State to receive $4 million for border enforcement

Posted at: 06/04/2009 6:08 PM | Updated at: 06/05/2009 7:46 AM
By: Stuart Dyson, Eyewitness News 4; Charlie Pabst, KOB.com

Nearly four million dollars is on the way to help New Mexico cops crack down harder on human smugglers and other bad guys marauding along the border.

The word comes from Homeland Security Chief Janet Napolitano on Thursday.

The money would go to police overtime, equipment and travel expenses for work that helps choke off the flow of illegal immigrants crossing into the the United States.

It’s part of a $60 million package distributed among 13 states along the Mexican and Canadian border, with New Mexico, Arizona, California and Texas getting the lion’s share of funding as a result of the eruption of violence along the Mexican border.

The Homeland Security secretary revealed the money plan with law enforcement officers in Tucson, Ariz. Thursday afternoon.

Napolitano said, "The goal here is not only to increase the funding but to direct it to it's highest and best use -- which is boots on the ground for our law enforcement efforts."

It’s being called “Operation Stonegarden,” and the money will go to state, local and tribal police departments grappling with border problems. Napolitano promised a new drug-fighting border strategy that will target not only smugglers but also consumers, whose demand for drugs is driving the trade and violence.

Napolitano declined to say more about the drug plan, saving it for a Friday announcement in Albuquerque with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske and a handful of New Mexico law enforcement personnel.

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