Here's some new and twisted reporting from the ADS on the current status of the Operation Stonegarden (OPSG) grant.
In the last episode, as many of us recall, the Board of Supervisors voted to accept the Stonegarden grant for this year on condition that a portion of it could be used to offset expenses incurred by the County for humanitarian aid, as permitted by FEMA rules. The request was for a portion of the grant that had originally been allotted to overtime pay for Stonegarden operations be used instead to help pay for a new shelter for asylum seekers (since the monastery was about to be unavailable) and for medical services.
The Board and Huckelberry were aware at the time that for this alternate use of funds to be allowed would require four layers of bureaucratic approval: Arizona DHS, Tucson sector Border Patrol, national Border Patrol, and FEMA. The tacit understanding was that approval was by no means certain.
Now Huckelberry is pretending to be shocked, SHOCKED, that the Border Patrol views Stonegarden funding “as an exclusive funding domain for law enforcement... [T]he U.S. Border Patrol has an ideological bias against the provision of humanitarian aid using OPSG funding.”
He had to have known that from the start.
And he certainly hasn't forgotten that the entire grant, including overtime for the deputies to engage in immigration-related operations, is in limbo pending that four-layer approval and will be rejected in its entirety if the humanitarian repurposing is rejected.
Further, though ordinarily content simply to pull the strings of the Supervisors, our Chuck seems to have enlisted Congressman Grijalva to support the grant, in what we must call a strange twist:
“I have received the letter and will be writing to the Department of Homeland Security addressing the urgent request for humanitarian aid,” Grijalva said in a statement. “Tucson graciously opened its doors to asylum seekers, and I’m happy to help them get the humanitarian funds they requested to continue helping those impacted by President Trump and Stephen Miller’s immigration policies.”
Will someone please tell Rep. Grijalva that if the repurposing is approved, it will mean that the entire grant is approved and Pima County Sheriff's deputies will be working directly with Border Patrol to implement Trump's and Miller's odious policies? It's possible that Raúl has failed to grasp all the nuances here.
As we pointed out, repeatedly, at the time, the County can afford to fund the humanitarian needs itself. OPSG grants are not "free money." They come with strings attached. They require our deputies to work on immigration enforcement under the supervision of Border Patrol dispatchers. That is not okay. It's not okay for our vulnerable immigrant neighbors, and it's not okay with us.