Armed Escorts to Accompany New Mexico Livestock Inspectors

Armed Escorts to Accompany New Mexico Livestock Inspectors
FOX News
When inspectors in New Mexico begin surveying 32 livestock scales along the increasingly dangerous Mexican border later this month, they’ll have armed escorts at their sides.
It will mark the first time armed deputies will travel with New Mexico Department of Agriculture inspectors, who certify the scales used to weigh livestock, Luna County Sheriff Raymond Cobos said.

“These scales that the ranchers use to ship their cattle are in isolated areas,” Cobos told FoxNews.com. “And the administration decided since those inspectors and personnel are not armed, they wanted to be able to concentrate on their work without worrying about their security.”

Cobos said that beginning on July 26, deputies will accompany inspectors to the scales in a corridor that stretches southwest from Interstate 10 at Las Cruces to the New Mexico-Arizona border, along Luna, Hidalgo and Grant counties.

“It also helps the deputies become more familiar with the ranches and their particular layouts,” Cobos said. “It’s a benefit to all of us.”

Cobos, who will coordinate deputies from the three counties, said the deputies will work overtime to accompany the inspectors and will be paid via federal assistance from Operation Stonegarden, a Department of Homeland Security program that gives 14 states along the border flexibility to use grant funding to enhance coordination among state and federal law enforcement agencies.

“It’s a safe way of providing their personnel with protection so they don’t encounter a situation that would imperil the equipment or their lives,” Cobos said. “It’s a relatively small cost to prevent a tragedy.”

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Meanwhile, Judy Keller, who owns a 27,000-acre ranch in Luna County just five miles from the border, said she welcomed the added layer of protection, but she questioned what she saw as mixed messages from state and federal authorities.
“I don’t think you can be too careful, but I think it’s a little hypocritical,” Keller told FoxNews.com. “In Washington, D.C., the Obama administration is telling us the border is more secure than it’s ever been, yet the state agencies feel the need for more protection to come down here. So, it is safe or isn’t it safe?”

Wild Thing’s comment…….
Napolitano, who last year kicked off the immigration debate by saying the border was secure enough and it was time to turn to legalization, said Tuesday there’s still more work to be done.

“It is as safe and secure as it’s ever been, but it can be more safe and more secure,” she said at a joint event with Mexico’s interior minister at the Brookings Institution in Washington.