Fact Check! Arizona Still in American Hands – For Now

A Fox News report has sent shockwaves across the blogosphere – declaring "Obama gives major strip of AZ to Mexico," but law enforcement officials in the area are saying the state still belongs to the U.S. and is not closed off to Americans.

On the June 15 show, "America Live" guest host Shannon Bream said, "A massive stretch of Arizona now off limits to Americans. Critics say the administration is, in effect, giving a major strip of the Southwest back to Mexico. U.S. Fish and Wildlife have closed a portion of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge all along the border, warning visitors to beware of heavily armed drug smugglers and traffickers."

Then Bream introduces Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, saying, "Sheriff, this is a family show, so I'm going to put it like this: What the heck is going on down there?"

Babeu explains, "It's literally out of control, and violence has increased just in the last four months. All of our police chiefs and Pinal County , we stood with Sen. McCain and literally demanded support for 3,000 soldiers to be deployed to Arizona to get this under control and finally secure our border with Mexico."

However, U.S. Fish and Wildlife spokesman Jose Viramontes told WND that the Obama administration did not close that section of the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge on the border. That closure happened during the George W. Bush administration in 2006 and only involved a strip of land along the border that extended about 1 mile into Arizona.

"In 2006, we closed 3,500 acres to public access on Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge due to public safety concerns," he said. "At that time, there was an escalation of violence, and we also had contractors down there who were working on building vehicle barriers and pedestrian fencing in compliance with the Secure Fence Act."

Viramontes said in 2006 "there was a high volume of drug trafficking and human trafficking going on right there at the border, right before a lot of the border security enforcement measures were put in place."

He added, "Since that point, we have not closed any further lands, nor have we reopened that section of land. We still don't feel that it's safe enough at this point, though violence has been decreasing – in large part due to our coordination with Border Patrol to improve access and to provide access to build a pedestrian barrier and vehicle barriers. Violence is on the decline, but not to the point that we've reopened the area yet."

"One of our sister agencies, the Bureau of Land Management, recently erected signs in Pinal County that warn visitors on their public lands just to be aware that things may be out in the desert," he said. "Most of the signs you see on the news programs are that sign. That recently happened within the past week or two."

WND called the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management to inquire about the recently posted signs.

Dennis Godfrey, spokesman for the BLM in Arizona, explained, "We have posted some advisory signs, but we have not closed any areas."

He said, "The signs went up with the recommendation of our law enforcement personnel because of increased illegal activity in portions of the Sonoran Desert National Monument, which is a very large area. It's actually divided by Interstate 8 that runs through there. It's the southern portion of that where we've put up signs advising people of the danger and recommending that they use public land north of the interstate."

Contrary to the report, the BLM signs do not state, "Don't go past this point." and "This is not safe." Rather than "Stay away," as Bream claimed, one portion of a sign reads: "Stay away from trash, clothing, backpacks, and abandoned vehicles."

Godfrey said he's been in contact with Fox News and hopes the organization will correct its report. WND's messages left with "America Live" and the Fox Nation were not returned at the time of this report.

More here