Thread: N.M.: Rounding them up

Rounding them up
Operation Stone Garden allows local law enforcement in to combat crime and illegal immigrant-related activities
Alamogordo Daily News
By John Bear, Staff Writer
Alamogordo Daily News
Article Launched:07/13/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

The Otero County Sheriff's Department has rounded up more than 30 undocumented aliens since early May, according to Lt. Det. Leon Ledbetter.

A family of seven and a known immigrant smuggler have been deported twice in that time frame, he said. The family lived at a home in Chaparral. The immigrant smuggler is on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement watch list, he said.

Deputies also arrested a man wanted by El Paso police in connection with an unsolved murder.

The sheriff's department conducts the border operations under the banner of "Operation Stone Garden," a federally subsidized effort to combat crime and illegal immigrant-related activities.

Sheriff John Blansett said the department received about $149,000 for the effort. According to a press release from December 2006, the money comes from the Department of Homeland Security.

In an e-mail to other agencies participating in the operation, Ledbetter writes that the efforts so far are centered in and around Chaparral.

Ledbetter said the sheriff's department, along with sheriff's departments in Luna, Doña Ana, Hidalgo and Grant counties, received federal grant money to find illegal aliens and fight trans-border crime. The sheriff's departments also work with the Border Patrol.

Though Otero County does not technically border Mexico, it lies close enough to count as a border county, Ledbetter said.

The operation hasn't seen the success Ledbetter would like in more remote areas of the county, such as Otero Mesa, but overall it has worked out, he said.

He would like to see the operations net a terrorism suspect and deputies are on the look out for them, he said.

Blansett said the operation has been a success and the department is beginning to see problems dwindle in areas where patrols have been increased. He said the department will be moving its efforts to other areas of the county.

http://www.alamogordonews.com/ci_636342 ... EAE1F.html

This sounds good, but somehow with New Mexico's attitude toward illegals and their governor's attitude, I don't know.

Cynical me, I think maybe it is just a way of taking more government money without really doing anything.

If Florida could ever get a decent person in office, that state could use a heavy dose enforcement of U.S. laws too.

They don't even enforce traffic laws there!! (Florida). You can see a police officer and do whatever you want to driving a car and they will just zoom right past you enroute to a robbery or shooting...I guess.

They either don't even notice anymore or they just don't care.

30 people deported? Well its something. BUT..... there are millions (mod edit).