I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
GOP congressional candidate Tom Mullins is taking heat this week for suggesting putting land mines on the border might be a good way to mitigate illegal immigration. But in going over the transcript of that interview we discovered Mullins also stretched the truth in agreeing with host Matt Martinez that terrorists came across the Canadian border—a false assertion that had Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano apologizing to Canada last year after she made the same mistake.
Here is the transcript of the end of the audio provided to the media:
MARTINEZ: Let me ask a question, being the devil’s advocate a little bit. OK, so I can see some solution that will require us to possibly put, you know, some kind of a fence with land mines on the other end and I can see it possibly being considered for the south, but terrorists that we had from 9/11 actually came from the north.
MULLINS: Yes.
MARTINEZ: Actually, from Canada. So is that same proposal would work on both sides?
MULLINS: No, that wouldn’t work.
This isn’t the first time a Republican congressional candidate in New Mexico made this claim. Steve Pearce, running for Congress in the 2nd Congressional District, also made this claim early in May. At the time, The Independent reported:
“The Northern and Southern borders are becoming more unsafe every day. Terrorists and the trafficking of drugs and humans must be stopped.The 9-11 terrorists came across the northern border. Cartel violence is beginning to spread to this country,” Pearce said.
Despite Pearce’s assertion, the 9-11 Commission found early reports that the 9-11 terrorists came into this country through Canada were not true; its final report confirmed that none of the 9-11 terrorists entered the country from Canada, as this Washington Post story says.
When contacted by The Independent with this information and the findings from the 9/11 Commission, Pearce’s campaign responded in a statement, “Thank you I will look into that more. The fact remains we need to secure all of our borders north, south, east and west.”
