Vigilante Scene Points to Tensions

On Thursday, a Times reporter and photographer visited the U.S.-Mexico border area, researching an article about the increasing violence against migrants by border thieves. The following unusual incident occurred in front of them as a vendor turned on a suspected thief he believed had robbed his son.

The suspected thief, shirtless and bleeding from a head wound, came charging down a border hillside, along a path parallel to the border fence, before stopping, exhausted, at a hole in the barrier.

He was soon grabbed by Carlos Simon Salcido, who had decided to mete out justice.

“I’ll kill you!” Salcido screamed as he kicked the shirtless man, who, Salcido later said, had robbed his 10-year-old son. “Te voy a matar! “

The man’s face was already bloodied from a beating and stoning administered a few minutes earlier by an angry crowd.

“I’ll kill you!” Salcido repeated as he tossed the man into a dusty ditch, flinging him by his hair. He hooked his belt around the man’s throat, continuing his attacks by kicking the fallen man’s face, neck and ribs.

“Turn him over to la migra !” a nearby vendor shouted, referring to U. S. immigration authorities. “La migra! La migra! Someone get la migra!”

The vigilante scene unfolded Thursday evening just inside U. S. territory in San Diego, along a hillside crossing zone that has become a favorite of the hundreds of undocumented people who seek to enter the United States each day from Tijuana.

The public beating illustrates the depth of frustration and fear voiced by migrants, vendors and others who frequent the border area. They say crime has increased dramatically in recent months as illegal crossings have soared.

Salcido, a light-skinned, athletically built man who sells soft drinks from a cooler near the border fence, explained afterward that his ire was raised when a group of thieves robbed his 10-year-old son, Joel, of the equivalent of about $50. Joel, a freckle-faced soda salesman who likes video games, was apparently one of many victims targeted Thursday afternoon by a brazen group of four robbers, who didn’t even wait for nightfall, migrants said.

During one attempted hilltop robbery, witnesses said, a gathering of migrants, smugglers and others turned on the alleged thieves and overcame them. One robber, who carried a pistol, attempted to fire, but the gun did not discharge, according to one account. At any rate, two of the robbers fled into Mexico and two others were captured by the migrants, who proceeded to beat and stone the suspects and to remove their clothing, emptying their pockets, witnesses said.

One of the men, his face bloodied from a rock that had bashed his head, apparently escaped and ran shirtless to the bottom of a hill, where perhaps 100 migrants had gathered. There he was caught by Salcido, the soft-drink salesman.

Eventually, some friends pulled him away from the irate vendor. The bloodied suspect was returned to Tijuana through a hole in the fence.

After administering the beating, Salcido went back to his stand by the fence, now lined with curious undocumented immigrants. “We need more San Diego police here,” Salcido said, returning to the business of selling soft drinks.