On Friday, January 16, we hope to be taking a “ride-along” with the US Border Patrol (BP) mostly in the area between Sunland Park, New Mexico and Anapra, Mexico, an excellent area to gain different perspectives on the question of control of the border.
You used to be able to visit with the Border Patrol agents, the residents of Anapra just across the wall, the Mexican soldiers also on the Mexican side, migrants who have been detained while crossing illegally, and even an occasional “coyote” or “pollero” scaling the wall while returning to Mexico.
My wife and I first toured this area in April 2019 and were astonished to realize that the wall just ended at the base of Monte Cristo Rey to the east. That same day we encountered the United Constitutional Patriots, a militia group camped in the brush near the border wall. (Their leader, Larry Hopkins was arrested the next day and has now been sentenced to prison).
We first went with the Border Patrol on September 13, 2022 and last visited on July 23, 2025 with both the Border Patrol and the US Army.
Now it is a closed militarized zone. This opportunity to get a quick view of the border control issue has unfortunately been shut down.
Nonetheless, I have a good idea what we will see and what it will mean.
First, continuing infrastructure advances like the beginnings of a new wall up the rugged mountain – a very expensive project. More surveillance towers which I think are well worth the cost. A double wall near the Santa Teresa Port of Entry to the west. What is the rationale for this when it would be much cheaper and easier to fortify the existing wall with bollards?
Second, the landscape. Migrants used to come down the slopes of Monte Cristo Rey, an act of sheer desperation in my opinion. Imagine a steep descent on loose rock just at daylight when the vision is bad. Imagine being exhausted, hungry, perhaps dehydrated, wearing battered shoes and having no mountaineering experience. Detention by Border Patrol agents very often involved a trip to a hospital for medical care due to a fall.
If expansion of the wall will deter these crossings, it is worth the cost because this mountain descent is highly dangerous for both migrants and the BP agents.
Third, unlike most prior visits, there will be no migrants attempting to cross in this Anapra-Sunland Park area. The soldiers from Fort Carson, Colorado who man the Stryker vehicle on the hilltop overlooking the border wall and Anapra – so enthusiastic last July – will be dying of boredom.
Fourth, the once- booming migrant shelters in El Paso will be closed. The migrants who used to gather on the Juárez side of the Rio Grande will be gone. The migrant shelter, Respettrans, located just across the international bridge in Juárez, once held 200-300 migrants waiting desperately but enthusiastically to become part of the United States. Now we will find less than 30, most of whom have been waiting for a year. I don’t dare tell them that they will never have a chance for asylum.
Dr. Jose Andrade and his son, also Jose Andrade at SPJ medical center, Juárez. (Photo: Morgan Smith)
Fifth, many of the continuing issues for local residents will be the same, particularly the lack of health care. I have great faith in the leadership of Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum but her immediate focus is on combatting the cartels and dealing with our president. His capture of Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro was also a warning to her that he would impose his will on Mexico as well.
Therefore, long-standing problems like the lack of decent health care will not be resolved in the near future. On the west side of Juárez, health care will continue to be provided by the clinics of volunteer doctors and nurses from El Paso and Las Cruces, organized by the non-profit, Siguiendo los Pasos de Jesús and its extraordinary leader, Jane Fuller.
What is the end result?
A much better controlled border but an unfair restriction on asylum. Shouldn’t stopping some people from breaking the law be combined with giving support to those who follow the law?
An inability to focus on historic issues like the lack of health care because of this preoccupation with the continued intrusion of US politics into Mexican sovereignty.
Then need to repurpose some of the migrant shelters and find ways to use the talents of those who used to run them
There are aways surprises, however, in this border region. Who knows what this trip – the first of 2026 – will bring.
Editor's Note: The above geust column was penned by writer and humanitarian Morgan Smith. Smith, who is based in Sante Fe, New Mexico, has been documenting conditions on the US-Mexico border for 15 years and can be reached at Morgan-smith@comcast.net.
