On the Track of the Invaders

The watch on the Rio Grande is a most crucial outpost in the ceaseless war of nerves with the illegal Mexican immigrants. Here they can be quickly apprehended and returned home with a minimum of fuss and expense. The problem is catching them, for they have as many escape routes as the snakelike Rio Grande has bends. Maintaining the daily vigil in the Harlingen sector of the Texas-Mexican border is Roland Lomblot, 51, a 27-year veteran of the U.S. Border Patrol. He and his eleven-man crew capture an average of 200 aliens a month. But the agents are so outmanned that they figure 2,000 get by them.

The officers have studied every possible escape route through river, canal, drainage ditch and cow trail. They are familiar with the telltale habits of their quarry. Most aliens are hungry, dirty, and walk with a nervous gait. Their clothes may betray them. On the wall in Lomblot's office, a big picture frame encloses types of Mexican and American shoe heels so that an agent can tell the difference at a glance.

Every night Lomblot stations two of his men on the river to guard a stretch 39 miles long. Their principal piece of equipment is a "people sniffer," an electronic sensing device developed to catch the prowling Viet Cong. Despite its name, the instrument actually detects the minute seismic vibrations caused by a person walking. The agents place the gadget--the size of a briefcase--near the banks of the Rio Grande and don earphones. When they pick up a vibration, they move in to seize their prey.

But the agents are often outwitted. Farmers on the U.S. side of the river sometimes put out empty boxes at sunset. Mexicans swim the river at night, pick okra in the early morning when it is fresh, then swim back home. The farmer returns at midday and, lo, his boxes are full. A Mexican labor manager, who hires the workers, arrives later in the day for his pay. Says Lomblot: "The farmer gets cheap labor, the Mexicans keep from starving, and everybody's happy but the border patrol."

At dawn other agents go out to search for aliens who may have slipped by during the night. One day TIME'S Bill Starr accompanied Lomblot on a search. Starr's report:

"We were headed into the morning sun. 'Fresh tracks are easily seen when you look into the sun,' Lomblot explained. 'We can also tell how long ago they were made by how windblown they are.' We passed a sugar-cane field. 'Hate to see sugar cane grown this close to the river,' he said. 'Good place for aliens to hide. Good place to hide dope or smuggled merchandise and later pick it up.' [Drugs as well as people do indeed flow north across the river. See LAW.]

"We saw some tracks. Lomblot studied them. We backtracked to where a road turns off the river and, sure enough, the tracks came from that direction. We followed the tracks until the next intersection, where they turned north. On the radio we learned that one of Lomblot's night agents had spotted three Mexicans walking north with inner tubes. Perhaps the tubes helped them cross the river, and now, desperate for money, they would try to sell them. For a while, Lomblot lost the tracks, but he continued along the road, always angling toward the north. The paved road stopped at a farmhouse with only a dirt road continuing farther north. Here it was easy to see the footprints.

"A border patrol vehicle approached along the road. Two aliens were inside: Edmundo Vargas, 17, and Juan Perez, 15. Both were dirty, tired, scared. After crossing the river at night, they told us, they hid in the brush while a surveying crew ate lunch. When the crew left, the Mexicans devoured banana peelings, apple cores and bits and pieces of cheese left on wax paper. 'First time,' Edmundo explained. 'We just came across the river for a few days. Today we were going back to Mexico.' They would make the trip courtesy of the U.S. Government. But, as Lomblot knows all too well, they were likely to be back."

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