Thread: Love Across the Border

LOVE ACROSS BORDERS (CNN TRANSCRIPT)

And one border town in Arizona has a dirty little secret. Several border patrol agents there have been indicted. Their alleged crime, romancing undocumented women trying to enter the United States. CNN's Kareen Wynter has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT, (voice over): On the borderline in Arizona, a thin but heavily-guarded frontier between poverty and opportunity. A magnet for immigrants dreaming of jobs, a better life. But this Mexican woman found something else on the other side of the line.

MARIA TERRAZAS, DATED BORDER PATROL AGENT: Yes, it was love. WYNTER: A budding romance with a federal official. A border patrol agent. Maria Terrazas says the agent in the border town of Douglas, Arizona, was unaware of her illegal immigration status until six months into their relationship.

Did it ever cross your mind, I'm not here legally, he could get in trouble? The whole repercussion?

TERRAZAS: Yes, because -- yes, I tell him, you know, we have to finish it because I don't want you to have problems. I don't want you to lose your job.

PAUL CHARLTON, U.S. ATTORNEY, ARIZONA DIST.: There is a risk involved in ignoring the law. And especially ignoring the law post-9/11 as it relates to who is coming into our country.

WYNTER: The U.S. attorney in Arizona, Paul Charlton, says, that it a state that accounts for more than half the illegal immigrants detained, agents can't expect to be above the law.

CHARLTON: Much of this information that we learn about comes from the public. People who see the hypocrisy in agents who are, during the daytime, enforcing the law. And in the evenings, going home to live a violation of that law. People should be allowed to fall in love. And my point is, that there's a process. A legal process that's in place.

WYNTER: Agents have the option of deporting their lover or legalizing their immigration status. A lengthy process. For young, single men recruited to patrol this remote area, the temptations are considerable.

This fence is the only thing separating the U.S. from Mexico. Here in Douglas, Arizona, with the population around 17,000, some say it's inevitable for border patrol agents, both on duty and off, to run into undocumented women.

Ephraim Cruz was a senior border patrol agent. Now he faces felony charges for transporting and harboring an illegal immigrant, Maria Terrazas. He gave her a ride across the border one night.

EPHRAIM CRUZ, SUSPENDED BORDER PATROL AGENT: She's dated several agents. She's been at least in a supervisor's home. So why wouldn't I think anything other than, you know, her belonging in the community?

WYNTER: Cruz says he was prosecuted because he filed complaints about what he calls abuse of detained immigrants in Douglas. Maria Terrazas avoided deportation by legalizing her residency. Terrazas says there are still agents in Douglas who have relationships with illegal immigrants despite the legal risks.

Kareen Wynter, CNN, Douglas, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIP...18/cst.05.html

Now how can someone who has blatantly and repeatedly violated the law by crossing illegaly back and force across that border be able to legalize her residency?? Isn't that AMNESTY?? And what occupation is this woman involved, what essential service is she providing to the American labor force?? Apparantly she dates a lot of border patrol agents....is that her occupation?

They probably mean that she is in process and there for is not goingto be deported. While she is in process she can not go back to Mexico without a ban coming into effect which would be put on her entry for ten years.

I guess one could say that she crossed the border into his heart.