Border town exemplifies ever-shifting immigration patterns

By JACQUES BILLEAUD
Associated Press Writer

PALOMAS, Mexico -- No longer thick with people waiting to sneak across the border into New Mexico, the town square in this immigrant smuggling hub is lined with four empty school buses waiting for customers to haul to easier crossing points.

The border town began to emerge as a top staging area for smugglers five years ago when tighter enforcement in Arizona slowly shifted a stream of immigrants toward a stretch of high desert in southwestern New Mexico.

But Palomas' role as a gathering point for smuggling has diminished. A buildup of Border Patrol agents, surveillance cameras, vehicle barriers and National Guard soldiers have steered most of the immigrant traffic away from the neighboring village of Columbus, New Mexico's busiest crossing point.

"They are still crossing, but it's rare that they make it across," said Francisco Molina Arreola, a driver whose dusty bus was empty of would-be border-crossers this day. He said tougher border security has cut his business by more than half, even as other spots west of Columbus have grown more popular.

The shift is part of a common pattern seen in recent years: Crackdowns in one section of the border send immigrants and smugglers flooding to other areas, so the front is ever-changing. While traffic has slowed in Columbus, officials said immigrant traffic continues to rise at border sections nearby.