{"id":25,"date":"2026-05-20T11:37:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=25"},"modified":"2026-05-20T11:37:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:37:29","slug":"far-from-dc-an-iconic-trail-is-militarized-for-trumps-border-wall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movingandmortgagehub.com\/?p=25","title":{"rendered":"Far From DC, an Iconic trail Is Militarized for Trump\u2019s Border Wall"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This story was originally published by\u00a0<\/em>High Country News\u00a0and\u00a0is reproduced here as part of the\u00a0<\/em>Climate Desk\u00a0collaboration.<\/em> Video courtesy of the CDT Coalition<\/em>.<\/p>

Read more Trump Thought He\u2019d Escaped the Abortion Trap<\/a><\/p>\n

Before the Trump<\/span> administration decided the country urgently needed to erect a hulking steel wall in southern New Mexico\u2019s bootheel, only a three-strand barbed wire fence separated the United States from Mexico in this arid stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I\u2019d see a Border Patrol truck, a rancher and a couple of cows,\u201d said Teresa Martinez, co-founder and executive director of the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, a national nonprofit that helps steward the trail. Now, she said, it\u2019s a \u201cconstruction zone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Almost exactly a year ago, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum transferred 110,000 acres of federal land from the Bureau of Land Management in New Mexico into the jurisdiction of the US Army. The emergency measure, he said, was spurred by a need \u201cto secure the border and protect the nation\u2019s resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

Part of the\u00a0transfer, which included land in three counties, involved the famed southern terminus of the Continental Divide Trail, a 3,100-mile long-distance trail that stretches from Canada to Mexico and snakes along mountains that create a natural boundary between river systems.<\/p>\n

The land transfer helps fulfill the signature promise of Donald Trump\u2019s first and second terms\u2014constructing a border wall between the US and Mexico to stem the flow of undocumented immigrants. Praised by supporters and fiercely condemned by critics, this latest iteration of the project\u2014which will add hundreds of new miles of fencing and surveillance\u2014is being funded by the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill, a medley of tax cuts, revocations of green energy subsidies and infusions of funding for border enforcement.<\/p>\n

Building a wall here, though, would completely transform the region, including the southernmost edge of the Continental Divide Trail, whose rugged solitude and quiet beauty have long drawn hikers to the area. That transformation began earlier this year when the remote and rocky road leading to the trailhead, historically navigable only by four-wheel drive, was smoothed out and widened to accommodate two semi-trucks hauling sections of the wall.<\/p>\n