Las Cruces BLM office has issued border safety warnings to visitors

The Las Cruces office of the BLM has produced a brochure titled Borderland Safeguards which contains border "watchouts" for visitors to the federal lands. The "watchouts" deal mainly with dangers from drug smuggling and human trafficking on federal lands in the district.

The BLM's Eddy Guerrero said other BLM districts in California and Arizona with lands along the border with Mexico had produced similar brochures, but the Las Cruces District's version was prepared to "make it relevant to our situation in New Mexico."

Guerrero said the brochures had been available for over a year.

Some of the items on the "watchout" list are:

° Armed confrontations either by law enforcement and/or illegal entrants

° Small or large groups of people being transported either on foot or in a vehicle

° Accidental witnessing of (large) quantities of drug deals and drug transportation

° Aircraft trying to avoid detection and frequent law enforcement aircraft operations due to these illegal activities

° Locks and fences deliberately knocked down or cut

° Abandoned vehicles either intact or set on fire

° Wildfires caused by abandoned warming and cooking fires

° Trash and high concentrations of human fecal material in heavily used illegal entrants staging areas and routes

Upon request, Guerrero also provided a similar document which was prepared strictly for BLM personnel. The "safety concerns" and "watchouts" listed in that document contained those listed above plus such items as:

° Leaving your BLM vehicle unattended

° Let dispatch & law enforcement know your trip plan

° Large amounts of footprints---these may be headed to your work area

° High-speed driving and law enforcement pursuits in your work areas

° Undocumented Alien (UDA) traveling in vehicles, groups on foot

° New "UDA Layup Areas"

Since these documents have been available for more than a year, that means they were available before Senator Bingaman introduced S.1689, his wilderness bill. The "Fact Sheet" which accompanied the introduction of S.1689 says Bingaman consulted with the Las Cruces BLM Office.

This leads to some interesting questions: Was Bingaman's staff aware of these documents, and if so did they advise the Senator of their existence? Did Bingaman introduce the bill knowing of these concerns? Why would a U.S. Senator introduce a bill that would make the situation even worse?

Personally, I would find it hard to believe Bingaman's staff didn't know of these documents existence. You take it from there.