unsafe?

And I thought DP had died. Former BLM Ecologist? Makes him...no more an expert on border security than you or I, but if there's a liberal with an agenda to push, you can bet your arse the Times will find and interview him!

This whole thing stinks on ice.

I emailed the author of the article 2 days ago to nicely, politely voice my displeasure with his slanted reporting.
Naturally, no response from him as of yet......

Feel free to post your stated displeasure here too [i.e. cut & paste the e-mail into your post]. If you'd like to.

The ASA's Press Release addressing that article from R. Marosi:

What ever happened to a good old fence?

What ever happened to a good old fence?

The rant by our good buddy DP doesn't surprise me. It just goes to show what a hippocrate he and the rest of the greenies are. Mention putting a fence in a wilderness area or habitat area adjacent to the border for security and it's a crime against humanity. But close off a recreational area "No Problemo".
What smuggling goes on through the dunes area is a very small amount, compared to the collective sieve our border is with Mexico.

Maybe they should make the canal realignment parallel the border and just inside the U.S. It would make a great natural barrier.

Funny, someone named crash proposed the same thing in a newspaper blog just yesterday. He said "Forget building The Fence. Build The All American Canal from the shores of Kalifornia to the shores of Texas." Thereby not only creating a virtually impassable barrier, but creating an asset that could be used as a revenue source for ship traffic.

I know, I know, impractical, but still interesting to ponder. I would guess that if you added up all the costs of the border patrols, fences, etc over the years, it probably could have been paid for by now!

I'd give it a month before they figure out a way drain it.

They swim the river in Texas....

A slashed version of the LA Times article appears in the Houston Chronicle:


Take note that the bit about Luis Sanchez, the plumber has been removed. This is the portion that the ASA's Press Release was based upon. Bob Mason's comments have been removed as well.

Another version appeared in today's version of the The Mercury News:



At least this version seems to have less of a liberal slant.

And this morning, the same article shows up in the Boston Globe.
This Richard Marosi guy is really doing a number on us.
He has written an article that has been MASS distributed, which builds an argument for closure of the dunes between Hwy8 and the US Border. And every time I see this pop up in another paper someplace in the US, the temperature of my blood-boil increases!

Reason: This is a trumped up, junk article, with no real basis for any claim to close any dunes for reasons of Border Security!

In reality, the "critics" as he calls them in support of this argument are:


So, let's take a look at these guys:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection union
USBP Officials are quoted in the article, stating:

and:

So, if an on-the-ground Agent, and an official are stating this intent (which was also reflected in my discussions with Quinn Palmer], then how are the U.S. Customs and Border Protection union a critic?
Something else:

Well, that would be because of this:

...not because of the off-roaders!

former federal law-enforcement officers
This is Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility who pushed a former BLM ecologist, Daniel Patterson to make their statement... on behalf of former federal law-enforcement officers!!

environmental groups
Well of course! Border security issues are at the top of the agenda for environmental groups.

So, USBP, PEER and Environmental Groups are not actually 'critics' of this area being open on the basis of Border Security. Rather, this is Marosi's trumped up list of "critics".

As far as I can tell, our sole opponent here [aside from Richard Marosi himself] is this guy:

But again, even without campers in the area, he would still have the shifting sands to contend with, and as we know, this is what is making the fortification of the border "problematic" and "ineffective"


So, I question where the actual SUBSTANCE of this Closure Campaign is. I see no real basis for any claim to close any dunes for reasons of Border Security! Rather, just an argument that the presence of sand along makes it hard to secure this area!

Good analysis. Hope you sent and/or posted that everywhere that the article has shown up.

I have.

Woody that is why youre the man on the PR committee and we love it

Thanks Gene!
This is the exact version of what I've been posting:

I might suggest being careful with the eco-capitalist moniker. I heard someone use it in a speech as we are using it here and it really clicked with me, but if you go and look up the Wiki definition it is pro-whack-job. If you use it in print, which I think you should as it effectively describes what they are, you should probably also make sure to define it.

Here's Wiki's:

Eco-capitalism is one of several strategies of the green movement and Green Parties. Its central idea is that capital exists in nature as "natural capital" (self-renewing productive ecosystems that have a measurable ecological yield or tangible benefit to humans) on which all wealth depends. Other forms of capital that are created by humans (like infrastructural capital and financial capital) simply extend and optimize this natural capital with creativity, training and trust. In this view: Nature's services are the base of a service economy - so interfering with nature's services destroys rather than creates value, and must not be rewarded with assistance or subsidies from the state. However, other than that, competition between humans is thought to be inevitable and an effective way to organize - rather in the same way as certain animal species. In this line of thought, biologist Lynn Margulis claimed that economics is the study of how humans make a living, while ecology studies how other species make a living.

More than other types of green politics, this strategy advocates monetary reform and the use of eco-friendly business models and economic policies. It usually includes any environmental policy with an intended positive economic return. An example are the rules against overfishing to allow stocks to replenish for future fishing, resulting in a so-called sustainable fishery. This pleases many scientific ecologists but not, for instance, animal rights advocates.

Eco-capitalism seeks creative policy instruments to resolve environmental problems where public goods are difficult to protect. Unlike in other green economics, it is usually very possible to construct a value of life or value of Earth analysis using eco-capitalist models, or even to reconcile the utility of various choices as would be done in neoclassical economics. Because everything is reduced ultimately to some number, a price premium can be calculated by each choice in, say, a moral purchasing or regulatory regime. This makes it possible, according to advocates, to actually make globalism work. The Kyoto Protocol, for instance, assigns a de facto value to human life in developing nations of about 1/15 the value of a life in developed nations, based on the ability of the latter to pay to prevent deaths due to climate change.

Some have described this strategy as a form of realpolitik, a constructive non-ideological compromise between the existing power structures and banking systems of the IMF and BIS and the emerging consensus that ecological systems have value.

The term Blue Greens is a sometimes applied to those who espouse eco-capitalism. This can either be greens who accept or favor free market principles to achieve environmental aims or conservatives or liberals who espouse Green policies or, more generally, environmental concerns. The term should be contrasted with Red Greens

Contents [hide]
1 Eco-capitalist monetary and administrative reforms
2 Taxation
3 Examples of eco-friendly business models
4 See also
5 Other Sources
6 External links

There is currently no definition for "eco-capitalist". I think we should craft something and submit it.