Arizona, New Mexico declare a border emergency

DEMING, N.M. — Citing a surge of smuggling and violence along the border, the governors of Arizona and New Mexico have issued state of emergency declarations in recent days, faulting U.S. and Mexican authorities and freeing up federal and state money to strengthen local law enforcement efforts.

"Both federal governments let us down. There doesn't seem to be any sense of urgency," said Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, a Democrat seeking re-election next year, in a telephone interview on Tuesday, a day after declaring a state of emergency in four border counties. Napolitano said "ranchers are at their wits' end" with smuggled immigrants who damage their property and livestock.

Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, a Democrat who is also seeking re-election and who may make a bid for the White House in 2008, issued an emergency declaration on Friday, after touring this turbulent border region where a police chief reported being shot at last week.

"This is an act of desperation," Richardson said in a separate phone interview, adding that border problems had gone beyond illegal immigration to violent crime. He said the action would provide resources "until Congress and the feds deal with this issue," but said "it is not a political move — I never mentioned the Bush administration."

The actions by the two states followed a series of violent incidents, including the killing of a New Mexico woman who was shot in the head by a Mexican police officer outside Ciudad Juarez on July 30 and the wreck of a Hummer, which was trying to outrun Border Patrol agents, that killed four illegal immigrants in March. Chief Clare May of the three-member Police Department in Columbus, N.M., said that on Aug. 9, two bullets whizzed over his head while he was checking out abandoned cars.

Arizona remains the busiest illegal gateway on the southwest border. Scores of illegal immigrants die of exposure in its deserts yearly.

The two governors said their actions would make available $1.75 million in New Mexico and $1.5 million in Arizona for extra sheriff's deputies and other officers, and for overtime costs and more equipment. No federal approval is required.

Luis Barker, deputy chief of the Border Patrol, interviewed by phone during a visit to El Paso on Tuesday, said of the states' actions: "I don't think it should be taken as criticism." He said that federal agents were working closely with their state counterparts and that arrests were down in Arizona, signifying successes. "If there is coordination," he said, "I would think it would be very helpful."