Lonnie Schweitzer

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  AP Wire | 07/04/2006 | Northern border remains porous,... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/4/2006    Last Visited: 7/5/2006  

  The number of agents has tripled since 2001, to about 1,000, said Lonnie Schweitzer, an assistant chief agent for the U.S. Border Patrol in Grand Forks.
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  "We as an agency can't come out here and tell you are 100 percent safe," said Schweitzer.

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  AP Wire | 07/14/2005 | Feds looking to buy land in... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/14/2005    Last Visited: 7/14/2005  

  Lonnie Schweitzer, assistant chief of the Border Patrol's regional office in Grand Forks, said the number of employees working in those agencies has more than doubled over the past four years.
  
  The Grand Forks Border Patrol office oversees eight states.
  
  Schweitzer said his agency put in a request two years ago for a new and larger facility.

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  AP Wire | 08/02/2005 | Traffic stop near Jamestown... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/2/2005    Last Visited: 8/2/2005  

  He was released," said Lonnie Schweitzer, assistant chief.
  
  The Highway Patrol said the men are in their early 30s and from the Minneapolis area but did not identify them.Schweitzer said the man turned over to the Border Patrol is a native of Vietnam.

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  Defending Our Northern Border (News Feature) - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 6/23/1998    Last Visited: 8/8/2001  

  Assistant Chief Patrol Agent Lonnie Schweitzer expects that number to grow.Schweitzer : We already have intelligence on Mexican citizens who fly to Canada and attempt to enter the US through the northern border , because there's no visa requirement in Canada.All you need is a passport.Drug traffic is also on the increase.Schweitzer says Canada has become an exporter of high-grade marijuana.Canadian officials recently busted a pot farm just seven miles from the border.Schweitzer : The Royal Canadian Mounted Police seized 4 , 500 marijuana plants in a high-tech grow operation.Between $5 million and $7 million of production a year.Were they selling all that in rural Manitoba.I don't think so.Schweitzer says 22 people were arrested for drug trafficking last year , but agent Brent Zimmerman says there's no way to know how many slip across undetected.
  
  The open border is also reportedly catching the eye of an even more dangerous kind of criminal.Lonnie Schweitzer says a couple years ago his office caught two major-league international terrorists.Schweitzer : This was the number one and number two wanted people in India.Sikh terrorists.There were 29 deaths attributed to one person.They were now moving a husband , wife , and child through Minneapolis and up through Grand Forks to Winnipeg , into the East Indian community.We arrested those people right in Minneapolis-St.Paul.Schweitzer says that arrest resulted from good intelligence information.That's how a lot of the arrests along the northern border happen.A tip comes from a citizen or another law enforcement agency , or a Border Patrol agent notices a suspicious pattern of activity.
  
  As pressure increases on the northern border , the Border Patrol is putting more money into closing some of the open doors.Lonnie Schweitzer expects more agents to be hired in the next few years.Right now a lot of money is being put into high-tech solutions.Schweitzer : This here's a sensor.It don't walk , it don't talk.An antenna goes here.It's buried out on location.Starting this summer small sensors about the size of a coffee cup and a radio transmitter that fits in a backpack are being put in at many locations along the border.If someone crosses near a sensor , an alarm will sound in the Grand Forks headquarters.

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  Duluth News Tribune | 04/23/2005 | Border agents seize... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/23/2005    Last Visited: 4/23/2005  

  Bud, a "high-grade marijuana that's very expensive," said Lonnie Schweitzer, assistant chief of the Border Patrol's regional office in Grand Forks, N.D. "It's not like your typical homegrown stuff."
  
  According to Schweitzer and a criminal complaint filed in Koochiching County District Court, Border Patrol officers began watching both houses after noticing sled tracks between them last month.

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  Front page story - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 10/2/2002    Last Visited: 10/2/2002  

  For people like assistant chief border patrol agent Lonnie Schweitzer, that phrase was more than words uttered by those awkwardly trying to share in the grief of those who lost someone close.
  
  Schweitzer, with the United States Border Patrol, watched the unfolding tragedy in New York City, Washington, D.C. and that lonely field in Pennsylvania with the same horror as the rest of the world.
  
