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April 23, 2013El Paso, Texas

Statement on Boston Attacks and the Need forImmigration Reform from the El Paso CountySheriffs Office and the Border Network for HumanRights

As all of our eyes are on Boston, we extend our most sincere condolences to the victims and their families. At the same time, our deepest gratitude goes out to those who rushed in to help keepothers safe and provide the injured with medical treatment. We send our prayers to the citizensof Boston as well as law enforcement officials and thank them for a job well done.

Despite the fact that we do not have all of our answers yet, there are those who are seizing onthis tragedy as an opportunity to push an agenda to stop immigration reform. We want to setthem straight.

Immigration reform is important in order to strengthen our national security. This reform willallow individuals and communities to have the confidence to communicate, without fear of beingdeported, with law enforcement personnel when they have information about criminal activitythat would harm our community.

Tragic events, such as occurred in Boston, clearly indicate we need to start being rational about border and immigration enforcement strategy. We need an enforcement system that focuses onthose real threats that endanger our communitys security, our lives and our rights. We need to besmart about the way we use our nations law enforcement and anti-terrorism resources. No lawenforcement agency in the country should operate based on a vision of quantity over quality, asis the case with our current immigration enforcement.

Presently, we are pouring billions of dollars into securing vast, hostile desert areas. At the sametime, the staffing and resources at our ports of entry have lagged behind. These legal entry points

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account for most of the illegal movement of drugs, money, weapons and people into and out of the U.S., and yet they have been left behind in the record breaking spending along the border. Aslong as these ports are neglected, border economies will be choked off and real threats to nationalsecurity will slip through the cracks.

El Paso is safe because of our immigrant communities with their strong confidence in our locallaw enforcement institutions. However, we can continue to make even more progress by fixingour broken immigration system that is part of our national security problem. We must include allof our diverse communities, including immigrants, in developing national security solutions. It isfortunate that we can strengthen one system while fixing the other through comprehensiveimmigration reform.

In times like these we remember, in the most difficult moments Americans come together tostand up for whats best about us. We value justice, fairness and lending a helping hand. Wereject fear and discrimination.

Signed,

Sheriff Richard Wiles, El Paso County

Fernando Garcia, Executive Director, Border Network for Human Rights