Thread: Town, church decide sanctity trumps security

http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/146769

BORDER LIFE: SUNLAND PARK, N.M.
Town, church decide sanctity trumps security
By Stephanie Innes
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.26.2006
A border community outside El Paso recently gave a firm "no" to a plan to add the security of the National Guard, deciding a statue of Jesus on the cross is protection enough.

As part of President Bush's Operation Jump Start, which is augmenting border security with the National Guard, the U.S. Border Patrol earlier this year offered soldiers to patrol Mount Cristo Rey in Sunland Park, N.M.

The mountain, an extinct volcano accessible by foot from Mexico, is a popular route for human and drug trafficking. Its treacherous terrain — just one dirt road on the lower north side — doesn't give Border Patrol agents much leeway in patrolling it.

But the Sunland Park City Council and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces — both part owners of the mountain — balked at the Border Patrol's offer, citing the sanctity of Cristo Rey.

And, on July 18, the City Council distinguished Sunland Park from other border communities by voting 4-2 to keep the National Guard away, by denying a right-of-entry permit to the mountain.

Demonstrating that border communities can have a say in how their borders are secured, Border Patrol officials decided to heed the decision.

"For us, it's a sanctuary, a place of worship," Sunland Park Mayor Jesus Ruben Segura says. "Having troops on the mountain is not appropriate."

Sunland Park is a community of about 16,000, but each fall on the last Sunday of October, a pilgrimage up Mount Cristo Rey attracts 25,000 to 35,000 people, Segura says. The mountaintop, which offers views of New Mexico, Texas and Chihuahua, Mexico, is 1,000 feet above the surrounding valleys and deserts and nearly 4,600 feet above sea level.

Pilgrims go up the mountain singing hymns and reciting the rosary. Fourteen stations along the trail represent the way of the cross.

The mountain is an official Roman Catholic site of worship, says the Rev. Ed Herrera Chávez, pastor of St. Martín de Porres Catholic Church in Sunland Park.

"If you come to church and the National Guard is there around the border of the church, where is the separation of church and state?" he asks.

"It's a great decision to keep them off. We don't want the mountain to be a big military station," concurs 47-year-old Juan Barrera, a Sunland Park truck driver who attends St. Martín de Porres.

The cross of Jesus was dedicated in 1940 in front of an audience of Mexicans and Americans. Locals say his open arms are a benediction over two friendly nations. Mexican worshippers, followed by fruit vendors, continued to make the pilgrimage up the mountain each fall, Chávez says, until border security tightened after Sept. 11, and the Border Patrol no longer permitted treks on the U.S. side.

Not everyone in Sunland Park agrees with the city and the Catholic Church.

"There are people from Juarez who go up and do graffiti and I don't know what else. I don't know why the city wouldn't want help keeping it safe," says 27-year-old Michelle Subia, an El Paso resident who attends St. Martín de Porres and has been on the pilgrimage up the mountain.

The Border Patrol does not have statistics on apprehensions of illegal entrants on the mountain, though apprehensions in the El Paso Sector, which includes Mount Cristo Rey, are up 12 percent this year. The mountain has a constant flow of illegal entrants and consistent crime, including robberies and attempted sexual assaults, Sunland Park Police Lt. William Padilla says.

Vandals also have chipped away at the Christ statue's toes. The Sunland Park Police Department has even posted a warning at the mountain's base, asking anyone going up to notify the agency first.

"Bandits come over from Mexico," Padilla says. "They are like mountain goats, and are not fazed by law enforcement. It's their home and habitat, and it's difficult for us to catch them."

Chris Rodriguez, 23, a resident of nearby Vinton, Texas, would prefer to have the soldiers on the mountain.

"The idea of keeping them off is beautiful, but it's not fair if people come across illegally and then end up getting help from our government," he says.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol, could have cited national security and made a case for monitoring the mountain. Instead, authorities accepted the City Council's desire to keep the National Guard away, though Border Patrol agents will remain.

"It's not going to be a contentious issue," says Doug Mosier, a spokesman for the Border Patrol's El Paso Sector. "We try to protect residents against immigration violations, but, of course, if Sunland Park doesn't want the National Guard on the mountain, we won't put them there."

● Contact reporter Stephanie Innes at 573-4134 or at sinnes@azstarnet.com.

Demonstrating that border communities can have a say in how their borders are secured, Border Patrol officials decided to heed the decision.

Hmmm, doesn't make much sense to me. While the decision makers in the border towns may not think illegal immigration is a problem, the rest of the country does. What is to stop the illegal from continuing his or her march into the interior of the United States? If this border area is in the United States, it needs to be patrolled and watched. How can one town make a decision that could impact the whole country?