With few details offered, reports have aired the possibility that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency may be contemplating construction of a new border patrol facility somewhere in Las Cruces.
Last month the agency informed Las Cruces City Manager Ikani Taumoepeau that it is in the process of putting together an environmental assessment relating to the possibility of building a new facility on a site at a yet unannounced site.
The communication authored by John Petrilla with the CPB’s Office of Facilities and Asset Management said the new facility, designed to “accommodate the addition of new agents and personnel to increase border security,” would go up on a site measuring anywhere from 30 to 40 acres.
The agency has said that it is looking at three potential locations for the new facility, one of which is on the northeast side of the city, with the other two on the west side and just to the north of W. Picacho Avenue.
If built, the new facility, designed to be a part of the CPB’s EL Paso Sector, would serve both El Paso and Hudspeth counties in Texas, as well as all of New Mexico. The sector is comprised of 125,500 square miles with CPB agents patrolling 268 miles of international border.
Existing stations within the sector are situated in El Paso, as well as Santa Teresa and Truth or Consequences, among other locations.
CPB currently operates around 130 border patrol stations in 22 designated sectors.
Last summer Congress approved spending upwards of $5 billion for the construction of new border patrol stations and the modernization of existing facilities. That funding was part of a larger $170 billion for overall immigration enforcement efforts included in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
April 2, 2026
By Garry Boulard
