From Albuquerque to Pancho Villa – New Mexico
It was getting late when we arrived on Highway 180 to the border of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez. The border Patrol office is closed, so we headed to Sunland Park near a the town of Rancho Anapara, Mexico. Currently, a metal mesh fence separates the community from Sunland Park, New Mexico, while trains carrying goods cut in front of residents’ homes, disrupting the day.
On the mesa above the community, the bigger, newer wall creeps down from the desert and under the gaze of the Christ statue on nearby Mount Cristo Rey. We phoned the Border Patrol office just for formality, and informed them that we will be taking photographs along the fence. We were told that new fence is just finished and it is build on the German Normandy architecture all the way from Santa Teresa to Pancho Villa. After taking few photographs of the triple fence at Sunland, we headed to Pancho Villa for camping. It was hot at the Camping ground 90F no wind and the water from the faucet was close to 110F.
Woke up early 6:30 am the sun was already hot and dry. We had breakfast at the only restaurant in town the “Pancho Villa Cafe” . The story goes that in early morning darkness of March 9, 1916, guerrillas of the Mexican Revolution under General Francisco “Pancho” Villa attacked the small New Mexico border town and military camp at Columbus the site of what is now Pancho Villa State Park my bed room for one night.
Eggs over easy, Huevos Rancheros and black coffee, before heading back to Santa Teresa, which is a young community at the junction of New Mexico Highways 278 and 9. It is about four miles north of the Mexico border. The sun was already grilling everything from jack rabbits to human, the films were melting literally.
Douglas to Nogales – Arizona
The five-meter (18-foot) tall fence has a mesh woven so tightly that feet and fingers cannot grab hold, but it still allows people to see through. Steel pylons are set close enough to stop a truck from bursting through, and two meters of reinforced concrete underground deters any tunneling. The structure is designed to push would-be illegal immigrants and drug smugglers out into the desert where they are more easily caught, said the Border Patrol Agent.
11 am the sun was unbearable and headed straight to Douglas – Arizona via highway 9 and 80. We stopped at the Geronimo Surrender Memorial on Highway 80 just north of Apache, Arizona. The turnoff to the actual surrender site in Skeleton Canyon is just a few hundred yards south of there. We stopped at the Geronimo Surrender Memorial on Highway 80 just north of Apache, Arizona. The turnoff to the actual surrender site in Skeleton Canyon is just a few hundred yards south of there.
Douglas was founded as a smelter town, to treat the coppern ores of nearby Bisbee, Arizona. The town is named after mining pioneer James Douglas. Mayor Ray Borane says a fence will divide a community that has strong family ties across the border. Much of this dusty city along the border is separated from Mexico by a fence consisting of 12-foot vertical metal bars, spaced inches apart to prevent illegal immigrant from crossing.
Surveillance cameras are mounted on towers nearby, and Border Patrol agents posted hundreds of feet away in the desert scrub and flowering ocotillo watch for anyone who might try to scale, cut through, slip under or sneak around the fence. Though these fences are criticized for shifting would-be border-crossers to more dangerous and remote spots, the objectives is to make it harder for illegal immigrants to reach urban areas where they can slip into a car and head away from the border to find work.
The 5-mile-long border fence dividing Douglas, Arizona, and “Agua Prieta”, Mexico, is made of sheet metal and steel bars. Floodlights and surveillance cameras line the U.S. Side. Our visit here and to Douglas filled us with haunting images of a American ghetto splitting the town in half, separating families from their loved ones, workers from their jobs and farmers from their fields. I decide to skip Naco and the Minuteman Project border vigil, which has nearly shut down a 20-mile corridor of the U.S.-Mexico border to supposedly illegal Mexicans, has spawned the creation of similar civilian patrols from California to Texas. I went to Naco in 2007 , to witness for myself what was going on with the Minuteman Project (MMP), returned in 2008 to see the Minutemen building a 0.9-mile-long security fence on Richard Hodges’ ranch east of Naco.
Ms. Shawna Forde -inutemen American Defense (M.A.D)
The iron and steel fence is the latest project from the Minutemen anti-immigration activists that has placed itself at the sharp end of the immigration debate since launching a highly publicized series of border watches in 2005. Now, frustrated at what the group sees as the inaction of government, it has taken matters a step further, building its own border fence at a cost of around $1m at one of the busiest points on the line, in Naco 90 miles from Tucson.
