Border town buying drones to deal with migrant emergencies

SUNLAND PARK, N.M. (Border Report) – The City of Sunland Park is acquiring drones so its fire and police departments can more effectively rescue stranded migrants and hikers on Mount Cristo Rey and individuals struggling in the Rio Grande.

The drones also will help police ensure children at public schools are safe whenever incursions by groups of people are reported – as has often happened in this border community during migrant surges in the past few years.

“We get a lot of people, obviously immigrants coming across NM 273 (McNutt Road) trying to either run or hide, and if they do they go toward the river, toward areas that are vegetated. It’s very difficult for us to have line-of-sight,” said City Manager Mario Juarez-Infante. “And sometimes they try to assimilate with the schools, so that’s the advantage of having the drones.”

Juarez-Infante expects the drones will be primarily used to save lives and to ensure that children are safe inside their campus. The city is spending an initial $6,000 on three drones and plans to deploy them before the end of the year.

He said real-time information would be shared with federal agencies such as the U.S. Border Patrol during public safety emergencies.

The Sunland Park Fire Department has developed a close relationship with the Border Patrol while assisting migrants who slide off the mountain, fall over the border wall or nearly drown in the Rio Grande.

A total of 176 migrants have died in the past 12 months in the El Paso Sector of the Border Patrol that runs from Hudspeth County, Texas, to the New Mexico-Arizona state line. Federal officials say most fatalities this summer have taken place between Mount Cristo Rey and the desert west of nearby Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

Border Patrol officials were not immediately available for comment. In the past, federal officials have said they welcomed the assistance of local governments during emergencies in their municipalities, especially when lives or public safety are at stake.

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