By Stephen L. Wilmeth http://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

Last week the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee met to conclude work on S.1689, the Organ Mountain and Desert Peaks Wilderness Act. The bill, cosponsored by Senators Bingaman and Udall of New Mexico, has generated a contentious and divisive debate in Dona Ana County, New Mexico where the federal land designations would occur.

In work done Wednesday and finished Thursday, July 22, the markup of the bill was approved and cleared for action on the floor of the Senate. That approval came with the vote and the decision of that committee’s membership. The vote was 23-0 in favor of allowing the bill to go to the Senate floor. Thirteen Democrats and 10 Republicans voted to allow the bill to proceed.

The Organ Mountain and Desert Peaks Wilderness Act is an attempt to designate higher protection status to five mountain ranges. If successful, this action would expand federal control and diminished access to all mountain ranges within that County.

Only seven percent of the county is held privately. Slightly more of the county is controlled by the state of New Mexico and the remainder is all federal land. The backdrop of federal and or state lands with restricted access includes more than 4.5 million acres of Ft. Bliss, White Sands Missile Range, McGregor Range, White Sands National Monument, Holloman Air Force Base, the Jornada Range, the San Andres National Wildlife Refuge, and the New Mexico State University college ranch.

The local debate has created a wide divide. The environmental supporters of the bill have built a coalition of local businesses and organizations that number about 220 while the opposition has a coalition of more than 800 that do not support the bill in its current form. The Las Cruces Hispano Chamber of Commerce has recently conducted an externally funded media blitz in favor of the bill and appears to be the environmental spearhead of the action, while the Greater Las Cruces Chamber of Commerce (GLCCC) has become the symbolic antagonist to the bill in its current form.

“It became very clear to us that Senator Bingaman was not interested in our concerns about the whole process of how this thing happened,” says Sara Cox Hopkins, a descendent of ranching pioneer W.W. Cox and rancher within the Organ Mountain portion of the proposal. “When we were finally allowed to talk to the Senator, we had to travel to his office in Albuquerque and he granted us 30 minutes. That’s it. That’s all we have seen him other than in public forums.”

The opposition of S.1689 has evolved from attempts to voice concerns by those who have duties, responsibilities, and investments on the lands involved to what has become the center of the storm, border security. “The matter of border security really got our attention,” relates current GLCCC board chair, Kiehl Hoffman. “When we started understanding the conditions of human and drug trafficking issues, our perspective changed dramatically. We didn’t want that duplicated here.”

That argument against the bill has focused on the Potrillo Mountain Complex portion of the proposal. That component lies near the Mexican border and the argument has centered on matters of national security. From work done in conjunction with the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO), a profile of the characteristics of the “Arizona Class” human and drug smuggling corridors was compiled. Every one of those corridors that emanate from the 388 miles of the Arizona border with Mexico have similar characteristics.

The characteristics they share are as follows:

1. The corridors have wilderness/de facto wilderness safe havens.
2. They have east /west highway access north and south of the corridors.
3. They have rugged and complex north/south mountain and drainage orientation which provides channels of movement.
4. They are almost entirely or heavily dominated by federal land agency management.
5. The concentration of American private property rights at risk is limited as is the presence of resident American habitation.
6. All corridors have high, strategically located points of observation.

“If anything, the Potrillo Mountain complex portion of S.1689 has the potential to exceed the dangers of the Arizona corridors,” retired Border Patrol agent and current head of the National Border Patrol Museum Board of Governors, David Ham says. “Along with the classic characteristics of the Arizona corridors, the presence of the major interstate railroad, the interstate pipeline, the Las Cruces airport, and the Robledo-Las Uvas corridor extension north from the Potrillos is a major national security risk waiting to happen if this bill passes.”

With the problems occurring in Arizona and the firestorm that has been created with Arizona’s attempt to protect itself from illegal immigration, one would think that Arizona leadership in the House and Senate would be acutely aware of the border dangers. American citizens would think that sitting, senior senators would be especially alert to matters of national security risk and yet John McCain (R-AZ) was one of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee members who voted for the bill to be heard on the Senate floor. Neither Mr. McCain nor any of his colleagues even suggested amendments to the bill that would serve to blunt the danger that the Potrillo Mountain complex portion of the bill will pose to American security.

Mere citizens must learn that the action by the Republicans on the committee was an exercise in tradition and protocol. Committee members are expected to honor the wishes of senators when those elected officials jointly sponsor a bill that affects their state. At least Republican senators are expected to follow that protocol, but the border community of Arizona and New Mexico is getting weary of tradition and protocol.

