Life on the Border -- Part 2

The evening news has reported drug cartel vehicles blocking traffic on international bridges coming into the Valley from Mexico.  It isn’t unusual to hear of families seeking information about a family member last seen or known to be going to Mexico.  A local high school sports star is in jail in Mexico, arrested in a stolen car driven by one of his friends.

One day a rider on one of our tram tours said his friend had driven into Mexico at the one town most Winter Texans feel is safe enough to visit.  It is the town where many people go to shop or have dental work done.  The friend was driving a pickup truck and it was stolen right after he entered that country.  We understand that pickup trucks, especially those with crew cabs and darkened windows, are the preferred vehicle to steal.  A sign at the Pharr police station shows a club (used to protect vehicles from being stolen) and reads, “Never park your car without using the club.”  We never leave our truck without first locking our club to the steering wheel.

A couple of weeks ago, John was waiting at a local Chevy dealer while they serviced our truck.  He was talking with a Hispanic man who works for a company that has branches on both sides of the border.  He also has family in Mexico.  He told John that when his company wants to send people to the facility in Mexico, they send 10 or so people in a van, which they park right outside the entrance to the business.  If any violence erupts in the city, they all pile into the van and speed back to the US side of the border.  He said he no longer visits his family in Mexico because it isn’t safe to go there.

In February, John attended a lecture at the refuge, given by a historian from Roma, TX.  That man lives in Mexico and works for the Texas city.  He told the audience he lives in a beautiful town and he would like to invite everyone to come see it.  However, ”it makes me sad to tell you, ‘please don’t come,’ it isn’t safe.”

The evening TV news reported that local school bus drivers are being trained on how to respond if they have a bus full of children and someone tries to commandeer the bus.  That doesn’t do much to make me feel safe while out on the roads of the Valley.

We understand that the number of Winter Texans has been down in the past couple of years because folks don’t feel safe coming here.  Although we have never personally encountered any danger, it really is an unsettling place to be.  Last summer, during our volunteer stay at Lathrop State Park in Colorado, there was a decided bear problem at night.  During August, I did not feel safe going outside the trailer after dark.  Down here, the feeling is somewhat the same, even though we are surrounded by fences topped with barbed wire and a locked gate. 

In fact, this week after dinner I walked out to lock the gate on our compound.  A Hispanic woman I had never seen before followed me to the gate.  She didn’t speak any English, but indicated she wanted me to leave the gate unlocked.  I agreed, but when I told John about it, he was uncomfortable enough with the situation that he went out and locked it.  After he returned to our RV, she came and knocked on the door.  Since she couldn’t tell us who she was, why she didn’t have her own key, or why she needed the gate unlocked, we didn’t agree to open it again.  I told one of the other tram driver couples about the situation and they investigated and learned she is an intern in the re-veg division and doesn’t have a car.  Someone from town comes to bring her food or take her shopping.  We feel bad about what happened.  But the incident shows how old northerners react when they live near the Mexican border and are housed in an RV compound surrounded by a fence with barbed wire and a locked gate 

Like I said, we feel protected, but not safe.

Life on the Border--Part 1

This is the first of two posts on what it is like to live close to the U.S. border with Mexico.  Part 2 will come tomorrow.

Everyone in the country is aware of the issues of illegal immigration and drug smuggling across our border with Mexico.  During the time we have spent in Arizona the past few years, we thought we understood what was going on.  But you really have to live on the border to understand the problems.  Since mid-January we have been living within a mile or less of the Rio Grande and Mexico.

The local television news is full of stories about these issues.  In the past few weeks, local police have found 50 stash houses for illegal immigrants.  One house had 60 people staying there, all without water or electricity.  Apparently, the coyotes (the people who collect money to help Mexicans enter the US) give people the address of a house on this side of the border.  The people find their own way into the country then locate the stash house.  From there the coyote transports them somewhere north where, hopefully, they can find some work.

