A small-town fire department in New Mexico said it is being overwhelmed by calls to rescue illegal immigrants who have been stranded or injured while crossing remote parts of the southern border.
Sunland Park, NM, with a population of roughly 20,000 people and a two-station fire department, said it receives at least one—and sometimes several—calls a day from border agents as illegal immigrants get stranded in the mountains or injured while trying to climb over the border fence.
As the temperatures continue to increase throughout the summer, the town’s officials said they expect the calls to become even more frequent.
“The call volume is going up,” Sunland Park Fire Department Chief Daniel Medrano told the Washington Examiner. “We’ve received more and more and more than what we have seen in the past.”
Illegal immigrants who try to cross the border near Sunland Park are often led by smugglers for 25 to 30 days through the mountains and dry heat. Immigrants who can’t make the journey are left behind. If they are spotted by agents, the fire department is usually called in, city officials explained.
“We’re having to drive our fire trucks as close to the scene as possible,” Medrano said.
“It’s so rugged, and during this time of the year, it’s just super hot right now—I think we were 110 [degrees Fahrenheit] or something yesterday, and it wears on my firemen,” he continued. “So we want to try to carry as much equipment as possible and then try to carry a body back out to a waiting ambulance—sometimes half a mile, a mile in the distance, is very taxing on my firemen.”
Several small border towns have demanded that the Biden administration do more to address the ongoing border crisis as thousands of illegal immigrants continue to flood the region.
“Mr. President, I am pleading and requesting with you to please put a halt to any measures regarding the release of immigrants awaiting court dates into the city of Del Rio and surrounding areas,” said Bruno Lozano, the Democrat mayor of Del Rio, Texas, in a video addressed to President Joe Biden that showed videos of long lines in Del Rio’s grocery stores with empty shelves.
“We do not have the resources available to house and accommodate these migrants within our community,” Lozano continued. “If you do send these individuals into our community, we will be forced to make a decision to leave them without resources under these dire circumstances.”
