Obama Doubles Down on BLM Land Grabs

The Obama administration in preparing an executive order that will seize large areas of land in New Mexico and California; banning ranchers with legitimate claims from even more State land.

Although Congress traditionally designates protection for public land, the Obama administration is yet again ignoring the law and is expected to seize the land sometime this week. By designating this New Mexico land a national monument, the Obama administration will ban all ranchers, off-road vehicles and recreational vehicles from the land.

“White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday that Obama is working “to preserve the prehistoric, historic and scientific values of the area for all Americans,” and that the monument will encourage tourism.”

Dustin Van Liew, executive director for federal lands at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, said that in the wake of national monument designations at Utah’s Grand Staircase Escalante, “we have seen grazing over time be diminished or stopped altogether.”

 

In fact, earlier this month we reported on the federal government’s attempt to steal another piece of land in New Mexico, where they actually gated off large areas of private land and cut off over 20 ranchers from accessing a small creek that they had been using for decades.

This new proposal has not only upset local ranchers, but local law enforcement officers as well who say Obama’s executive order will also ban border security officers from accessing the areas, further weakening border security and allowing the region to become an unfettered drug corridor.

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House Natural Resources subcommittee on public lands and environmental regulation, sent a letter to Obama on Monday urging him not to designate the area a national monument area.

“National Parks, monuments, and wilderness areas along our southern border have become prime drug-trafficking corridors for violent criminals and drug cartels.  Restrictive environmental laws within these federal corridors limit Border Patrol access and, as a result, make it easier for drug smugglers and human traffickers to move their drugs and people in and out of the United States unnoticed,” Bishop, who is chairman of the Public Lands and Environmental Regulation subcommittee on the House Natural Resources committee, wrote.”

As we’ve reported on a number of times in the past, the federal government already claims ownership to a majority of the land in the Western United States. In fact, in Nevada where the BLM attempted to steal land from a local Rancher, the Federal Government has claimed ownership of 84.5% of the State’s land. And in New Mexico,

As the map below shows, Federal intrusion into the Western States has created an environment where these States have very little power over their own land.

 Rob Richardson SEE MORE AT OFF GRID SURVIVAL 

DEAN JAMES @ AMERICAS FREEDOM FIGHTERS

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