Supervisors miffed over Ashcroft not talking with them
05/09/01
Diane Saunders

COCHISE COUNTY, AZ — The county’s three supervisors are disappointed because they weren’t given a chance to meet with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to talk about border issues.

District 1 Supervisor Patrick Call and District 3 Supervisor Les Thompson each said they were not invited to meet with Ashcroft in Douglas on Sunday. Call said he did not know about Ashcroft’s visit to the border until he read about it in the newspaper a few days before the event.

District 2 Supervisor Paul Newman, whose district includes Douglas, said he managed to arrange an invitation to attend Ashcroft’s visit. However, when he showed up, U.S. Border Patrol agents “disinvited me” — asked him to leave. “Ashcroft came here and didn’t really talk to anyone (local),” Newman said. “This is probably the only time he’ll be here in four years.”

Newman said had he been allowed to speak to Ashcroft he would have told him the $50 million the Bush administration plans to allocate to border counties to stem illegal immigration is inadequate.

He said he would have told Ashcroft $200 million is a more realistic figure.

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