美国国家公共电台 NPR In Rural West Texas, Illegal Border Crossings Are Routine For U.S. Citizens

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

It's illegal to enter the United States without passing through an official border crossing, but along an isolated¹ stretch of the southern border, U.S. citizens are doing just that every day because of a shortage of basic services on the U.S. side, including health care. Lorne Matalon reports from the town of Candelaria, Texas, on the Rio Grande River.

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LORNE MATALON, BYLINE²: What's happening here is a reversal of stereotypes³. It's Americans who are breaking border laws.

LORAINE TELLEZ: We're citizens. We're U.S. citizens that have to go and get help in Mexico.

MATALON: That's Candelaria resident Loraine Tellez. There are two towns here - hamlets, really - both remote within their own countries, yet a stone's throw from each other across the Rio Grande - San Antonio del Bravo in Mexico and Candelaria in Texas. If you get sick or have an accident in Candelaria, there's a clinic in San Antonio where treatment and medicine is free, paid for by the Mexican government, even if you're a U.S. citizen. In the U.S., the nearest hospital is a long way away.

So here are her options.

TELLEZ: A 10-minute walk versus⁴ three hours to the hospital.

MATALON: With walls being strengthened and expanded, along with a crackdown on illegal immigration up and down the border, how is this happening?

MIKE SHELTON: Here's the situation.

MATALON: Mike Shelton is the U.S. Border Patrol agent in charge for Candelaria and a group of tiny river towns in the area.

SHELTON: The Border Patrol doesn't want to admit that things like this are going on, but the reality of the situation is it does.

MATALON: Shelton says agents don't need to be heavy-handed.

SHELTON: We don't want agents to put people's lives at risk simply because they're blindly following the letter of the law. It's about being human.

MATALON: All this back-and-forth has created a kind of unspoken but clearly understood relationship between residents and the Border Patrol. Because human and drug smugglers also use this area, residents say they'll tell agents if they have misgivings⁵ about faces they don't recognize.

EVELYN LOZANO: That's a way of us helping⁶ them in order for them to help us.

MATALON: Evelyn Lozano, a U.S. citizen, lives in both towns - school in Texas during the week, weekends with family in Mexico. Walking into Mexico is not a violation⁷ of U.S. law. Crossing back into Texas here is. The nearest legal crossing is an hour and a half away.

LOZANO: They know that we are crossing illegally.

MATALON: Lozano says residents have a give-and-take relationship with the Border Patrol.

LOZANO: But they do understand the fact that we need to cross sometimes in order to get help, in order for us to get food, in order for us to survive. So that's why we go to Mexico, because we don't get that help here in Texas.

MATALON: The help is reciprocal. Some Mexicans receive their mail in Candelaria because there's no postal⁸ service in San Antonio. Their American relatives bring the mail across. As for Loraine Tellez, she acknowledges what's happening here flies in the face of border enforcement.

TELLEZ: Down deep in my heart, it does make me feel guilty, but I have to do it sometimes.

MATALON: But not openly. Residents say they don't flaunt⁹ what they're doing. They say they understand the Border Patrol has a job to do, and that means the delicate dance between otherwise law-abiding U.S. citizens and border agents continues on this stretch of the Rio Grande.

For NPR News, I'm Lorne Matalon in Candelaria, Texas.

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1 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

2 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。

3 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

5 misgivings   

n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧

参考例句：

• I had grave misgivings about making the trip. 对于这次旅行我有过极大的顾虑。
• Don't be overtaken by misgivings and fear. Just go full stream ahead! 不要瞻前顾后， 畏首畏尾。甩开膀子干吧！ 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

8 postal   

adj.邮政的，邮局的

参考例句：

• A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

9 flaunt   

vt.夸耀，夸饰

参考例句：

• His behavior was an outrageous flaunt.他的行为是一种无耻的炫耀。
• Why would you flaunt that on a public forum?为什么你们会在公共论坛大肆炫耀？