By Kimberly Edds
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, March 10, 2005; Page A03
SAN DIEGO -- A handful of people huddle along the busy Ensenada Highway on
the Mexican side of the fence, peering through holes in the steel curtain
that marks the U.S. border. They wait and watch.
In the distance, 12 miles away, is a postcard view of the city of San Diego.
The Coronado Bridge stretches across blue waters, and the skyscrapers of
downtown pierce the sky -- all just an opportunity and a short sprint away.
On the U.S. side of the fence, a Border Patrol agent in a Jeep Wrangler
stares back.
"They're waiting for the agent to not be paying attention. Then they make a
run for it," Tomas Jimenez said. "It only takes seconds." Jumping the first
fence is no great physical feat. But scaling the second fence -- angled to
prevent people, not vehicles, from crossing -- is more of a challenge.
But down the road is a much more inviting passage for illegal immigrants
and, the government fears, for terrorists, drug traffickers and human
smugglers: a 3 1/2-mile gap where the secondary fence has yet to be
completed.
With recent revelations by the Department of Homeland Security that al Qaeda
operatives are looking to the Mexican border as a way to infiltrate the
United States, federal officials have hastened efforts to close off the
final stretch between Otay Mesa and the Pacific Ocean, in a canyon known as
"Smuggler's Gulch." They contend that the area is a national security risk.
But environmentalists say completing the project, which they have battled
for years, will devastate the protected marshland and delicate habitats of
the Tijuana Estuary and endanger rare plants and animals.
The House recently approved immigration legislation, introduced by Rep. F.
James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), that includes provisions to complete the
fencing -- and gives Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff almost
total authority to sidestep environmental and labor laws in the process.
"Maybe this was acceptable in the pre-9/11 days that we would have allowed
this to be tied up in knots for years. But in the era of global terrorism,
we just can't wait around forever to get these things done," U.S. Customs
and Border Protection Commissioner Robert C. Bonner said. "It's an absolute
need."
J. Robert Shull, a senior regulatory policy analyst with the government
watchdog group OMB Watch, said that the Homeland Security Department already
has the authority to circumvent environmental laws in the name of national
security, and that President Bush could order the project built even if a
court delays it. He said the legislation would open the way for additional
projects that are harmful to the environment.
"It originated with the intent to close up the fencing at Smuggler's Gulch,
but what's written is so much bigger than that," he said. "It's completely
unnecessary. It's mind-boggling."
Built with recycled-steel landing mats donated by the military, the primary
fence runs a jagged line along the southern U.S. border, about 10 miles from
the Pacific Ocean to Otay Mesa, an inland section of San Diego. The second
fence, built of concrete with the angled top, runs a parallel line about 130
feet away, creating a lane where Border Patrol agents can close in on
illegal immigrants.
Government's Plan
To close the gap in the second fence, a little less than three miles inland
from the Pacific Ocean, Border Patrol officials plan to level off several of
the mesas that surround the area and backfill the half-mile-wide canyon
known as Smuggler's Gulch to create a 175-foot earthen berm. A second fence
and an all-terrain patrol road would be built there.
Along with installing remote cameras and underground sensors, Border Patrol
officials say, completing the second fence and adding a third chain-link
fence would enable them more flexibility in allocating manpower to secure
the border.
Dislodging 442,000 truckloads of earth from the area to fill the canyon in
the ecologically sensitive area would result in flooding and erosion,
overwhelming the protected marshlands and habitats of the Tijuana Estuary
below, said Jim Peugh of the San Diego Audubon Society. The San Diego fairy
shrimp and two wetlands birds -- the California gnatcatcher and the
light-footed clapper rail -- could be in jeopardy, he said. Damage done by
the construction and grading could last for decades.
"The benefit to national security is so minimal when you compare it to the
cost of destroying habitat and opening up the area to further erosion and
flooding," said Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), whose district includes the
affected land. "Nobody asked me what to do, and this is my area."
In February 2004, the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to
oppose the project as planned, ruling that it was overly damaging to the
environment. Commission officials urged the government to replace the
primary fence with a larger, stronger one that would run from the canyons
west to the beach and add a secondary fence only in places where illegal
immigrants tend to cross, a plan they say would accomplish the security goal
while mitigating environmental impacts.
Federal officials refused. Commission officials are frustrated by what they
see as a lack of willingness by government negotiators to compromise.
"We're not trying to stop projects that are in the interest of national
security. No one is saying don't fortify the border," said Mark Delaplaine,
one of the commission's coastal planners. "I just don't see why they can't
bend a little."
Bruce Reznik, executive director of San Diego Baykeeper, one of several
environmental groups suing the U.S. government over the fence, said: "You've
just sent the message that whenever we want to do a project as a government,
we'll do whatever is convenient despite the laws that are here to protect
Americans. It's a bad precedent to set."
But Border Patrol officials insist that additional fencing would prevent
thousands of illegal immigrants who walk through the wetlands from
continuing to damage the habitat, along with the agents who chase after
them.
"The fact that we have a large number of people illegally crossing the
border is damaging the environment," Bonner said. "We could protect the
environment and protect our borders from potential terrorists coming
across."
A decade ago this was a no man's land. Gangs roved the area. Illegal
immigrants faced robberies, rapes and death as they crossed the largely
unprotected border. More than 450,000 people were arrested by San Diego
border agents when the primary fence was erected in 1994. Last year 138,608
arrests were made.
Deterrence Factor
Just beyond the fences, million-dollar tract homes have been erected. A
shopping center has been built. Horseback riders and hikers are regular
sights, their paths crossing with border agents whizzing by.
"The normalcy of life that has returned to that area is directly
attributable to that fence," Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), who has
advocated the fence for more than a decade.
In fiscal 2004, border arrests nationally jumped 7.9 percent over the
previous fiscal year, but arrests in the 66 miles that make up the San Diego
sector's portion of the border dropped 27 percent, to 35,539. Agents here
say the fence is deterring crossers from trying, or at least pushing them
farther east.
But they say there is still a danger.
"We've caught people from North Korea coming through that portion of fence.
We've caught people from nations who sponsor terrorists coming through that
portion of the fence. All Americans now understand that you have to know
what's coming across your border and who's coming across your border,"
Hunter said. "This is something that is long overdue."