TheBanyanTree: Border Drama

[Tom Smith]

Sunday I went flying small model airplane gliders out at Otay
Mesa, south of San Diego, next to the border with Mexico. 
This area is also used by skydivers for a landing zone, and
lately has been the seen of quite a bit of illegal border
crossings.  Occasionally Groups of 8 - 10 people can be seen
alternately running and walking single-file through the
coastal sage/scrub and tall grass, for the most part along
washes and low areas.

We lose model airplanes over the fence occasionally and it
has been tempting to just climb over the fence, get them,
and re-enter the same way.  To get caught doing that results
in a $10,000 fine, or so I was told by a friend by a by-the-
book Border Patrol officer.  

Every Sunday afternoon mostly young thrill-seekers drop out
of the sky there, attached to parachutes.  For that reason I
did't talk particular notice about one person I saw standing
out in the landing zone near by.  The only problem was I
couldn't see a parachute..  Turns out the mystery person was
a border crosser who got separated from her group.  Some
guys I was with walked up and talked to her and recruited
help from others they knew who spoke Spanish.  She had come
all the way from Guatalajara.  We gave her some water and a
chair to sit in under a shade canopy.  She wanted to
surrender to the Border Patrol.  A Border Patrol officer
came by after a while and asked her if there were others
with her and how many.  She said "none."  About a half hour
later more Border Patrol vehicles appeared in the vicinity
and just as I was leaving I saw a group of about 10 being
marched to a vehicle to be taken away.

I've pondered some about how different my attitude would be
toward a belligerent male as compared to this crying lost
abandoned woman in similar circumstances.  

Tom



		
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