I figured this was going to happen sooner or later. Last week, Governor Bill Richardson, of New Mexico, declared a state of emergency for several of the counties in his state that border the Mexican state of Chihuahua. This allows him to earmark both state and federal emergency funds to help combat the rise of crime and tragedy along the border. Today, Governor Janet Napolitano of Arizona did the same thing, for all four counties in Arizona that share a border with the mexican states of Sonora and Baja California Norte. As outlined in Governor Napolitano's Declaration of Emergency, the federal government's inability/inaction in this matter is costing both money and lives. This, due to Operation Gatekeeper, the program by which the goverment strategically sealed air-tight the 2000 mile US/Mexico border with the exception of the two most dangerous stretches, the Imperial Desert in California and the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. This was to force migrants to cross into places where they ran a significantly higher risk of death either from exposure to the elements (the stretches are some of the hottest, most hostile terrains in North America) or drowning. Since the inception of Operation Gatekeeper, migrant deaths have increased by 500%.