El Paso braces for border trouble

Hector Holguin remembers when it was possible to cross the thin strip of the Rio Grande dividing the US and Mexico in the border town of El Paso by tram. Growing up, he would hop on the car to cross into ­Juárez and visit relatives or go to the barber, as Mexicans travelled the other way into the US to buy televisions and clothes.

Border patrol agents conducted inspections on the now defunct streetcar and the economies of both border towns thrived.

Now Mr Holguin is 72 and border security, already ratcheted up in the 1960s when tram passengers were forced to disembark for immigration checks, has been tightened further since the terrorist attacks of September 11 2001. Getting into Mexico is easy enough but crossing back into the US can take an hour and, during peak periods, often longer.

US border agents ask everyone crossing a few questions and the wrong answer, or look, can lead to an intense grilling and thorough checks. When the US raises a terrorism alert, such heightened scrutiny becomes routine.

“The impact is immediately felt at the cash register in El Paso,’’ says Bob Cook, president of the El Paso Regional Economic Development Corporation.

In a place where Mexican nationals spend up to $1.8bn (€1.2bn, £920m) shopping each year – a fifth of El Paso’s $8bn retail economy – that is significant. After all, this is believed to be one of the largest binational communities in the world, with a combined population of 2.6m.

To the people of El Paso, it is also a perfect example of why the US should guard against the ever more vocal isolationists on immigration. Mr Cook recruits international companies to establish manufacturing sites on both sides of the border, because he knows a flourishing Juárez economy will have a positive impact on El Paso.

He has been successful. In Juárez, there are about 350 foreign-owned industries, and 3,100 people live in El Paso and cross into Mexico daily to work as plant managers, engineers or other skilled workers in the industrial parks of Juárez. Mr Cook says 50,000 people in El Paso derive their livelihood – directly or indirectly – from this industry.

Its schools benefit, with the children of Juárez’s wealthiest residents crossing into the US to study. El Paso hospitals also treat Mexicans who decide they provide better care.

In some cases, Mexican workers cross into El Paso to work. Mexican nationals with advanced degrees and specific industry and technical training make up about 30 per cent of the workforce of EDS, the information technology services group, in El Paso.

Jaime Barragan, a Mexican software engineer who moved to El Paso to work for EPV Group, a software development company, first came to El Paso to study for a master’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Texas. He says he wants to take knowledge home to benefit Mexico – a country he believes would do well to follow the US lead by opening up to the world.

The US could help, he says: “The best way to improve the Mexican economy is to let it compete. Open the border for Mexicans to come here and build homes, etc, and we’re going to compete.’’

People in El Paso believe that, by tightening border security and even advocating the building of a wall between the countries, the US is limiting Mexico’s economic development.

“The proposed fence of separation is an insult to our neighbours in Mexico, and we should not treat friends and neighbours in such a way – especially a neighbour that has been a dedicated and substantial trading partner,’’ Mr Cook told Congress this year.

Instead, he says Congress should invest in better surveillance and intelligence technologies such as those being developed by Mr Holguin, who is chief executive of Secure Origins, a company that is piloting software to monitor and speed the border crossings of cargo trucks.

Mr Holguin says the US helped its worst enemies, Japan and Germany, after the second world war to become economic powerhouses. “Why can’t we do that with Mexico, and create such economic vitality that it removes the need for illegal immigration?’’