County Turns Away Checkpoint Drug Cases
Frustrated by a lack of compensation from the federal government, Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West and his department are no longer responding to drug cases originating from Border Patrol checkpoints in the county. The move marks a new chapter in an ongoing dispute here over checkpoint cases and means that, in almost all instances, U.S. citizens passing through the checkpoints with illegal drugs face no legal jeopardy.
County Judge Mike Doyal discussed West’s decision with county commissioners Tuesday (July 9). West was out of the county and could not be reached for comment by press-time this week, but Doyal said West had implemented the policy about two weeks ago, in late June.
The Sierra Blanca Border Patrol checkpoint, west of the county seat on Interstate 10, routinely generates 200 or more cases each month – most of which involve U.S. citizens in possession of small amounts of marijuana or of drug paraphernalia. The Border Patrol busts account for the vast majority of cases handled by the Hudspeth County sheriff’s department, and Hudspeth County bears the costs of incarcerating and prosecuting individuals busted at the checkpoint.
West’s move is the latest installment in an ongoing conflict with the U.S. Department of Justice over payments from the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative, which is designed to compensate border counties for the costs associated with checkpoint cases. During the last five years, payments from the program have been intermittent at best, and the justice department has repeatedly changed the requirements associated with the program. In May, the federal government announced it would provide no compensation for the detention costs in the “federally initiated” cases, and it was this announcement that prompted West to stop accepting the cases, Doyal said.
Hudspeth County officials made a similar attempt to force the federal government’s hand in April of last year. With the support of county commissioners, sheriff’s deputies stopped responding for most of that month to checkpoint drug cases that required incarceration – felony-level drug cases – but continued to issue citations to individuals for possession of drug paraphernalia and for misdemeanor marijuana possession. During that month-long period, more than two dozen U.S. citizens who would likely have faced felony drug charges were simply relieved of their drugs and sent on their way.
With West’s new move, however, deputies are not responding to any drug cases at the checkpoint. Unless the drug amounts are large enough to warrant prosecution by the Drug Enforcement Administration, I10 motorists in Hudspeth County presently have a free pass when it comes to illegal narcotics.
Commissioners took no action on West’s new policy at their meeting Tuesday, but county officials will likely have to discuss the matter again soon.. County Attorney Kit Bramblett and District Attorney Jaime Esparza, who prosecute misdemeanor and felony checkpoint cases, respectively, could call on West to start taking the cases again, and pressure from federal law enforcement is likely to mount in the coming weeks.
The financial impacts to the county of the Sierra Blanca Border Patrol checkpoint are complex. Checkpoint arrests account for most of the inmates in the county jail, and the jail has been a consistent drain on county finances in recent years, with annual deficits at the facility running from $400,000 to almost $1 million. However, fines and fees collected from checkpoint cases can generate half a million dollars or more in revenue for the county each year.
Responding to numerous checkpoint cases each day can strain the personnel resources of the sheriff’s department. Doyal said West had decided to refuse the cases in part because his department has seen four deputies leave in recent months. A homeland security grant program that has covered the salaries of five Hudspeth deputies is currently in limbo, and it is unclear whether the deputies who’ve left will be replaced.
Following a series of high-profile drug busts that began with Willie Nelson in November 2010 and continued with rapper Snoop Dogg and singer Fiona Apple, the Sierra Blanca Border Patrol checkpoint gained the nickname “Checkpoint of the Stars” and brought national notoriety to Hudspeth County. The strain that the checkpoint places on the county’s starkly limited resources has rarely attracted such attention, though a recent piece by the Center for Investigative Reporting focused on the price the county pays for its place on the front lines of the “War on Drugs.”