(The Associated Press circulated the following article on September 30.)
TUCSON, Ariz. — A proposal to build a rail line from Mexico into Yuma County received a hearty thumbs down during a meeting of Yuma farmers, elected officials and residents.
The rail line, being studied by Union Pacific Railroad to run from a planned container port at Punta Colonet in Baja California into the United States through Yuma County, would provide the area no benefits and be detrimental to farmers and even the military, speakers said.
Along with the noise and air and visual pollution a new railroad would bring, it also would lead to more crime, said Ron Colburn, chief patrol agent in the Yuma area for the U.S. Border Patrol.
“Crime follows the railroad,” he said. “It’s happened in Texas and California and Nogales, and it could happen here.”
Nearly 200 farmers, elected officials and community residents attended the meeting hosted by the Yuma County Farm Bureau on Friday. Opposition seemed uniform.
The Farm Bureau passed a resolution opposing the plan at its annual meeting earlier this month, and the Yuma Fresh Vegetable Association has adopted a similar position.