Guard makes border breachings tougherBy BARBARA BARRETT
McClatchy Newspapers
LAS CRUCES SUN-NEWS/NORM DETTLAFF VIA AP
Army National Guard Spc. Gustavo Gutierrez, 23, of Las Cruces, N.M., scans the U.S./Mexico border from the top of Radar Hill, near Columbus in southwestern New Mexico. He is part of Operation Jump Start.
More photosLOS ALGODONES, Mexico — Not five minutes after the boatload of migrants slipped across the Colorado River at dusk, the "dogcatchers" arrived.
First came U.S. Border Patrol trucks, tearing down a dirt road and cutting their headlights. Then the helicopter with its deafening blades, dipping and circling, casting spotlights across the water and the mountainside, again and again and again.
On the Mexican side, above the town of Los Algodones, Francisco Lopez watched and listened. For a month, he said, he’s been waiting. He sleeps under the shade of trees, scrounges food. Three times he almost crossed.
"They’re here day and night," said Lopez, 42, who traveled from the state of Michoacan, hoping to reach New York. "When I got here, I was surprised to see so much force on the other side."
The show of force now includes Operation Jump Start, which President Bush announced in May. About 6,000 National Guard troops are coming to the border, to reinforce the Border Patrol "perreras": dogcatchers.
The deployment is meant to discourage migrants from risking the dash into the United States. The increased security is pushing them into remote areas — including harsh desert and mountains — forcing more to use smugglers and leading those who are caught to make repeated attempts that sap their strength and money. Many walk for days with little food or water.
"Short term, you might see more deaths, because they think they can beat the system," said Lt. Col. Randy Powell, the commander of the North Carolina National Guard’s 252nd Combined Arms Battalion. Over time, he said, the death toll should drop.
The Guard is coming
Word has spread throughout Mexico: The Guard is coming.
"I read the newspapers," said Hector Encinas, 29, who lives in San Luis Rio Colorado, just south of San Luis, Ariz. He used to cross routinely to work in the United States, paying $300 a trip. Now the price is $1,500. He used to help others, but no more.
"It’s more hard right now," Encinas said, standing in the shade near an opening in the border wall where three Border Patrol trucks were parked. "They got a fence, more soldiers, more Border Patrol."
Of the Guard, he said, "They’re cool. They’re cool." He knows the troops aren’t allowed to make apprehensions, just to call in border agents.
Still, in the more urban Mexican crossing points south of Arizona, something has changed.
In Los Algodones, tucked into the crook of the border with California and Yuma, Ariz., the travelers who hope to sneak across the border — known as "pollos," or chickens — gather at dusk in the park.
Fabiola Salazar, 25, figures the smugglers the locals call "polleros" — chicken herders — make up 30 percent of the summer business at her family’s grocery. Every morning, the smugglers buy water and food for the journey.
Lately, she said, business is way down.
Dangerous detours
What sends migrants farther out are the images of the National Guard standing watch. The North Carolina Guard troops are scattered in strategic spots along the western half of the Arizona border, including some posts so distant they’re best reached by helicopter.
Near San Luis, Ariz., the troops work under camouflage nets, setting up observation points every quarter-mile on a levee near the Colorado River, above stretches of dirt and fields of tall, swaying grasses.
The scrutiny is pushing migrants toward a land so vast that travelers can walk three days before crossing a paved road. During heat like last week’s, with temperatures climbing toward 115 degrees, the migrants can’t carry enough water.
The Sonoran Desert is littered with their castoffs: empty water bottles, shoes, jackets. The daytime heat is blistering, and only a very brave man would walk the rugged landscape at night, said the Rev. Robin Hoover, the founder of Tucson-based Humane Borders Inc.
Yet people get through. About 60 miles north of the border lay evidence that Hoover thought came from a recent smugglers’ pickup: Two dozen backpacks were discarded among the cactuses. Some held deodorant or unopened tuna cans; Hoover unfolded a scrap of paper with a Florida hotel phone number scrawled across it.
Because more men are staying in the United States, more are sending for their families. More women and children are crossing.
Migrants pass through the cotton and alfalfa fields around Rebeca Moreno’s store, a quarter-mile from the Colorado River, ignoring the signs warning "Peligroso!" — danger. Pointing across the cotton field, she said in Spanish: "There is the river. The migrants try to swim across."
They’re caught, sent home and try again.
A man died right there, she said, pointing to a spot in the dirt road.
We can ONLY PRAY it keeps getting tougher and tougher every day.