Border Patrol

Pio Pico is close to Mexico with only about five miles of hills between here and the border. I often see border patrol helicopters flying over the hills and their trucks drive through the park to access the dirt roads leading towards the border. I've hiked out there a couple of times and have noticed places near the wash where the grass is matted down under the trees like people have made a temporary camp.

Today I watched a patrol truck return from the hills and transfer a half dozen Mexican men and women to another waiting BP vehicle that would take them to be processed for deportation. They looked so young - teens and early 20's perhaps... people desperate to find a way to better their lives. I have mixed feelings about immigration; I know we can't accept everyone who wants to come to the US, but I'm also not
comfortable turning them away. My paternal grandparents imigrated from Mexico in the early 1900's and my other grandmother came here from Ireland.

Who gets to stay, who should be turned away? No simple answers...