NYT: Citing Violence, 2 Border States Declare a Crisis

[DeepModem Mom]

Citing Violence, 2 Border States Declare a Crisis
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: August 17, 2005


DEMING, N.M., Aug. 16 - Citing a surge of smuggling and violence along the border, the governors of Arizona and New Mexico have issued state of emergency declarations in recent days, faulting the American and Mexican authorities and freeing up federal and state money to strengthen local law enforcement efforts.

"Both federal governments let us down - there doesn't seem to be any sense of urgency," Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, a Democrat seeking re-election next year, said in a telephone interview Tuesday, a day after declaring a state of emergency in four border counties. Ms. Napolitano said that "ranchers are at their wits' end" with smuggled immigrants who damage their property and livestock.

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democrat who is also seeking re-election and who may make a bid for the White House in 2008, issued an emergency declaration on Friday, after touring this turbulent border region where a police chief reported being shot at last week.

"This is an act of desperation," Mr. Richardson said in a separate phone interview, adding that border problems had gone beyond illegal immigration to violent crime. He said the action would provide resources "until Congress and the feds deal with this issue," but added, "it is not a political move - I never mentioned the Bush administration."

The actions by the two states followed a series of violent episodes, including the killing of a New Mexico woman who was shot in the head by a Mexican police officer outside Ciudad Juárez on July 30 and the crash of a Hummer, which was trying to outrun Border Patrol agents, that killed four illegal immigrants in March. Chief Clare May of the three-member police department in Columbus, N.M., said that on Aug. 9, two bullets whizzed over his head while he was checking out abandoned cars....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/national/17border.html

[OKthatsIT]

1. This IS political neglect, on Feds part.

This is a national security issue and Bush should address it.

But, the Bush Administration has no intention of remedying this matter. Bush wants to destroy the federal powers and funds, to any state...forcing each state to stand alone and protect themselves.

He is destroying our country's unity.

Each state is moving closer to economic disaster due to his policies and will find no other means of survival but to tell its 'state citizens' that they either reject paying federal taxes, instead, paying the state government for 'survival or infrastructure services'.

These Southern Republicans are undeniably SICK in the head.