Just as the sun slips toward the Pacific, they gather along Latin America's northernmost fringe. Several hundred white, mainly lower-middle-class Southern Californians arrive in dusty pickups and weathered sedans to confront what they say is a criminal invasion of America. They park single file along a marshy field on the San Diego-Tijuana border. Soon the men and women are engaged in chitchat typical of a social event. Their crimson bumper stickers proclaim WE WANT ORDER ON OUR BORDER, a demand that nearby U.S. Border Patrol agents work hard to enforce. Some of the 800 officers, who nightly nab upwards of 1,500 immigrants in this sector alone, buzz by in spotter choppers or patrol in four-wheel-drive vehicles, while others survey the area from hilltops.
At nightfall, the protesters suddenly switch on headlights and hand-held spotlights to illuminate a narrow stretch of boundary. Tonight's Light Up the Border rally is one in a series of monthly anti-immigrant demonstrations held in a place where millions of Latin Americans and others have crossed the hills and canyons that feed into San Diego.
Four years after passage of the Immigration Reform and Control Act, the human flow it was intended to stanch is on the rise. This year an estimated 1 million foreigners will illegally enter the U.S., most of them across the Mexican border. The protesters, drawn by anger tinged with xenophobia, speak darkly of the immigrants. They reject the conventional wisdom that the aliens are benign job seekers who do work that Americans disdain and that generally benefits the U.S. economy. "We have nothing against Mexicans," says John Machan, a local courier. "Many of them are hard workers, and there should be a way for them to work -- but then go back home. A lot of the others don't come to work. They steal, break into people's homes, bring drugs." San Diego police say they have no evidence that illegal aliens commit more crimes then the general population.
Loren Flemming, himself an immigrant from Calgary, says he has joined the demonstration to denounce a double standard. "Canadians can't come in the way these people do," he claims. "They get on welfare just by showing up at the office." Roger Hedgecock, a former San Diego mayor, uses his popular call-in radio show to endorse the protests. He also attends the demonstrations. "We want respect for American laws," says Hedgecock. "Mexicans are violating our laws." He and others demand immediate but unspecified congressional action. Judging by the phone calls Hedgecock receives, it would seem that many San Diegans share his dismay. Says Hedgecock: "I've had callers in the construction industry say, 'Gosh, I used to be a drywall hanger, and now there are no English-speaking drywall hangers in San Diego County. They all speak Spanish, and I'm out of a job.' "
Behind the angry words and glaring headlights many Hispanics and other residents detect a resurgence of nativism. It is no coincidence, they say, that partisans are divided roughly along racial lines. While no one suggests a formal link, the protests coincide with a surge in ethnic tensions and racially motivated crimes, both locally and nationally. "There's a potential for violence in these demonstrations," says Bill Robinson, a longtime spokesman for the San Diego police department. "What we're seeing is political conservatives protesting against people who are hungry and looking for work."