THE BORDER REPORT

Well, as I told you back in October, it appears the top U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement boss in Arizona is set to step down in the next few weeks. If my sources are correct, it means this beleaguered agency, with its ongoing turf wars with the DEA, something like six special-agents-in-charge in Arizona since 2003, senior agents jumping over to Customs and Border Protection, and politically, the toughest job in America right now, is about to get more of the same raw deal.

ICE just can’t seem to keep a boss in place for very long in this state.

The last one, Roberto Medina, became the political target of Napolitano and Sheriff Joe Arpaio, both of whom spent their time complaining that Medina wasn’t responding to illegal immigrants picked up by state and county law enforcement.

The first temporary bureau chief ICE brought in, Tom DeRouchey, ended up killing himself on the way to a press conference in Tucson in 2004. He always seemed the most accessible of the ICE jefes; picking up his cellphone and answering questions openly. A friendly, knowledgeable man who wasn't afraid to spar with reporters and used to smoke cigarrettes outside the Phoenix office with me. He was apparently seen shredding documents just hours before he climbed into his car and headed south to Tucson for a press conference. Thirty miles outside the city, he placed his .40-cal. in his mouth and pulled the trigger.

As far as I know, there's never been an investigation.

Still another, ICE resident agent in charge of the Sells office, Robert Gaddison, was arrested on domestic assault charges in summer 2006. He was quietly transferred back to Washington, D.C., after that incident. He remains there today.

Pena was different from Medina, he always carried the reputation of a peacemaker, even when he headed the San Antonio office before coming to Phoenix.

It also helped that he was former U.S. Customs Service, an agency seen as the upper echelons of border enforcement among its own officers.

Since Homeland Security was created in 2003, the old Customs Service agents have always been leery of being lumped in with the now defunct Immigration and Naturalization Service. Having a former Customs Service lawman heading the office was supposed to be good for morale. (Most ICE agents are legacy Customs Service).

Still, Peña was unable to staunch the depletion of his ranks. By last June, five high level ICE officials in Nogales and Tucson had transferred to Customs and Border Protection, the agency charged with port inspections and Border Patrol. Then two more jumped ship.

ICE has had tremendous problems since its inception. Sometimes it’s an identity crisis as its leaders resist becoming the deportation arm for Border Patrol. Other times it’s done its job too well. When ICE first began, the agency had almost as many foreign bureaus and open terror cases as FBI. You can imagine how that went over.

Nowadays there is a lot of fighting with DEA; turf wars over who investigates which narco-traffickers.

As I said before, Pena should have stayed awhile longer. His agents actually liked him and he was bringing back some badly-needed credibility to ICE in Arizona.

We'll just have to see who steps up.

I notice the public affairs office still isn't ready to make any announcements. ICE in Arizona spokesman Vinnie Picard tells The Phoenix New Times, "We haven't seen anything official that indicates Alonzo is leaving." Which isn't quite the same as a denial.

-- Michel Marizco