Concrete Posts Proposed as Border Barrier

U.S. immigration officials, thwarted in much-criticized plans to build a ditch along the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, are considering the construction of concrete posts designed to block the entry of vehicles ferrying undocumented immigrants and illicit drugs into the United States.

The proposal, capping months of speculation about alternatives to the ill-fated ditch concept, was revealed this week to a congressional subcommittee by Immigration and Naturalization Commissioner Gene McNary.

The preliminary plan for concrete posts--described technically as “bollards,” the type of supports built on docks and used to hold mooring lines from boats--already appears less controversial than the ditch plan, which unleashed a firestorm of criticism from Latino groups and the Mexican government.

“I don’t think we’d oppose anything like posts,” said Roberto Martinez, a longtime San Diego-area activist and leading opponent of the ditch plan. “They already have all kinds of posts and fences and cables along the border. They don’t last very long, and they’re not a threat to anybody.”

However, Martinez and other activists argue that it is futile to attempt to limit illegal immigration without addressing its causes of economic and political upheaval in Latin America and elsewhere. U.S. officials say the erection of barriers, the hiring of new border guards and other enforcement steps can significantly deter the flow of undocumented people from south of the border.

Before McNary’s comments before Congress this week, INS officials were said to be considering plans to build larger above-ground barriers in the border area. But it seemed likely that such efforts would have been likened to a new Berlin Wall, built at a time when the original symbol of separation between the free and the oppressed was becoming a relic.

Thus, immigration authorities appear to have opted for construction of the less-offensive posts, which will not deter the huge volume of pedestrian traffic crossing the border but will block vehicles. One criticism of the ditch concept was that people might fall into the channels and get hurt, a problem that is eliminated with the plan for posts.

Plans for the ditch, which was to have stretched for 4 miles along the border in San Diego, were scuttled by INS Commissioner McNary after he took office in October. Supporters said the ditch was needed to deter illegal vehicular traffic, but critics responded that the 14-foot-deep, 5-foot-wide channel would have stood as a wretched symbol of the U.S. attitude toward Latinos and the Third World. The ditch became a public relations disaster for the immigration service.

Details about the proposed new posts remain sketchy, beyond the fact that the structures would be concrete and would be placed 4 feet apart--preventing the passage of cars and trucks. Although the ditch was proposed for the Otay Mesa area, a largely flat grassland east of the giant major port of entry at San Ysidro in San Diego, the posts are being considered for the Otay Mesa region and for a number of zones along the almost 2,000-mile-long border where there have been unauthorized drive-throughs, said Verne Jervis, chief INS spokesman in Washington.

About $2 million is in the INS budget to finance the construction of the barriers, Jervis said. The posts could be put up this year or next.

However, Jervis emphasized that the plan is preliminary and that any final proposal would be widely disseminated for comment from local lawmakers, community groups and others.

“If and when we make some final decisions on whatever kinds of barriers, we will make a specific announcement and make sure that Congress is aware of it, as well as the public,” Jervis said.

In San Diego, the most-utilized clandestine crossing zone along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, unauthorized drive-throughs remain a serious problem, particularly in the Otay Mesa area, although most of the undocumented people enter on foot. The border is mostly either unmarked or marked by tattered fences, cables and stone monuments.

In January, U.S. authorities observed about 175 vehicles entering the United States from neighboring Tijuana in unauthorized crossing areas, said Ted A. Swofford, spokesman in San Diego for the U.S. Border Patrol, an enforcement arm of the INS. In some months, officials say, more than 300 vehicles have been observed crossing illegally. The vehicles, many with U.S. license plates, can make it to the U.S. side in minutes; they then blend easily in with local traffic. Officials say the unauthorized vehicles often carry smuggled aliens, drugs other contraband.