Fortress America: Part 1

first in a four-day series on border control

As the U.S. builds walls and trains agents to bar its southern door from the rush of illegal immigrants, some see only a policy of prison shackles and razor wire.

Story by Michael Riley
Denver Post
Photo by RJ Sangosti
Article Last Updated:03/05/2007 09:04:20 AM MST

Laredo, Texas

Gerardo Carbajal sits on a bench on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande, shivering. Caught that morning by the U.S. Border Patrol as he stepped out of the ice-cold river, he's exhausted, hungry, and he's going home.

At just 17 years old, Carbajal has sneaked across the border six times before. "It's never been this hard," he said, confessing that he would return to his home in the Mexican state of Guanajuato rather than try again.

Although he may not know exactly why, Carbajal knows this for sure: The border is changing.

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Building a Border: Part 2

U.S. officials want to make the 2,000-mile southern frontier inhospitable to crossers. But terrain, weather and human ingenuity have been tough on the technology.

Story by Michael Riley
Denver Post
Article Last Updated:03/06/2007 08:07:13 AM MST
Photo by RJ Sangosti | The Denver Post
San Diego

A 10-foot-high wall snakes along the U.S.-Mexico border south of here, and behind it another fence, steel mesh and even higher. Cameras sit atop 50-foot poles, and stadium lights can turn night here to day. It's a daunting sight that looks utterly secure.

Until you notice the dozens of divots.

"Everywhere you see a divot, that's where someone has gone over with a ladder," said Damon Foreman, a young Border Patrol agent, pointing to the nicks across the top of the secondary fence.

Sold for $5 on the Mexican side, the ladders are made of rebar and can be carried with one hand at a quick run.

"Ten guys are over that fence in a minute," Foreman said.

For Department of Homeland Security officials trying to secure the country's land borders, it's a hard lesson: A $5 ladder trumps a $30 million fence.

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Cross border, head to jail

Border sections in Arizona and Texas are hot zones for apprehensions, where the threat of long jail terms is replacing "the inconvenience of getting caught."

Story by Michael Riley
The Denver Post
Denver Post
Article Last Updated:03/06/2007 08:25:51 AM MST
Photo by RJ Sangosti | The Denver Post

Eagle Pass, Texas

Climbing out of a white Border Patrol SUV, agent Randy Clark scans the barren golf course. It's not much to look at, empty except for a hardy foursome hacking at the ocher-colored grass. The Rio Grande - low at this point in early winter - snakes slowly nearby.

Still, a wide smile breaks across the agent's face. On this golf course at this moment, "nothing" is exactly the point.

A year ago, "you could sit here and watch dozens of (illegal immigrants) come out of those houses on the other side of the river and wade across. ... Groups of 40 or 50 or 60 would come across in broad daylight, and just cross in a straight line," Clark said.

Groaning under the weight of thousands of undocumented immigrants who saw this dusty town on the Texas border as the ideal place to cross, federal officials decided in late 2005 to try something radical: Treat illegal immigrants as criminals, rather than violators of civil immigration law.