5/16/25: El Paso Border Hike, Yselta Mission, & Border Patrol Museum

While waiting to pick up our youngest child, Zachary, and his girlfriend, Noora, from the airport in El Paso, Texas, located about an hour south of Las Cruces, New Mexico, Steven and I couldn't help but notice the impressive equestrian statue situated at the airport's main entrance. When I googled the statue's name, I had no idea of the political quagmire surrounding what is currently called "The Equestrian"! As we know, public outcries on racial issues have been on the rise in this country, with renewed questions around buildings and landmarks honoring Confederate soldiers. 

I read that a similar debate has been taking place in El Paso regarding the 36-foot-tall statue by artist John Houser, who created it to honor the controversial Spanish colonizer Don Juan de Oñate. Because of the longstanding controversy surrounding Oñate and his brutal treatment of indigenous people in the 16th and 17th centuries, the El Paso City Council in 2003 opted to change the name to “The Equestrian.” Some have questioned whether the statue should be removed or demolished, with others arguing that "he is not worth celebrating, though he is worth understanding."

Immediately south of El Paso was the border wall that stretched as far as the eye could see. We kept seeing automated signs overhead warning drivers to "Watch for unexpected pedestrians," the none-too-subtle reference to illegal aliens. On the other side of the fence was Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. 

A 197-foot-tall monument, variously known as Equis or The X and also the Monumento a la Mexicanidad or the Monument to the Mexican People, stood at the Mexican-American border. Dedicated in May 2013, it was designed by Mexican sculptor Sebastian, who said the sculpture is a tribute to Juárez's namesake, Mexican President Benito Juárez, the first president with Aztec blood. He is remembered for changing the spelling of the country's name in the 1800s from Méjico to Mexico. The two intersecting arms of the X symbolized the merging of two cultures in Mexico - the indigenous people and the Spanish, as the president was credited with bringing together the races. 

Fortunately, Zachary and Noora weren't too tired after flying in from Denver. They liked our suggestion of hiking the Wetalnds Trail in the Rio Bosque Wetlands Park, a combination of wetlands and riverside forest home to over 200 species of birds, before heading back to Las Cruces.

In the predominantly arid or semiarid Southwestern United States, "bosque" (pronounced BOHSS-kay) refers to an oasis-like ribbon of green forest, often canopied, that only exists near rivers, streams, or other water channels. The Rio Grande, also known as the Big River near El Paso, once meandered through the valley, with spring snowmelt and summer storms bringing high flows that flooded its banks and sometimes caused them to shift and change. The living river supported diverse habitats, including marshes in consistently flooded areas, cottonwood forests, and mesquite bosques on former bends that were cut off as the river shifted its course. 

As we left the park, I noticed a heavily armed ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) official. His presence brought what used to happen almost exclusively on our southern border, and now all over the US, into clear focus. 

We'd earlier seen a highway sign pointing to the El Paso Mission Trail, a historical loop of active historical missions. We only had time to visit La Misión de San Antonio de la Ysleta del Sur, also known as Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The mission's English name is also coincidentally the name of my church and elementary school when I was growing up in Ottawa, Canada. Once a New Mexican mission, it is now considered the first mission in what is now the state of Texas. The mission was established in 1682 by Franciscan priests to Christianize the Tigua Indians, who were forced to flee their pueblo in Isleta, New Mexico, following the Pueblo Revolt. The mission was built by the Tigua-speaking people and is dedicated to their patron, St. Anthony of Padua. The pueblo and mission, the nucleus of a community that has existed for 300 years, is the oldest continuously occupied settlement in Texas. 

The Tigua is one of only three federally recognized Native American tribes and the only pueblo in the state of Texas. The Spanish term del sur (of the south) differentiates the southern pueblo from the mother pueblo further north in Isleta, New Mexico. The original church lasted until the disastrous Rio Grande flood of 1740, after which it was rebuilt in 1744. It was also washed away in 1829. The present mission was completed and reopened in 1851, only for most of it to be destroyed by fire in 1907. The current Mission Revival detailing with unadorned surfaces and a high central arch was used to rebuild it yet again.

I don't remember seeing a Native American statue in any church before. It was long overdue.

The statue of Santo Entierro or Christ in the Coffin, used in the dramatization of the Easter story, was stamped with the date 1722. It is believed to have been ferried across the Rio Grande from Mexico

Photos from the All Saints Chapel that was adjacent to the altar:

Again, seeing an image of a bespeckled priest was new to me.

The Tiguas, who assisted the US military as scouts during the 19th-century Indian Wars, were finally recognized as a tribe by the State of Texas in 1967 and by the US Congress in 1968.

