I just got back from a trip to El Paso, Juárez and along the New Mexico border wall and will be on Gila Mimbres Community Radio / KURU 89.1 FM tomorrow at 10:00 MST to talk about it with Mary McHugh.

U.S. Army soldiers deployed in BPD vehicles at Mt. Cristo Rey outside of El Paso. This area is the deadliest along the border, at least 176 people died in the El Paso sector in 2024, with most of the deaths clustered around the mountain.

This is a Border Patrol vehicle waiting to intercept migrants at a break in the border wall between El Paso and Anapra. Inside are two U.S. Army soldiers, not BPD officers. They said their orders are not to answer any questions.

Project Comunidad runs a food pantry that serves everyone in Deming, whether they are migrants or locals. These are the shelves in the room that usually holds staples like rice and beans, the pantry is essentially out of food and won't receive a delivery for another week.

But the mood at the Roundhouse today was cheerful, loud, defiant. Today's event was one of hundreds around the country this week.

Mike Sullivan was one of a small number of Anglo protestors I saw today and came alone. He fought in Vietnam and later flew small airplanes for relief orgs around the world. "I'm not much of a joiner," he said about political organizing, but the current climate has him reconsidering that stance.

Mila & Felix travelled from Eddy County, a rural county in the Permian Basin, which currently exports more oil than any other region on earth. The majority of the state government's revenue comes from fossil fuels, NM is the third highest oil producing state after TX and ND.

The prospect of deporting individuals whose family history in the region often goes back further than that of the US is "ridiculous," as one activist put it to me.

New Mexico hosts some of the oldest archeological sites in North America, its indigenous history reaches back at least 13,000 years. Some of its pueblos were never conquered, and the territory was part of the Spanish Empire and the Republic of Mexico before it fell to the US in the 1840s.

Rogelio came with a group of friend's to attend the protests. People who want to drive migrants out of the state, "don't understand its history," he said. "You're either an immigrant like me or you are indigenous. And if you're neither, you're probably racist."

Jessica Martinez, a lawyer with the New Mexico Immigrant Law Center, spoke about her childhood as a child of immigrants, her Mexican and Apache heritage, and the undocumented clients that her organization serves.

New Mexico is a majority-minority state, 49% of the population identify as Hispanic / Latino, 11% claim Native American ancestry. It is also one of the country's poorest, with some 20% living at or below the poverty line.

Today was the Immigrant & Worker's Day of Action in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I spoke to migrants, activists and organizers that had gathered from all over the state to lobby lawmakers for their causes, and to protest the mass deportations announced by the incoming administration.