City dwellers on alert, living behind iron bars

But many sympathize with illegal entrants

Eighty-nine-year-old Octavio Hernandez, who has lived on Douglas' International Avenue since 1942, has installed bars on his porch for protection from intruders

By Tim Steller
The Arizona Daily Star

DOUGLAS - They buy mean dogs, build tall fences and have grown exasperated with illegal entrants crossing their properties.

But they aren't ranchers.

From Douglas' International Avenue - right on the Mexican border - to Airport Road on the east side, town residents too have faced an influx of border crossers this year.

But with a few differences. They aren't out patrolling the neighborhoods. They aren't petitioning Congress. And some say they are resigned to illegals trampling their flowers and their sense of security.

Douglas Mayor Ray Borane said he and other local officials are lucky the outrage hasn't been as strong in town as in outlying areas of Cochise County, where complaints and petitions have drawn the attention of politicians from Douglas to Capitol Hill.

``They're reacting, but they're not reacting with marching in the streets,'' Borane said.

Borane points to the town's majority Mexican-American population as one reason for the toned-down reaction. Others say the town residents have had illegals dashing through their streets and yards for years, and this year has not been much worse.

Beefed-up fence through town

Illegal entrants have changed their routes into the Douglas area since a new fence was completed between Agua Prieta and Douglas 14 months ago.

Until work began on that fence in mid-1997, only an easily cut chain-link fence separated the border towns. The ease of crossing it made town a favorite crossing point.

Now 4.6 miles of fence separates the two cities. The central two miles are made of tubular steel, welded into a picket-style fence and angled toward the United States on top. The outer 2.6 miles are made of corrugated metal landing mats, as in much of Nogales.

The fence forced most border-crossers into the outskirts of town but did not necessarily reduce the traffic near International Avenue. With the number of illegal entrants rising dramatically, many town residents think the flow has remained steady.

But the crossers have had to become more clever in monitoring Border Patrol agents, said one 52-year-old homeowner, a lifelong resident of International.

``When the guys go - those patrolmen - to get a cup of coffee or change shifts, forget it. (The illegal entrants) come: Not just one or two but 10 or 15,'' she said.

Even after the construction of a sturdy fence separating Douglas from Agua Prieta, and despite extra lights to help agents patrolling it, border crossers cause plenty of havoc to residents on the U.S. side of the line. Outrage in Douglas hasn't been as strong as it has been in rural areas of Cochise County.

Dashing from house to house

Once they make it into the neighborhood, the groups often make house-to-house dashes, trying to find a prearranged safe house. From there, they will travel in vehicles to the interior, if they get past the Border Patrol.

In finding the safe house, they hide in yards, trample flowers, climb roofs and clamber up trees, all the while arousing the neighborhood dogs into a frenzy of barking.

Octavio Hernandez moved to International in 1942, when most of people sneaking in were Fort Huachuca soldiers returning home from Agua Prieta brothels after the port of entry had closed. Now Hernandez, 89, spends his afternoons sitting behind iron bars on his porch.

He installed the bars to keep border jumpers from hiding there, but they still climb his tree and even break through his rosebushes.

The illegals also altered life for neighbor Angie Tippy, a 78-year-old widow who has lived on the corner of International and C avenues for decades.

``I used to go to church in the (early) morning. Now I don't because I'm afraid of somebody coming out of the ditch there,'' Tippy said.

She makes the 11:30 a.m. Mass instead of going at 7.

Leticia Luna, 26, and her husband, Miguel, 30, aren't so worried about people heading north for a job.

``The aliens, or the migrants - whatever you call them - they aren't the ones who cause the problems. It's the polleros, the guides,'' Miguel Luna said.

Guides have broken lights in the Lunas' yard, apparently trying to darken the area.

Someone also threw a rock at Miguel while he drove home in the early morning from his bartending job. It crashed into the frame of his car, but came within inches of smashing the driver's-side window, and perhaps his head.

A 41-year-old woman who has lived on International all her life said someone poisoned three of her five dogs. She too suspects guides.

City Councilman Robert Marrufo fears a worried resident will pull a gun on an alien in his yard and pull the trigger.

``To this point, (illegal entrants) have been more of a nuisance than an actual threat, but the danger is there,'' Marrufo said.

Sympathy for illegals

While the annoyance at illegals is widespread within Douglas, so is sympathy for them, Borane said.

``These people can appreciate the plights of the undocumented aliens coming over here, because some of them experienced the same thing,'' he explained. ``All the people I talk to, especially the Hispanics, say `Pobrecita la gente - pero no me dejan dormir!' (I feel bad for these poor people - but they don't let me sleep!)''

Of the 12,905 Douglas residents counted in the 1990 census, 63 percent reported being of Hispanic origin. In reality that percentage likely was higher but undercounted due to a reluctance to talk to census workers.

In Cochise County outside of Douglas, only 20 percent of the population was Hispanic in 1990. The primarily white outlying areas is where the groundswell of outrage spread this spring.

But there, Borane attributes the anger mostly to the rural way of life, not ethnicity.

``The people in the outlying areas are different because their property is their place of work,'' Borane said.

``My heart is with them''

Anglos in town also show sympathy for the migrants, while girding themselves against the onslaught.

``I have no animosity for these people. My heart is with them, really. But I don't want them sleeping in here,'' said Anne Williams, who lives about three-quarters of a mile north of the border on Douglas' east side.

This spring, more illegals than ever crossed through Williams' property. They use her heavily wooded back yard as a ``lay-up spot'' where they hide until a ride arrives.

One time, a 3-foot-tall statue of St. Francis disappeared from Williams' back yard. Eventually she found that migrants had placed the statue in a hiding place and turned it into a shrine.

Neighbors helped her remove garbage bags filled with water bottles, wrappers, shoes and clothing from the property this spring. Williams also has spent tens of thousands of dollars securing her home with iron bars, double locks and impenetrable metal shutters that roll down over her windows.