Border outpostsBorder Patrol begins construction on outpost in remote corner of N.M.

In New Mexico’s remote Bootheel region, drug smugglers and illegal border crossers will no longer be able to slip through undetected by Border Patrol agents.

U.S. Border Patrol recently announcedthat it was building a new outpost in one of the last unguarded regions along the southwestern border.

Bootheel is a far-flung stretch of land where Geronimo made his last stand. The desolate space lacks cell phone service and only has a few unpaved roads. As a result, drug smugglers and human traffickers have increasingly taken to passing through this region to avoid detection.

Following months of deliberations, Scott Luck, the chief patrol agent in the El Paso Sector of the border who is responsible for New Mexico, recently announced plans to build a new outpost in Animas, New Mexico.

“Operationally and tactically, it was the best choice,” Luck said. “It’s a win-win situation for all of us.”

With the new station in place, the Animas Valley will now have twenty-four hour monitoring of the border for the first time in its history. In the past border agents would have to drive three hours round trip from the nearest station in Lordsburg, New Mexico to patrol the area.

The new base will include a heliport, horse corrals, and living space where as many as twenty federal agents can live for short spans.

Construction on the outpost has already started and will be completed in the next four to six months.