European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - June 09, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Oof we everything but what a Frontier is supposed to b by Peter Arnet associated press my a he legendary wild Days of the mexican american Border were supposed to have ended ii years ago when the last Cowboy Rode beyond Ihei desert suns and Inlo a thousand movie reruns ii on the late late but new stresses Are clearly visible on the 1.966-mile Frontier that begins in California witha single strand of wire alongside Tijuana s bullring by the sea darts unmarked across Barren mountains an vast Sand tracts to the Rio Grande and ends where Gulf coast Waters Lap against the shrimp fleets moored at port Isabel vulnerability of this Long lonely Border to Viola Tion used to be partly modified by its remoteness but Theair plane the Aulo Mobil the superhighway and the pres sures of population have changed All that. Today the amiable Border relations Between the United states and Mexico hard won after a Century of Stormy dispute Are threatened by what american officials see As a continued massive disregard of . Laws against smuggling and illegal entry. Congressional have demanded that something be done about the developing chaos and pres ident Carter is preparing a legislative package. Mexican officials Are a two week trip along the Border and visits to its cities and hamlets a reporter saw that lawbreaking was not Only massive bul sometimes condoned by local Resi dents. Dependent economically and culturally upon each other to a degree rarely found in any other major world Frontier people living on both sides Are fighting Lopre serve the traditional this despite the Rise of sinister crime ranging from White slaving through gun running to raids on order supermarket by gangs of mexican children. Overburdened . Border aul homilies seem powerless Lodo much about the situation other than record the burgeoning everyone around Here bypasses the Laws be cause they were written in faraway Washington. . By people who Don l understand says or Ollwyn Stod Dard of the University of Texas at Al paso who is presi Dent of the associate of borderlands scholars that includes both mexicans and there is a Border and we patrol it he said. But in reality there arc local adjustments. We give the impression we follow the Laws but actually we manipulate cushioning the sensitivity of Border people to out Side criticism is their history of Frontier inter changes that go Back 250 years to when the highways were just Burro tracks and the population Only Indi ans and Spanish missionaries. Traffic has grown so thai last year there were 42 Mil lion Border Crossings Inlo Elpaso tex., from its sister City of Juarez across the Rio Grande. Local official regard the Region the eighth largest cily in the United states with its combined population of one . Tex., looks with equally fond eyes upon Laredo. Mex. Just a Bridge away and icy jointly Benefi from being the most geographically Ideal Border station for Midwest exporters to Mexico. As in the other Border civics some mexican children Al tend private schools in american Laredo further Leavening the mix and Biling Malily is Coin Mon to Bolh sides of the we be always had far More harmonious re la Lions with mexicans in the Border towns than further North " said Harlingen a incr Evelyn Wallace. There Are now so Many Spanish surname residents on the United sales Side with a 98 per cent figure in Star county Tex not so unusual thai some observers Are joking that the Rio Grande Border has already move North Inlo Texas. You gel the same feeling further Wesl. A storekeeper at Nogales. Ariz., discussing the Abun dance of Spanish surname customers says. This is still Mexico. The United Stales starts Al Avalo. 18 Miles fur Thip economic interdependence is so profound that when the peso was devalued about half last september business slumped badly in All the american Border cities that had prospered on mexican Trade. Elpaso received tracks across Field from one night s exodus of illegal immigrants from Tijuana Mexico foreground to . Mexican Sells cheap cigarettes on Bridge at Laredo. Group of illegal immigrants is returned to Mexico. Page 14 the stars and stripes 60 per cell less business from across the River an nordic blow that helped close Down the while Housep Artmen store one of the largest in the City situation is Only now beginning to stabilize. For such cultural and economic reasons Border pet lend to look Wilh greater tolerance on Frontier Wron Ings than does the Resl of the country and in no Are this More evident than in the passage of illegal entrant there has never been an immigration Law Tunt toning on the Border says professor Stoddard an his remark comes True each Day As the Sun rises othe Concrete walled Rio Grande where the Row trickles a few inches deep Between Elpaso a Juarez. Already a dozen Young mexicans Are preparing paddle across carefully rolling up their trousers an drying their shoes and socks. They squat at the other i while a . Patrol car Rolls by the embankment then they scramble up and Over to a Maze of rail Yara inc american Side. In the can scr of Lown a score of mexican children. Scurrying across the Black owned by the Atson. Topeka and the Santa be Railroad which Strador the Rio Grande Border and is open Al both ends. A toll500 illegals were clocked crossing Over the Bridge in hour last year. Charles Perez the director of Rimml lion for the Region fined the Railroad company $12 and ordered Hal the Bridge be closed off. The comp has appealed the decision and the Bridge remains open. But while the Juarez illegals Are blatantly bold in ii Daylight Crossings into Elpaso where they an hour or two to work or meet friends before Reti ing Home the Silva lion Al Tijuana and the neighbor american Border Community of san Isidros has grow resemble guerrilla Are even regular shool pm especially dead Man s Canyon a deep Rock strewn Ravine that 1from the Tijuana slum suburb of colonial Libertad the United Stales a popular Clandestine entry pol playground for bandits from both sides of the Border prey on the illegals and the most dangerous part of whole Frontier according to the american Border Patten who watch and listen from the Mesa above to noises Esli maled one third of All the illegal Frontier or Ings pass through the few Miles of these fall Califon borderlands Hal quickly merge into the towering mountains. In All of 1966, 15,278 illegal aliens were Cai in this Region. Now we pick up thai Many in two we said Robert Mccord assistant patrol chief at the Ysidro Headquarters. To a reporter a freshly ploughed Field on Uia Merican Side of Tijuana seemed to have been ova run by stampeding buffaloes so numerous were to tracks of the illegals the following morning. Each night the Bright lights of Tijuana reflect on Zarre scenes on the . Side of the Mesa. As Holiday ers clog the mexican City s bars restaurants and inight shops a helicopter roars overhead its search flashing along the de Cripi Fence that in some pit Marks the Border. Sometimes in swoops Down on a or of people running across a Field or clustered along rim of smugglers Canyon. The chopper hovers Low � threatening to bean any Man with a skid if he no while Border patrol agents Rush through the Brittle so on patrol squad is obeying the radioed inst Lions of an agent who is focusing a Vietnam Vint Starlight scope on a Hillside where he has dete movement. Another Vietnam relic an electronic a hidden in the ground had warned thai traffic was Otway. Also reminiscent of Vietnam was agent Jack Willham s War jargon we Are denying them the night his patrolmen swooped Down on the group he had t the illegals seemed to be everywhere. While a Porter was interviewing several illegals being held i lumberyard Iive More surfaced from a drainpipe outran ysidro1 s Macdonald s restaurant. They had boat a City bus and were gone before they could be Little later while i was going to bed in a to Lodge four illegals came running out of the Mouth thursday j
