SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico (Border Report) – Federal officials are placing metal barriers along one of the busiest migrant smuggling corridors on the U.S.-Mexico border.
About a quarter-mile row of Normandy-style steel “Xs” were visible Wednesday on the western slope of Mount Cristo Rey in Sunland Park.
The area for the past several years has been a choice crossing location for migrants and smugglers because of its steep terrain, lack of roads and the absence of border wall. It also has been the site of many medical transports involving migrants who lose their footing on 1- to 2-foot dirt trails and end up at the bottom of ravines. Assaults on Border Patrol agents also have been reported there.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Landon Hutchens said the barriers are being placed to discourage or slow foot and any other types of traffic.
Similar barriers were replaced west of nearby Santa Teresa several years ago when a 30-foot-tall steel bollard wall was installed. The steel Xs typically are placed on the border to prevent vehicles from coming over from Mexico.
In Sunland Park, they will become another tool for the Border Patrol to apprehend anyone trying to use the mountain as cover to enter the country and meet up with drivers below waiting to take them to stash houses in New Mexico and in nearby El Paso, Texas.
Border Patrol vehicles routinely go up and down an existing dirt road right at the Mexican border; smugglers have been known to observe the patrols and attempt to cross once they are gone, local and federal officials have said.
The Border Patrol horse patrol unit is also active on Cristo Rey, and Border Report late last year witnessed agents on horseback apprehend migrants walking up the slope.
CBP did not say what distance the new barrier will cover. A privately-built border wall partially protects the eastern slope of Cristo Rey down to the Monument 1 marker.
Read: Read More