President Donald J. Trump addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House Wednesday evening, March 11, 2020, on the country’s expanded response against the global Coronavirus outbreak.
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels says he doesn’t yet know what it will cost the department to help with security for Trump’s visit.
“When you have a former president of the United States and that's running for reelection again, that and the attention that draws, both positive and negative, obviously, is an increase in cost because it’s an increase in staffing,” he said. “And we knew that coming into it when they called us to ask to come here.”
Dannels said he will be speaking with Trump during the border tour, and so will Sierra Vista Mayor Clea McCaa and a handful of others about the public safety challenges and impact of the border on local communities.
He says Trump has come to listen, and the Republican sheriff will speak with any politicians who will.
“He's got a history,” Dannels said. “He's got a report card. The report card came when he was president about his priority to secure the border. And with that came good engagement with America's sheriffs to include acknowledgement of, you know, we will have a secure border, and there will be consequences under the rule of law. I mean, nobody's ever questioned that on him. And so that's refreshing compared to what we've been addressing here in the last three years, where there hasn't been acknowledgement, prioritization or engagement by 51% of Congress or the White House.”
The number of people crossing the US-Mexico border into Arizona has dropped by about 60% in the last few months since the Biden administration sharply curbed access to asylum.
Primary issues in Cochise County are different from other parts of the border, and Dannels has said his department deals with human and drug smuggling issues on a regular basis. He says Cochise officials have invited the Harris campaign to come visit as well.
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