Ride-along with Sunland Park police yields multiple run-ins with migrants in hiding or in need of aid
The sun has barely come up and Officer E. Gallardo is already fielding his second migrant-related call of the day.
This one involves a man being questioned by plainclothes agents in a shopping center where the stores won’t open for another couple of hours.
Earlier, he assisted fellow Sunland Park police officers and U.S. Border Patrol agents in looking for a large group of people accused of passing through private property on their way to NM Highway 273.
“They hide in the brush, behind houses, under mobile homes … they’ll go to sleep and rest a bit and won’t come up for hours,” says the officer from this Southern New Mexico town that has become the epicenter of migrant smuggling in the greater El Paso region.
Juarez, Mexico-based smuggling organizations find this community attractive because of its geography. A mountain called Cristo Rey sits right on the border and offers cover for large groups of migrants and their guides waiting for U.S. Border Patrol vehicles to move along before running across the border.
Border wall is virtually non-existent on the mountain and, just below it, smugglers have mastered the art of quickly moving ladders to the steel bollards barrier and helping migrants to the top in a matter of seconds.
To understand how the town is coping with collateral damage from the migrant surge, a Border Report and KTSM crew on Friday rode along with an officer of the Sunland Park Police Department.
...Early morning just before sunrise is when people come down the mountain or chance dropping over the border wall, police said. The migrants quickly seek a hiding place in neighborhoods near the wall and “lay low” for a few hours. Just after noon, they tend to make their move either toward the highway or certain pre-arranged spots where American “contractors” pick them up in vehicles and take them to stash houses or drive them to the interior of the country, authorities say.
...Later, Gallardo investigates possible trespassing at an abandoned house on Fifth Street. The two “No Trespassing” signs have been ignored, judging by the multiple footprints leading to the back of the house. Gallardo hears a noise coming from inside the house and, fearing someone inside might need help, enters through the broken window, voicing an offer to render aid.
The search comes up empty, but the officer documents a heavy smell of feces and urine, dirty clothes, empty water bottles and jugs strewn about inside.
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