IMPERIAL SAND DUNES RECREATION AREA, CALIF. — The dirt bikes and dune buggies swarm the sandy slopes by the thousands, turning these giant dunes at California's southeast border into anthills of frenetic activity.
Smugglers in nearby Mexico can't resist trying to blend into the crowd.
They shoot across the border in souped-up vehicles loaded with illegal immigrants and drugs and elude U.S. Border Patrol agents by playing the part of dune enthusiasts: wearing helmets and decorating their bikes and all-terrain vehicles with decals and flags.
The cat-and-mouse game turned deadly recently when a suspected smuggler driving a Hummer ran over an agent and fled back across the border over the dunes. The agent's death focused attention on the federal government's enforcement strategy in this remote corner of the border.
While the Department of Homeland Security expands fencing in other trouble spots on the Southwest frontier, officials say fortifying the border at the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area has been difficult because of shifting sands that render current barriers ineffective. By the end of the year, they say, they will have erected a new type of fortification that they hope will cut down on incursions.
But many critics, including the Border Patrol union, former federal law enforcement officers and environmental groups, say the plan to erect better barriers ignores the most significant problem: the recreational dune riders whose presence poses safety risks for agents and hampers enforcement efforts.
The dunes area is one of the few places on the American Southwest frontier where a major highway runs up against open border. Interstate 8 is generally less than three miles away and only 500 yards off in some spots, giving smugglers easy access to a major transportation corridor.
The public has been barred from other federally managed lands near the border, such as Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in Arizona, much of which remains closed six years after an employee there was killed by a suspected smuggler.
Critics say the dunes remain open because of the powerful off-road industry, which is seeking to expand access to public lands and has gained the support of the Bush administration.
The border dunes are part of the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, which is managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management. Officials there say they have no plans for any closures. Senior Border Patrol officials say preserving public access to federal lands fits the agency's goal of improving the quality of life in border areas.
