A man races his bicycle along the deadly narrow highway from Ciudad Juárez to Palomas, Mexico, the tiny border town 80 miles to the west, as huge trucks flash by. I give him water, a ginger ale, which he gulps down, and a bag of almonds. His name is Carlos. He’s from Venezuela and he thinks it will be easier to cross at Palomas.

At the Tierra del Oro shelter in El Modelo, a man from Michoacán, Mexico and his family of eight have been waiting a year for an asylum appointment.

Leonel and his family are from Guanajuato, Mexico and have been in the Punto Beta shelter in Palomas for two months waiting for their asylum interview. They fled Guanajuato because of the violence there. Now they will have to return to it?

Two young men, one from Guatemala and the other Mexico, go to the nearby Gonzalez grocery store and help us load our car with chicken, eggs, beans and rice for the Respettrans shelter in Juárez where 60 people, mostly women with children, had been applying for an asylum interview through the now-discontinued CBP One phone app.

Is there any hope the ban on asylum seekers will be lifted?

The parallel issue is those who have been crossing the border illegally. As Thomas Friedman, the noted journalist has said, “We need a high wall with a big gate on the southern border.” He is right. We Americans are the ones who have to decide who enters our country and under what circumstances.

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Believe it or not, we now have that “high wall.” It started with the Biden administration’s negotiations with Mexico’s former president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) and AMLO’s agreement to tighten Mexico’s southern border and restrict the number of migrants headed north to the U.S. Then there was former President Joe Biden’s executive order further restricting asylum. Then the continuing Border Patrol security improvements like the construction of autonomous surveillance towers and repairs to the wall in places like the area between Anapra, Mexico and the Santa Teresa port of entry.

In addition, there were more deportations in Biden’s last year than any of the four years of Trump’s first term.

At a meeting with Border Patrol (BP) agents on Feb. 5, they described further security improvements, the termination of the catch-and-release policy, for example. Here’s how that worked.

Earlier, BP agent Hector Covarrubias detained two women from Torreón, Mexico. Suddenly he said in Spanish, “I know you two. I detained you yesterday.” Under the catch-and-release policy in effect then, he just released them to Mexico after that first encounter. In other words, they got one “free shot” at entering the U.S. illegally. That policy has been discontinued and the word is out the first detention will now result in severe penalties. The Border Patrol believes this is an important additional factor in almost completely shutting down illegal crossings in the El Paso sector which also includes all of the New Mexico-Mexico border.

Now we have Mexican soldiers arriving at the border. They were not effective when they were last posted in places like the wall between Anapra, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico, but this might be different. We have American soldiers going there. And, most important, surely legislation will be reintroduced to provide funds for much-needed additional BP agents. There was a huge hiring effort almost 20 years ago and many agents will soon be reaching retirement age.

More BP agents are the key, much more so than either Mexican or American soldiers.

Given these dramatic improvements in border security, can’t we argue we now have the “high wall” Friedman refers to? Couldn’t we say now is the time to refocus on those coming to our border legally to claim asylum? Why doesn’t the Congress get moving and provide funds for more judges to adjudicate asylum claims quickly? One of the BP agents said to us it was inhumane they should have to wait so long for a hearing.

On Jan. 31, when I crossed the border at Santa Teresa, two U.S. agents stopped me and asked if I had weapons in my car. I’ve crossed there hundreds of times and this has never come up before. If it’s a new policy, it’s a good one because it’s weapons illegally transported from the U.S. that have made Mexico’s cartels so powerful.

With our low birth rate, our need for workers in areas like agriculture and construction, and the positive aspects of migration like tax payments and low rates of criminal behavior, it’s time to claim we have Friedman’s “high wall” and refocus on those who want to come to our country legally. I have a glimmer of hope this will happen.

Morgan Smith served in the Colorado House of Representatives and as Colorado Commissioner of Agriculture. He has been traveling to the border at least monthly for the last 14 years and can be reached at Morgan-smith@comcast.net.