Sessions tells border sheriff group crackdown on crossings is critical

As thousands of National Guard troops deploy to the Mexico border, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions brought his tough stance on immigration enforcement to the region Wednesday, telling border sheriffs that cracking down on illegal crossings is necessary to build a lawful immigration system.

Sessions ticked off stories about smugglers being caught with opioids and cocaine at the U.S.-Mexico border and legal loopholes that have encouraged more unauthorized immigrants to make the journey.

“This is not acceptable. It cannot continue,” he said. “No one can defend the way the system is working today.”

Sessions was speaking in Las Cruces, N.M., at the Texas Border Sheriff ’s Coalition’s annual spring meeting with the Southwestern Border Sheriff’s Coalition, which includes 31 sheriff ’s departments from Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

Outside, dozens of immigrant rights activists protested Sessions’ visit, once again rejecting his previous characterization of the border region as “ground zero” in the Trump administration’s fight against cartels and human traffickers.

“He was wrong then, and he is wrong now.” said Fernando Garcia, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso.

As Sessions’ motorcade arrived at the border sheriffs’ meeting in Las Cruces, the group chanted in Spanish and waved signs against the proposed border wall and the deployment of National Guard troops to the region.

Sessions’ trip to Las Cruces, a city about 45 miles from El Paso, comes as construction begins nearby on 20 miles of steel fencing that officials say is a part of Trump’s promised wall.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say the heightened barrier will be harder to get over, under and through than the old post and rail barriers that line the stretch of sprawling desert west of the Santa Teresa border crossing.