{"id":4403,"date":"2009-03-24T22:51:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-25T04:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/nm-officials-praise-new-focus-on-border\/"},"modified":"2009-03-24T22:51:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-25T04:51:00","slug":"nm-officials-praise-new-focus-on-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/03\/nm-officials-praise-new-focus-on-border\/","title":{"rendered":"NM officials praise new focus on border"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

New Mexico\u2019s political leaders praised President Barack Obama\u2019s<\/a> plan, announced today, to redirect resources to the U.S.-Mexico border to help combat drug-related crime and strengthen border security.<\/p>\n

Obama announced that he\u2019s moving more than 450 law enforcement agents<\/a> and additional equipment to the border to help combat cartel violence that has led to the deaths of more than 7,200 people in Mexico since 2008 and resulted in the deploying of the Mexican Army to the border city of Ciudad Ju\u00e1rez<\/a>, which has become a battle zone.<\/p>\n

The violence has the American government on edge. According to the Washington Times<\/a>, The U.S. Defense Department believes \u201cMexico\u2019s two most deadly drug cartels together have fielded more than 100,000 foot soldiers — an army that rivals Mexico\u2019s armed forces and threatens to turn the country into a narco-state.\u201d<\/p>\n

The violence has also spilled over, to some degree, into the United States. Phoenix\u2019s police department, according to its mayor, is overwhelmed by drug-related kidnappings and torturing, CNN<\/a> is reporting.<\/p>\n

With that as the backdrop, New Mexico\u2019s congressional delegation praised Obama\u2019s move to dispatch two \u201cBorder Enforcement Security Task Force\u201d (BEST) teams to New Mexico as part of the move the White House announced today.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat New Mexico didn\u2019t already have a BEST team was a major oversight,\u201d U.S. Sen. Jeff Bingaman<\/a> said in a news release. \u201cI\u2019m very pleased the Obama administration is actively addressing violence along the border by assigning two teams to our state.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall<\/a> also welcomed the teams, saying they \u201cwill help us more effectively combat the increasing levels of violence and drug trafficking affecting our state and nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s three House members — Martin Heinrich<\/a>, Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n<\/a> and Harry Teague<\/a> — also released statements of support for the president\u2019s move.<\/p>\n

And Gov. Bill Richardson<\/a> praised Obama\u2019s move, saying he is \u201cpleased and gratified that Washington is turning its full attention to the problems of criminal law enforcement along the New Mexico-Mexico border.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reallocation of federal personnel and funding\u2026 will turn up the heat both in Mexico and the United States,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n

Though many fear that Mexico may be on the verge of collapse, not all share that concern. Here\u2019s an alternative view<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Mexico\u2019s political leaders praised President Barack Obama\u2019s plan, announced today, to redirect resources to the U.S.-Mexico border to help combat drug-related crime and strengthen border security. Obama announced that he\u2019s moving more than 450 law enforcement agents and additional equipment to the border to help combat cartel violence that has led to the deaths […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}