Border Crossing

Last Friday (February 5^th) we drove from Davis Mountain State Park near Ft. Davis, Texas, through El Paso on I-10 to Hwy. #9 which runs across the southern edge of the skinny part of New Mexico.  Halfway across that part is Columbus, NM, and Poncho Villa State Park – another rerun from last year. Only this time, the sun was shining and we had a beautiful afternoon to stroll the campground.

Later, while sitting in the Pickle, around 4:30, we couldn’t help but notice a stream of school buses going past the campground toward Palomas, the Mexican town just across the border, only about 2 miles from the campground. Why? We wondered. Would school buses cross the border for cheap gas? Unlikely. Then we saw the buses coming back the other way, past the campground again, back into Columbus.  We got in the mini and decided to go see if we could answer our question.

As we reached the border town, I Googled “Columbus NM school buses crossing the Mexican border” and found a great article that had aired on NPR in March, 2014. It told about the 400 plus Mexican students who cross the border and attend Deming schools every day. First through fifth grades go to the elementary in Columbus. Jr. High and High School students are bused 30 minutes to Deming. These are children who are US citizens as they were born in the Deming hospital, the closest hospital to Palomas, Mexico.

Allowing students to cross the border to go to school in the United States is nothing new. It’s been going on in Columbus since the ‘50s, but has recently churned up more controversy. Deming School District, however, stands by its dedication to educate its neighboring children.