Collateral Damage: Family Ties and Holiday Shopping Bring Bustle (and Long Waits) to Border Crossing

A portrait of another small, but human, impact of the drug war on cross-border life.

Family Ties and Holiday Shopping Bring Bustle (and Long Waits) to Border Crossing - NYTimes.com: "The sun was close to setting on the southern stretch of I-35 in Laredo on Saturday when Higinio Alfredo Navarrette’s thoughts turned to his two daughters, wife and mother in San Luis Potosí, Mexico, about 450 miles away. His white Ford pickup, loaded with a washer, a TV and toys for Christmas, stood motionless less than a mile before the international boundary marking the entrance into Mexico.

After waiting in line for hours to get home for the holidays, it looked as if he might have to travel at night on one of Mexico’s deadliest roads, a common hijacking point for drug cartel operatives. ....

Mr. Navarrette is a microcosm of the holiday season on the border, an area where the local economy is as affected by security and cartel-related violence as by the nationwide economic slowdown. Caught in the crush of holiday travelers trying to get through the heightened security were paisanos like himself, living in the United States and returning home for Christmas, as well as Mexicans who had come across for quick shopping trips and were heading back into Mexico." Dec. 23, 2010