Work on Border Ditch Will Begin Within 60 Days, INS Leader Says

The U.S. government plans to start building a controversial ditch at the border near San Diego within 60 days, U.S. immigration Commissioner Alan C. Nelson disclosed Friday, insisting that Mexico should not consider the action “a hostile act.”

But the Mexican consul general in Los Angeles, Romeo Flores Caballero, interrupted Nelson as he was announcing his plans to reporters and told him pointedly: “You should be building bridges, not ditches.” Nelson smiled and said hello.

Later, speaking to reporters, Flores compared the ditch to “the Berlin Wall” and called the U.S. government’s action “narrow-minded.” He added, “It is not really promoting better relations between the two countries.”

Nelson’s statement Friday was the most definitive by any top-ranking U.S. official that the government has firmly decided to move ahead with the project despite the backlash it has stirred.

Governors Conference

Nelson and Flores were attending sessions of the annual conference of border state governors from the United States and Mexico. Gov. George Deukmejian was a co-chairman of the meeting.

The governors went on record as recommending that the U.S. and Mexican governments:

- Try to substantially reduce Mexico’s $105-billion foreign debt.

- Urge that public and private entities try to modernize outmoded highways, rail lines and telephones in Northern Mexico.

- Support expansion of maquiladora industries that use plants on both sides of the border to take advantage of cheap Mexican labor.

-Modernize border stations to end logjams.

Most of the governors sidestepped the issue of the ditch-- la zanja --although Texas Gov. William P. Clements, joining Flores, called for “building bridges, not ditches.”

Deukmejian has repeatedly been pestered by Mexican reporters about the ditch during his five-day trip. He has pleaded little knowledge of the project. At a press conference of the governors Friday, Deukmejian cautioned, “It is premature to conclude what the final decision (on construction) will be.”

On one point Wednesday, however, the California governor asserted, “It’s important all countries have the opportunity to control their own borders.”

Nelson, commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, was eager Friday to explain the U.S. government’s side of the project to reporters and government officials, especially those from Mexico.

$2 Million Cost

The ditch, which Nelson estimated would cost $2 million, is planned for the flat Otay Mesa between canyons on the west and foothills to the east. It would be roughly 4 miles long, 5 feet deep and 14 feet wide at the top, sloping at a 45-degree angle to 6 feet at the bottom. Nelson said plans call for the ditch to be built only with dirt, although some officials have suggested it be reinforced with concrete.

“Just a plain old vanilla ditch,” Nelson insisted.

Its purpose, Nelson and other U.S. government officials have maintained, is two-fold: first, to divert runoff water that has been flowing into Mexico and, second, to block the hundreds of vehicles that each month carry drugs and other smuggled contraband into California.

Many thousands of immigrants also illegally cross the border there on foot, but U.S. officials say the ditch is not aimed at stopping them.

The Mexican government has protested the ditch through its foreign ministry, and the proposal has been denounced in Mexico’s congress. Flores charged that the concept of diverting water “was contaminated politically.”

Nelson, while disputing accusations that Mexico was not consulted about the project, nevertheless said:

“We obviously don’t ask Mexico’s permission to build a ditch on our side to stop vehicles. . . . It’s on the U.S. side--obviously, we have the right to do things, just as they do on their side.”

Nelson said his “best estimate” is that the ditch digging can begin within 60 days and be completed by the end of summer. “Now, the only issue is the environmental review. . . .”

The project was approved by Atty. Gen. Richard L. Thornburgh last month and money is available, Nelson said.

But “nothing’s definite in the world,” Nelson added, conceding that the project could still be derailed by opposition. “But as far as we’re concerned, the idea is reasonable. . . .

“On the open table land of the Otay Mesa you have serious problems with drive-throughs. There are injuries, deaths, smuggling of aliens, drugs that we feel could be stopped by this very simple ditch, along with the (water) drainage. . . .

“There’s no reason at all that the Mexican government or people or press ought to look at this as a hostile act. I mean, the Mexicans didn’t like the (1986) U.S. immigration law. They said, ‘Gee, how can you have employer sanctions?’ ”

He added that there already are man-made barriers along the border, including fences, culverts and canals.

But Flores wasn’t buying any of it. “These are sensitive issues,” he said.

Flores said he could “not conceive of the country that is fighting to destroy the walls of the world building one exactly to stop the flow of people from other parts of the Earth.”