Sanders' humane approach to border strategy came to a grinding halt during the winter of 1999, when Western Regional INS Commissioner Johnny Williams called a meeting at the Nogales, Ariz., border patrol station. Nogales is part of the Tucson sector. Williams announced a new plan under which all available agents would be reassigned to Nogales. Williams told us we had a new strategy. The shift of personnel to Nogales left some patrol stations in a precarious position.
Sanders vividly recalls protesting.
He said he told Williams that the sector needed to maintain coverage in high-risk areas or the number of people dying in the desert would skyrocket. The 1994 border strategy calls for the border patrol to prevent illegal entry along the border and to strengthen enforcement of the nation's immigration laws. Sanders said the congressionally approved border strategy was radically altered by Williams to a point where coverage by the patrol in certain areas was virtually non-existent. I even testified before Congress. I told them what was happening here.