A top official in one of New Mexico’s largest cities defamed Border Hawk as an organization run by “white nationalists” while dismissing our reporting exposing the fentanyl crisis ravaging her city.
Johana Bencomo, a Mexican ‘migrant’ currently serving as mayor pro tem and city councilor in Las Cruces, was one of multiple officials contacted by a constituent who shared an exposé we published in January, following a visit to Doña Ana County.
“Good morning. My brother in Ohio sent this article to me, which is bad enough, but the video made me sick. I wanted to make sure you saw it. I lay the blame for this crisis at the feet of the Las Cruces City Council,” the constituent wrote in an email sent to Mayor Eric Enriquez and six city councilors.
New Mexico Official Smears Border Hawk as “White Nationalists” After Report Exposes Raging Fentanyl Crisis in Her City
— Border Hawk (@BorderHawkNews) February 5, 2025
A top official in one of New Mexico’s largest cities defamed Border Hawk as an organization run by “white nationalists” while dismissing our reporting exposing… https://t.co/ZErqxVDthf pic.twitter.com/t96ESmDaSr
Councilor Bencomo responded hours later, stating, “Thanks for the email.”
“I tend to not follow news sources that were created by known white nationalists.”
Bencomo included a link to a recent New Yorker feature on Border Hawk’s rise to relevance as one of the most prominent immigration news outlets in the U.S.
While the message conveyed by author Rachel Monroe lacked some of the deeply insidious vitriol hurled at Border Hawk by the Southern Poverty Law Center, she did attempt to discredit our mission as one that amounts to little more than race-based “fearmongering about immigrants.”
Bencomo – who proudly boasts that she and her family “migrated” [note: not “immigrated”] to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 8 years old – apparently made no attempt to address her constituent’s concerns or the factual nature of our reporting about serious issues turning the city into a dystopic wasteland.
During Border Hawk’s time in Las Cruces, we spent a day with James Chavez Floyd, a ninth generation New Mexican and owner of Nessa’s Cafe, which sits in Bencomo’s district.
Floyd told us the fentanyl scourge has destroyed his hometown, where children can no longer roam safely, as prostitutes and addicts have made “every corner and every alleyway extremely dangerous.”
He showed us around the grounds of the cafe, where he constantly removes remnants of fentanyl abuse – a highly dangerous task that could expose him to a fatal overdose at any moment.
Floyd also took us for a long drive around Las Cruces, showing us multiple homeless encampments, public spaces, and parks overrun by drug-addicted derelicts, and even a well-known fentanyl dealer den known locally as “The Castle.”
EXCLUSIVE: Fentanyl Ravaging New Mexico – ‘It’s Enslaved the Community’
— Border Hawk (@BorderHawkNews) January 7, 2025
Fentanyl is pouring over the U.S. southern border as drug cartels push the deadly synthetic opioid throughout North America, destroying countless lives in the process.
New Mexico has been hit particularly… pic.twitter.com/8g3qcEBWOz
Floyd told Border Hawk he was “saddened” to learn of Bencomo’s scurrilous dismissal of her concerned constituent’s message.
“It never ceases to amaze me how our New Mexico politicians are able to look right past real problems while continuing to push racial and political disinformation to distract from real danger the community is facing each day,” Floyd stated.
“Progressive laws enacted in New Mexico have only benefited the cartels, not the incompetent individuals which they are allegedly supposed to help.”
In 2021, the first year of the Biden administration, fentanyl seizures exploded to more than 22,600 pills in Las Cruces – and continued rising: roughly 70,000 were seized in 2022 and nearly 86,000 in 2023.
“It wasn’t in Las Cruces, and then it was, and then it was everywhere. In 2021, it really intensified and we’ve seen that the past few years. During that same period from 2018 to 2021, we saw a huge increase in crime: an 85% increase in violent crime and a 71% increase in property crime,” Las Cruces Chief of Police Jeremy Story stated in 2023 during a virtual press conference on New Mexico’s fentanyl epidemic.
“If you overlay the data for fentanyl seizures, crime increase and homelessness in Las Cruces, they overlay perfectly. And although there are many other factors that of course contribute to those things, I truly believe that fentanyl is the biggest factor impacting these things.”
Here at Border Hawk, we welcome scrutiny of our work – primarily of its accuracy.
We will not be deterred from our pursuit to provide honest border and immigration coverage to our supporters and readers.