Colorado & Denver News

by Alan Gionet
DOUGLAS, Ariz. (CBS4) ― Cameras that have been set up along the border between the United States and Mexico in cities like Douglas are helping border patrol agents, and so are citizens.

Agents who work in the border areas that have high fences have seen illegal immigrants watch the cameras and sometimes toss rocks at them.

When the agents are distracted in one area, illegal border crossers might cross in another. Other illegal immigrants often cut the fencing in Douglas and crawl through it. The fence there that installed less than a decade ago now has a patchwork of welded repairs at the bottom.

When CBS4's crew visited the border recently, senior border patrol agent Mario Escalante in Douglas showed how he tries to track illegal immigrants.

Douglas has small homes within feet of the border wall. Some are abandoned. Others are places where agents aren't welcomed. These days, though, many are homes where people want to help the omnipresent border patrol.

As CBS4 rode in the car with Escalante while he was on duty, a pickup pulled up alongside and two men shouted out the window, telling him they saw a border crosser running into one of the alleys, prompting Escalante to drive off in search of the illegal crosser.

Border crossing runners make deeper footprints than walkers, particularly where they hop fences. Escalante ventured to the end of the alley in question in the blistering heat and found the tracks.

Agents weren't able to find the man that morning, but they would have better luck later in the day when others crossed.

A few blocks away, R.D. Ramirez told CBS4 that "it's like there's an invitation out." Ramirez has lived within feet of the border, in one home or another, for more than 80 years. His parents crossed illegally. He was born in the U.S. and thus was always a citizen.

Border patrol vehicles constantly circle in the neighborhood. At night, the flow of illegal immigrants increases. Some run through the yards. Ramirez said that safety risk doesn't scare him because as bad as it is now, years ago it was worse.

"(It was) really bad," Ramirez said.

Ramirez told CBS4's crew stories of people popping up through manhole covers in the road across the street. Then they'd hop in a car, five or six of them, and be gone. Ramirez said he believes it's the poverty and corruption in Mexico that has to change.

"Get something over there on that side and keep them over there," he said. "If them people would rather work over there in their own country, if there's a place where they could work and make a livable income, I don't think they'd want to come over here."

In the late 90s, the Douglas area was known for its constant border traffic. CBS4's report on Monday showed how easy it was for illegal immigrants to move at will across nearly non-existent fencing. They ran or rolled across roads, then walked through tunnels. The border patrol is often overwhelmed.

But things have changed in Douglas. A 7 mile long fence was built.

While it's obvious that the fence it doesn't stop people, it does slow them down. Agents wait in trucks every half mile or so, and when crossers are seen on cameras, they get the call. Then it's a race.

"We bumped up our manpower," Escalante said. "The infrastructure, our lighting, more fencing (is worth noting.)"

If you ask Escalante if the flow can ever be stopped, he talks about the difficulty of building high fence in remote desert areas. Those places include miles of rolling desert that are cut by dry stream beds which are perfect for hiding.

Agents use sensors in some of these areas. When they're tripped, some are dispatched. They have night vision. They have cameras in portable observation stations. They have had a drone aircraft, recently added to supplement the flights of regular aircraft.

But the desert is so vast; there's not enough. All of the agents CBS4 talked with were pleased at word of more people coming on the line. The president wants the force to go to 18,000 in the years ahead, which is twice the size of the force when he took office.

"It's boots on the ground, absolutely," said senior border patrol agent Shannon Stevens about what makes a difference.

The motivation remains. Escalante does his job in spite of his family's heritage, and sometimes it breaks his heart.

"Because, for the most part, they're good people that just want to work ... and they're just looking for a better way of life.

R.D. Ramirez has seen it all his life.

"If I were in their situation, I'm probably giving myself away by saying that -- I'd probably do the same thing."

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