‘They’re watching us watch them’ (NM border stories, Part 2 of 4)

The Albuquerque Journal ^ | Sunday, March 10, 2019 | Angela Kocherga

[CedarDave]

SUNLAND PARK – They call themselves Patriots of the Constitution, New Mexico Ops and come from different corners of New Mexico to guard the border. Mostly, they kill time.

One recent morning, John Horton, national commander for the group, stepped out of his trailer and greeted an approaching Border Patrol agent.

“Last night was really quiet,” Horton tells Border Patrol Agent Joe Romero.

But Horton warns that several “caravans” are on the way and will cross where he and his men are camped out near the border in the rugged desert terrain near Sunland Park.

“We’re always armed. We don’t point our weapons at people. But we’re armed, because we don’t know who is coming across,” Horton said.

The Border Patrol does ask the public to report illegal activity but warns people to call law enforcement and not to take the law into their own hands.

As the Patriots of the Constitution focus their attention on the border, across in Mexico, smugglers are paying close attention to activity on the U.S. side.

“They’re watching us watch them,” Horton said, referring to lookouts for smugglers posted on the Mexican side of the border.

Agent Romero and his colleagues regularly spot the lookouts posted in Mexico near the borderline.

Scouts watch the border carefully and note patterns to provide smugglers with the latest information and best places to cross people and drugs, Romero said.

While agents are busy responding to an influx of migrant families turning themselves in asking for asylum, smuggling organizations have tried to take advantage of the situation.

“They’re using more and more of these groups to try and distract our agents,” Romero said.

“We have more people doing that secondary mission – transporting, processing – as opposed to being on the line doing the interdiction,” Romero said.

[CedarDave]

ABQ Journal Editor’s note:
Today the Journal presents part two of a four-part series that introduces you to Border Patrol Agent Joe Romero and what he and his colleagues experienced during a normal shift last Monday as they patrolled the border from El Paso to Sunland Park, N.M. The series began Sunday and will continue next weekend.

And there you have it:
Border Patrol agents are so busy with waves of illegal aliens coming across those areas of the border without a wall, that they cannot perform their primary task of stopping drug smugglers and human traffickers.

[CedarDave]

Link to Part 1 of the series:

8 hours on the border (Part 1 of 4 following the Border Patrol in El Paso)

[CedarDave]

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[wjcsux]

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[Tammy8]

That is the message our dim politicians refuse to listen to. “Normal” illegal traffic, smuggling is increasing while Border Patrol agents have to deal with the Central American asylum seekers that are mostly scammers.

Unless our asylum law is rewritten by Congress (not likely this Congress will) the only way to stop this is a wall to force the asylum seekers to go to Ports of Entry, wait their turn, apply there. Our politicians are very aware of this, so any opposing the WALL are open borders/illegal immigration supporters no matter what nonsense they spew. No matter their party these worthless politicians are supporting illegals over citizens and they must have their feet held to the fire and we MUST get rid of them ASAP.