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Bustling San Ysidro frets about business amid security increases
By Mary Anne Ostrom
Mercury News
SAN YSIDRO - Here, in California's busiest border town, signs greeting visitors proclaim ``Commerce Without Borders.'' For empanada and tamale vendor Rubén Durán, it works like this:

``I live here. In Mexico, I sleep,'' laughs the Mexican resident, who starts his 16-hour days at 4 a.m. in Tijuana, traveling with visa in hand, to reach his small food stand that sits just a few hundred feet north of Mexico. Now Durán is worried.

News that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will send 1,000 National Guardsmen to help federal Border Patrol agents crack down on illegal immigration could hurt his small business.

San Ysidro, a city of 30,000 that lies about 15 miles south of downtown San Diego, is on the front lines of the border struggle.

Most crossings are legal here, through an official U.S. Port of Entry checkpoint. Making it over two border fences, with round-the-clock patrols, is nearly impossible. Still, many residents and workers here say they don't like the message that more guards at the border will send, nor do they believe the move will stem the flow of Mexicans seeking work.

Others welcome the help, and say the troops will bring order to what has become an out-of-control system of immigration enforcement.

Durán, the tamale vendor, is among the doubters.

``This stand has been good to me. Why do it?'' Durán said in Spanish of the governor's decision. ``It's not a good idea.''

His customers are predominantly commuters who live in Mexico, where the cost of living is cheaper, and work for higher pay in the United States.

San Ysidro typifies the symbiotic relationship between California and Mexico, where families, friends, employers and employees live cross-border lives with little thought of daily treks back and forth.

For many, their border location has meant huge commercial advantages. It has helped foster rapid growth that today gives San Ysidro the distinction of being the busiest land-based border checkpoint in the world. On a daily basis, the U.S. Border Patrol says, about 55,000 cars and as many as 35,000 pedestrians legally enter the United States at San Ysidro. That does not include an unknown number of illegal immigrants, many of whom are smuggled across in vehicles.

As in other places along the 2,000-mile border that stretches from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico and forms the southern boundary of four states, the issue of keeping illegal immigrants out of the United States is a complex one.

``Border life is different than anywhere else. Armed guards at the border, how inviting is that?'' asked San Ysidro Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Jason Wells, who said he was speaking personally, and not for the chamber. ``We all want a secure border. But it's a perception issue, and the perception could hurt us commercially.''

Others, though, said there needs to be a more orderly process to immigration, and they understand the U.S. calls for more border enforcement. With Schwarzenegger's decision, 1,000 California National Guard members will join about 1,400 Border Patrol agents currently assigned to the state's 130-mile section of border. Guard troops will perform non-law-enforcement functions, such as construction and vehicle maintenance, freeing regular Border Patrol personnel to catch and detain illegal border crossers.

``It will be business as usual, except for the smugglers,'' said chamber board President Thomas Currie, who predicted protests against sending the National Guard would be more damaging to local businesses than additional troops. ``We've had militia in fatigues and with guns before. People are used to it,'' he said, adding most will be deployed to out-of-the-way locations where most of the illegal crossings occur.

Already Schwarzenegger's decision was having consequences. Friday, the chamber was seeking help from the San Diego police to deal with a planned protest today by opponents of U.S. immigration overhaul proposals and Schwarzenegger's agreement with the White House to deploy troops. A protest in May shut most businesses for several hours.

Fernando Méndez said he hopes troops and additional border fences now under construction will dissuade illegal immigrants from making the dangerous trek.

``Too many end up dead,'' said Méndez, who was heading with his wife and three sons, on a day visa, to shop for perfume in Los Angeles that he then plans to resell in Tijuana.

Many in San Ysidro say they believe that even with troops and higher fences, it will be very hard to dissuade illegal immigrants coming from Mexico.

``It's not like they are coming from across the ocean. They are coming from right here,'' Julio Sanchez said, as he pointed to the twinkling lights in the hills of Tijuana that rise behind the border checkpoint.

``It's not going to work. Nobody can stop it,'' added Sanchez, 25, a Watsonville native and U.S. citizen who works at a San Ysidro convenience store. ``Just like me, they are looking for better jobs.''


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Contact Mary Anne Ostrom at mostrom@mercurynews.com or (40 920-5574.