"That's Texas, and that's Mexico." A friend and former river guide says she used to have to tell her passengers this throughout the day while canoeing or rafting the Rio Grande. Looking across the narrow and relatively shallow river, I have to remind myself the same thing. Above: visitors to Big Bend National Park luxuriate in the hot springs along the Rio Grande while a Mexican citizen watches across this fluid international border with rigid restrictions. (Marlys Hersey)

by John Waters and Marlys Hersey

This is part 4 of “La Frontera Está Cerrada (The Frontier Is Closed),” an exclusive Gazette series on the effects of “the border closure” where the Big Bend meets Mexico. Related articles in this series have appeared in our August, September, and November 2004 issues.

This is the story of the dichotomy between border travel (or lack thereof) in national parks on the northern and southern borders of the US. It is the story of three government agencies dealing simultaneously with the same issue, and generating vastly different outcomes.

While American and Canadian visitors to several national parks on the US/Canada border now enjoy relatively easy legal travel by foot and boat across the international boundary, visitors to Big Bend National Park – so named after the bend in the Rio Grande which forms this dramatic portion of Texas’ border with Mexico – are prohibited from traveling across this 118-mile portion of international boundary.

Playing on the Canadian Border

In May 2002, agents of (then-named) US Border Patrol (USBP) and the National Park Service (NPS) at Big Bend National Park were busy stopping foot and boat traffic across the Rio Grande, between Boquillas, San Vicente, and Santa Elena, Mexico and the park, the beginning of the “sealing” of the international border in Big Bend.

In July 2002, Border Patrol agents and the NPS at Glacier National Park in Montana on the US border with Alberta, Canada, were busy cross-training park rangers to act as inspectors on behalf of US Customs, the beginning of re-opening the international border to travel, which occurred in May 2003.

At this writing, sgns posted in the park and notices on the park’s website caution visitors: “DO NOT cross into Mexico. You cannot legally renter the United States anywhere within the Park. Penalties for illegal reentry can include a fine of $5,000 and up to a year in prison.”

Visitors entering the park are given a copy of The Big Bend Paisano, the park’s official newspaper, in which this warming appears: “Increased border restrictions following the 2001 terrorist attacks have led to a number of important changes that affect the international boundary in Big Bend…. Crossings Remain Closed: As a result of a 2002 US Customs and Border Patrol decision there are NO authorized crossings in Big Bend National Park. The US Attorney’s Office has indicated that it will prosecute any criminal violations regarding these illegal crossings If you re-enter the United States at any point within Big Bend National Park, you may be liable for a fine of not more than $5,000 or imprisonment for up to one year, or both.”

Meanwhile, visitors to Glacier National Park are given the Glacier National Park Vacation Planner with a strikingly different tone and message: “All hikers crossing the International Boundary from Canada are considered to be applying for admission to the United States, and are required to report to Park Rangers at Goat Haunt for inspection…. People in tour boats and private boats arriving from Waterton Lakes National Park to Goat Haunt are not required to clear customs and immigration unless they travel beyond the immediate shore area of the Ranger Station.”

Glacier Explorer, the official schedule of visitor activities in Glacier National Park, invites park visitors to join the twice-weekly “International Peace Park Hike” and walk across the international border: “Join both US National Park Service and Parks Canada staff on the exploration of the world’s first international peace park. Hike across the international boundary from Waterton (Canada) to Goat Haunt (United States) and return via boat.… Bring proper identification for the border crossing.

Yet Big Bend National Park officials have consistently maintained that the border closure is beyond their control. In public meetings held in Terlingua in May of 2004, and in Lajitas in November 2004, John King, superintendent of Big Bend National Park, has insisted that in enforcing the border closure here, NPS officials are merely adhering to the “law of the land” and that the status of border crossings here can “only be changed through legislative action” in the US Congress. Park officials have also articulated their concern the closings have had on the people in Mexico.

Without any new legislation, however, hikers, backpackers, and boaters of US and Canadian citizenship may enter the US through the Glacier’s Goat Haunt ranger station and, once admitted and processed by NPS rangers cross-designated as US Customs officials, are free to travel throughout the country.

