LAS CRUCES – County politics and the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office’s role in border enforcement are two of the biggest issues this year as voters consider who should be the next sheriff.
The race pits incumbent Sheriff Kim Stewart of Las Cruces (R) against former US Armed Forces Capt. Byron Hollister of Las Cruces (R). Stewart, who has held the seat since 2018 and edged out a former New Mexico State Police captain in the Democratic primary, won the most votes in the primary last March. Hollister had the second-highest vote count, setting up a competitive race in November.
But many things have changed since March.
That big table on the border
Over the summer, dozens of immigrants seeking to enter the United States crossed into the US and made national news in the process. In addition, the crossings helped revive the debate about DASO’s role in policing the border.
“They invite us to the big table,” Stewart told the Sun-News in a recent interview. “We are often involved in very, very high-level discussions with people from (Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro) Mayorkas on down.”
Stewart said the county’s geographic location as a nexus between Texas, Mexico and the rest of the border makes it possible.
“It’s important that we use our voice appropriately and appropriately,” Stewart said.
Stewart and Hollister said they don’t think agents should stop immigrants as part of Border Patrol operations. That’s the job of their agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they said.
However, Hollister envisions some role for agents at the border.
“What I want is for there to be people out there doing drug busts. I couldn’t care less if they’re Mexican citizens, US citizens, we’re looking for crime,” Hollister said.
Specifically, Hollister said he wants to get into DASO to station agents in the far south of the county to combat drug smuggling.
“This is a place you must saturate. So when I talked about having people at the border, it’s not to go there and check people’s IDs,” Hollister said.
A critical part of that idea includes entering DASO on Stonegarden Grant.
Stonegarden is short for a grant from the Department of Homeland Security called the Operation Stonegarden Program. It provides cash to law enforcement agencies at the border, which use the money to fund officers’ overtime. By using Stonegarden’s overtime money, deputies will need to help with border operations.
In 2019, the Las Cruces City Council terminated LCPD’s participation in the grant. At the time, council members criticized the grant’s lack of guidance and oversight.
Hollister acknowledged the vagueness of the grant and the potential for abuse. To handle this, he said he would ask the Board of County Commissioners to hire grant monitors to ensure the grant is properly administered.
The building on Motel Boulevard
The Board of County Commissioners is just one of several centers of power in Doña Ana County’s hydra-headed bureaucracy.
Sheriffs have responsibilities that overlap or intersect with other officials, including the county manager and district attorney. For example, even though the sheriff is nominally in charge of DASO, DASO employees are supervised by the county manager’s office.
In recent months, Stewart has clashed with the county manager and the district attorney. The struggles center around overlapping responsibilities. It’s a phenomenon that occurred before Stewart, a pattern he noted in a recent interview.
“It’s a bigger problem than me,” Stewart said. “The reality is that the rules simply need to be clearly defined.”
In previous interviews, Stewart has talked about creating a charter that defines the roles.
Hollister said that if elected, he would work to build a compilation within county government.
“I think as long as I have an open line of communication with the commissioners and the county manager, I won’t have those issues,” Hollister said.
But that’s easier said than done, according to Stewart. For Stewart, it all comes down to the commissioners.
“That to get any of this done, we have to have the cooperation of the Board of County Commissioners,” he said.
Justin Garcia is a public safety reporter for the Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be reached at JEGarcia@lcsun-news.com.
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