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U.S. NEWS Thursday 12 april 2018

Sessions takes fight on border enforcement to New Mexico

By MARY HUDETZ The departments patrol ar- He took another swipe
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — eas located within 25 miles Wednesday at sanctuary
As thousands of National (40 kilometers) of the bor- cities, telling the sheriffs that
Guard troops deploy to the der. it's "illogical and insane"
Mexico border, U.S. Attor- Sessions' trip to Las Cru- that a person can enter the
ney General Jeff Sessions ces, a small city about an country illegally on Mon-
brought his tough stance hour north of the border, day and make their way to
on immigration enforce- comes as construction be- San Francisco by Wednes-
ment to New Mexico on gins nearby on 20 miles (32 day and not be deported.
Wednesday, telling border kilometers) of steel fencing Sessions said the crisis has
sheriffs that cracking down that officials say is part of been allowed to fester for
on illegal crossings and Trump's promised wall. decades while politicians
drug smuggling is neces- U.S. Customs and Border made promised but did
sary to build a lawful immi- Protection officials say the nothing to fix the system.
gration system. heightened barrier will be A 37 percent increase in
Sessions ticked off stories harder to get over, under illegal border crossings in
about smugglers being and through than the old March brought more than
caught with opioids and post and rail barriers that 50,000 immigrants into the
cocaine at the U.S.-Mexico line the stretch of sprawling U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks to members of Texas United States. It was triple
border and legal loopholes desert west of the Santa Te- and Southwestern border sheriffs, who were holding their con- the number of reported ille-
that have encouraged resa border crossing. vention in Las Cruces, N.M., Wednesday, April 11, 2018. gal border crossings in the
more immigrants to make "The lack of a wall on the Associated Press same period last year.q
the journey. southern border is an open
"This is not acceptable. It invitation to illegal cross-
cannot continue," he said. ings," Sessions said.
"No one can defend the Dona Ana County Sheriff
way the system is working Enrique "Kiki" Vigil, whose
today." jurisdiction includes Las
Outside the meeting, doz- Cruces and Santa Teresa,
ens of immigrant rights doubted that a wall is an
activists protested, once appropriate use of resourc-
again rejecting Sessions' es to combat the flow of
previous characteriza- drugs in the area — one
tion of the border region of the busiest sectors of the
as "ground zero" in the U.S.-Mexico border.
Trump administration's fight Vigil said he would prefer
against cartels and human to see any additional po-
traffickers. tential spending on a bor-
They chanted in Spanish, der wall instead go toward
saying the region is not a acquiring more technology
"war zone," and hoisted and filling other needs of
signs that protested the law enforcement on the
proposed border wall and border.
the deployment of Na- "Just the building of the
tional Guard troops to the wall, that's going to be a
region. humongous price," he said.
Sessions was speaking in "Why not use some of that
Las Cruces at the Texas money to try to address
Border Sheriff's Coalition some of the issues here in
annual spring meeting with the counties?"
the Southwestern Border Citing a crisis on the border,
Sheriff's Coalition, which Sessions has issued an order
includes 31 sheriff's depart- directing federal prosecu-
ments from Texas, New tors to put more emphasis
Mexico, Arizona and Cali- on charging people with il-
fornia. legal entry.