About 180 people showed up in Arnold on June 20 to hear an Arizona sheriff speak about his firsthand experience with undocumented immigrants and the effects they may have on communities, including Jefferson County.
Cochise County (Ariz.) Sheriff Mark Dannels spoke at the presentation, held at the Fox C-6 Service Center and organized by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office and Arnold Police Department.
Cochise County, which has a population of just more than 125,000, is in the southeastern corner of Arizona, and about 84 miles of the county borders Mexico.
Dannels said even though Jefferson County does not border Mexico, it could feel the impact of undocumented immigrants in the U.S.
“The border towns are a gateway,” Dannels said. “We are doing everything we can to stop it in the front yard, but if we don’t, it is in your backyard. They are coming to areas, especially urban communities like the St. Louis metro area.”
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, as of June 6, border control agents and other law enforcement officials had 406,441 encounters with undocumented immigrants in the Tucson, Ariz., sector through May, a 93.3 percent increase from 2023 when there were 210,298 encounters through May.
Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak said he arranged for Dannels to give the presentation following two incidents in Jefferson County involving undocumented immigrants.
Marshak said Herculaneum Mayor Ryan Wright contacted him in December 2023 after Herculaneum Police encountered undocumented immigrants who had gotten off a bus at the Love’s Travel Stop, 1199 McNutt St.
“My understanding is a bus driver kicked off the busload (of passengers) at Love’s,” Marshak said. “Then (the driver) went over to QuikTrip. They (Herculaneum Police) were able to find the bus driver, order him back to the Love’s to take the migrants and proceed to their destination.”
Then in March 2023, Arnold Mayor Ron Counts contacted Marshak after Arnold Police dealt with a vehicle accident involving an undocumented immigrant.
According to an Arnold Police incident report, an officer stopped Leandro A. Giron Ocampo, 22, who was driving a 2008 Honda Civic involved in a minor collision with a 2014 Nissan Rogue near the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Church Road. The officer stopped Giron Ocampo after he drove away from the accident.
Giron Ocampo, who was making a delivery to Walmart, did not speak English and didn’t have a driver’s license. He showed the officer a Venezuela identification card on his phone, the report said.
The officer attempted to identify Giron Ocampo with a fingerprint scanner, but he found no record of Giron Ocampo on file. The officer arrested Giron Ocampo for driving without a license and no proof of insurance, according to the report.
“With this information we notified customs and immigration and we were advised that they would not issue a detainer on the subject because the subject did not commit a serious felony,” Arnold Police Chief Brian Carroll said. “With no additional charges, this subject was eventually released pending a court date.”
Arnold Police released Giron Ocampo after issuing him summonses to appear in Arnold Municipal Court for allegedly operating a vehicle without a license, failing to yield and operating a vehicle without maintaining financial responsibility, court records show.
“When we had an issue with an undocumented, illegal immigrant, it was, ‘OK,’ so what do you do next?” Counts said. “You call Homeland Security, and they say they can’t do anything and ‘Kick him loose.’ Is that really right? I have heard people say it is not a crisis. I say it is not a crisis unless it is your wife or daughter.”
After Counts contacted him, Marshak organized a meeting with leaders from cities along I-55 to discuss how to handle situations like those that occurred in Herculaneum and Arnold.
“We talked about the real possibility of what if this happens again and what our response would be,” Marshak said. “For us, it is about acknowledgement, and I think that is important.”
Marshak said he arranged the meeting because U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) no longer responds to situations like it did in the past.
“Even 10 years ago, when law enforcement officers encountered undocumented people in our community, ICE would take action,” he said. “They no longer do that. The system is overwhelmed.”
Counts said he also contacted Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey for guidance on how to handle situations involving undocumented immigrants, adding that he sent a letter to Bailey’s office and talked to someone there on the phone.
However, he was only advised to fill out a form and received no additional information.
“That is disgusting,” Counts said. “These are people on the state level you wish would help you. I realize this is federal law that is being broken, but what are our state folks doing? What can we do? We depend on them to give us guidance on what we can do.”
Border crisis presentation
Dannels, a 40-year law enforcement veteran and sheriff for the past 12 years, shared stories about high-speed chases and monitoring systems his department has put in place along its border. He also talked about dealing with cartels that he said arrange for drugs and people to be transported into the U.S.
Dannels said an Arizona state grant covered the cost for most of his trip to Jefferson County, and Marshak said the Sheriff’s Office paid for Dannels’ hotel stay. Carroll said the city of Arnold did not provide any funding for the presentation.
“This was certainly an eye-opening presentation,” Carroll said. “Sheriff Dannels discussed several problems that his county is currently facing in Arizona. I didn’t realize how much crime was associated with undocumented migrants entering Cochise County in Arizona.”
Marshak said he believes Dannels made people aware of the potential impact undocumented immigrants may have in Jefferson County.
“You heard firsthand knowledge from a community leader on the border who is dealing with the larger issues we face,” Marshak said. “It should concern our community, our state and our country. I don’t know how you could sit through a presentation like that and believe there is not an issue, or worse, put your head in the sand and say everything will be fine.”
Dannels held a question-and-answer session at the end of the presentation, and several people made comments or asked questions.
One person asked, “How can we be safe?”
Dannels recommended that people notify authorities when they see something suspicious and offered the following advice: “Take care of what you have, elect sheriffs to protect you and work with your sheriffs and police chiefs.”
According to Dannels’ bio on the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office website, he is a past member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council, and a current member of the National Sheriff’s Association, serving as its border security chairman, and the Arizona Homeland Security Regional Advisory Council.