NY Times finds odd balance in Mexico border story

I this 10-paragraph article about violence along the US-Mexico border, the New York Times’s main sources are Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and a rabidly racist Republican Congressman who called the border "India country," the only difference being that "the Indians have machineguns and satellite phones." Their claims about a border area militarized by Mexican smugglers – which were extraordinary, almost certainly exaggerated and by no means established fact – were not corroborated; they’re just relayed to the reader, even in the narrative.

[Rep. John Abney Culberson (R–Tex.)] said some smuggling organizations had established observation posts on hill tops within the United States to spot law enforcement activities, including watching National Guard units deployed along the border. Some police units were reluctant to turn their lights on at night because of the observers and armed smugglers.

A pro-immigrant opinion slips into paragraph 9, where a Democratic representative is allowed a cliché about "throw[ing] away the Constitution."