While I was on vacation with my husband in San Diego, we were fortunate enough to be able to arrange a brief driving tour of the US-Mexico border between San Ysidro and Otay Mesa. I was offered the chance to observe operations at the port of entry, but due to my occasional reliance on a cane to walk (thanks to my MS) and the requirement to be on my feet most of the time, I regrettably had to decline.
Regardless, our brief tour was fascinating, and we had awesome tour guides in the form of a US Border Patrol Agent and Public Affairs representative from San Diego sector. First we started out driving for a while between the two border fences - the low brown one (on the left) called the primary fence, and the tall mesh one topped with razor wire (on the right) called the secondary fence.
There were a number of spots in the mesh secondary fence that had been patched up because holes had been cut into it by migrants. You'll also notice the towering lights running in between the two fences that can light the place up like a Yankees game. There are also cameras and sensors located at intervals along the fence.
While we were driving along, we saw several areas on the Tijuana side of the primary fence were people were living...literally along the fence. Sometimes they had tents, but more often it was just a flimsy tarp stretched between the fence and some rocks. There was a lot of garbage being dumped over that low fence.
They also have to run across some incredibly varied terrain. Here's an image of Smugglers' Gulch, a popular transit area for drug and human smugglers:
There are several areas in the rockiest parts of these hills and mountains where the fence just can't go, but the Border Patrol knows they need to have a physical presence in those areas. One such area is the very end of the primary fence, which extends a few yards into the Pacific Ocean. As easy as it looks to just wander into the water and hook around it into US territory, the looks are deceiving. The currents are nasty, and there's always a Border Patrol presence there. Off in the distance you can see the Coronado Islands, which are used as a stopping point by drug and human smugglers before coming into US costal waters and picking a spot to drop their cargo. I've been to the southern-most point in the US in Key West, so it was pretty cool to see the southwestern-most point in the US:
Speaking of trash, I remember when I worked as an analyst in California that the Governor's Office had a joint program with the Mexican government to address all the trash and tires (many of them burning) accumulating along the border. The trash accumulation I could understand, but thousands of tires, and many of them being burned? Why? Well, the Border Patrol doesn't really know why either, and it was an odd sight to see so many tires just randomly scattered along the landscape. Many of them are salvaged, but others are burned for no apparent reason, causing noxious dark fumes (some of which we saw). It's quite a mess.
As many who live or have traveled to El Paso know, it's a strange juxtaposition to see bustling San Ysidro on one side of the fence and the slums of Tijuana on the other. Some of the worst and most violent neighborhoods in Tijuana are literally a stone's throw away, and they have the tactical advantage (if narcos ever decided to use it) of being on higher ground. The Border Patrol has actually built up quite a bit of the paved border road to raise it up and minimize this elevation discrepancy, and also reduce response time to incidents to just a matter of minutes.
The tour was too short, but as I was often reminded by my husband, we were there on vacation and wanted to squeeze in only a little bit of time for work-related things. I'm hoping to do another tour maybe in Brownsville or McAllen during my book tour in October because every stretch of border has its own challenges and nuances. My many thanks to USBP and CBP in San Diego for taking the time to give us a peek into your work!
The EPA is all over the tire issue: LOL.
http://www.epa.gov/Border2012/fora/waste-forum/tire-faq.html
Posted by: russell1200 | July 21, 2011 at 07:38 PM
@russell1200 - Thanks so much for posting this!
Posted by: Sylvia Longmire | July 21, 2011 at 08:22 PM