Border Patrol, Customs and Border Protection, and Representatives from US Senate Offices heard a mix of compliments and complaints from the public at a Border Security Task Force Meeting.
The Southwest New Mexico Border Task Forcer meeting gives the Senate’s offices a chance to hear what problems and updates from the New Mexico Border. Ronald LeBlanc, the patrol agent in charge at Deming says activity at their station has been steady.
“We have not had a marked increasein apprehensions within the Deming area of responsibility,” LeBlanc said. “We are seeing some areas where we are able to deploy our resources more efficiently than we have before because of additional technology that we’ve received recently.”
The new technology helps them to patrol their coverage area better.
“What that’s actually allowing us to do is get into areas that were extremely remote before,” LeBlanc said. “And allow our agents to deploy more efficiently. And make some apprehensions that we weren’t getting before.”
Billy Thatcher, Department head of English at New Mexico State University has moderated the meetings the past few years and says the agencies usually respond to the public’s concerns.
“Well three moths ago, we have a number of American citizens who live in Palomas across the border, and were not being treated very well by American Federal Agents as they were crossing back into the United States,” Thatcher said. “These people worked with Customs and Border Protection and we’ve seen a 180 shift in the way they were being treated. That was a wonderful accomplishment.”
Ranchers at the meeting complained the Mexican cattle were still able to break through fences that were there, posing a risk to American cattle. Thatcher says it isn’t the first time the complaint has been raised.
“The fence issue has been going on for two or three years, as long as I have been here,” Thatcher said. “The more we discuss it the more we realize that it’s one of those things that kind of falls in the cracks in terms of jurisdiction. It’s not really the border patrol’s authority to maintain the fence like that, according to what I’ve heard, and we’re not quite sure whose responsible. So, that is something that I’ve challenged this group openly were going to work on.”
Thatcher says that there was more praise at this meeting then there usually is, but praise is not always a good thing.
“Critique is what we want to hear as well,” Thatcher said. “I mean this is what the Senator’s offices need to hear. It’s their constituency, and there is red tape. That’s why the Senator’s offices have field representatives. That’s to work through the red tape and to bring some of these agencies together to be creative so we hope that happens.”
Other complaints were raised after a presentation was made on proposed upgrades to the Columbus port of entry. The project would cost millions of dollars, and some people at the meeting thought money would be better spent putting more enforcement on the border instead of building a new facility.
