美国国家公共电台 NPR As Trump Visits Calexico, Calif., Residents Worry About Rising Border Wall Tension

 

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

President Trump¹ is scheduled to visit the California border city of Calexico tomorrow. It's a city on edge, as are many others along the southwest border, after the president threatened to shut down the border. He's since walked that threat back, but that doesn't lessen² the fears of local residents. From Calexico, Max Rivlin-Nadler reports.

MAX RIVLIN-NADLER, BYLINE³: It's a little before 4 in the morning, but 25-year-old Alexandra Elizabeth Godoy has already been up for three hours. Every morning, the Mexican citizen crosses the border into Calexico from Mexicali. Godoy, along with dozens of other workers, is waiting for the buses that will take them to work, legally, on farms in the Imperial Valley. She's heard the president might shut the border.

ALEXANDRA ELIZABETH GODOY: My friends, they do see the news, and they have told me, what are you going to do if that happens? And I'm like, oh, I don't know what I'm going to do (laughter).

RIVLIN-NADLER: She supports her three kids by picking lettuce⁴.

GODOY: I have to cross every day. So if it closes, I'm not going to be able to cross.

RIVLIN-NADLER: In a donut and coffee shop filled with farm workers from across the border, 45-year-old Enrique Javier, who has been working in the Imperial Valley for 30 years, says a border closure would be hard not only for farmworkers but for the entire city.

ENRIQUE JAVIER: (Speaking Spanish).

RIVLIN-NADLER: He says the marketplace would be affected⁵; the taxi companies, the buses - everything would be impacted that works with Mexicans. While the president seems to be backing off the threat, Javier still thinks he's serious.

JAVIER: He (Speaking Spanish).

RIVLIN-NADLER: Workers are driven deep into the Imperial Valley, which is in the middle of its cabbage harvest right now. Jack⁶ Vessey is a fourth-generation farmer in Holtville, about 15 miles north of the border. Over half of his workers come from Mexico. All of these threats and the tension along the border is just not good for business.

JACK VESSEY: It's a region; it's not this fence or this line or this border. It's been there. It's been here for a long, long time. And to see the economic - the people passing back and forth⁷, be it families, be it dollars, be it pesos - we live together.

RIVLIN-NADLER: South of the border in Mexicali, lots of businesses also rely on cross-border traffic. In the La Chinesca, a Chinese neighborhood in Mexicali, 25-year-old Hernan Gomez runs a barbershop with a group of friends. The neighborhood was founded by Chinese railroad workers who had been deported⁸ from the U.S. because of the Chinese Exclusion⁹ Act. Gomez has a lot of regulars from the U.S.

HERNAN GOMEZ: So if they were to close down, they would be affected because, well, it's a barbershop. Men like to stay fresh. You know, they like to - even sometimes when the wait is too long, we lose customers.

RIVLIN-NADLER: Some border crossings, like those in El Paso, have experienced wait times of up to seven hours to get into the U.S. because Customs and Border Protection staff have been pulled away to deal with huge numbers of asylum-seeking families. That's not happening yet in Calexico, but that might change as security ramps¹⁰ up for Trump's visit. The president is coming to commemorate¹¹ the completion of what he calls his border wall. It's a 2-mile section of fence that was replaced in the last year with a 30-foot tall steel bollard barrier. Calexico City Manager David Dale says what we call that barrier is important.

DAVID DALE: That's our sister city in Mexicali. So they're like our brothers and sisters there, and so we say it's not a wall; it's a fence.

RIVLIN-NADLER: Calexico is already planning for protesters, including some who will launch a large, inflatable Trump balloon to greet the president's visit tomorrow. For NPR News, I'm Max Rivlin-Nadler, in Calexico.

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 lessen   

vt.减少，减轻；缩小

参考例句：

• Regular exercise can help to lessen the pain.经常运动有助于减轻痛感。
• They've made great effort to lessen the noise of planes.他们尽力减小飞机的噪音。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 lettuce   

n.莴苣；生菜

参考例句：

• Get some lettuce and tomatoes so I can make a salad.买些莴苣和西红柿，我好做色拉。
• The lettuce is crisp and cold.莴苣松脆爽口。

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

6 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

7 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

8 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。

10 ramps   

resources allocation and multiproject scheduling 资源分配和多项目的行程安排

参考例句：

• Ramps should be provided for wheelchair users. 应该给轮椅使用者提供坡道。
• He has the upper floor and ramps are fitted everywhere for his convenience. 他住在上面一层，为了他的方便着想，到处设有坡道。

11 commemorate   

vt.纪念，庆祝

参考例句：

• This building was built to commemorate the Fire of London.这栋大楼是为纪念“伦敦大火”而兴建的。
• We commemorate the founding of our nation with a public holiday.我们放假一日以庆祝国庆。