ARIZONA DAILY STAROctober 1, 2006Nature could trump border seal
 By: STEPHANIE INNES - Arizona Daily Star A craggy border canyon in San Diego is difficult to monitor and too rough to accommodate a fence, so the federal government has come up with an idea ---- it will fill the 230-foot-deep chasm, known as Smuggler's Gulch, using dirt from the lopped-off tops of two nearby mesas.
San Diego County's 66 border miles already have 40 miles of fence reinforced with nine miles of double fencing, seismic sensors, stadium lights, helicopters, horseback patrols and cameras. But the number of illegal entrants trying to cross there has jumped by 26 percent in the last five years, and authorities say they need more control. Altering the landscape is one way to secure the U.S./Mexico border, a boundary that crosses miles of rugged canyons and more than a dozen mountain ranges, with peaks reaching 7,800 feet.
The terrain also includes an estuary, 24 miles of the Colorado River paralleled by the Salinity Canal, 53 miles of the All-American Canal, 1,254 miles of the Rio Grande, rolling sand dunes, vast stretches of desert and canyons as deep as 1,500 feet.
Without major changes like the ones the Smuggler's Gulch plan calls for, much of the border cannot be fenced, an Arizona Daily Star investigation found.
Of the border's nearly 2,000 miles, 85 miles ---- 4 percent ---- are fenced. Another 61 miles have shorter barriers that keep cars from passing but let people and wildlife through.
The U.S. House of Representatives wants to add 700 miles of double-layered border fencing. The Senate voted in May to build 370 miles of fence and nearly 500 miles of vehicle barriers, but decided earlier this month to consider supporting the House's larger fence plan. President Bush has pledged 6,000 more Border Patrol agents by 2008.
Though rough terrain hinders agents' ability to patrol, reinforcing security with walls in rugged areas actually could help smugglers by providing an infrastructure ---- walls require roads to patrol them. Border fencing also would cost $2 billion to $5 billion or more and worries environmentalists concerned about water, wilderness preservation and animals.
"Parts of the lower Rio Grande are pretty wild. There are mountains that are really wild. There's the cost of equipment to consider," said Douglas S. Massey, a professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University who has studied the border for nearly three decades.
"If you want to throw enough money at it, yes, you could do it," he said. "But you'd need to fill in 1,000-foot canyons, grade mountains. And a wall wouldn't be any good if you didn't have someone to patrol it."
Smuggler's Gulch
As its name suggests, Smuggler's Gulch has a reputation for illegal smuggling of humans and drugs.
In a recent daylight visit, the shapes of swiftly moving bodies are visible on the other side, hovering behind brush and rocks, waiting for the right moment. A corrugated steel fence across the gulch ends as the canyon rises into a small mountain to the east ---- where the fence becomes so low it appears easy to hop.
Before the federal government began cracking down on illegal immigration in the San Diego Sector in 1994 as part of Operation Gatekeeper, agents apprehended about a half million people each year ---- 1,370 per day. Now, sector apprehensions are nearly 400 per day.
But Smuggler's Gulch remains a problem because it's so difficult to patrol, though the government says it doesn't have specific statistics on illegal activity in the area, about two miles east of the Pacific Ocean.
"Under harsh weather conditions, it can take 10 or more minutes to get from one side of the canyon to the other," said Richard Kite, a spokesman for the San Diego Sector. The fill-in project, he says, will reduce response time significantly.
The federal government says added security is necessary to enforce U.S. laws and to prevent terrorists from entering the country. But the plan to change the topography in Smuggler's Gulch has strong opposition.
Nearby ranch owner Carol Kimzey worries the new mound of dirt will bring flooding to her home, while migrant rights activist Claudia Smith says the effort will push illegal entrants into deathtraps in more treacherous terrain east of San Diego.
Environmentalists say the plan will 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.
A 2005 Department of Homeland Security report says the gulch needs to be filled to "enhance both security of the border and the safety of U.S. personnel."
In September 2005, the agency's secretary, Michael Chertoff, said he'd use his power to move along the project in the name of national security, applying a waiver that led to the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and the San Diego Audubon Society, which said the plan violates federal environmental protection laws.
Though federal officials say they have no cost estimate on the gulch project, it's part of a $35 million plan to reinforce security in the San Diego Sector.
U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican from East County and a vocal supporter of border fencing, places the costs of erecting the 700 miles of double fence in the House bill at $3.2 million per mile, or $2.2 billion for the whole project. Estimates for other types of fencing could top $5 billion.
Hunter spokesman Joe Kasper said there could be "land adjustment" projects like Smuggler's Gulch in other spots on the border, although he couldn't be more specific. The House bill says that if an area's grade exceeds 10 percent, authorities may use other means to secure it.
Sixty-one percent of the San Diego sector of the border is fenced, with its major break at Otay Mountain in the Otay Mountain Wilderness area.
"At the mountain range, you simply don't need a fence. It's such harsh terrain it's difficult to walk, let alone drive," said Kite, the Border Patrol spokesman. "There's no reason to disrupt the land when the land itself is a physical barrier."
Calexico's border moves with nature
Farther east, seven miles of the 76-mile stretch in the Border Patrol's El Centro Sector is fenced, all of it around Calexico.
The sector, between the Jacumba Mountains in the west Imperial Valley to the east, is one of the most geographically diverse along the border. It includes a canal, an irrigation ditch, a north-flowing river, mountains, desert and sand dunes. In the summer, temperatures climb above 110 degrees.
Illegal entrants often try to get across the All-American Canal on "anything that floats," El Centro Border Patrol Agent Enrique Lozano said, adding that a lot of them don't know how to swim.
East of the Calexico port of entry, the All-American Canal is reinforced by an irrigation ditch that looks deceptively easy to cross. But its moldy sides are slippery and there's no vegetation to grab onto, making it nearly impossible to get out.
Last year, nine illegal entrants drowned in the El Centro Sector. Lozano says agents rescue about five people monthly.
"Any more infrastructure would help," he said. "A fence is a deterrent."
The fence of steel bars and mesh near the Calexico Port of Entry is 12-feet tall. During the day, when the port is bustling with noise and traffic, people on the Mexican side often use blowtorches and hacksaws to cut the slats, Lozano said. Some use rope or homemade ladders to get over.
The Border Patrol also uses sonar technology in the area ---- tunnels have been found linking homes in Mexicali, Baja California and Calexico.
A gap exists in border fencing that cuts across north-south waterways on the border, including the New River in Calexico, which runs north from Mexico. The polluted river remains a common way for people to try to enter the United States.
Farther east, sand dunes in Imperial County stretch across 10 miles of international border in sand that drifts like snow and eventually would bury any walls or fences built there.
Fencing the 24 border miles of Colorado River in Arizona would be difficult, too, says Chris Van Wagenen, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Yuma Sector. He says the river shifts every few years.
East of the Yuma desert, the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge has 56 miles of international border, none with security fencing or barriers. Increased illegal traffic in the refuge has prompted officials there to ask for waist-high vehicle barriers.
Refuge manager Roger Di Rosa estimates building 40 miles of vehicle barriers will take two years and cost at least $30 million. There are no roads along the refuge border, so those would have to be built, too.
"Keep in mind, no single solution stands alone," Di Rosa said. "You cannot put up a vehicle barrier or a wall and walk away. It just doesn't work. You have to have what the Border Patrol calls force multipliers ---- barrier technology to monitor it, or else it will be breached." |