Fears Grow Among New Mexico Ranchers as Smugglers Go High-Tech

June 11, 2003
By CHRIS ROBERTS, Associated Press

It's a troubling trend for local ranchers in the sparsely populated area, who say they're more worried than ever for their safety.

"It's become markedly worse since the '80s and '90s, and there's a feeling of personal danger that did not exist before," said Albuquerque-based U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, who recently toured the Bootheel and talked to ranchers. "It's a sad indication of what's going on."

In the old days, the few immigrants from Mexico walking through the Bootheel - the jut of land in southwesternmost New Mexico - knew where they could stop to get a drink of water or a morsel of food.

"In the 1950s, we'd go for months and never, never see an illegal," said W.C. Miller, a fourth generation rancher who owns a spread near the tiny town of Rodeo. "They knew their way in. They knew where they could see a friendly face."

Now, says Miller: "I won't go and visit them like I used to. It used to be one or two or three, now it's never less than six. I've lost my trust of them."

Experts say that modern smugglers are in it for the money and they use cell phones, night vision goggles, secure radios and other high-tech tools.

"Their budgets are unlimited," said Richard Moody, Border Patrol agent in charge of the Deming Station. "If they need a bunch of cell phones, a new repeater (radio tower), a new tunnel - they buy it.

The smugglers also are becoming chameleons in hopes of covering their illegal treks.

"They're getting to know our vehicles," said Ben Brown, program director for the Gray Ranch. "There's a dead ringer for my personal pickup truck and for my work pickup. That's really the most disturbing thing."

Similar activity has been documented in rural areas of West Texas, including attempts to camouflage vehicles and blend in, said Paul Beeson, assistant chief patrol agent for the Border Patrol's El Paso Sector, which includes New Mexico and far West Texas.

"The agents know just about everybody in their area," Beeson said. "They may see a truck that looks like a rancher's truck, but generally, we know who should be driving it."

But the smugglers weren't content to imitate the ranchers' vehicles. Last month, agents in Arizona found a vehicle painted to look like a Border Patrol cruiser.

"It had the pinstriping, the color and the seal," Moody said. "But they misspelled a word. It said the 'Immunization and Naturalization Service.' A casual glance at a Border Patrol vehicle won't do anymore, you have to take a second look."

Moody explained that increased enforcement in California, Arizona and Texas has pushed some of the smuggling activity into the relative isolation of the Bootheel.

"Once you take control of a certain area, the activity shifts," Moody said. "They will try to exploit the weaknesses in our strategy and they probe constantly."

During his tour of the area, Iglesias, who chairs Attorney General John Ashcroft's border and immigration committee, asked ranchers if they felt threatened enough to carry weapons.

"I always carry a firearm," said Brown. "We don't confront them (smugglers). I've told them (ranch hands), 'Don't get on the radio until you're out of sight."'

Cigarettes, gum wrappers, even knocked over rocks provide signs for trackers. Wind and rain is welcome because it wipes away the muddle of history, leaving a clean canvas showing only the freshest tracks.

Among the unusual finds was a pile of syringes, said John Hackworth, assistant Border Patrol agent in charge of the Lordsburg Station. It was evidence that a smuggler was injecting his "mules," who carry heavy bundles of marijuana, with vitamin B to keep them going.

"We follow whatever sign they leave," Hackworth said. He and his agents use horses and all-terrain vehicles to patrol the Bootheel ranches.

On the positive side, most of the people he and his agents encounter are not armed.

"The incentive is to get away from us, not to hurt us," he said.

Iglesias thinks it is possible to bolster security on the Southwest border with new technology that includes unmanned drones used in the Iraq war. For border duty they would be armed only with cameras and global positioning equipment, he said.

Brown approves of the idea because it is environmentally benign compared to building fences and barricades. However, he and the others said the only workable solution is to put more patrols on the ground.

"I think we could easily double our Border Patrol agents," Iglesias said. "If they keep squeezing that balloon, we may eventually need 500 just for the Bootheel."

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=8285473&BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=222087&rfi=6