CALEXICO, Calif. — Each day, the runners tumble out of holes cut in the 15-foot-high steel fence in front of Noemi Parra's home on the U.S. side of the border. The illegal immigrants race through her front yard, duck under the clothesline and hurdle her neighbors' bushes before disappearing.
When the Border Patrol is nearby, immigrants shake the doorknobs on her house, plead for help and sometimes try to burst inside uninvited.
"In the beginning I was scared. Now I'm used to being locked inside my house," said Parra as she watched a group of men sawing noisily through the steel fence across the street.
Parra's neighborhood, which stretches three blocks deep along the border, is one of the most popular spots in Calexico for illegal immigrants to cross. Within seconds, a runner can melt into America.
Unlike other border cities that are separated by canyons or rivers, Calexico and Mexicali form a contiguous sprawl, only briefly divided by the six-mile border barrier.
Calexico, known as the Gateway to Mexico, is trapped in the middle of an unusual drama as federal agents struggle to prevent the Imperial Valley city 120 miles east of San Diego from becoming a safe zone for illegal immigrants.
Increased border security in California -- stadium lighting, surveillance cameras and more agents -- has pushed many illegal immigration routes east to Arizona. In Calexico the number of fence jumpers has diminished in recent years. But the border remains porous, the streets chaotic.
Most residents lock their doors. Others in the city of 27,000 residents -- 95% of them Latino -- show compassion by offering water or food. And some, hearing the desperate knocks, have hidden immigrants in closets and back bedrooms. Still others have discovered a lucrative business in providing sanctuary.
"Residents are caught ... between compassion and coercion," said Mario Lacuesta, a supervisory Border Patrol agent. "We wish we had more cooperation ... but we understand that some people, because of the retaliation factor, don't contribute."
The effort can seem futile at times: A recent police meeting with residents to discuss the problem of illegal immigrants running across yards was interrupted by an immigrant running across the yard.
One 1st Street homeowner calls the pursuits "the never-ending story."
