Dragnet in San Ysidro

I was appalled but not really surprised by The Times’ story “15-Year-Old San Ysidro Girl Says Border Patrol Illegally Deported Her” (Nov. 17). As an Anglo resident of San Ysidro since early July, I have witnessed the routine harassment of people who “look Mexican” by police and Border Patrol agents who are omnipresent in this community.

Each day I see people--whom I suppose the authorities presume might be here illegally--stopped on the sidewalk and pressed to show identification or account for themselves; cars are often pulled over, their occupants questioned, their interiors and trunks searched.

It is my understanding that the Constitution prohibits this kind of summary police action, except when an individual is committing a clear violation of law. Since when is it an obvious illegal act to have dark skin and be peaceably walking along a sidewalk? Is the U.S. Constitution somehow not valid in San Ysidro?

If the Border Patrol cannot control illegal entry at the border crossing points, it should not try to compensate by, in effect, suspending basic civil liberties and courtesies on the streets and sidewalks of San Ysidro.

As an American, it embarrasses me to see how uniformed authorities treat our neighbors from the south. But now, with the claim of another American, Betty Romo, that she was illegally sent to Tijuana, denied re-entry back to the U.S. and is now emotionally troubled and afraid to walk the streets of her own neighborhood, it scares me, too. We see that even American citizens can be caught up in this bizarre dragnet with unpleasant consequences.

Though not as obviously brutal, the situation here today reminds me of how the authorities regarded blacks in the Deep South before the civil rights gains of the 1960s.

I’ve been wondering when the media would finally take note of this systematic abuse of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. Now, Betty Romo is to be applauded for sharing her story and giving us all pause to reflect. I hope The Times will give us a follow-up to her case and a broader investigation into police practices on the streets of San Ysidro.

PETER BARRY CHOWKA

San Ysidro