Following the Krentz murder, border district representatives and state senators rushed to the press with demands for more security. Harry Teague (D-NM) hurled a letter out into space pledging millions of dollars to be spent on enhanced border security measures. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) motored to Apache, Arizona and told the locals that she was going to find solutions. Senator McCain himself declared he would like to be at that meeting if he could find a ride that night from his campaign stop at Sierra Vista, but the fact is there is no true border champion.

If Americans were polled to name the most visible and vocal border champion in Congress, there would not be a name that would surface from a border state. Jan Brewer, no doubt, would be a clear favorite among state leaders, but Congress would have a hard time fielding a border state leader who has demonstrated that he or she would stake a career on his or her border security principles. There isn’t such a leader.

The adherence to the powerful environmental agenda on the American border has put us all in jeopardy. Senator Bingaman’s actions prove that point. He was intent from the jump to elevate his name into the history of wilderness champions, no matter the negative impact on his constituents in Southern New Mexico. After all, it is easier to slap a name on a piece of land than it is to engineer legislation that encourages and stimulates community independence and resourcefulness.

Armed escorts join border ag inspectors

State agricultural inspectors are now accompanied by armed sheriff’s deputies while working in far southern New Mexico because of escalating violence along the U.S. border with Mexico. “We’re out in the middle of nowhere here,” livestock scale inspector David Turning of the New Mexico Department of Agriculture told KRQE News 13. Turning was one of two scale inspectors escorted by deputies Monday from the Luna and Hidalgo county sheriff’s departments in a program funded by the Homeland Security Department’s “Operation Stone Garden”. “We did a perimeter check making sure there’s nobody out hiding in the brush close by us,” Luna County Sgt. Steve Gallegos said. The inspectors’ job takes them to some of the most remote and dangerous sections of New Mexico.Law enforcement officers said the escorts are a good idea because certain sections of southern New Mexico are especially dangerous. “It’s pretty crazy out there,” Hidalgo County Cpl. Gary Lassiter said. “We have Mexican nationals that we have on our side with guns in the mountains.”..more

Here is the KRQE-TV video report:

The threat of more deadly car bombings like the one earlier this month has forced Juárez authorities to take measures to protect police stations, and authorities reported finding more explosives in Chihuahua on Wednesday. The bomb, made from about 22 pounds of Tovex, a water gel explosive commonly used as a replacement for dynamite in mining, was detonated by remote control. Authorities on Wed nesday found 55 pounds of the explosive in the mountains between Chihuahua and Sonora states following a shootout with gunmen. Officials did not say if the explosives were bound for Juárez. In response to the bombing, Juárez officials last week increased security at police stations and prohibited parking next to the buildings. A police spokesman said the identifications of people are checked and vehicles are inspected when entering the parking lots of stations, some of which have sandbags piled outside like bunkers...more

The bedraggled immigrants were picking their way through the boulders and scrub when a group of heavily armed men descended on them just short of the California- Mexico border. They corralled them in a cave and pointed their guns on the 10 men and one woman. These lawless badlands in the hills east of Tijuana have long teemed with bandits and rapists, but these criminals demanded only phone numbers. They started calling the immigrants' loved ones in Pomona, San Diego and Bakersfield: Send us money or we'll shoot, they said. The days-long kidnapping ordeal in May illustrates a growing trend as roaming gangs of well-organized, heavily armed gunmen turn their sights on illegal immigrants, making a treacherous journey ever more dangerous for people trekking north. In the spree of kidnappings, which began about two years ago, gunmen hold people captive until family members in the U.S. send wire transfers of up to $5,000 to accounts in Mexico. Some immigrants are beaten; several have been killed, including a pair of brothers from Mexico City. Many straggle across the border and turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents. Others end up in migrant shelters in Tijuana, too frightened to report the cases to Mexican police...more 

It's been four months since the murder of Cochise County rancher Robert Krentz and his neighbors are speaking out about the response made along the border. The murder put the ranching community and the nations border problems in the spot light and ranchers were hoping the tragedy might mean changes; changes some of them are still waiting to see. Cochise County rancher Gary Thrasher said, "I'm frustrated. I thought they could get something done a whole lot quicker than what they are. I thought they could move more people to the border with a simple stroke of a pen." Steve Brophy, the President of the Arizona Cattle Growers Association said, "Enough hasn't been done and it needs to be." And some of them said because the response hasn't changed neither has the foot traffic coming through. Patrick Bray the Executive Vice President of the Arizona Cattleman's Assoc. said, "The sad thing is that we're over a hundred days out from the murder of Robert Krentz and these guys say its status quos. Nothing has changed." But not all ranchers agree. Kelly Glenn-Kimbro was lucky enough to have the border patrol become her new neighbors...more