President Obama's Latest - A National Sanctuary For Illegal Aliens And Drug Cartels

President Obama's latest executive order creates a 500,000 acre 'national monument' in southern New Mexico right near the Mexican border now to be known as the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. About half of that land will be set aside as wilderness, meaning it's closed to all vehicles and construction.

Aside from outcries by many local ranchers over what they see as a huge land grab that interferes with their grazing rights, the border police and local police see it as a sanctuary for illegal alien traffic and drug smuggling by the cartels that they will not be allowed to patrol by law.

“This is about opposing so many thousands of acres that is going to create nothing more than a pathway for criminals to get into this country to do their criminal acts,” Dona Ana County Sheriff Todd Garrison told The Washington Times in a telephone interview Monday.

Needless to say, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency quickly issued a statement asserting that the new national monument designation wouldn't threaten border security or their ability to police the border, saying “This designation will in no way limit our ability to perform our important border security mission, and in fact provides important flexibility as we work to meet this ongoing priority.”

You'll notice she spoke generally, not specifically about this particular area or how the border patrol would 'perform their important mission' in an area where vehicles are prohibited..nor did she clarify what she meant by 'important flexibility', something that bears hearing about in more detail given the Obama Administration's positions on amnesty, enforcing our immigration laws and illegal aliens.

Especially since the Bureau of Land Management(BLM) will administer the area, not ICE.

Needless to say, the president is once again bypassing congress, using the 1906 Antiquities Act on a scale it has never been used before in history.

Sheriff Garrison claimed that the federal government never contacted local law enforcement for their input on the matter.

"Once the land becomes a national monument, local law enforcement can no longer effectively patrol the areas. When the Obama Administration makes it a monument, the existing roads there will close down. We will not have access to the land. I can't go out and patrol the area like I do now, which lessens crime. If we cant get out there to control it, only law abiding citizens will follow the law and criminals wont."

"Local law enforcement was never brought to the table to discuss this issue," he continued. "We have one of the largest cartels right across the Mexican border, and one of the most unsafe cities in the world. Are we supposed to believe that nothing's going to happen here if we impede law enforcement authorities from doing their jobs? That's just stupid."

Zack Taylor, the Chairman of the National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers called the proposed National Monument "the biggest breach of border security I have seen in the lat 20 years."

" The people don't want it, and the sheriff doesn't want it. It is an open invitation for the foreign drug cartels and transnational criminals to bring their illegal drugs and aliens into the U.S."

Again, Administration officials claim that the president's declaration will incorporate a 2006 agreement between the Interior Department and the Homeland Security Department that allows U.S. Border Patrol some access to the land. In practice, that means no routine patrolling but allows them to follow in very narrowly designated conditions of 'hot pursuit'.

Both of New Mexico's Democrat senators lauded the idea of the new monument, but Republican members of the House were a lot less positive about it.

Rep. Rob Bishop, (R-UT) chairman of the Natural Resources Committee’s public lands subcommittee, sent a letter to President Obama asking him to hold off until the border ws more controlled.

“It’s irresponsible to focus efforts on new land designations rather than finding solutions to existing criminal activities plaguing the border,” the congressman wrote.

"National Parks, monuments, and wilderness areas along our southern border have become prime drug-trafficking corridors for violent criminals and drug cartels. Restrictive environmental laws within these federal corridors limit Border Patrol access and, as a result, make it easier for drug smugglers and human traffickers to move their drugs and people in and out of the United States unnoticed."

Mr. Bishop pointed to a case that was in the headlines last week, in which a National Park Service employee at Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona detailed the vicious attack she suffered at the hands of an illegal immigrant. Authorities said the man smashed her head into a metal bathroom door and hit her head with a rock, striking so hard that the rock broke.

Just lovely.