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Jose Pedroza, a Mexico City native, and other Mexicans congregate along a busy San Diego street to await day labor. Suburbanites in need of gardening or other chores hire the men. Pedroza says that in their search for work he and his compatriots are targets of regular abuse, some of it violent. Not long ago, says Pedroza, several white youths mugged him as he walked across a field. "They are guys who I had seen before, skateboarding and smoking marijuana," he recalls. "One of them hit me, and another one put a gun to my chest. They took all of my money, $220."
Roberto Martinez, local director of the American Friends Service Committee's U.S.-Mexico Border Program, says he has gathered dozens of reports of unprovoked attacks against Mexicans in which robbery was not a motive. "People passing in cars throw bottles at them," he says, "or even hit them and keep going." In the newest twist, white youths clad in military garb have randomly shot Mexicans with pellet guns. Police say race appears to be the motive in many of the attacks. Theft, however, is sometimes the motive as well. Last month Border Patrol agents arrested four youths on suspicion of robbing border crossers at gunpoint. "We come here only to work," says laborer Jesus Reyes. "It doesn't seem right for people to dislike us for that."
A staunch advocate of immigrant rights, Martinez has felt the sting of racial hatred. Two months ago, he received letters filled with racial insults. They also threatened him with bodily harm unless he dropped his pro-immigrant % activities. A group calling itself the Fighters of the White Cross signed both letters. FBI agents are investigating the incidents. Meanwhile, police have beefed up patrols of Martinez's home and office. "I'm not saying the border protesters are the same ones who threatened me," he says. "But Light Up the Border has created the atmosphere for these terrorists." Rally organizers disavow any connection to white supremacists.
Martinez and other Latino activists insist that San Diego's situation demands the same kind of high-profile attention as that generated by racial killings in New York City's Bensonhurst or by anti-Semitic incidents in France. "The silence from government officials is deafening," Martinez says. "I sense that there is an indifference to what's going on because it involves people who are here illegally, and so the crimes against them are diminished." Others find an ironic contrast to Eastern Europe. "It is disconcerting to see the tearing down of barriers and greater respect for human rights over there," says Richard Castro, a member of the Mexican- American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, "while here at home the same spirit has yet to prevail."