They are known as gaviotas — gulls — and they are the bane of thousands of long-suffering border crossers who line up every day at the San Ysidro and Otay Mesa ports of entry. In the lingo of binational commuters, gaviotas are those drivers who push their way into long queues that lead to the busy international crossings.

As the gaviotas test the tolerance of their fellow car-bound crossers, Tijuana police are cracking down on the practice that can lead not only to frayed nerves but also to accidents and angry confrontations.

In recent weeks, authorities have been stepping up patrols, erecting new barriers and posting inspectors at critical intersections and medians where gaviotas are known to make sudden appearances.

Now the city is preparing to go a step further — amending the city’s transit code to make cutting into the border lanes a serious traffic infraction, punishable by a fine of some 1,300 pesos, about $68. Tijuana councilman Rogelio Palomera has been working with the Tijuana Police Department on a draft that he expects to submit to the council in coming days.


“Right now there’s a lot of disorder,” Palomera said. “The aim is to establish order.”

The disorder typically occurs during the morning rush hour, or on Sunday afternoons when lines to get to the U.S. inspection booths can stretch for miles into Tijuana streets that lead to the crossings.

Rather than drive to the back of the line, gaviotas approach through adjacent empty lanes, or from intersections that feed into the line. Some will pleadingly ask to be let in, but those who are more brazen will jump median strips and defy police barriers, and sometimes will collaborate with indigents who hold up the line for a few pesos so the gaviotas can cut in.

The situation has increasingly gotten out of hand in recent months, say commuters such as Jerry Jackson, a 37-year-old U.S. citizen who lives in Tijuana and crosses on weekdays to his job in downtown San Diego. “Before you’d see maybe one or two gaviotas and it wasn’t upsetting, they’d ask for permission, you knew that it was a person who was late or had an emergency,” Jackson said. “But now you have 50 cars trying to cut in in a very aggressive manner.”


A driver tries to cut into the line of vehicles waiting to enter the San Ysidro Port of Entry on Friday morning. (Courtesy)

On Thursday morning, transit inspector Marcos González Alvarez was standing guard, keeping order in the long line of drivers that stretched toward the border, ensuring that no one crossed the temporary police barrier set up for the rush-hour period. “They should be more conscientious, and line up like everybody else,” he said of the gaviotas. “They’re just not respectful, people spend two, three hours in line, and they come and want to cut in.”

Marco Antonio Sotomayor, Tijuana’s public safety secretary, said the city government wants to ensure not only that commuters are ensured a stress-free crossing — but that visitors to the city aren’t left with a negative impression. “Imagine a tourist who spends three hours in line, and unfortunately because there is no order, someone forces their way ahead of them into the line, and they have to wait longer,” Sotomayor said. “Maybe they won’t come back.”

Near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, Chela Ortega said she has noticed the difference in recent days. “I’m seeing the police paying more attention,” said Ortega, who does a brisk business selling burritos to weekday morning commuters on their way to the United States. “For about two weeks, there’s been more order, it’s slow now, but it’s more peaceful.”


Some crossers admitted to having been occasional gaviotas or enabling friends who wanted to jump into the line.

Josué Vicente Palafox, 23, who waited Wednesday morning to cross at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, admitted he has at times cut into the line — or helped his friends do so. “Sometimes, among pals, you contact each other, and say, ‘Hey, what’s up, are you in line?’ Pásale” , go ahead of me,” he said.

“Yes, it’s irritating, but I’ve also done it, when I’m late, or when the lines have been really long,” said Jackson, whose Friday morning commute entailed a one-hour, 45-minute wait at the border.

Officers assigned to the tourist section of the Tijuana Police Department process people rounded up at the port of entry who were allegedly engaging in illegal activities in the long line of cars waiting to go in to the US. (John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune)


While many gaviotas cut in line unassisted, others get help from indigents who walk among the lanes of northbound vehicles. Known on the border line as traperos, they brandish rags and offer to wipe cars for a few pesos. Some also offer their services to the gaviotas, helping the drivers force their way into the line.

“They wait there by the side of the road, waiting for a client,” said Arnoldo Ríos, 23, a Tijuana resident and frequent crosser at the San Ysidro Port of Entry. “One of them stands in front of the cars, while the other lifts the barrier.”

In response to the rising number of complaints, Tijuana police have stepped up patrols and sweeps of the area, and those arrested are largely the traperos, whose nickname is derived from the Spanish word for rag.

The largest recent operation took place on Aug. 5, when officers picked up more than 100 people in the border lanes leading to San Ysidro and Otay Mesa, two of them on suspicion of peddling drugs. On Thursday, they detained 22 suspects found wandering the border lanes and “disturbing citizens waiting in line to cross to the United States,” according to a news release.


One of them was Felipe Becerra López, 34, who said he earns his living cleaning cars and is addicted to crystal meth. He said he has been detained in this manner about 20 times. Inside his black backpack, police found two syringes, a small glass pipe, cigarette papers, as well as tools that could help him break into a vehicle.

Becerra and others picked up by police Thursday morning faced a range of charges — from begging in a public right of way to urinating in public to littering. “Many of them are consuming drugs in public,” said Alfredo Torres, the shift commander. “These are the kinds of people who are causing the problem, stopping traffic.”

Watching the drama that unfolds has become something of a sport for those inching forward in the line.

They communicate through Facebook pages such “Como Está La Linea Tijuana,” which counts nearly 300,000 members, They publish photos and videos of the offending gaviotas, cheering when a police officer intercepts a driver and orders him to the back of the line. They alert fellow commuters that a gaviota is about to strike.


“They’re never going to change, these people need a life lesson,” one commuter wrote recently. “They are, and always will be, gandallas. People with no values!!” Added another: “It’s a reflection of how they manage their lives.”

sandra.dibble@sduniontribune.com

@sandradibble