Juarez

So, we’re at the border. We arrived in Ciudad Juarez yesterday afternoon. I wouldn’t recommend it for a vacation, but it is certainly an interesting experience. We had dinner with Amy the director of Earlham’s Border Studies program and she clued us into life on a border town.

Ciudad Juarez, also known just as Juarez, sits right on the Rio Grande across from El Paso, Texas. The two actually began as the same town but were cut down the middle in 1848 when Mexico lost half its territory to the U.S. and a new border was drawn. But of course a new line on a map doesn’t automatically change everything. Families still straddle the border, businesses move back and forth, and even some of the radio stations are outsourced to the other side. There are about 1.5 million in Juarez, with perhaps half that number living in El Paso. The town’s heyday came during prohibition in the U.S., when the rich and famous flocked across the border to drink and gamble. Supposedly Marilyn Monroe visited the clubs and one bar claims it invented the margarita. But that was a long time ago.

It’s largely an industrial factory town now. There are so many maquiladoras in Juarez that everyone has lost count, but one of the Earlham students is helping set up a database and is up to 350 and still counting. From what we were told, a few of them offer very good working conditions and benefits for factory work. But those are only a few amid hundreds. Many people come here temporarily to work and save up before trying to push further north and cross the border. We drove along the border highway last night and saw the bridge checkpoints spanning the Rio Grande (which isn’t very grande right here). A somewhat dilapidated paved road suddenly becomes a four way gleaming highway as Mexico gives way to its northern neighbor. The checkpoints were largely empty late at night but during the day it can take a couple hours to get across.

So how do people in El Paso and Ciudad Juarez manage that imaginary but oh so real line on the map? Many work, go to school, visit family, go shopping, and run their weekly errands crossing it regularly. Amy crosses a few times a week for her work and to see people and she is thinking about moving to Juarez next year. The Earlham students who come to live and study here cross even more often. The passage is made easier by the fact that 20 miles into Mexico and the U.S. on either side of the border is known as the “zona fronteriza.” Residents of El Paso and Juarez can move relatively freely in this area with special visas, and the searches and inspections are relatively mild. According to Amy they barely blink at U.S. passports passing back and forth here. You can also buy a car in the U.S. and import it duty free onto the Mexico side. These cars have special fronteriza plates and are not permitted to travel beyond the 20 mile mark into the rest of Mexico. Many people also send their kids to schools in El Paso, using a relatives address there, and making a long commute early each morning through the checkpoints.

Though separated by the most guarded border in the world, the two towns actually share a great deal. There’s a whole world of laws and binational life that goes on with little understanding in the rest of either Mexico or the U.S. The zona fronteriza ends 20 miles into the U.S. where a much stricter and tougher border patrol checkpoint awaits travelers on every road. As for the idea of extending the wall through El Paso and Juarez, the mayor of the Texas town says it will be the death of his city.

As you can see I have lots of time to contemplate these things and write about them because we are actually here for Alberto’s visa interview and I’m spending a lot of time waiting in the hotel room while he is wading through this degrading, utterly illogical process. We are staying in a cheap motel directly across the street from the U.S. consulate where he’ll go tomorrow for his interview. Today, though, he had to have his required medical check up which you can only do at 2 medical centers here next to the consulate. We got in line this morning at 4:30am for the 6:00 opening of the clinic. There was already a line when we got there and it extended around the whole parking lot by the time they opened the doors. Only the people that need the check up were allowed in, so I went back to the hotel to catch a little more sleep. It’s now 10:00am and I haven’t heard anything from him yet. From what we’ve heard the exam is less than respectful or very effective I imagine. Some chest Xrays to rule out TB and some shots for childhood diseases. All at a cost of $135 USD for the basic exam plus up to $200 in vaccination fees.

And that’s the easy part. Tomorrow we’ll have to get up early again to get in line for the consulate itself. About four times more people were lined up outside there this morning than at the clinic. Once again I won’t be allowed in, (although if the whole point of this interview is to prove your relationship to a U.S. citizen it seems like having your pregnant wife with you might be helpful to them), and the wait will likely last all day. Everyone gets a letter saying their appointment is at 7:00am and then just has to show up and wait all day. I really find it hard to believe that they can’t come up with a better system than this.

Then, if all the paperwork is in order and Alberto is granted a visa, he’ll get a big stack of documents that he needs to take to his next point of entry into the U.S. where he’ll wait some more to get a stamp in his passport that allows him to travel and be in the U.S. until his official green card arrives. We will probably be told we need to move back to the U.S. within 6 months.

Or at least that’s what we’ve been told by friends who recently went through the process. The truth is, they don’t give you any of this information ahead of time. You are just told to come on a certain day and wait. And wait and wait and wait. And remember, this is the easy way to get into the U.S.