Passing Tijuana... by Milota Sidorova

Tijuana case starts to liken Berlin Wall, I have heard somebody saying in the radio last week. However, being European, I rather know this border cross point kind of slightly from various movies, for instance Sean Penn's Into the Wild. Tijuana, it is just a glimpse of complicated American- Mexican mess tasting illegal immigration, drugs, colorful wreck street shops, never ending traffic jams and those strange smell of dust, just all around in the air.

And just because of meeting of two so much controversial cultures, practising exactly laws here can be rather difficult. But, first of all, let's near to this topic.

Tijuana is a small, however, one of the most important passing gateways to California. Just because of an extremely density of this area, literally almost 1,494 inhabitants/ km² and relatively close geographical location, it often refers to San Diego region with more than 4,992,723 American and Mexican citizen.

Due to this, job and business circle flow is something more than natural. So the housing is. Being American deciding to save more money, the best thing is to buy real-estate down in Mexico. However, few kilometers here can be a large scale problem, though. According statistics, Tijuana prides itself with more than 90 minutes traffic jams, that can extend up to two hours.

Many of those rushing to work, have to get up just before the break of the day. There are still some, who sleep overnight at the work or cheap hostels just to skip the border waits. How terrible for citizen that must be. In fact, the second biggest cross point from Ciudad Juraez – El Paso (Texas) declares that less than 13 percent of totally 16 million of cars have to wait more than two hours.

Even, worse, when you considerate the fact, San Ysidro one of Tijuana's key passing points hasn't been
extended since 1974. It remains the fairy tales starting like this – Once upon a time, they built a highway. So the statement of the San Ysidro Port director, Oscar Preciado claiming that no one was going to process the lines any faster. So as he continued, that America wasn't going to open to terrorists coming through the borders.

That is out of question, just brilliant non racial, progressive speech, I must say. Well done, Mr. Preciado. Maybe he could consider attending some more diplomacy classes.
However, there are those, who have finally speeded up the border issue, and next $577 million to extend American part of San Ysidro check point. Naturally, Tijuana will have to fund the repair itself, that can take another months, even years.

For so long, everybody passing Tijuana has to stay hours spent in the lines, endured checks requiring except of passport also any other security document, sniffer dogs turning upside down your car and ubiquitous hebbie-jebbies all over the place. However, I am not trying to put the situation in the bad light – still I do respect statistics calling for daily more than one hundred illegal immigrants trying to pass the borders by swimming or hiding outside the trucks. Sometimes even so desperate, that hiding in between the engine blocks.

Being a shark policeman working here, you have to be really tough man, prepared for everything impossible.


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080721/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_line_for_america;_ylt=AsMVdpe3IDXDwnrdtti0jPSs0NUE

by Milota Sidorova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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posted by Lucia Adamova