Glacier’s Backcountry Guide includes detailed information on regulations for hikers entering the United States: “The northern access to Glacier’s backcountry from Canada is through Goat Haunt, a Class B Port of Entry into the United States at the southern end of Water Lake. Only US and Canadian Legal Residents may enter and exit through Goat Haunt. All hikers entering the US at Goat Haunt must check in with the Port of Entry staff at the Goat Haunt Ranger Station.” (The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service currently lists 25 operating Class B. Ports of Entry. Of the 25 Class B Ports of Entry, 24 are on the U.S. Canada border, one is in the U.S. Virgin Islands; none are on the U.S. Mexico border.)

During an interview on January 25, 2005, in response to being shown this portion of GNP’s park newspaper, Big Bend Superintendent John King told the Gazette: “I’ve had lengthy conversations with the superintendent of Glacier National Park… [I said to him] ‘We’re hearing you have special dispensation to do things differently than we do on the southern border.’ He told me that’s really not the case. [He said,] ‘Typically, US citizens drive into Canada [first] through a port of entry. Then they take the boat [across Water Lake from Waterton, in Waterton National Park in Alberta, Canada] to the US. They can hike the trails. Canadian citizens can get off the boat, but they have to stay on or near the dock. They can’t leave the rest area.”

In an email exchange with the Gazette, however, Amy Vanderbilt, Public Affairs Specialist at Glacier National Park, confirmed what GNP’s backcountry planner states: “US and Canadian citizens may enter Glacier (US) from Canada on any park trails once they’ve been processed/admitted at Goat Haunt Ranger Station.”

When asked about any limits on travel beyond Goat Haunt, Vanderbilt responded, “Park regulations (National Park Service/Federal U.S.C. regulations) all apply within the boundaries of Glacier National Park (i.e. abiding by park regs, signs, policies, such as no feeding of wildlife, abiding by area closures, campsites, limits, etc.).”

In addition, Wanda Robinson of Waterton Inter-Nation Shoreline Cruise Company, the operator of tour boats traveling between Waterton in Canada) and Glacier National Park stated, “If [visitors] want to hike they need to clear US Customs.… We advise passengers who want to stay longer, backpackers, they need proper I.D. to clear customs. If they want to backpack, we mark their tickets, and ask when they plan to return so we have space [on the boat] for them.”

Bob Gatsby is the supervisor of the Great Falls, Montana, office of the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security agency comprising the formerly separate entities. He confirmed the legality of this freedom of travel from Canada: “You can come in and clear customs at Goat Haunt [Ranger Station], and backpack. It’s for more experienced backpackers; it is 20-25 miles to developed areas. They’re free to backpack, clear to wander the park at will.”

When asked if backpackers can hike the entire Continental Divide Trail, say, or go anywhere in the United States after being processed and admitted by NPS rangers at this Class B Port of Entry, Gatsby responded, “Yeah. Theoretically. That is an area thick with grizzly bears – that is a hazard after they clear Customs in Goat Haunt.”

The October-November 2003 issue of Customs and Border Protection Today, (the official newsletter of the U.S. Border and Protection Agency) boasts of the agreement reached between the CBP and NPS. The article, “Visitors Once Again Enter the US Through the Best Care-Killing Scenery on The Continent,” states:

“In July 2002, in an effort to reopen the Goat Haunt crossing, park rangers were given additional responsibilities and ‘deputized’ as Customs Inspectors. In May 2003, US Customs and Border Protection and the National Park Service announced that park rangers at Goat Haunt would start processing applications for admission into the United States for Canadian citizens and legal residents of the United States.

‘Each year 37,000 tourists visit the Goat Haunt region, and some 7,000 of them remain in the area to hike or backpack south further into Glacier Park. As an expression of the friendship between the US and Canada, Glacier National Park is again easy to reach from Canada thanks to the agreement between CBP and the National Park Service.”

Steve Frye, Chief Ranger at Glacier National Park told the Gazette “Goat Haunt is a Class B Port of Entry… our permanent and seasonal law enforcement rangers receive more intensive training….only U.S. and Canadian citizens are allowed entry.”

Glacier National Park is not the only unit in the National Park Service system that is facilitative, even friendly to cross-border travel. Isle Royale National Park, in the middle of Lake Superior which borders Ontario, Canada, welcomes all boaters, requiring simply that “all vessels, US or Canadian, arriving from Canada must clear US Customs,” with that service available at two ranger stations on the island.

Isle Royale’s Chief Ranger, Larry Kangas, emphasizes that the number of visitors to the park who “need to clear customs” is “very small – about a dozen boats a year and an occasional rare private seaplane,” since, “most visitors come on the concession ferry boats (any Canadians or people coming across the border to catch the ferry boats have to clear Customs at the border).”

