East Arizona Part 16

To overwhelm the local Border Patrol, smugglers once crashed huge trucks over the border barriers and raced north.

Hundreds of such events would occur each month. Those areas where a truck can build up enough speed to crash through the border have been reinforced with foot thick steel panels.

Mexican border violence has turned the small sleepy American town of Naco into a ghost town.

The green leafy thing is a plant of the gourd variety and no matter how hard they tried, the local Indians could find no practical use for it.

The plan for this part of the border is a new sturdy double fence. The primary barrier at the border line itself may soon be made of perforated steel plate about eight feet high. It is perforated so that the Border Patrol Agents will be able to see the illegals massing on the south side.

The secondary barrier may soon be a fifteen to twenty foot high climb proof expanded metal fence. Someplaces along the border these secondary fences have their tops canted 45 degrees to the south. Experience has shown that such shapes actually make fence climbing easer.

An all weather road will be constructed between these two fences. Lights and cameras will fill out the system.

Such a barrier may be constructed from here in Naco to Douglas, Arizona, 25 miles to the east. This new barrier will help seal this major smuggling corridor.