SUNLAND PARK, N.M. (Border Report) – The newly installed vehicle barrier on the south side of Mount Cristo Rey will eventually be replaced by a permanent border wall, Border Report has learned.
The quarter-mile-long row of steel Xs on the western slope of the mountain abutting Mexico will serve their purpose for now of preventing smugglers on all-terrain vehicles and dirt bikes from coming in where the border wall ends, and the mountain begins.
But a long-term solution not only to motorized smuggling but also for people on foot to come over unimpeded from the Anapra neighborhood of Juarez, Mexico, is a permanent barrier, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
“The vehicle barrier we have installed is a quarter of a mile with plans to expand it further east of Cristo Rey, with a vision of completing a border wall, a more permanent structure in the area,” Border Patrol spokesman Orlando Marrero-Rubio said.
A private contractor began installing the temporary barrier on Jan. 30. Immediate plans call for extending such barrier to the other side of the mountain – up to where a privately built border wall is already in place.
The Border Patrol says the temporary barrier is already helping deter border crossings. The daily apprehension rate for the El Paso Sector has fallen from 163 a day two weeks ago to 90 a day as of Thursday, Marrero-Rubio said. Most of those apprehensions are taking place in the Santa Teresa Station area of influence, which includes Sunland Park and the mountain.
The permanent border wall “will make it difficult for smugglers to bring people and anything else across,” Marrero-Rubio said.
There is no firm target date for requesting proposals for a permanent border wall. The cost of installing the steel Xs was not immediately available.
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