Our next stop was the US Border Patrol Museum on the outskirts of El Paso, a place that sounded intriguing as it was unique to this area and unlike anything we had toured before. However, with all the negative news surrounding the current president and his draconian rules concerning immigrants to the US, I expected our visit to be politically charged.  

Early efforts to deter illegal crossings along the vast US-Mexico border started in 1940 with a simple six-foot fence in El Paso. The fragment of the original El Paso border fence had an outward curve and a distinctive honeycomb pattern to deter climbers.

Persistence was a mural painted by a retired Border Patrol pilot living in Silver City, New Mexico. It was commissioned by the museum as a tribute to the dedication and persistence of past and current Border Patrol Agents. 

Patrolling private lands: I learned that immigration officers have been granted access to private lands, but not dwellings, within 25 miles of any external border, to patrol the border to prevent the illegal entry of aliens into the US. This means "conducting activities that are reasonable and necessary."

These contraptions are used to remove any footprints or other signs that indicate people have crossed a border road to enter the US illegally. 

1904-1928: Although significant efforts were made to control illegal border crossings in the 1940s, and these efforts were ramped up many decades later, their origins date to 1904. As a result of increased pressure to control Chinese aliens trying to enter the country illegally, the Bureau of Commerce and Labor founded a group of 75 men to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Acts. In 1913, the newly formed Department of Labor assumed responsibility for enforcing all immigration laws. Members of the Chinese Division were renamed Mounted Inspectors, holding that title until the Border Patrol was founded in 1924. The Mounted Inspectors comprised local cowboys, former Texas Rangers, and local law enforcement personnel.

A liquor store seizure in Laredo, Texas, in 1928:

In this 1929 photo, smugglers could bring illegal contraband across Niagara Falls from Canada when the ice froze!

The 1930s: The Department of Labor and the Border Patrol recognized the need for significant changes in their staffing following the end of Prohibition in 1931, due to allegations of brutality and corruption. All Border Patrol officers were fired before being rehired temporarily, pending an interview with a board of officials.

Communication was a dire problem plaguing the new agency, with mobile radios non-existent when the Patrol was founded in the 1930s. A mobile Morse Code system was experimented with in the 1930s, but it was too cumbersome, requiring vehicles to stop, set up a long antenna, send information, and wait for a reply.

At the end of the '30s, the Border Patrol focused on Congressional mandates for immigration control, but they were limited by the threat of World War II, inadequate funding, and a lack of staff. There were just 773 officers nationwide at the end of 1939.

There should be no surprise why this photo of a house in Alburg Springs, Vermont, straddling both the Canadian and US borders and housing customs and immigration from both countries caught my eye! 

Times of change in the 1950s: At the end of the 1940s, the Border Patrol had apprehended almost 300,000 deportable aliens, most of whom were along the nation's southern border. The next decade saw the development of improved technology in response to increased congressional mandates regarding illegal immigration, which led to the continued growth of a modern law enforcement agency. More Patrol Inspectors, enhanced communication capabilities, mobile processing centers, and aircraft were employed to target specific areas. Operation Wetback was iniated in 1954 to coordinate aggressive targeting of illegal aliens with mass deportations to Mexico's interior. They ended the crisis of out-of-control illegal immigration along the southern border for the remainder of the decade. 

Interestingly, 71 years ago today, hundreds of agents from the Canadian border and Florida joined officers in southern California and began establishing checkpoints on routes leading from the Mexican border to the state's interior. In the following week, 10,917 aliens from Mexico were apprehended. With that 'success,' the program was expanded, with the task force moving to Texas, where over a million illegals were arrested. Though it was considered controversial, it was deemed a success. Immigration checkpoints are now a standard practice in border states.

The 1960s and the first sky marshals: With four hijackings of commercial airlines in as many months in 1961, including an attempted hijacking at El Paso International Airport, President Kennedy announced on August 10 that Border Patrol Officers would be assigned to protect commercial airlines. Twelve hours later, armed Border Patrol officers were in the sky - they were the forerunners of Sky Marshals. 

Before FAA officers took over in October 1961, plainclothes Border Patrol officers, carrying a snub-nosed revolver and handcuffs, had flown on 1,310 commercial flights, logging more than 1,700,000 air miles without incident. 

I've read a fair amount about the Civil Rights Movement. Still, I knew nothing about the Border Patrol joining the US Marshals to enforce federal law to protect James Meredith, the first Black student and an Air Force veteran, registering at the University of Mississippi in Operation Freeway. The Border Patrol's assistance was requested by the president's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and the father of the current Secretary of Health and Human Services. Of the 300 Border Patrol agents deputized during the ensuing riot, 72 were injured performing their duty. 

An image by Norman Rockwell, entitled "The Problem We All Live With," is a poignant commentary on that period in US history. 

