Headline as printed: "Blurring the line"

By THADDEUS HERRICK
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle San Antonio Bureau

BOQUILLAS DEL CARMEN, Mexico Hundreds of miles to the west in El Paso,
Border Patrol agents blanket the TexasMexico boundary. To the east in
Brownsville, the government is launching a similar strategy of deterrence,
relying on fences, floodlights and more manpower to turn back illegal
immigrants.

But at this crumbling frontier hamlet across from Big Bend National Park,
Mexicans come and go between the two countries without ever seeing a
federal agent. The United States is only a 60second boat ride away.

For decades, this was legal encouraged even, by the U.S. National Park
Service. Indeed, Big Bend was conceived as a sort of international peace
park, a place where Mexicans and Americans could come together to behold
the steep canyons, vast desert and imposing mountains of their shared border.

U.S. authorities considered the crossings at Boquillas and Santa Elena 50
miles up river informal ports of entry. That classification nourished the
tourist trade, with 30,000 or so Americans each year boarding aluminum
skiffs to spend an afternoon in Mexico, drinking beer, buying trinkets and
soaking up the color of the border.

The 200 residents of Boquillas, on the other hand, have long crossed to buy
essentials at the nearby park store, where they also pick up their mail.
After all, the closest Mexican city to this town of adobe homes and cement
block buildings is Melchor Muzquiz, a rigorous sixhour bus ride away.

But last year, inspired by the war on drugs and the push to curb illegal
immigration, Congress mandated that crossings cease at Boquillas and about
a dozen other informal ports of entry between Del Rio and Presidio. The new
immigration law reinforced a 1986 U.S. Customs rule that requires people
entering the country to do so at an official crossing.

"You must cross at a designated port of entry," said Gurdit Dhillon,
director of customs in El Paso, which is responsible for the Big Bend area.
"Anything less is a violation of the law."

Still, on this summer afternoon, a day when the charcoal thunderclouds
gathering over Mexico's 8,000 foot Sierra del Carmens manage to hold the
heat to double digits, the people boatsman David Padilla ferries back and
forth are little worried about breaking the law.

Penalties range from a $5,000 fine to prison time, but so far no one has
been cited. Last year a customs official in Presidio threatened a
crackdown, but neither his agency nor the INS has acted. The Park Service,
meanwhile, is lobbying to keep the crossings open.

"Now we're in the United States," says Padilla as he paddles his skiff from
the rocky flats on the Mexican side into midstream. He is smiling because
he knows that despite the proclamations of U.S. officials the
international boundary still means little here. These are the borderlands,
not quite Mexico and certainly not America.

Padilla maneuvers his boat across the swiftly moving river to a muddy
landing on the U.S. side surrounded by brushy mesquite and dense tamarisk.
Residents of Boquillas travel for free. Tourists pay $2 round trip.

Almost all of the people in Boquillas make their living off of tourists. At
the river's edge on the Mexican side, a dozen or so men stretch out on the
rocks listening to conjunto music from a nearby pickup truck. They rent
mules ($3) and horses ($5) to tourists who want to make the mile or so trek
into town. For a price, they'll even provide a car.

"Without the crossing, we'd have no work," said Juan Francisco Valdez, a
middleaged Mexican on the river bank.

In town which boasts a restaurant, bar, guest house, schoolhouse and two
churches locals sell everything from fossils and fool's gold to bean
burritos and lukewarm beer. (There is no electricity.) Oldtimer Joaquin
Luna sings corridos at a table in the Park Bar, taking turns with Dorita
Sanchez, a hardluck expatriate, who strums Willie Nelson tunes.

Visitors can stroll from one end of town to the other in 15 minutes. At
Falcon's Restaurant the menu consists of burritos, tacos, Carta Blanca,
Corona and Coke. At the nearby hot springs, where locals still bathe, the
water temperature is always 105 degrees.

Earlier this summer the crossing at Boquillas was closed to park tourists
for several weeks while authorities investigated a drowning. Mexicans still
could get to the park store, but with no American visitors in Boquillas,
they had little money to spend on the U.S. side of the river.

"We suffered," said Felipe Sanchez, a tour guide. "We had no money for
things like milk and gas, so we did without it."

If Boquillas suffered when tourist traffic was stopped, it would most
likely perish if the crossing were closed altogether. Presidio is the
nearest legal U.S. port of entry. But even though it is only about 100
miles away, the roads are so bad you literally can't get there from here.
To the east the closest official port is Del Rio, a 14hour bus ride.

Few people here seem to think that journey is in their future. But U.S.
Customs, championing a 1995 antidrug effort known as Operation Hardline,
is not open to interpretations of its law. Authorities already have closed
the bridge at La Linda, another informal crossing 20 miles down river, in
the wake of a drug bust.

"We have a mission to keep narcotics out," said Dhillon. "Unfortunately the
majority of people suffer because of a small minority of willful violators."

The Immigration and Naturalization Service has been less aggressive,
assigning just two Border Patrol agents to the entire park. But "everyone
(including U.S. citizens) entering the United States must apply for
admittance at a legal port," said Daniel Kane, an INS spokesman in El Paso.
"If not, we call that an illegal entry."

Fortunately for Boquillas, it has as an ally the National Park Service,
which sees the Mexican border villages as geographic treasures with
economic and cultural links to Big Bend. It has launched talks with customs
in Washington, D.C., in an effort to keep the crossings open.

"We had no idea this law was on the books," said Valerie Naylor, a
spokeswoman for Big Bend National Park. "Now that we do, we're trying to
get some resolution."

Though customs officials talk tough when it comes to the law, they say the
agency is unlikely to staff the informal crossings anytime soon. Dhillon
says the plan currently in the works is to enlist the help of the park
rangers in customs duties.

Officials at Big Bend, who have more pressing concerns in a park that sees
some 300,000 visitors annually, say they are not interested in policing the
border.

"We don't intend to do their job," said Naylor.

Still, park officials are advising visitors heading to Boquillas and nearby
Santa Elena that if they go to Mexico, they can't legally return to the
park by boat. But there is no sign on the 20mile stretch of road that
winds from Big Bend's visitor's center down to the parking lot across the
river from Boquillas.

There is, however, a sign at the entrance to the lot itself.

It says "Bienvenidos a Boquillas." Welcome to Boquillas.