Action item asking for a letter to push for an officer at the border at YUHSD board meeting
EDITOR’S NOTE:
In a previous version of this story we said the board voted against this item, but to clarify the agenda item ultimately died out because board members did not second the motion to send the item to a vote.
The action item asked for the governing board to write a letter to law enforcement urging they place an officer at the San Luis Port of Entry.
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A letter urging law enforcement to place a police officer at the border was the talk at the Yuma Union High School District’s governing board meeting Wednesday night.
This was an action item on the agenda that did not make much way. The Yuma Union High School District’s governing board did not second a motion to vote to write that letter.
This is the second time the topic was addressed by the governing board in the last 13 months, according to Phil Townsend, YUHSD governing board president.
Townsend explained why he thinks the board did not move to vote for the action item.
“We haven’t been asked. No authority agency, the city of San Luis, the city of San Luis Police Department, the Yuma County Board of Supervisors, the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office have not asked us for this,” said Townsend.
Board member David Lara said he asked for the item because he wants students to be protected.
Lara added that people have come forward claiming that minors are being sent across the border with drugs.
“Unfortunately, according to the police chief in San Luis, Mexico, the majority of the cases involving children and I’m talking grade school who are being used as mules with heroin, meth, and fentanyl. In a majority of the cases, it’s by their parent,” said Lara.
Regardless of whether the school board were to write the letter, the San Luis Police Department (SLPD) explained how they work with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at the port of entry to protect the city closest to the border.
“Our main function is obviously to work in conjunction with U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the port of entry. We’re there as a deterrent and assist the CBP officers to be able to deter crime, focused on the fentanyl issue we’re having,” said Lt. Marco Santana with SLPD.
