Message from border: ‘We got problems here’

ANIMAS — Several hundred ranchers gathered at a small-town high school in the Bootheel on Thursday to rally against what they described as a broken border. Also present were members and representatives of New Mexico’s congressional delegation and officials from public security agencies, including the Border Patrol, Army, National Guard and sheriffs. More than 600 people showed up at a school auditorium in Animas, population 237. Ranchers here have been steaming over the reported kidnapping of a ranch hand in December, when drug runners allegedly hijacked the man’s vehicle, loaded it with narcotics and drove him to Arizona. He came home “roughed up,” his employer Tricia Elbrock said, but he survived the ordeal. Concerns about border security have simmered for years for those who live among the region’s sprawling ranches and rugged mountain ranges. Sometimes, fears boil over, such as after the unsolved 2010 murder of southern Arizona rancher Robert Krentz, who was found shot dead on his property, or after the recent reported kidnapping. “How many here think your border is secure?” Elbrock asked to laughs. “I say to all our representatives, come down here. Stay with us. Work with us.” Someone in the crowd shouted, “Walk the border!” “And see what it’s like,” Elbrock said. “It’s not safe. We got problems here. They don’t want it known. They don’t want people to know.” The Krentz story, too, loomed large Thursday as the meeting opened with a video of old news reports about the crime and his widow, Sue, and son Frank spoke to the crowd. “Secure the border for your family, our family,” Sue Krentz said in prepared remarks that earned a standing ovation. “We’re demanding the right to live free and safe on our own land and in our own homes.”  Rep. Steve Pearce, a Republican whose southern New Mexico district runs along the Mexican border, met with  Elbrock before the meeting. He attended, as did staffers for U.S. Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., and for U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. New Mexico Agriculture Secretary Jeff Witte also attended. ...more

 It would appear most got the message:

Representatives of the Border Patrol, National Guard and sheriffs from New Mexico and Arizona said they had come to hear the public’s concerns.  “My takeaway is that the people along the border recognize a grave threat to themselves and their communities, and the National Guard is ready to respond to help secure the border,” Brig. Gen. Andrew Salas said.

Definitely not getting it is Border Patrol spokesman Ramiro Cordero (many will recall he lied to the public about the limitations placed on the agency in wilderness areas).

“We work very hard to secure our borders,” Border Patrol spokesman Ramiro Cordero told the Journal at the meeting. “Numbers have dropped. You don’t see the type of movement that you saw 10, 20 years ago.” 

Cordero is spouting the same old Border Patrol bull shit.  The numbers are down, so what's the problem?  This, when everybody knows its not the number, but the type of illegals crossing.  These are heavily-armed and dangerous individuals.

 “The increase in the number of people in the area that are smuggling people and drugs seems to be increasing,” said Lawrence Hurt, whose Hurt Cattle Co. ranch runs nearly 30 miles along the Mexican border. “We see a lot less of the people who are looking for a job. We have a need for the Border Patrol in our area.”

The other issue is where the Border Patrol decides to engage.  If its 30-40 miles north of the border, what happens to the families and their property who live in between?  Haven't you ceded this area to the drug traffickers?  Hurt, Erica Valdez and others say the number of trespassers and burglaries are up, and now we have the recent kidnapping of a ranch hand.  No quotes from Cordero on these issues.

 But, Hurt added to a round of applause, “We think they need to be on the border. If we stop them at the line we won’t have as many incidences as we have had in the past.”

These people are asking for your help Mr. Cordero. And you refuse to even acknowledge there is a problem, much less offer up positive action by your agency.