Border patrol searches the dark for signs of life

All of them were living in one house and picking chili peppers for 75 cents a bucket. Someone tipped off federal officers, who picked them up. Now some stand up against the glass watching the proceedings. A man in a Raiders jacket and another in a Packers coat lie on the concrete floor with their eyes closed.

The men's hands are so dry from working with crops or rock wall or concrete that officers have to add water to get accurate fingerprints. They have no natural oils left in their hands.

Border officer Ed Barrera says he can tell how long they've been in the United States by how much money they have in their pocket. A couple in their mid-50s arrived in the United States two days earlier. "We just got here yesterday," a 56-year-old woman tells an officer. "We just got started."

"You feel for them," Martinez said. "If you were in that situation, what would you do?"

Each person's fingerprints are scanned into nationwide criminal information computers that will show anything from a parking ticket to homicide conviction. Those with previous criminal convictions may be referred to federal court for prosecution. The others will be logged into the computer and released back to Mexico the next day.

Back in the SUV, Martinez has learned that ground sensors have alerted agents that people — seven in all — have crossed the border. They are not the drug runners for whom officers have been watching. They are working people looking to better their lives.

Martinez hates the "coyotes" who smuggle people across for a price and the bandits who steal from them knowing they have cash.

"They prey on their own. They show no mercy. They're ruthless. They're just out to see what they can get, what they can steal," he said.

But these seven people apprehended tonight are just people like you and me, he says. "There's no difference whatsoever, except one is born over here and one is born over there. If I were in their situation, I'd be doing the same thing."

Among this group is a woman with a 7-month-old baby. Martinez said it bothers him that a mother would put a child at such risk. "It just gets you mad sometimes," he said.

But the woman doesn't appear troubled at all. And another woman sitting in the van headed for the detention facility is smiling broadly.

"What do they have to be scared about?" Martinez said. "They're just going to be processed and sent back."

And then tomorrow, as darkness falls, more crossers will begin their journey, sneaking across in the shadows.

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