# Border barrier between NM and TX — where, exactly? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 15, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606 "2023-10-15T18:26:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/1 "2023-10-15T18:26:58Z")
Texas governor just announced a razor wire barrier between TX and NM. I’m trying to figure out where. Best I can find is “near Sunland Park”. I’m assuming along the east side of Christo Rey, between Anapra Rd and the old smeltertown area.\* Other than schlepping over to check it out myself, has anyone seen any more specific location information than what I’m seeing in this summary and the links within? > **[Greg Abbott Lines Texas-New Mexico Border With Razor Wire](https://news.yahoo.com/gov-greg-abbott-lines-texas-230106029.html)** > > The expansion is the latest ploy by the Texas governor in his multibillion-dollar effort to repel immigrants from crossing into the state. \*Let’s see if this works: https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=31.7933362,-106.5344784&z=15&output=embed&dg=ntvb&q=31.791895,%2B-106.532848 ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/2 "2023-10-15T18:45:58Z")
My immediate reaction to the news was, “When can they get the rest fenced off?” But I know that’s not right. I’m not a big fan of the attitude Abbott has that primarily Democratic states are enemies he’s entitled to wage war on. ETA: Sorry, I got carried away. The only location information I’ve seen is “along the Rio Grande near Sunland Park.” ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/3 "2023-10-15T19:59:47Z")
As a former New Mexican, I’m in favor of keeping Texans out. And hey, if we can make them pay for ~~the wall~~ the fence… ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/4 "2023-10-15T20:04:31Z")
As a current New Mexican… if someone has made it to civilization, why would they want to go to Texas? ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/5 "2023-10-15T21:51:40Z")
I saw some speculation that what he’s actually trying to do is to prevent Texan women from traveling here for abortions. This is just speculation, mind you, but Texas politicians have been making noises about banning out of state travel for the purpose of obtaining abortions. There was a time I’d have dismissed that possibility, but we’re apparently heading back to a time when women didn’t have the same rights as men, and the Supreme Court seems happy with it. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/6 "2023-10-15T22:41:10Z")
That and weed. There are far too many dispensaries in NM (most will probably be broke with a year or two) but the ones in Sunland Park seem to do pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/7 "2023-10-15T23:13:20Z")
> [@InternetLegend](#): > > I saw some speculation that what he’s actually trying to do is to prevent Texan women from traveling here for abortions. First of all, aren’t any such women going to be traveling on roads and highways to get to New Mexico, so unless he’s planning on blocking those, I don’t see how this helps. Second, doesn’t the Constitution prevent states from interfering in interstate commerce? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/8 "2023-10-15T23:39:31Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > First of all, aren’t any such women going to be traveling on roads and highways to get to New Mexico, so unless he’s planning on blocking those, I don’t see how this helps. Second, doesn’t the Constitution prevent states from interfering in interstate commerce? If the plan is to prosecute Texan women who travel to NM for an abortion (whether or not this would hold up), presumably a first step is to ensure that they can only travel into NM via checkpoints, at which (perhaps on some pretense) you ID them. I don’t think anyone can rule out the possibility that they are rolling out barbed wire on the expectation that something like this _might_ be deemed legal by the SC. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/9 "2023-10-15T23:42:38Z")
I really can’t imagine Texas setting up checkpoints at the New Mexico border but who knows what Gov Abbott is planning? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2023, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/10 "2023-10-15T23:47:27Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > First of all, aren’t any such women going to be traveling on roads and highways to get to New Mexico, The antiabortionists are working on that as well: > **[Texas highways are the next anti-abortion target. One town is resisting.](https://www.texastribune.org/2023/09/01/texas-cities-abortion-trafficking/#:~:text=Designed%20by%20the%20architects%20of,within%20the%20city%20or%20county)** > > Even in conservative corners of Texas, efforts to crack down on abortion travel are meeting resistance with some local officials who support Texas’s strict abortion laws, expressing concern that the efforts go too far. > **[New ordinances would ban driving through cities and counties en route to...](https://abc13.com/amp/texas-abortion-law-highways-new-battleground-in-care-what-is-the/13740276/)** > > The latest strategy engineered by the Right to Life group comes amid growing frustrations about the number of women who are going out of state for an abortion. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2023, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/11 "2023-10-16T00:06:41Z")
Abbott: “Mexico, New Mexico - all same.” ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2023, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/12 "2023-10-16T14:14:36Z")
We really need the Federal Government to crack down on these Handmaid’s Tale states pulling stuff like this. We are guaranteed freedom of travel in the United States. We do not need to present ID to leave or enter any state from another state, Using their warped logic, states that have no casinos can prosecute people for going to Las Vegas and gamble. Not happening. I’m sick to death of these jerks trying to impose their religion on others. We don’t need or want a Christian Taliban! ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2023, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/13 "2023-10-16T15:16:36Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Second, doesn’t the Constitution prevent states from interfering in interstate commerce? It’s not even the so-called “Interstate Commerce Clause” (Article I, Section 8, Clause 3), which just gives Congress the power to “…to regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes". As a resident of the United States you have a right for unrestricted travel between states: > [Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1:](https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/amendment-14/section-1/interstate-travel) > > _All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws._ One of the (implicit but historically well understood) rights is freedom to travel unhindered short of imposition of martial law or a public safety emergency. I suppose in the mind of Abbott et al that a woman seeking an abortion or an undocumented migrant moving between states might constitute a public health risk but that is an interpretation to be found nowhere in statute or case law, and arbitrarily building fortifications at state borders is both such at odds with nearly a quarter millennia of Constitutional interpretation and a harbinger of authoritarianism to come that it should be a waving flag to the people who dismiss it as just differing views of normal governance on a linear spectrum between “left” and “right”. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2023, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/14 "2023-10-16T18:03:26Z")
**Moderator Note** Since apparently EVERYONE in the thread has completely missed the FQ question in the OP, here it is again: > [@Ruken](#): > > has anyone seen any more specific location information than what I’m seeing in this summary The pros and cons of the barrier, as well as the political aspects of it, are all completely off-topic for FQ. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2023, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/15 "2023-10-16T18:41:52Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > Texas governor just announced a razor wire barrier between TX and NM. I’m trying to figure out where. Best I can find is “near Sunland Park”. [This article](https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/as-texas-installs-razor-wire-along-new-mexico-border-vasquez-calls-for-more-cooperation/article_b9342ab6-6923-11ee-a50d-3b5766417053.html) from the Santa Fe New Mexican says, “along the Rio Grande near Sunland Park.” ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2023, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/border-barrier-between-nm-and-tx-where-exactly/991606/16 "2023-10-16T20:59:29Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > Abbott: “Mexico, New Mexico - all same.” People make that mistake all the time, apparently. > **[New Mexico Resident's ID Temporarily Rejected as 'Foreign' By D.C. Clerk](https://www.npr.org/2018/11/30/672401957/new-mexico-id-temporarily-rejected-as-foreign-by-d-c-clerk)** > > A spokeswoman for the Washington courts system apologized for a failure to recognize New Mexico as a state.