Town’s Lifeblood Pinched Off : Tecate Stores Feel Pressure of Border Closure

Residents of the U.S. and Mexican border towns of Tecate never realized how intertwined their lives were until Saturday evening, when U.S. officials barricaded the port of entry and stopped all vehicular and pedestrian traffic to and from Mexico.

Tecate on the American side of the border is a dusty, rural town 40 miles east of San Diego. It has a population of fewer than 100 residents, mostly merchants who run the 20 or so businesses there. On Monday, most stores were closed and those that remained open attracted few shoppers because the 75,000 people who live on the Mexican side were prevented from crossing the border.

“Practically all my business comes from Mexico. All businesses here depend on our Mexican customers. I’ve got the store doors open but I’m not selling much. I’m losing between $3,500 and $4,000 a day and I can’t do that for very long and survive,” said William Lewis, owner of the American Market, one of two grocery stores in town.

Lewis wondered what effect the border closure will have on his nine employees, who live in Mexico and who are unable to get to their jobs. “But even if they made the 80-mile trip to cross at Otay Mesa to come to work, I’d have to send them home. I couldn’t afford to pay them,” Lewis said.

Tecate was one of nine small border crossings on the 1,700 mile U.S.-Mexico border shut down by U.S. Customs officials Saturday at sundown because of alleged threats from Mexican drug smugglers. Customs spokesman Mike Fleming said that U.S. officials were tipped off last week that Mexican drug traffickers planned to kidnap an American border officer within 10 days. The threats followed the Feb. 7 kidnaping of Enrique S. Camarena, a U.S. drug enforcement agent, in Guadalajara.

Fleming said the border crossings will remain barricaded “indefinitely” because U.S. officials believe they cannot be adequately protected in the event of a terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, the San Ysidro and newly opened Otay Mesa border crossings are open and security has been beefed up at both areas.

“All customs and immigration officers authorized to carry weapons have been ordered to be armed 24 hours a day,” Fleming said. “I can’t say much more than that without compromising the security measures we’ve taken to protect our officers.”

Automatic Rifles

In Tecate, some Border Patrol agents are armed with automatic rifles and shotguns, Border Patrol spokesman Gene Smithburg said. However, Smithburg downplayed the significance of the extra firepower and said such weapons are routinely available to agents who request them.

But while U.S. officials said the alleged threats by the drug smugglers were serious enough to warrant the drastic action, some Tecate merchants who are beginning to hurt financially were openly critical of the decision to close the border.

“It’s a needless protest by our government. The United States is doing nothing more than flexing its muscles and saying ‘This is what we’re capable of doing,’ ” Lewis said. “There’s no guarantee that after we open our gate the Mexicans will open theirs. All we’re doing is spitting in their face, and that’s not good international relations.”