European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 9, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Mexicans Wade the Rio Grande Border to Al de w Ink lie pcs our the Sif Nib age led ear i its ing As Een re a ode ded Ivel Small Canyon behind the but were caught on the what happens to them next they were All released Back across the what else can we do asked agent these Are mostly economic Refu Nice Little we Chase pm through the Hills each then Send pm to charge them under the Law would mean keeping witnesses on for every 100 we caught wed need to keep a thousand no not when in some nights we catch Over a thousand in this area another agent called the whole Chase an exercise in in we Bat Zero because at Best we catch Only one out of three who attempt to so he crosses again the next and again and again until be is the san Isidro policy is to prosecute Only smuggling operatives and Drivers of illegals after they reach the United and then Only after about four in less Busy parts of the Drivers Are prosecuted when first but almost All illegal aliens Are sent Home this policy is acceptable to Many Border the use of illegal mexican labor is a time honoured Border in the towns of South magic Valley along the Rio every Middle class housewife has a maid whose credential would probably not pass a hotel manager in thousands of illegals Are known to be working on the ranches that stretch across the whole length of the employed for the same reason As the maids wages that Are Low by standards but High by mexi if the immigration people really started to crack Down on illegals then the whole economic and political system in the borderlands would be against pro Fessor Stoddard senior officials dont have any maybe we could put up a decent Fence in the Elpaso metropolitan area to keep out the nuisance said immigration director but the real answer Doest lie Here at the it is improving Mexico Economy or cracking Down on employers who hire the Border patrolman Jack Willingham said in san what we Are doing is trying to hold the line until Washington does something about Washington has not Only ailed to Stem the tide of Ille it has found no answer to the crime and smuggling that have accompanied the upsurge in Border Southern California in particular has been plagued with child criminals known As Lobatos or Wolf who swim across the Tijuana Border to steal shoplift and engage in girls As Young As 11 years old have been caught soliciting in san a Phenomena repeated in Border towns across the continent police Are often at a loss about How to Deal with the jul one mexican youth has been arrested 26 times in four months in Elpaso on charges ranging from illegal entry through to misdemeanours but authorities have not been willing to hold him and he is inevitably sent Back the proliferation of smuggling that has seen As Many As 150 plan loads of marijuana a Day flown into the United states from Mexico during the har Vest according to drug enforcement Agency has finally forced Washington it has established a James Bon Type operation called epic Elpaso intelligence Center housed in five Story building accessible Only by a single elevator and equipped with the latest computer and communications the Mission of the Al a Sobasco Accord ing to director Arthur is to use Modem including a prototype Pathfinder intelligence to Zero in on planes and boats smuggling shown through the command Center that with its Banks of computers and brightly lit Wall maps made it look like a medium sized version of the Pentagon War a re Porter noticed that the Center was tracking is aircraft carrying secretly installed an official explained court orders had been Given for the devices be cause the aircraft were suspected of being used in smuggling director Fluhr said his Center coordinates with All fed eral agencies in gathering and distributing and its data Banks include details on every licensed Pilot and plane in the Fluhr conceded thai the problem of stopping the air borne drug traffic was in Arizona alone there Are zoo abandoned airstrips from War ii Days that can take a Small lie an indication of the scope of the traffic had come the night before with a report that a dc6 aircraft had crashed in Kansas with nearly 10 tons of marijuana while controversy swirls around its the Border itself seems impervious to much the harsh climate of the Mesa and mountains along the Call Dornlan and Arl Tonan Border have stalled civilizations an attempt to develop the attractive Valley land near Nogales into Ranc Hettes for City Folk Back East and Only the unsightly bulldozed roads on the Hillside remain As a memorial to mans Effort to tame that Wil beyond negates on the new Mexico Border scrubby valleys stretch into the Distant Blue Hills undisturbed by any obvious human this was the territory of Cochise and Geronimo and their Indian remembered in place name and legend but physically gone squeezed out by the pressure of settlers from the North and mexicans from the old Border hands decry the Fate that has befallen their favorite mexican Frontier by introducing the twin Plant concept that allows companies to manufacture part of their products in Mexico and finish them in the United the Border Economy with a resulting according to of the More in unsophisticated Juarez is no longer the fun town of their with High prices and High unemployment but some people in Elpaso believe that by the 21st Century it will be the largest City in Mexico after Mexico other Border towns have also with is seven times bigger than 20 years Tijuana is a million they can still Shock visitors from the North by vistas of overt but the once Bawdy life of the Border towns is tame by comparison with whats available in Many cities some longtime residents of the Border worry that the whole free and easy Way of life is the editor of the Nogales daily Alvin Stark whose father Hanson worked for the associated press and covered Pancho Villas depredations in neighbouring new Mexico in mourns that pressures Are mount ing too quickly for the Border to survive is free 1 hate to say but some Day we May have to have troops along the he there Are just too Many people Down there trying to get up professor Stoddard believes theres another we need to be Able to make local realistic deals with each he theres an Organiza Tion of Border cities and Mexico intends to form a similar for the first Lime were getting organized to handle this Border but in our own 1977 the stars and stripes Page is