During the first half of April two vehicles carrying these illegals crashed on Rio Grande Valley highways.  In one instance, four people died.  In the second accident, nine people were killed.  The 15-year-old driver is in jail, facing homicide charges.  I doubt this is the better life these people were hoping for.

We hear on the news about seizures of drugs.  Last week five tons of marijuana was seized in this part of Texas.  We and others living in this refuge RV parking area have watched two seizures of large amounts of drugs on the road next to our RVs. 

We love where our RV is parked.  It is dark—no street lights.  We can see the stars at night.  It is quiet at night—that is, unless we hear the Border Patrol helicopter overhead or speeding cars belonging either to smugglers or the Border Patrol.

We understand there are sensors on all or most pedestrian routes near the border.  We often go running or walking on the levee near our RV.  Many mornings, about 5 to 10 minutes after we start down the levee, a Border Patrol vehicles rushes up to us.  Then the driver slows down, maybe asks where we came from, and tells us to be safe out there.  What sensors did we trigger?

At least six times a week we are scheduled to take refuge visitors down a trail to view the Rio Grande.  The trail has historically been used to smuggle guns and drugs and cotton and clothes and electronics and people to and from Mexico.  We have been told that there are numerous Border Patrol sensors along that trail.  We have seen clothing and other items left on the trail by people crossing to the U.S. from Mexico.  We have seen people appearing to fish on the Mexican side of the river and waved to them.  But we wonder if they are scouts, checking out when it is safe for people to cross.  This is just a fact of life along the border. 

Daily we see Border Patrol vehicles patrolling near our RV park, driving on the levee that goes through the wildlife refuge, driving and walking through the refuge.  We have seen agents carrying high-powered automatic rifles along the refuge road and through a nearby farm field.  Last week an agent carrying an automatic rifle walked walked past our tram at the visitor center.  We have the highest respect for the Border Patrol and the work they do.  We know they are working hard to catch the bad guys and we feel protected.  But, we don’t feel safe. 

Recently, we have seen them taking boats down into the refuge, headed for a spot they can put in on the Rio Grande.  We didn’t see that earlier in the winter, but we heard on the news that spring is the seasons when illegal border crossings increase.  I am guessing that is because more farm workers and other laborers are in demand up north.

They Can't Hide Here

Southern Colorado along Interstate 25 is not densely populated and the local county sheriff's offices aren't large and life is probably fairly quiet for Colorado State Troopers in this area. But yesterday and today they have shown criminals that they can't hide by coming to this part of the state.

The big headlines came today when Walsenburg and Huerfano County deputies captured the "Dougherty Gang," two brothers and a sister pursued from Florida to Georgia and on to Colorado. They were spotted in Colorado Springs, then in Canon City, and today a CSP Trooper saw their car in a gas station in Colorado City. To learn more about this great capture, check out this story from the Denver Post.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_18653096

(I hope you can find these stories. I am having trouble getting the links to work in this blog.)

Then read this story from the Denver Channel 9 web site.

http://www.9news.com/dontmiss/212835/630/Dougherty-Gang-arrested-in-Colo-after-shootout-

Not only was it a bad day to drive south on I-25 for these fugitives, it was bad for the many motorists and truckers trying to navigate the same highway. It was closed for hours. When we finished our laundry late this morning, we planned to drive to the north end of town where the trio was captured. The line of trucks and cars going south on the main drag through town must have been about a mile long. We later heard and saw that the interstate was closed.

Yesterday the CSP, with the help of Pueblo and Huerfano and Las Animas County Sheriff's deputies, arrested two people who had stolen a car in Pueblo County. The high-speed chase began in Pueblo County, sped through Huerfano and ended south of Trinidad. The two suspects ran from their car and were pursued by officers and eventually a canine unit. You can read a little about that event in this story from the Denver Channel 7 web site.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/28818914/detail.html

All in all, it has been a good couple of days for law enforcement in Southern Colorado. All of this action passed only three miles east of where we are camped. It makes us feel proud of Colorado law enforcement--and a little safer from the bad guys.