What I'm Reading This Month
By Nadine Holder
March 2007
The Reaper's Line: Life and Death on the Mexican Border by Lee Morgan II, Special Agent - US Customs Service. Rio Nuevo Publishers, Tucson, Arizona, 2006.
I came across this book by accident - displayed near the counter in Barnes and Noble at the Mall. The clerk told me it was not being advertised as Morgan was not doing book tours because he is a wanted man, with a price on his life, both in Mexico and the US. It is his story of his 26 years on the border in Cochise County, dodging the grim reaper on a day-to-day basis. As the book blurb says ‘A true story of violence, drugs, human smuggling, and dirty politicians along the Mexican-American border.’ If you faint at bad language, don’t touch it with a ten-foot pole, but this guy has a wonderful sense of humor about the bizarre and it is a great read. I particularly loved it as I have lived on the Mexican-American border since 1950; 42 years near San Diego, and 15 years here. In my younger and wilder days I spent a lot of time in Tijuana and points south and totally love the Mexican people.
In all that time I have formed certain opinions about he border ‘problem’, mainly that it has about as much chance of being solved as prohibition did of sticking; this time due to the American hunger for drugs and the Mexican and American hunger for money. The illegal workers are a side issue and very necessary to maintain the life style of the rich and famous. From time to time cryptic newspaper articles appear about some happening or other; in San Diego they were very scarce as they didn’t want to scare tourists and I suspect they are scarce here for the same reason. But occasionally there is some bit or piece and those bits and pieces fit nicely into real stories told by Morgan. This is a huge book but so fascinating I picked it up and read on every chance I got.
There is some hope - he says that home invasions by the border criminals ceased in about 1996 - but I will still keep my well trained watch dogs and my loaded pistols (and yes, Martha, I do know how to use them). I reported the human smugglers who operated down the road from me with some trepidation as their activities were not visible when driving on the road but quite obvious to me when on foot, walking my dogs. Nothing happened for about six months and then they were shut down, but started up again a month later. Recently they totally moved out their operation so that was hopeful. It told me a lot though as their operation had to be totally visible to the equipment in the border balloon that is up most of the time and nothing was being done. Most of the marijuana fields out in the valley are gone – I suspect because they were competing with what was coming up from Mexico. But this is a drop in the bucket in the drug and smuggling war. The biggest problem according to Morgan is the corruption rampant on both sides of the border. He details it and names names, hence his keeping a low profile.
If you have an interest in the border history of this county for the past 26 years, if you have concerns about the border problems, or if you live near the border, don’t miss this book! I would like to urge all of you to take action on this current problem of the Border Patrol agents who were railroaded into prison. As I see it - the railroading is one way to thwart any expansion of enforcement on the border as it will keep anyone in their right mind from applying for any new positions funded for the Border Patrol. Write your Congresspersons if you think they should be pardoned. Also you might find it interesting to read his chapter on the Boranes of Douglas after noting that Mayor Ray Borane just accompanied Governor Napolitano on her junket to visit the new President of Mexico.
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