Columbus residents, NM delegation question 'man camp' for border wall amid coronavirus fears

COLUMBUS, N.M. - Some residents of the tiny border village of Columbus raised concerns this week about 10 trailers that recently arrived in the historic town center to house workers building 72 miles of the southern border wall. 

The trailers are on Jesus Carreon Avenue, immediately behind the village library. Each trailer, one of which is marked "office," has four entrances.

The development occupies a single block between Taft and Main streets, on what had been a vacant lot. On Wednesday, workers were observed installing skirting on the trailers and building wooden stairways and railings.  

Mayor Esequiel Salas told the Sun-News the trailers are being erected by the SLS Company, based in Galveston, Texas. The village's agreement with SLS was approved by vote of Columbus' elected trustees. 

After initial reports that up to 60 workers might be housed there, the mayor clarified Friday that a maximum of 40 workers were expected to reside there for up to two years.

"Hopefully after this situation is all under control they will be able to house more men," Salas wrote in an email.

What was not clear is how soon the trailers would be occupied, or what health measures would be in place to mitigate against community spread of the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease. 

Construction of 30-foot high bollard steel fencing continues near the U.S.-Mexico border in Luna County even after the state of New Mexico issued public health orders closing non-essential business, limiting social gatherings to five people and calling for physical distancing between individuals to slow community spread of the novel coronavirus. 

This means so-called "man camps," or congregate housing for workers in the oil and gas industry or border wall construction, continue to house people in southern New Mexico communities.

"We are a rural village," Helena Myers, a 30-year resident of Columbus, told the Sun-News, "and we are obviously concerned about an unnecessary build of the wall. That is not our priority when we have an epidemic."

SLS was awarded a $789 million contract in April 2019 to install approximately 46 miles of the barrier near the Columbus Port of Entry, Jay Field, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said. In January, SLS was awarded an additional $174 million for 25.5 more miles of barrier west of Columbus. 

The location of the trailers puts workers near some of the limited options for shopping, restaurants and services in town.

"The mayor thinks this is going to be commerce for the village, but this could be a detriment to our health," Myers said.

Residents of the village said the trailers arrived after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham issued the state's stay-at-home directive.

They have been seeking answers throughout the week from village, state and federal governments about where the workers would be coming from and what measures would be taken to ensure public health.

Some residents called for the housing project — or even the wall construction — to be delayed, but told the Sun-News they had heard little response at any level of government.

On Friday, Salas said he had asked SLS to hold off on moving any personnel into the trailers until at least April 16, in light of the pandemic. 

"These are men that have been working at the border along with other men from Columbus and the surrounding area such as Deming," Salas wrote, adding that local workers were already on the job alongside workers from other places and who, without local work, would seek employment elsewhere and then return.

"That would put these families and the community of Columbus in greater risk," he wrote. 

In March, the state health department issued an advisory requesting anyone traveling into New Mexico from outside the state to isolate themselves for 14 days and watch for symptoms of COVID-19 disease. 

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Lt. Gov. Howie Morales said he had been in contact with Salas on Friday seeking details about workers coming in from out of state on a regular basis to work on the wall, but that data wasn't immediately available. 

Delaying the arrival of workers into the trailers until mid-April also approaches the period when health experts anticipate COVID-19 cases to peak statewide. 

"They’re cramming the wall down our throat," resident Deborah Olliver said. "They can take those trailers and relocate them somewhere else. Right now they are absolutely out of zoning, they are in a historical district, they are cramming in all these people. I don’t know if they’re quarantining them, and if they do, I don’t know who’s waiting on them."

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., called the housing units and federal construction work "an unnecessary and unacceptable risk to a remote community with limited health care resources," and said the federal Department of Homeland Security and the Army Corps of Engineers should abide by New Mexico's health orders. 

"As millions of people across the country adhere to important public health directives to stay at home in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19, the Trump administration is putting both local residents and construction workers at risk," the senator continued in a statement, calling for the Trump administration to "heed its own public health advice from the CDC and halt this project in New Mexico during the pandemic emergency.”

At a press briefing in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, President Donald Trump celebrated the progress of wall construction, arguing it is an effective tool to combat narcotics trafficking and illegal immigration.

New Mexico's congressional delegation — all Democrats — have been critical of the wall previously, but raised particular questions about proceeding in the midst of a pandemic that had claimed more than 8,000 American lives as of Saturday.

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"Our state is in dire need of support from the Trump administration," U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., said. "Small businesses are suffering, we need more ventilators, and the list goes on. The last thing we need is to put workers and the surrounding communities at risk when they already lack the health care infrastructure to handle this public health crisis."

U.S. Rep. Xochitl Torres Small, a Democrat representing New Mexico's second congressional district, recently self-quarantined for 14 days after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus. 

She, too, questioned moving forward on the wall during the pandemic, yet stopped just short of echoing Udall's call for a halt on construction. 

“The best border security measures are grounded in a mile-by-mile analysis to determine what is most effective where, and a wall across the entire southern border is fiscally irresponsible and ineffective," Torres Small said in a statement. "Given the already limited healthcare resources in our rural communities, I’m concerned that continued wall construction in rural parts of New Mexico is also unsafe. I urge everyone to follow the CDC guidelines and the State Administration’s travel restrictions to keep our communities safe and our families healthy.”

At the very least, Olliver said, the housing trailers could be located closer to the port of entry, three miles south of the village center. 

"If there’s anybody with any sanity, they’ll get these things moved before the workers get here," she said. "We have industrial property down at the border. That’s where they should be."