Jay Johnson-Castro’s walk along the border has come to an end.
Johnson-Castro, the owner of a bed-and-breakfast in Del Rio, set out on his walk Oct. 10 from the main square in Laredo. He ended it in Brownsville with Mayor Eddie Trevino escorting him into the palm-shaded Dean Porter Park shortly before 5 p.m. They were accompanied by Brownsville police and met by 30 enthusiastic supporters.
”He’s become a symbol of the voices who are opposing this whole idea of a fence,” Trevino said. ”His walk has worked to garner attention that this isn’t wanted by the people of South Texas.”
Johnson-Castro, tanned and visibly leaner, said the mostly Hispanic border residents were both insulted and offended by the proposed fence.
“Most people relate to it as a Berlin Wall,” he said.
President Bush today is expected to sign a bill authorizing the fence, which could cost more than $6 billion.
Actually, what Bush will sign is a symbolic gesture designed to rally the base. But hey, it’s an important symbolic gesture. We wouldn’t want an unimportant symbolic gesture, would we?