PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune
Esther Durazo and her grandson Zachary Curtis, 4, strolled through Imperial Beach toward the nearby 2,500-acre Tijuana Estuary, once the site of frequent illegal border crossings.
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IMPERIAL BEACH – Martha Schiff is reminded of the time she sheltered a scared teenage girl. Esther Durazo remembers uninvited guests in her living room one Christmas, whom Border Patrol agents escorted out.
And Louis DeLara recalls watching hundreds of times as cars and taxi cabs idled in an alley near his home and picked up people who had just crossed the border illegally by wading through the muddy Tijuana River Valley.
The stories are unforgettable for longtime residents and law enforcement officials. They marvel at the transformation of the city in the 10 years since the federal government added barriers and agents along the border in San Diego County.
"You used to hear them running down the alley all night," said Durazo, who experienced life in Imperial Beach before and after Operation Gatekeeper.
The city that was often crowded with desperate illegal immigrants running from armed Border Patrol agents and thumping helicopters is now a quiet, cleaned-up beach town with increasing property values and plans for more than $20 million in redevelopment.
Operation Gatekeeper
First in an occasional series
Overview
 A decade ago, hundreds of people every night crossed illegally from Tijuana into San Diego County. Illegal immigration became a national issue and spawned Operation Gatekeeper, which added cameras, more U.S. Border Patrol agents and rows of stout fencing in the county.
What changed: Gatekeeper has dramatically reduced the number of migrants crossing through San Diego County's
urban areas, steering them into the mountains and deserts to the east. Imperial Beach and Tijuana neighborhoods near the border fence have become much calmer.
What hasn't changed: Nationwide, the number of illegal crossers has not declined, some experts say.
Stories in the series
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"I believe that Operation Gatekeeper was the pivotal point for Imperial Beach's whole coastal renaissance," Mayor Diane Rose said. "I believe without that happening 10 years ago, it would have been very difficult to put all the pieces in place."
Durazo said men, women and sometimes children who were hungry, thirsty and tired would arrive at her home on Fifth Street, near the Tijuana Estuary. Of the many stories Durazo tells about border crossers, one stands out.
It was near Christmas in the early 1980s. A few visitors had stopped by, so no one noticed when a woman and a child and some others walked into the house. They sat in the living room next to Durazo's son Mark, who was absorbed in a video game.
"My son always had friends over, so I didn't think anything of it at first," Durazo said. "He wasn't paying attention, so he didn't notice that one man was all wet and shivering. Finally, I went in there and said, 'Who are you?'"
Durazo said Border Patrol agents must have been watching because a few minutes later agents knocked on the door and took the migrants away.
Schiff, who has lived near the Navy's Ream Field in the southern part of the city since 1959, often gave water to border crossers but tried to keep her distance. One incident in the early 1970s brought her face to face with a frightened teenager.
"She was all wet, soaking wet," said Schiff, who found the girl hiding under her carport. "She was probably 14 or 15 years old. She was scared. I brought her in and warmed her up."
Schiff said she gave the girl food and allowed her to stay a few days until relatives in Los Angeles fetched her. Schiff, who had never done that before, said she often thinks about her and wonders where she is.
PEGGY PEATTIE / Union-Tribune
Mark Durazo held his son Reese, 3, as he talked about how much Imperial Beach has changed in the 10 years since Operation Gatekeeper went into effect.
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'You get used to it'
Schiff and others, such as longtime Imperial Beach resident Dana Huddleston, said they never felt personal danger. Huddleston said that although it was surprising to find people sleeping on the side of his house or hiding under his car, it did not feel threatening.
"That was part of life," Huddleston said. "Like the helicopters (at Ream Field), you get used to it."
Many in the city said they don't know anyone who was robbed or had something stolen by border crossers. Officials don't know how many crimes have been committed by illegal immigrants. Most types of property crime and violent crime in Imperial Beach are down from five years ago.
DeLara, a 31-year resident in a house that overlooks an alley and the estuary, said Border Patrol agents would sometimes park several buses near his house. As migrants were apprehended, DeLara said, they would be loaded on the bus "until they couldn't load anymore."
As part of Operation Gatekeeper, the federal government doubled the number of Border Patrol agents and installed high-tech surveillance equipment and towering rows of fences along much of the San Diego-
Tijuana border.
Before the buildup, the Border Patrol was understaffed and ill-equipped. Often, the city's beach and one of its two main arteries, Imperial Beach Boulevard, were the agents' first line of defense.
Agents were forced to patrol Imperial Beach because the vast, 2,500-acre estuary, which lies between the border and the city, was too difficult to patrol with the Border Patrol's small staff and a fence that was weak in some places and nonexistent in others.
"One word probably describes it best: chaotic," said David Brown, who is in charge of the Border Patrol's Imperial Beach station. "Agents had to go out and focus on doing the best job they could do and put the rest out of their minds."
Brown, who has worked in the area for nearly 30 years, said he would come upon groups of 100 people at a time walking north on the beach from Mexico. Agents did all they could to apprehend them.
Rose said it was difficult to attract visitors to the beach back then. She said illegal immigrants degraded the estuary's trails, leaving human waste, clothing and toilet paper.
"They would be hiding out during the day, then moving at night," Rose said.
Border Patrol agents said Imperial Beach and San Ysidro were favored by illegal immigrants because there were so many escape routes. Immigrants could easily board buses, taxis and the trolley.
A new reputation
The effects of Operation Gatekeeper were felt almost immediately along the border, but perhaps most profoundly in Imperial Beach.
Rose said in the 10 years since Gatekeeper was put in place, the number of visitors to the beach and nearby estuary has at least tripled, to an estimated 2.6 million last year. She said neighborhoods have been revitalized and buyers are quickly grabbing what is left of the cheapest beachfront property in the county.
With its reputation on the mend, Imperial Beach has watched its housing prices soar with the rest of the county. Richard and Cheryl Schaumburg with One Source Realty began buying and selling real estate in the city in 1989. In the early 1990s, condominiums on the beach started at about $200,000. Now, they start at $700,000.
In May, the median price of a house in Imperial Beach was $507,500, a 45 percent increase from May of the previous year.
"Imperial Beach hasn't been what people think it is for some time," Cheryl Schaumburg said. "I used to have to explain to people because they heard things. We had a reputation. People just didn't know that we've changed so much."
Before Operation Gatekeeper, Durazo said, her family would give food or water to immigrants if they asked. She remembers she was canning fruit when her daughter said a man outside was thirsty. She told her to let him have the hose. She came back a few minutes later and said the man was hungry.
"I told her to fix him a sandwich," Durazo said. "She comes back after giving him the sandwich and said, 'He wants to know if he can borrow the truck.'"
Other residents told stories of finding immigrants hiding in their trash cans, huddled on the high school football field or running on the beach in jogging attire.
But many also remember the dogs barking all night as immigrants ran through town. Some say the city resembled a war zone some nights with helicopters pointing flood lights at groups of people who would scatter in all directions.
Rose said that although migrants continue to cross, groups of 30 to 100 people no longer run through town. Brown, the Border Patrol agent in charge of the Imperial Beach station, said a group of five or six is considered big these days.
"Gatekeeper improved the city's image," Brown said. "It was a pretty rough town for a while there. It's a much better place now. City leaders had a vision to develop things, and Gatekeeper helped them to do that."
