Plans have been announced for the building of a new 30-foot-high segment of U.S./Mexico border wall that will go up in Sunland Park, New Mexico.
The project will, more specifically, see construction on a part of the historic Mount Cristo Rey site and will comprise some 1.3 miles upon completion.
The U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has said that the project is part of a larger effort to “close critical gaps in the border wall and enhance border security operations in the U.S. Border Patrol’s El Paso, Tucson, and Yuma sectors.”
According to a statement from the CPB published in El Paso Matters, migrants have illegally entered the U.S. via a border wall opening on the “western base of Mount Cristo Rey across from the Anapra neighborhood.”
Reports have also indicated that smugglers have made money crossing migrants at that exact point.
How much the new wall project will cost has not been revealed.
Mount Cristo Rey has long been the site of a pilgrimage seeing thousands of worshippers hiking to a summit point where stands the 29 foot-tall Christ the King statue. That statue was completed in 1939 by the sculptor Urbici Soler and is composed of concrete, limestone, and steel.
Although the new wall segment will not be built in the direct vicinity of the statue, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces has submitted a comment to the CPB noting that the project will be built on land owned by the Dioceses and could “irreparably damage its religious and cultural sanctity, obstruct pilgrimage routes, and transform the sacred space into a symbol of division.”
The project has also sparked the opposition of various environmental groups which have said that upon completion it could cause soil erosion and obstruct wildlife corridors.
The CPB is currently reviewing public comments regarding the project. A schedule for the wall segment’s construction has not yet been announced.
July 7, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy of Pixabay