The 1980s were marked by the Mariel Boatlift, a mass immigration of Cubans who fled Mariel Harbor in Cuba for the US between April and October 1980. The exodus was caused by a sharp downturn in the Cuban economy, which led to internal tensions on the island. Fidel Castro reached an agreement with President Carter to allow anyone wanting to leave for the US to do so, with an exodus by boat then beginning. Initially, it went smoothly until some Cuban exiles commandeered whatever vessels they could find to begin the perilous journey, fearing the program would soon end. The Carter administration discovered that Castro used the exodus as an excuse to empty the jails and mental institutions of hardened criminals and mental patients. The number of 'undesirables' that arrived in the boatlift is disputed, but is thought to range from as low as 7,500 to as many as 40,000. The 125,000 Cubans who arrived in the US on about 1,700 vessels overwhelmed the Coast Guard, the Immigration Service, and Border Patrol officers. 

Seeing the undated photo of the first, all-female checkpoint at the Temecula Border Patrol Station made me wonder how much longer it might still be included in the museum, given the current political climate. The statement that the women are "proving themselves to be an invaluable asset to our operations, and today's milestone is a positive indication of the progress of women in the Patrol" seemed terribly patronizing.

The Nose Knows was a tribute to K-9 Border Patrol Officers and their years of service!

Fast forward to 2008: With the expansion of the border fence, increased electronic surveillance, and additional agents, alien smugglers and narcotics traffickers were forced to find new and innovative ways to smuggle their illegal contraband into the US. One method was the increased use of motorized hang gliders to transport product along the southern border. In May 2009, agents from the Lordsburg, New Mexico station apprehended three people and seized 242 pounds of marijuana.

The bust was made possible through collaboration among multiple agencies, and agents monitoring a listening and observation post on the southern border saw this glider crossing the border. After the Border Patrol seized the glider, it was eventually forfeited and donated to the Border Patrol Museum!

People smugglers or coyotes use boats such as this one to ferry people trying to enter the US illegally across the Rio Grande River near Laredo, Texas. Made of two truck hoods welded together with a center brace to hold lumber for a seat, two passengers were forced to help row the boat across the river. Their cost: $500 each. 

Another example of a smuggler's ingenuity was the rope ladder used to climb the fence, which was found along the Border Highway in El Paso. One person was apprehended while two others "escaped" into Mexico while using the ladder. 

The Northern Border: Although we may think that the Border Patrol's primary focus when it was founded in 1924 was to prevent illegal entries along the Mexico-United States border, there was also intense pressure from illicit smuggling of liquor on the northern border. The nation's first Border Patrol station was established in Detroit in 1924, with a second station following in El Paso later that year. 

I was surprised to learn that Canadian border operations employed more personnel from Detroit than the El Paso operation on the southern border, due to the focus on preventing smuggling of liquor during Prohibition. 

There has been a long history of cooperation between the Border Patrol and the Canadian Mounted Police, with Integrated Border Enforcement Teams coordinating with the Canadian government to achieve the mutual goal of border security. Again, I wonder whether, given the current political climate, there is the same degree of cooperation there once was.

I found the antiquated images of the northern border to be almost laughingly stereotypical.

Border Patrol Vehicles: Woody, the station wagon, was used in traffic checks in El Centro, California, in 1949. 

The OH-6A Observation Helicopter was designed for use in the Vietnam War because it was one of the most maneuverable and survivable helicopters ever deployed. It was subsequently adopted and adapted by the Border Patrol. OH-6 helicopters are currently in service along the southern border from San Diego to Miami and Puerto Rico. All Border Patrol aircraft are flown by licensed FAA pilots who have served at least three years as a Border Patrol Agent. 

There were multiple other vehicles on display, but my attention was flagging, and the museum was about to close. 

The collection of seized weapons included a Beretta with a sound suppressor that had belonged to a drug runner. 

No photos were allowed in the two memorial rooms that honored the memory of Border Patrol agents who died in the line of duty. The rooms reflected the Patrol's commitment to honor its fallen heroes just as other law enforcement agencies nationwide do. 

Unfortunately, I missed seeing any recent information about the Border Patrol's activities and directives during both the Biden and Trump administrations. Sadly, that may have been the most interesting to read.

We drove through the East Potrillo Mountains, part of the Organ Mountains, to return to Las Cruces.

That evening, the four of us walked on a trail along the bone-dry Rio Grande, just minutes from our condo. 

Next post: Las Cruces' Farmers' and Crafts Market, Murals, and Mosaics!

Posted on June 9th, 2025, from our home in the Foothills just west of Denver, where it is once again warm and sunny, glory be! Please take care of yourself and your loved ones.