Thread: Remote new NM base gives border agents more access

Remote new NM base gives border agents more access

By ALICIA A. CALDWELL, The Associated Press
1:44 p.m. August 31, 2009

HERMANAS, New Mexico — Smugglers and illegal immigrants have crossed a barren stretch of the New Mexico desert for years, wearing booties over their shoes to hide footprints in the sand even though there was little fear that a border agent would spot them.

To reach this remote and rugged area, U.S. Border Patrol agents had to drive 90 miles from the nearest office in Deming. Then, if they caught anyone, the agents had to drive them back to the small southwest New Mexico town to be processed. Meanwhile, the U.S.-Mexico border, which in some places is marked only by a private rancher's fence, remained wide open.

With so much time spent on the road and so little out searching for illegal immigrants and smugglers, the Border Patrol set up Camp Ramsey this summer. Agents hope the outpost about a mile north of the Mexico border will give them a permanent presence in the desert that until now had been patrolled only as time allowed.

"It could have a big impact, just because of the fact that we're out here and not losing time getting here," agent Paul Perez said after a quick workout at the base's small gym. "It gives us more time to catch them out there."

About 16 agents split two 12-hour shifts a day on the 20-acre compound, which consists of a trio of portable buildings complete with a full kitchen, a dorm-style barrack and a flat screen TV, surrounded by barbed wire. The outpost is a hour-long drive along a winding, two-lane road from the tiny village of Columbus and about 90 miles from Deming.

Agents at Camp Ramsey must cover nearly 30 miles of border and 210 square miles of mountainous desert terrain. At most, agents drive 30-minutes from the base on an all-terrain vehicle, or in a truck towing the ATVs, to start their work looking for illegal crossers, smugglers and abandoned loads of drugs.

When agents do find border crossers or suspected smugglers, they can detain them at Camp Ramsey, which has six cells and can accommodate dozens of people.

James Acosta, a field operations supervisor who helped set up the base, said since the $2.6 million outpost started operating, the agency has been able to determine just how popular a crossing spot the area had been.

In the first month of patrols, agents have found more than 300 pounds of marijuana, six suspected drug smugglers and half a dozen illegal border crossers. They've also found dozens of pairs of booties.

But since then, they've also noticed that the trails of footprints and silent alarms from buried motion sensors have decreased, Acosta said – an early indication that the outpost's presence may be cutting down on the flow of illegal crossings.

Border Patrol officials in the El Paso sector, which includes two West Texas counties and all of New Mexico, plan at least two more stations further west in other similarly remote areas.

Camp Ramsey, named for Agent Ralph Ramsey who was killed in 1942 while inspecting a freight train in Columbus, is the first permanent base, but agents in southern Arizona work from temporary bases run with generators and trucked-in water.

In New Mexico, while the buildings are portable, the Border Patrol has dug a well and strung power lines from the closest ranch house several miles to the east.

Agent Oscar Lopez, who was spending his first week at the base, said before the base, patrol efforts worked, but he acknowledged the helter skelter nature of it made consistent enforcement difficult.

"The old system worked, it still works, but this just enhances it," Lopez as he stood in the outpost's kitchen, dressed in shorts, a T-shirt and sandals, after a rain- and mud-soaked shift. "To keep people out on the border will help."

Acosta said Border Patrol officials plan some small expansions at the base, including horse stables and a helicopter landing pad. But the home-away-from-home for the agents is equipped with just about everything the agents need to live and work – except ESPN.

"ESPN is a request," Acosta said with a smile. "The little things are getting squared away."

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/ ... dex=158257

Get the guys ESPN! And give them everything else they need. Too bad I cannot specify exactly what my tax dollars are spent on.

PROGRESS This is at least a good start.