Jerry G. Schickedanz, Guest columnist 7:02 p.m. MDT September 3, 2016

Recently, I read in the Las Cruces Sun-News that the international border fence along the railroad tracks at Sunland Park was not adequate and needed to be replaced by a higher and stronger fence. The current chain-link fence had holes and people could cross without difficulty.

What about the border fence as you go west from El Paso? Is it adequate to keep drug couriers and illegal immigrants from crossing? The border fence degrades into just a barbwire fence that may or may not even keep cattle from going back and forth across the international border.

Homeland Security personnel report that the border is safe and secure, apprehensions are down, so the border must be safe. It is not safe just because they tell us it is safe.

They answer to the president, who has said the border is safe, and do you think they are going to go against their boss and tell you the truth? They all want to keep their jobs and get promoted.

Ranchers along the border will tell me that there are all kinds of traffic crossing with drugs and people. There are ultra-light airplanes dropping drugs at night. They fly to sidewalk solar powered lights placed in remote areas to make the drops for pickup.

A rancher has found numerous abandoned carpet booties that go over shoes to make tracking more difficult.

A party of several illegal immigrants was left in the desert by their guide and they camped on a high spot for the night. An armed and masked man came to their camp and stayed all night, but would not talk to them and he left in the early morning. They were terrified and turned themselves into the first law enforcement officer they encountered.

The list can go on and on. This activity is occurring right now in the Organ Mountain Desert Peaks National Monument.

Currently, the sheriff and Border Patrol can do routine patrols on roads, routes and ways in the national monument and Wilderness Study Areas.

They can use 72 miles of routes that the Bureau of Land Management has recorded and allow to be used under the “non-impairment” clause of managing Wilderness Study Areas. However, if these same lands are designated by Congress to become wilderness, these same 72 miles of routes will be off limits for routine patrol by law enforcement, ranchers, hunters and visitors to the national monument.

The Organ Mountain Desert Peaks National Monument will become even less safe for the people who live within the monument and for visitors.

Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich have introduced the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks Conservation Act which, if passed by Congress, will designate 241,067 acres along and near the international border to become wilderness.

This will create the same problems that Arizona has with their wilderness along the border of illegal crossing and not being able to do routine patrols in the wilderness designations.

Currently, the border lands are not safe and secure and will become more dangerous if this bill is passed by Congress.

Jerry G. Schickedanz is a distinguished chair of the Linebery Natural Resource Policy Center.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/story/opi...nger/89841852/