  However, as a border patrol agent charged with keeping out those who would wage terror in the United States, Schweitzer was suddenly on the front lines of what U.S. President George W. Bush would soon dub the "War On Terrorism"
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  Speaking from the Fort Frances headquarters of the joint Canadian-American Operation Safe Border initiative Tuesday, Schweitzer was adamant the resolve of the American people hasn't waned with the attacks now one year in the rear view mirror.
  
  "No I don't believe it has.President Bush stated very eloquently that we are in this for the long haul ... (Terrorism) is a long-term problem," said Schweitzer.
  
  Launched Tuesday afternoon, Operation Safe Border brought together no fewer than 19 different enforcement agencies for a 48-hour blitz on border security.
  
  Among those taking part are the Ontario Provincial Police, Minnesota State Troopers, both the Canadian Armed Forces and the United States Army, the RCMP, Canada Customs and the U.S. Immigration Service.
  
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  Schweitzer said he and the rest of the Americans - and, he's certain, their Canadian counterparts as well - will show up for work with heavy hearts today.
  
  "You're going to remember those public servants and those citizens who were killed ...Our hearts are out for their families and the loved ones that they left behind," he said.
  
  What they won't forget, he stressed, is why they put on their uniforms every day: "We're here to protect the public.That's the business that we're in."
  
  And lest anyone think the Fort Frances/International Falls border point is immune to terrorists and their ilk, Schweitzer has a wake-up call.
  
  "You have to look at the entire border between Canada and the United States ... criminals and terrorists and others that look to ply their trade seek the path of least resistance and we want to deny them that."

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  Grand Forks Herald | 04/22/2005 | Agents seize $4... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 4/22/2005    Last Visited: 4/22/2005  

  Bud, a "high-grade marijuana that's very expensive," said Lonnie Schweitzer, assistant chief of the Border Patrol's regional office in Grand Forks.
  
  According to Schweitzer and a criminal complaint filed in Koochiching County District Court, Border Patrol officers began watching both houses after noticing sled tracks between them last month.

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  Grand Forks Herald | 07/17/2005 | CORRECTIONAL CENTER:... - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/17/2005    Last Visited: 7/17/2005  

  "If you're looking for federal agencies to give you a guarantee that there will be prisoners year in and year out, you're just not going to get one," said Lonnie Schweitzer."There are federal changes in the law from year to year.And so the fluctuation of the kind of prisoner depends greatly on current laws and how those prisoners are to be processed."
  
  Schweitzer is assistant chief of the Border Patrol's regional office in Grand Forks.As part of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), his office oversees two types of prisoners, those who are being criminally prosecuted for federal crimes and those prisoners who have been arrested for illegally entering the country.
  
  Schweitzer said the number of federal arrests in his district has leveled off to about 1,300 for each of the past two years.What has increased is the number of federal prosecutions per year.
  
  While prosecutions continue to rise, Schweitzer has seen another set of numbers go down.His office has been able to cut the time a prisoner is spent "being processed" by 50 percent.
  
  That means that federal prisoners that used to be housed in the county jail for up to four days before going to federal court are now being housed for only two.
  
  "We like to have them out by 48 hours," said Schweitzer.
  
  If prisoners are spending less time being processed, because agencies such as Schweitzer's are becoming more efficient, will that cut into the revenues that Gardner and the county commissioners hope to be making in order to pay for the new correctional facility?
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  Schweitzer doesn't think so.
  
  "In all the years I've been in law enforcement," he said, "there is one thing I do know.No matter what state, county or city you are in, if you build a bigger jail, with more beds, for more prisoners, it's like a hotel.People will find a way into those beds."
  
  Meth drives need
  
  Schweitzer said he is comforted to see that Grand Forks is "taking the plunge."

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  KXMA News - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 8/3/2005    Last Visited: 8/3/2005  

  Assistant Chief Lonnie Schweitzer says that man also was released, after agents verified he was legally in the United States.
  
  The Highway Patrol says the men are in their early 30s and from the Minneapolis area.Schweitzer says the man turned over to the Border Patrol is a native of Vietnam.

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  KXMD News - [Cached Version]
  Published on: 7/5/2006    Last Visited: 7/5/2006  

  Lonnie Schweitzer is an assistant chief agent for the Border Patrol in Grand Forks.He says the number of agents has tripled since 2001 -- to about a thousand.

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