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Rural Towns Suffer as Border Crossings Tighten
A Look at Lajitas, Texas and Paso Lajitas, Mexico
 Listen to the story.
Informal border crossing , now closed, at Lajitas on the Rio Grande. The small shack on the Mexico side, housed a boat to ferry people across the river. Photo: Marisa Penaloza, NPR.
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Lajitas, Texas. Map: Katie Parker, NPR
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"We are now in the highest state of alert ever. Our number-one priority is national security... that has changed"
Pablo Caballero, Border Patrol spokesman at the Marfa Sector.
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The Lajitas Trading Post opened in 1899.
Photo: Marisa Penaloza, NPR.
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"There is so much interaction between us here... Can you imagine being told you can't cross the street to visit your friends and neighbors?"
Marcos Paredes, ranger at Big Bend National Park.
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The main street of Lajitas. Photo: Marisa Penaloza, NPR.
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Lajitas singer and songwriter Leonel Galindo.Photo: Marisa Penaloza, NPR.
Listen to him sing his song about the effects of the border closing on the town.
 El Corrido de Paso Lajitas
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Dec. 7, 2002 -- Attention to border security has increased dramatically since Sept. 11. The Texas Border Patrol received aircraft, patrol cars and new agents. Along the border "informal crossings," illegal but used by local residents on both sides of the border, were closed as well. The crackdown on these crossings has produced protests. NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports from Lajitas, Texas.
Lajitas is in the heart of the Texas badlands on the Rio Grande River, 19 miles from the Big Bend National Park. It is a small town, with a year-round population that hovers around 50 people, with a long history as a commercial center. The Lajitas Trading Post has been operating since 1899 serving both sides of the river.
For decades, Mexicans from Paso Lajitas have crossed the river into Lajitas, Texas to shop, work and go to school. Even their electricity and phone service comes from lines strung across the river from the United States. Tourists from Lajitas crossed the river, too. The proximity to Mexico is a big draw for tourists. This easy interdependence ended in May when the Border Patrol swooped down on the area and arrested 24 people, mostly undocumented workers. From that day, the two communities were split and they have struggled to adapt.
The hotel in Lajitas is expanding quickly. The workers from Mexico have permits, but must travel for four hours to get to their jobs in Lajitas passing through the nearest official border crossing. The result is that Mexican workers' lives have been disrupted as they stay away fro the work week. The life of the town of Paso Lajitas is threatened as families leave for other towns.
Border Patrol spokesman Pablo Caballero regrets the disruption to life along the border at Lajitas, but defends the decision to close down the informal crossings. Caballero says, "Our records indicate that drugs are coming through that area, and also illegal immigrants." Since Sept. 11 Caballero goes on, "We are now in the highest state of alert ever. Our number-one priority is national security... that has changed."
However, in Lajitas the national security argument does not wash. Linda Walker organizes horse rides for tourists, which used to include a half-day trip across the river to Paso Lajitas for lunch. Asked if drugs and illegal immigrants are still smuggled through the area, Walker looks across the barren horizon and says, "You bet they are... all along the border." She continues, "There's no secure border here, there's nothing secure here." In fact, Walker and others say they now feel less secure.
Marcos Paredes, a ranger at Big Bend Park -- 19 miles from Lajitas -- says, "Can you imagine being told you can't cross the street to see your friends and neighbors?"
The impasse with the government has inspired local songwriter Leonel Galindo of Lajitas to write El Corrido De Paso The words translated from Spanish say, "Families that were one before, are now separated... two towns stare at each other suffering."
The residents of the two river towns wait and hope for some sort of compromise, and some are said to defiantly sneak across the river. Others just go to the reedy banks at the end of the day to blow kisses to loved ones.
In Depth
 Browse for other NPR stories about life along the Texas Mexico border.
Other Resources
Good Landings in the Texas Badlands is an article on the area and the town from SW Aviator Magazine.
The Center for Law and Border Studies at the University of Texas, El Paso.
Texas Border Cam provides live video from elsewhere on the border.
United States Border Patrol.
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