By Alia Beard Rau | The Arizona Republic
GOP legislators had hoped to raise enough money to build a border fence, but the effort failed
A panel on Monday decided to give most of the money raised to Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels
Republican state lawmakers have finally settled on a way to spend private donations raised to build a border fence that likely would have cost billions.
They’re giving it to the only border sheriff who asked for it: Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels. And instead of building a fence, he plans to use $219,211.87 to buy Garmin GPS systems, high-tech binoculars and a thermal imaging camera to target human and drug smugglers.