Laredo, TX

Our last stop in Texas was Laredo. We stayed in a hotel right on the Rio Grande, between two bridges that cross over into Mexico. We were there for 2 nights, as Andy spent a day with someone from DHS at one of the bridges, so he could see the process of what happens when someone illegally comes in to the US. From what he told me, it seems that most people have a visa of some-sort, but they end up using it wrong. For example, a mom had a work visa which was valid, but she brought her son with her to go to school in the US, so now her work visa will be taken away and she’ll probably never get another again. Lots of Mexicans living in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, enter the US everyday with work permits to work in Laredo, then go back home to Mexico in the evening. Crazy, huh? Each morning, I watched dozens of Mexicans walk across the bridges to come go to work or school or whatever. It was a steady stream of cars and people immigrating pretty much all day long. I also watched our border patrol go up and down the river, decked out in their uniforms and weapons. They moved slowly along the shore on the US side of the river. So weird. I half expected to watch them find someone who had just swam across. Other than watching the bridges, we didn’t do much in Laredo. We shopped for school supplies, ate at the Olive Garden one more time, and swam in the beautiful hotel pool(of course). Swimming was really fun. Too bad, that was our last pool for a while.