Thread: SAN DIEGO: FENCE WILL PLUG NOTORIOUS SMUGGLING ROUTE

REGION: Fence will plug notorious smuggling route

Earthen dam at Smuggler's Gulch part of 14-mile-long project

By EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

Saturday, January 24, 2009 4:56 PM PST

VIDEO


IMPERIAL BEACH ---- The rough terrain at Smuggler's Gulch once made it easier for criminals to elude police and carry contraband from Mexico to the United States.

But a new project slated for completion later this year should soon give U.S. Border Patrol agents the upper hand, agency officials say.

The project at Smuggler's Gulch is part of a federal effort to build a second fence across the westernmost part of the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego County, a plan that has been opposed by environmentalists, human rights activists and the Mexican government.



Border Patrol Agent Jose Morales talks with Jose Rodriguez of Mexico through the border fence at Border State Park. The park was popular because citizens of the two countries were allowed to talk and touch each other through the fence. That is no longer possible because the U.S. is building a secondary fence that will block access. (Photo by Bill Wechter - staff photographer)

For decades, the narrow canyon in the hills between Tijuana and Imperial Beach provided a pathway for smugglers, from Prohibition-era booze runners to modern-day Mexican coyotes who guided illegal immigrants into the United States.



Border Patrol Agent Jose Morales talks about the miles of secondary wall topped in concertina wire that stretches 5.3 miles from the Otay Mesa border crossing to the San Ysidro border crossing. (Photo by Bill Wechter - staff photographer)

But its notorious history is coming to an end.
The federal government is leveling off the tops of nearby hills to fill the canyon with 1.7 million cubic yards of dirt to make way for a security road and fence.

Human rights activists, environmentalists and the Mexican government have criticized the reinforcement of the border for years, but the federal government has brushed off the objections, saying it is acting in the name of national security.

The effort to build ever-higher and more difficult barriers began in 1994, under Operation Gatekeeper, which led to the construction of the first solid, continuous border fence from Otay Mesa to the Pacific Ocean, agency officials said.

The number of people arrested for trying to cross illegally into the country through San Diego County each year has dropped from more than a half-million before Operation Gatekeeper to about 160,000 last year, according to Border Patrol statistics.

In 1996, Congress approved legislation to build a secondary fence roughly parallel behind the first barrier. As a result, a five-mile stretch of fence was built between the Otay Mesa Port of Entry and the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

Smuggler's Gulch

But the federal government ran into stiff opposition from environmental groups on some portions of the secondary fence west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

The San Diego Audubon Society and other groups unsuccessfully sued the federal government to stop construction of the secondary fence at Smuggler's Gulch.

They argued the project would destroy valuable wildlife habitat in the Tijuana Estuary, one of Southern California's last wetlands ecosystems and a nesting ground for more than 370 migratory and native bird species.

Border Patrol officials say the project is a matter of national security and safety for agents patrolling the area.

The canyon area has been a notoriously dangerous place for agents. In the mid-1990s, agents were shot at with high-powered rifles in nearby Goat Canyon. In 2002, an agent was killed when her vehicle toppled into the canyon.

"This was a hazardous area for the agents," said Jose Morales, a Border Patrol spokesman, during a recent tour of the border.

In order to fill the canyon, a construction company hired for the project has moved 35,000 truckloads of dirt to create what amounts to a 150-foot-deep earthen dam. A steel-mesh fence about 15 feet tall and a security road are being built on top of it.

A 2005 Department of Homeland Security report said the gulch needed to be filled to "enhance both security of the border and the safety of U.S. personnel."



U.S. Border Patrol Agent Jose Morales watches the border fence at Friendship Park. The obelisk monument marks the boundary between the U.S. and Mexico. When a second fence is completed on the U.S. side, people will no longer be able to come together and visit near the monument, as they have for many years. (Photo by Bill Wechter - staff photographer)

Wired shut

Later that year, then-Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff used authority given to him by Congress to waive state and federal environmental laws that were holding up construction. The lawsuits against the project were dismissed by the courts.

Jim Peugh, conservation chairman of the San Diego Audubon Society, said one of his main concerns was erosion caused by the project. Soil coming from the area into the estuary could damage the habitat, he said.

"Now, all we can do is hope that the federal government ... makes good on its promise to make sure that the banks are as stable as they can be," Peugh said.

However, Chertoff's decision does not mean that the federal government will ignore the project's environmental impact on the land, said Michael Fisher, chief agent for the Border Patrol in San Diego.

"A lot of the construction that you see is to mitigate any potential environmental degradation as a result of what we're doing," Fisher said. "It's not that we're going in and indiscriminately bulldozing areas just to build a fence."

Fisher said the area will be replanted with native vegetation to prevent erosion. The project is scheduled to be completed in late spring.

The vegetation that is planned for the area is not likely to be sufficient, however, said Peugh, because of the Border Patrol's stated preference for short grasses, which would give agents better visibility, but may not be strong enough to prevent erosion.

Mexican opposition

In recent years, fence construction in San Diego and other parts of the 2,000-mile border also has created deep divisions between the U.S. and Mexico. Mexican President Felipe Calderon has condemned the construction of border fences and urged closer cooperation between the countries on immigration issues.

In San Diego, Mexican Consul General Remedios Gomez complained in a letter to the Border Patrol about the installation of concertina wire over the secondary fence between Otay Mesa and the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

"To install a razor wire in the border zone is not a signal that corresponds to the good relationship between our countries," Gomez wrote in the letter dated June 10, 2008.

She added that the "wire has the potential to severely injure the migrants that try to cross into the United States."

Chief Agent Fisher responded to the letter, saying the wire was installed to protect agents against "violent assaults," including Molotov cocktails and large rocks hurled from Mexico.

"As long as my agents are at risk, and until we achieve operational control of the border, I will continue to deploy the proper combination of personnel, technology, and infrastructure necessary for a safe and secure border," Fisher wrote in reply to Gomez.

New cooperation?

Human rights groups have organized weekly protests at the border opposing additional barriers. Activists say they hope to persuade the new administration to curb fence construction.

Pedro Rios, San Diego director of the American Friends Service Committee, said organizers have asked President Barack Obama's new administration to curtail some of the border reinforcement policies, and to allow border communities to have a voice in developing new enforcement measures.

"The last eight years have been marked by a lack of transparency, and that is something we hope the new administration will look at," Rios said.

The Obama administration has given mixed signals regarding its policy on the fence projects, Rios said.

Incoming Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, the former Arizona governor whose nomination was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, criticized the federal government's emphasis on building border fences.

"I don't think I would be giving good advice to the committee if I said that's the way we're going to protect the border," she told her Senate conformation committee on Jan. 15.

However, she also said that fences in urban areas could be helpful, because they help prevent those who are attempting to cross illegally from quickly blending into the population.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.


N C TIME . COM

Birds can fly can't they?

I would encourage the Mexican government to take care of their own so their people don't feel compelled to risk their lives coming here.

How can they resist the government working to keep more drugs from coming into the country??

Thank goodness this area will now be more secure.