Texas Installs Razor Wire Along New Mexico Border to Block Illegal Crossings

Texas National Guard troops set up razor wire near hundreds of immigrants who had crossed into the United States from Mexico on May 9, 2023 in El Paso, Texas. John Moore/Getty Images

Texas has expanded its efforts to secure the southern border by installing razor wire along the New Mexico border.

Gov. Greg Abbott recently deployed the Texas National Guard to install the barrier along the bank of the Rio Grande River near Sunland Park, New Mexico. Sunland Park is a small community of about 17,000 residents that sits in the southeast corner of the state, with Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to the south and El Paso, Texas, to the east.

Mr. Abbott said immigrants are curtailing Texas barriers by entering through an open passage in New Mexico. Once they get across the border, they head into Texas.

“Texas installs fencing along NEW Mexico border. Our barriers around El Paso forced the migrants crossing illegally to enter into New Mexico. They then entered into El Paso from there. To end that, we are building a barrier on the New Mexico border,” the Republican governor wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday.

The razor wire barrier is being reinforced with concertina wire, a type of wire that features razor blades at regular intervals, according to KFOX-TV, a local news outlet that posted an image on Sunday that showed Texas troops placing the wire along the border.

The latest barrier is part of Mr. Abbott’s Operation Lone Star initiative to address the massive influx of immigrants crossing illegally into Texas.

Texas has allocated billions to securing the border, which includes the cost of constructing its own border wall, installing razor wire, and placing a floating barrier along a section of the Rio Grande.

Earlier this month, Mr. Abbott shared a video on X that showed a section of the border wall that had gone up in Webb County.

“Webb County border wall construction is ongoing. We’re the first and only state to build our own border wall,” he wrote.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, flanked by state and local law enforcement officials, speaks to media in Eagle Pass, Texas, on June 29, 2022. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

Mr. Abbott has also bussed more than 50,000 illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities across the country, including New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Denver, and Washington D.C.

‘Political Stunt’

On Friday, some New Mexico lawmakers held a virtual roundtable to discuss problems at the southern border, specifically Sunland Park.

A spokesperson for New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the Texas governor’s move to install the barrier was nothing more than a “political stunt.”

“We encourage Gov. Abbott to turn his attention away from a never-ending stream of political stunts and toward working in earnest for the people of the state he was elected to represent,” said Caroline Sweeney, a spokesperson for Ms. Lujan Grisham, during the roundtable discussion, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

Ms. Lujan Grisham did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham speaks in Albuquerque, N.M., on Nov. 3, 2022. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Congressman Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) said the two states need to work with each other on the issue. Sunland Park is not in Texas, but it does fall under the operation of the El Paso Sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“There needs to be better cooperation,” Mr. Vasquez said during the discussion, according to the Santa Fe New Mexican.

“The El Paso Sector actually monitors and operates across the entire 180 miles of the U.S./Mexico border across my entire district, so from the federal level, there’s coordination between Texas and New Mexico,” he continued. “At the state level, we have seen that some of Gov. Abbott’s actions that he has taken have been without consultation, both without federal stakeholders, but in this case, without New Mexico stakeholders.”

Mr. Vasquez, who is up for reelection in 2024, reportedly told the group that he is “uniquely positioned” to address the border issue in Congress, adding that “many” federal agencies don’t have the staffing or funding to control the problem.

“Right now, many of our federal agencies are underfunded, understaffed, and lack the resources needed to effectively help control what’s happening at our border and keep our communities safe, and I’m committed to addressing these issues,” he said.