Las Cruces BLM office has issued border safety warnings to visitors

From the Westerner - by Frank DeBois - 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. 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. Read more

Las Cruces BLM office has issued border safety warnings to visitors