NPR

In Rural West Texas, Illegal Border Crossings Are Routine For U.S. Citizens

In some remote border towns in Texas along the Rio Grande, U.S. citizens cross back and forth for medical care in Mexico. It's a technically illegal reality that local Border Patrol acknowledges.
U.S. citizens use ropes to cross the Rio Grande from San Antonio del Bravo, Mexico, into Candelaria, Texas. U.S. citizens depend on the free health clinic in San Antonio del Bravo.

Along one rugged stretch of the Rio Grande, U.S. citizens routinely cross the border into the United States illegally. A shortage of basic services in rural Texas, such as health care, means U.S. citizens rely on Mexican services and rarely pass through an official port of entry on return.

Informal, unregulated crossings have been a fixture of life for generations in rural communities along the U.S.-Mexico border. Today, however, with the unrelenting

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