Nevertheless, says Kangas, “The U.S. Customs and Immigration Officers provide training each year to those of us that clear customs. Recreational visitors can be cleared at Rock Harbor Ranger Station or the Windigo Ranger Station. Commissioned federal law enforcement officers, trained in customs/immigration issues live and work in both areas, and work directly with the Customs and Immigration Officers as needed.”

Back on the Mexican Border



Since May 2002, there are no legal crossings into the United States from Mexico anywhere in Big Bend National Park; park visitors are left to gaze across the Rio Grande and wonder about neighbors on the other side. Mexicans living in Boquillas del Carmen in Coahuila, Mexico (above center, across river in distance, as seen from trail in BBNP), largely dependent on tourism from the park and access to goods and services at nearby Rio Grande Village, have been profoundly affected by the strict enforcement of the border. (Marlys Hersey)

When questioned by the Gazette about the possibility of cross-designating rangers in Big Bend as US Customs inspectors, Superintendent King responded that he had discussed that possibility with the Chief of (now) Customs & Border Patrol’s Marfa sector (which includes much of the Big Bend), Simon Garza.

“[Garza] was not supportive,” said King. “I don’t mean to make him sound callous. He was very sympathetic, not only to US citizens wanting to have a cross-cultural experience, but also to the people on the other side, dependent on tourism as their economic lifeblood…. [Garza] says he’s not in a position to support [cross-designation of NPS rangers].”

When contacted by the Gazette, Bill Brooks, responding on behalf of Simon Garza, said “Chief Garza does not have the authority to cross-designate Park Rangers as Customs officers. In prior discussions with Superintendent King, and others, on this issue, Chief Garza has referred them to the appropriate authorities.”

When pressed about who the “appropriate authorities” are, Brooks responded, “We don’t know to whom Superintendent King would go. The ‘appropriate authorities’ Chief Garza was referring to were not specified by name but rather whomever [Superintendent King] would go to in his organization to get that kind of change made.” (Chief Garza has refused repeated requests from the Gazette to be interviewed for this and other articles.)

As it turns out, however, efforts to allow such cross-designation were already well underway – before King’s tenure as superintendent of BBNP: a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) exists between the NPS and CBP which designates three border crossings in Big Bend National Park (as class B ports of entry), and authorizes the cross-designation of NPS rangers as Customs officers.

Yet when the Gazette presented King with a copy of a May 2002 memo to all employees of the park from former Superintendent Frank Deckert detailing the MOU, and asked King what happened to it, King responded, “I don’t know. I don’t know the genesis of it, nor its demise….This predates me.”

In an effort to research the, a document current Big Bend National Park officials said they were unaware of, the Gazette filed a request for information under the Freedom of Information Act. Most of the documents cited below regarding this MOU were obtained from the NPS under this request, a packet of information sent to the Gazette with a cover letter dated February 15, 2005 and signed by John King.

In the fall of 1996, officials at Big Bend were informed by the US Customs Service Port Director in Presidio that the historic river crossings to and from Mexico within the park were in violation to the 1986 Anti-Drug Act amendment to the Tariff Act of 1930, 19 USC1459. The Tariff Act is the enabling legislation for the (then) U.S. Customs Service, requiring that all individuals enter the United States only at designated ports of entry.

In late February 2005, Roger Maier, Senior Press Officer at CBP in El Paso, confirmed for the Gazette that the Tariff Act of 1930, Title 19 Section 1459 of the U.S. Code is indeed the law currently governing entry into the United States, and no amendments have been made since 1986.

The U.S. Customs Service had operated three “Class B Ports of Entry” within the park until 1985, when, park memos indicate, “funding decreases and staff reductions forced the ports closures because they were not cost effective.”

In a memorandum prepared in April 1997 by Big Bend’s then-superintendent José Cisneros for the Director of the NPS, options for legal crossing were explored. Among the options presented to the director, Cisneros noted the possibility of an “exception” for Big Bend National Park: “The Secretary of the Treasury [of which US Customs Service was a part] could make an exception of these border crossings based upon the introductory clause of s1459 to the 1986 amendment which states ‘except as otherwise authorized by the Secretary.’”

Cisneros emphasized that this option was his “preferred alternative” and requested that the Director of the NPS “encourage the Department to support such an exception for Big Bend National Park” and to “approach the Secretary of the Treasury to facilitate such an exception.”

