Border Patrol Agents Say Tucson Police Officers Stopped Assisting Them Due to Political Correctness

U.S. Border Patrol agents accuse Tucson police of refusing to assist them because of politics. (Bill Morrow/CC BY 2.0)

Tucson Police And Border Patrol Disagree On Facts Of Incident

Tucson, AZ –  Criticism continues to grow over the Tucson Police Department’s reported refusal to help the U.S. Border Patrol in locating a suspect who had assaulted a Border Patrol Agent.

According to KVOA, the incident occurred on March 1st at the U.S./Mexican border near Douglas, Arizona.  An illegal immigrant from Honduras, Carlos Erazo-Velasquez, 37, was approached by Border Patrol Agents when he illegally entered this country.  He fled on foot, and agents followed.  During the chase, Erazo-Velasquez got into an altercation with one of the Border Patrol Agents and violently assaulted him.

He was apprehended only at the point of exhaustion and complained of not feeling well.  He was transported to University Medical Center. While at the University Medical Center, Erazo-Velasquez escaped from custody on Friday, March 3rd, according to Breitbart.

Border Patrol Agents began searching for Erazo-Velasquez. The Tucson Police Department assisted in the search, and provided 17 Police Officers, three K9s and air support from a helicopter.

Protesters supporting the illegal criminal immigrant arrived on the scene.  One protester blocked a Border Patrol supervisor’s vehicle.  The Border Patrol had to move its command post to a Tucson PD substation parking lot because of the protesters.

After more than two hours of searching, the Tucson PD withdrew its resources.  At first TPD cooperated with use of its facility.  A ‘TPD management-level supervisor’ advised the Agents that his department could not continue to assist them in locating this dangerous illegal immigrant, who also had a criminal history that he was bringing with him.  The agents were initially told that the change was because they were busy with local calls.

And then the truth came out.  The Tucson Police Department then told the agents that “due to the recent political climate, the Tucson Police Department could no longer assist the Border Patrol.”  The Border Patrol Agents were asked not only to leave but to set up their command post elsewhere.

Art Del Cueto, Border Patrol Agent, president of a local Border Patrol Council and vice-president of the national organization, said “I can almost understand if they were too busy with local issues to assist in the search,”  but, “there is no excuse for kicking our agents off the property and delaying our search efforts.”

He noted that the illegal immigrant not being caught was “a danger to our community and to any law enforcement officer”.

Tucson Police Chief Tyler Magnus was not present when this occurred.  The agency said that the reason for discontinuing the assistance was because its Officers said that they did not believe that the suspect was still within the perimeter.  It also said that the Border Patrol’s request to set up a command post in their parking lot was denied because they didn’t have resources to deal with the protesters.

Del Cueto said that “they failed to do the right thing because of political pressure.”  He said  ‘due to the current political climate regarding immigration enforcement they refused to assist Tucson Sector Border Patrol.” He said that this was not just an illegal immigrant search but rather “a search for an illegal immigrant who was so desperate that he assaulted a federal agent.”

Do you think Chief Magnus offered a good explanation? Do you believe the Border Patrol agents instead? We’d like to hear what you think. Please let us know below.