Cross-Border Sunday: US-Mexico Border Groups Want Efficient Crossings Julie Watson - Associated Press
go to original September 14, 2013

Pastors and others raise their arms on the San Diego side of a border fence during a cross-border Sunday religious service with others on the Tijuana, Mexico, side of the fence. As federal lawmakers thousands of miles away consider further sealing the border, many here on the ground are trying to blur the line and unite a region that was split apart by the security crackdown since the Sept. 11 attacks. (Gregory Bull/Associated Press)

Under the watch of a Border Patrol agent, U.S. and Mexican pastors set up two small altars — one on each side of a towering border fence — for their Sunday service that spans two countries.

The priests then break bread simultaneously and hold up their challises to the tightly woven metal barrier. The guitar player is in Mexico, strumming a song led by clergy on the U.S. side. The buzzing of a passing Border Patrol officer on an all-terrain vehicle interrupts the music.

The religious service is one of myriad ways that life is seeping across the border post 9/11 as Congress considers spending billions on further fortification.

Ranchers, deputies and lawmakers from border states have long pleaded for federal help, saying their areas were overrun by people entering the U.S. illegally and armed smugglers.

But today there is growing opposition along the nearly 2,000-mile boundary to more agents and fences. They include U.S. ministers, business leaders and mayors who say those measures have reached their maximum effectiveness.

Read the rest at jacksonsun.com

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