Former Director of the NPS Robert Stanton also took note of the law. In a letter dated April 1997, he wrote: “We believe that an exception to the 1986 Amendment is possible through the provision in the Amendment which apparently gives the Secretary of Treasury some discretion…

‘We think the Secretary could well make an exception and permit visitors to Big Bend National Park to return to the park after visiting the Mexican villages when that is part of their itinerary in the park.”

The Memorandum of Understanding between the National Park Service and the US Customs Service designating park rangers in Big Bend National Park to act as Customs officers (for up to 180 days) was, in fact, signed in 1998 by the Director of the Park Service and the Acting Commissioner of Customs.

The agreement was the result of efforts that began at the local level, and included regional officials, a variety of federal officials in Washington D.C., one member of Congress, and one member of the President’s Cabinet.

Specifically, the MOU included the work of: two former superintendents of Big Bend, the former El Paso Director of Field Operations for U.S. Customs, the Chief Legal Counsel at Customs, the Assistant Commissioner of Customs, the Office of International Affairs of the NPS, the Director and Deputy Director of the National Park Service, the Secretary and Assistant Secretary of the Interior.

The agreement is still in place, valid and legal.

The agreement was publicly announced by then-Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt at a meeting of the US-Mexico Binational Commission Meeting in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 1998.

In a June 1998 letter, from Robert Trotter, Assistant Commissioner of Customs, to the NPS Office of International Affairs, Trotter wrote of the agreement: “This cross-designation will allow visitors to the park to cross into Mexico and legally return to the United States without the presence of a customs officer in the park.”

A letter to Trotter, from the Deputy Director of the NPS, states “The Secretary (of the Interior) believes that the Customs Service-Park Service MOU represents an important accomplishment…”

Dropping the ball

Until May 2002, cross-border travel in Big Bend, cross-designation of park rangers as customs officials, and the establishment of legal river crossings from Boquillas, San Vicente and Santa Elena, Mexico generated little interest.

As former Big Bend Superintendent Frank Deckert told the Gazette, “It all began [in May 2002] when the Border Patrol did a raid at Lajitas; that got everyone’s attention. Historic crossings for generations were closed.”

In a briefing statement dated May 9, 2002, “Closure of Unofficial Border Crossings,” Deckert wrote to park employees to alert them of the impending change: “In early May 2002, the U.S. Border Patrol Marfa Sector notified the park that they would be increasing the international border security due to 1) anti-terrorism concerns resulting from the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001; and 2) recent media reports describing the ease of entry into the U.S. in the areas of unofficial border crossings.”

Deckert continued to work towards cross-border travel at these historic crossings. In a memorandum dated May 31, 2002 (after the May 10, 2002, raid on Lajitas), Deckert wrote that, “Because of this MOU, the Border Patrol has agreed that U.S. citizens may cross at the unofficial crossings and return to the United States.”

Yet in November 2002, Deckert was still writing about the border closure. “I had hoped that this issue would have been resolved long ago. That said, I still remain optimistic that some relief will occur.

‘In a conversation last week with the U.S. Customs manager who has been helping us with this issue, he informed me that the Memorandum of Understanding that we have with them is still valid. Also, he said that they would be training our rangers to be cross designated as Customs Officers as soon as national guidelines are established for the training.”

In May of 2003 cross-designated park rangers at Glacier National Park began processing foot and boat traffic into the United States from Canada, a trend which continues today.

Meanwhile, no park rangers in Big Bend have processed any visitors to enter the US from Mexico, despite the legal authority that has existed since 1998. (Just before this issue went press, the Gazette received an email from Big Bend’s Chief of Interpretation David Elkowitz confirming that at present, there are two rangers in the park’s law enforcement division who are cross-designated, able to act as customs officers.)

P.T. Wright, former El Paso Director of Field Operations for U.S. Customs and now Executive Director of U.S-VISIT at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, D.C., worked on border issues with the NPS. In a phone conversation, he told the Gazette, “I don’t know if anything further came about from the people who followed Frank [Deckert] and me, giving some relief to Lajitas, Santa Elena, and places like that. I don’t know what happened on either side. When Frank left, I don’t know if there was anyone left to keep the momentum going.”

Regarding prospects for the cross-designation of Big Bend rangers, Wright added, “If you can get to the right person and ask the right questions there might be an opportunity to move the issue forward.”