April 16, 2008 — On the western outskirts of Big Bend National Park, Lajitas, Texas and its Mexican counterpart, Paso Lajitas, Chihuahua perch on hills above the Rio Grande, marking the route of a former Comanche thoroughfare, as well as an important battle site for the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa and a cast of bandit followers.With the discovery of mercury or “quicksilver” in the nearby Chisos mountains in the 1890′s and the rise of Mexican cattle ranching and subsequent cross-border commerce, Lajitas became a popular saloon stop and trading post for cowboys, miners and regional settlers. By 1900, it was designated a substation port of entry, making it the most important U.S.-Mexico crossing between Del Rio and El Paso, a stretch of over 400 miles.
Today, Lajitas is home to a nine-hole golf course, a luxury resort and a small, exclusive housing community that bills itself as “the ultimate hideout,” which, given the town’s relative remoteness is conceivable, but also a little ironic.In an effort to secure the U.S.-Mexico border after the events of September 11, 2001, federal agents closed the Lajitas-Paso Lajitas crossing. In May 2002, as a part of a regional round-up of illegal aliens, a heavily armed platoon of border patrol agents twice descended upon Lajitas and arrested a total of 28 people, many of whom regularly crossed the river to work in the Lajitas resort.
Known as one of the oldest crossings along the entire US-Mexico border, residents of Lajitas and Paso Lajitas crossed the international boundary line on a daily basis for generations.Since 2002, the vast majority of residents of Paso Lajitas have left the town in search of work and a new school system. Once responsible for a friendly and codependent relationship among the two towns, “the old crossing” is now defunct and according to some, has turned Paso Lajitas into an ideal look-out point for drug traffickers.