“Until the Minutemen came along and really raised national awareness about this there was nothing like this,” says Shawna Forde Washington state , director of (M.A.D) “Minutemen American Defense”, “This was all holes in the fence, cattle were coming through, illegal aliens were coming through. It’s been a real problem for the ranchers out here. Ms. Shawna Forde has now been arrested and charged for the May 30th, 2009 violent home invasion and murder of an alleged drug runner, a 29 year old father, and his 9 year old daughter and the attempted murder of his wife in Arivaca, Arizona. Ms.Forde is accused of being the “ring leader” in this conspiracy to take drugs and money from the residence and then murder all occupants in the home.
Ms. Forde started (M.A.D) “Minutemen American Defense” several years back when she was kicked out of a Washington based minuteman organization for fraudulent use of funds which she denied. We spent two days with her last year and wondered if Ms. Forde is a criminally-minded individual who happened to latch onto the illegal alien minuteman border-watch movement. She believed organized criminals operating at the border between the U.S. and Mexico posed one of the greatest threats to the nation’s security, drug traffickers and human smugglers.
Pima County, Ariz., detectives on Friday described Forde leading a plot to finance her Minutemen activities by robbing suspected drug traffickers. She and two others are charged with a fatal shooting of Raul Flores, 29, and his daughter, Brisenia, 9 May 30 home invasion at a suspected drug trafficker’s home in Arivaca, Arizona.
She insisted to me that after they cross the border Mexicans are taking over area’s of our cities, neighborhoods, schools with their way of life which is: corruption, lies, drug dealing, welfare fraud, stealing, no respect for Americans and disrespect for American values and society. This is truly a sad situation, the wall serves purposes that go way beyond any security needs. The wall consolidates individual’s illegal ideologies through hate and killing. The wall severs the ties of thousands of Mexicans from their homes, schools, families, towns, farms, and water.
Glenn Spencer - American Border Patrol (ABP)
Palominas, Arizona is an historic site because right across the border, during theMexican Revolution, Pancho Villa and a force of 1000 men raided a small town east of the boot heel of New Mexico called Columbus. They killed 18 people and burned the town before they rode out. It was the only foreign military invasion on U.S. soil in modern times. (It is also the site where Coronado first crossed into present day US in 1540).
After photographing the fence, the border patrol told us about the new fence build at border monument 98 on the American Border Patrol’s ranch in Sierra Vista. The construction of the seven-mile border fence began on September 5, 2008 and was completed by Thanksgiving. Had mixed feeling since I visited the area with Shawna Forde last year. Anyway, the decision was made to see if we could located the fence. As we tried to find our way, two men in a van from the American border patrol intercepted our car. We stopped and asked for permission to access the private road to the fence , I need to speak to the boss… follow me!!
The boss is none other but Glenn Spencer -an activist who advocates greater vigilance in securing the United States-Mexico border against illegal immigration. Spencer is the founder of the American Border Patrol group based in Sierra Vista, Arizona. American Border Patrol is a private, non-governmental, organization with the stated purpose of informing Americans about the border. It is known for using small, radio-controlled aircraft and ground sensing equipment to track illegal immigrants, and then relaying that information to the US Border Patrol. For more than a decade, the group has warned of a plan by Mexicans to “invade” and “conquer” the Southwestern U.S. Spencer claims that the Mexican government is “sponsoring the invasion of the United States with hostile intent.”
In 2004, Spencer acquired a new headquarters for his group, based on 18 acres of land near Palominas, which was leased to him by a supporter. From this base, Spencer runs his Web site, occasionally flies tiny unmanned airplanes along the border, and plans to install sensors along it as well.
Separation wall
Will we ever really understand. What the “separation wall” means to the American and Mexican people. How will it add to poverty and the separation of people, communities, culture and resources both natural and commercial? The price currently is $1.2 billion dollars with lifetime maintenance costs estimated close to $50 billion.
The expenditure of building and maintaining the wall will prove exorbitant. “La Linea – H.R 6061″ (Secure Fence Act 2006) photographic book project protest the “injustice” of the increasing isolation of American and Mexican people in their towns and cities, and to bring consciousness to dismantle the “Iron wall”!
All photographs are courtesy fo Cyndy McCrossen Production.
