Armed Guards Required For NM Officials Visiting Ranches

Armed Escorts to Accompany New Mexico Livestock Inspectors By Joshua Rhett Miller
Published July 16, 2010
FoxNews.com

When inspectors in New Mexico begin surveying 32 livestock scales along the increasingly dangerous Mexican border later this month, they'll have armed escorts at their sides.

It will mark the first time armed deputies will travel with New Mexico Department of Agriculture inspectors, who certify the scales used to weigh livestock, Luna County Sheriff Raymond Cobos said.

"These scales that the ranchers use to ship their cattle are in isolated areas," Cobos told FoxNews.com. "And the administration decided since those inspectors and personnel are not armed, they wanted to be able to concentrate on their work without worrying about their security."

Cobos said that beginning on July 26, deputies will accompany inspectors to the scales in a corridor that stretches southwest from Interstate 10 at Las Cruces to the New Mexico-Arizona border, along Luna, Hidalgo and Grant counties.

"It also helps the deputies become more familiar with the ranches and their particular layouts," Cobos said. "It's a benefit to all of us."

"It's a safe way of providing their personnel with protection so they don't encounter a situation that would imperil the equipment or their lives," Cobos said. "It's a relatively small cost to prevent a tragedy." Read More

So it’s too dangerous for the NM Dept of Ag officials to go to these ranches without armed guards yet the government is telling us the border is safer than ever? Why do we have United States citizens living inside our borders that are being forced to live in fear? These ranches should not be the first line of defense for our country.