Border

Re "A long, hot 'season of death,' " Current, June 18 I have passed through Altar, Mexico, a number of times in the last year. It is frightening and fascinating. The streets are literally packed with young people just standing around waiting for smugglers to take them north. Stores filled with backpacks, water bottles, dark clothing and similar items line the streets. All around is desolate desert; I find it quite unpleasant in my air-conditioned Jeep. The good news is that there are many places in Mexico where this is no longer necessary.

Re "Marchers Honor Dead Migrants," May 26: I am saddened by the U.S. policy that I feel contributed to their death. Increased border patrol in the major cities has forced immigrants to cross in more forbidding terrain. While I acknowledge that illegal immigration is a complex issue, I feel the current U.S. border policy is inhumane because of the number of deaths that have occurred. A more just approach would be to expand the guest worker program or enact other programs that would allow workers to enter the U.S. legally, without fear and without risk to their lives.

Re "Illegal Immigration Fears Have Spread," April 25: I thought this country abolished slavery. Have we learned nothing from the hard-won victories over such immoral and reprehensible behavior? In the past -- may God forgive us -- we actually hunted down human beings whom we forcibly brought to this nation to do our lowest-level, backbreaking, distasteful work. Now we simply ignore the borders and they stream in, shockingly willing participants in a virtual slave labor market, where if a Mexican won't work for $3.50 per hour, don't worry, the Salvadoran or the Nicaraguan in line right behind him probably will.

Entrenched poverty on both sides of the Texas-Mexico border drive two mothers to desperate acts and dire consequences in "The Girl," David Riker's new drama starring Abbie Cornish. The border town landscape is a world away from "La Cuidad," the writer-director's 1998 feature film debut about Hispanic immigrants in New York. But the filmmaker's focus remains on the increasingly elusive American dream set against the backdrop of immigration. In "The Girl," the director's second film, Riker toggles between two very different disenfranchised groups: the steady stream of humanity trying to survive a Rio Grande river crossing and a single mother in a South Texas town fighting to regain custody of her young son. PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments The story opens in the middle of a confrontation.

Most days, Zapata appears a town unchanged as the four lanes of U.S. Highway 83 tick past the Lone Star Western Store, Robert's Fish N' Tackle and Tacos Tio Beto before running into the south Texas scrub where fishing camps emerge at the end of dirt and gravel roads. It is a place where men are divided between Stetsons and sweat-stained ball caps. Where old tales of border banditry are told alongside those of roughnecks drawn here for the natural-gas boom on ranchland studded with mesquite and Mexican olive trees.

They were once ordinary Syrians: farmers with fields to tend, doctors with patients to treat, students with exams to take and homemakers with children to nurture. But after longtime Syrian President Bashar Assad's security forces stormed their towns and villages in an attempt to crush a largely peaceful pro-democracy movement, they represent the emerging human toll, a small segment of the many thousands of Syrian civilians who have fled into the hills or across the border into Turkey to escape the violence.

Five people were shot to death, including a toddler, at a house in the Phoenix suburb of Gilbert on Wednesday, and a white supremacist border militiaman apparently was among them. Authorities have not released the victims' identities, but the private militia group U.S. Border Guard reported that one of the dead was Jason "J.T. " Ready, its founder. Members of the organization say they arm themselves and patrol the border with Mexico to try to combat "narco-terrorists. " Ready also advocated putting a minefield on the border.

Hungary plans to begin dismantling its "Iron Curtain," the alarm system along the nation's border with Austria, on May 2. The electronic signaling system and double-wire fence is to be fully removed from the 80-mile border by January, 1991, MTI said. The system, installed in 1967, once was used to detect people trying to escape to the West, but Hungarians may now travel freely to the West.

I see Mexico's President Carlos Salinas de Gortari has suspended all government cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in retaliation for a U.S. Supreme Court ruling permitting seizures of criminals across the border. Since more than 70% of the cocaine in the United States enters through Mexico, it is imperative that we make our borders more secure. Perhaps our legislators will have the guts to suggest that some of the $50 million we give annually to Mexico to fight drug trafficking be diverted to complete construction of border barriers and to fund more agents to patrol our borders.

Regarding "Mexico's Economy Hits 6-Year High Note" and "Consumers Feeling Pinch as Inflation Rises; Stocks Fall on Interest Rate Fears" (May 18): According to the Business-section article, Mexico's economy has improved greatly. According to the front-page article, ours is going the other direction. It is time America follows Mexico's economic lead. We need to cross the Canadian border, illegally work in Canada and send our earnings back to our relatives in the States. Lloyd A. Fradkin Newhall