AGUA PRIETA, Mexico - Every weekend underage students head to the Arizona-Mexico border to party and socialize in Mexico’s many clubs and bars. Though it may be legal to drink in Mexico, crossing back into the United States while intoxicated is a crime, officials said.

And the Party Begins

Outside the blasting reggaeton beats of “Rompe” by Daddy Yankee are heard as two dozen over-dressed teenagers swarm to the pay window, fighting for a ticket into the nightclub. Not many look over 18, but the pounds of makeup they are wearing may be deceiving.

Inside, many huddle around the bar and others group together on the dance floor as the lights swirl and pulsate throughout the club. Sexual tension in this place is high, as a number of teenagers grind against those within a foot radius of them or make out against the back wall of the cavernous room. Others stumble around, looking lost and confused, but still shouting they want “más tequila!”

This is a typical Saturday night on the border.

Many students cross into Mexico to escape the monotony of typical parties.

“It’s more of the atmosphere,” said Jenny Figueroe, a 19-year-old student and resident of Douglas. “It’s fun times, you know, watching people get crazy.”

One of the reasons partying in Mexico is so popular is because of the boredom many teenagers face in a small town and the lack of regulations in most places concerning alcohol, said Tanner Herbert, a pre-business freshman from the University of Arizona.

“Most places will serve you if you can see over the bars,” Herbert said. “Douglas is such a small town, there is nothing to do, and when you are in high school, especially, you want to party. It was easy to do that in Mexico. I didn’t need to have like an older brother to buy me beer, I could just get it myself.”

The Mexican police do not care if you are underage and drinking, said Tony Zepeda, a pre-business freshman from the UA.

“The Mexican police don’t do shit,” Zepeda said. “They try to enforce the law, but they don’t really do anything. You could go into a club at 16, and say the cops would pull you over just pay them off and you’ll be fine. I have known plenty of people to pay cops off with money or beer. The police just don’t care.”

Getting Across

As the night drags on, slowly people leave the club. They stumble out of the door in droves, most heading in the same direction. Like a pack of wolves, you do not see one alone.

As the group approaches the border, their swagger changes into a tall upright stride while they proudly display their U.S. ID’s for the border authorities to see.

“Citizenship?” the customs and border protection agent asks.

“American citizen,” each person replies one at a time.

“Have a good night,” the agent responds.

The group’s dynamic changes once again to the stumbling, loud, typically drunk hoard of teenagers. They have successfully made it across the border.

However easy this may seem, there are many consequences to being drunk after entering the United States, officials said.

“They would be subject to arrest if they cross the border intoxicated,” said Marcus Gonzalez, a public information officer with the Douglas Police Department. “There was a law passed in 2005 where it says if you have any alcohol in your body, whether you consumed it in the country, in the state, or elsewhere, you would be subject to arrest.”

Many underage adults still chose to go to Mexico on the weekends because they believe they are not at risk of getting caught, Herbert said.

“It’s very easy to get across the border after drinking,” he said. “You can walk or drive, but really if you are nice to them, they’re nice to you.”

It becomes more of a routine than anything else for some people, said Michael Galka, an engineering management major at the UA who grew up in Douglas.

“You just show them your license, say you are a U.S. citizen and they let you go through,” Galka said. “It’s like the same thing every time.”

Herbert said there are things students should be more cautious about then crossing back across the border drunk.

“I think you should definitely go in a group, and there should be more guys than girls in the group,” Herbert said. “There have been a lot of incidences of date rape and fights and stuff like that. Mexico is a scary place and I can see why the cops there don’t worry too much about underage drinking and drunk drivers.”

The lax attitude from underage drinkers is attributed to the lack of enforcement, said Gonzalez, the police spokesman in Douglas.

“We are planning on stepping up enforcement, it is just a matter of time for us to do it,” Gonzalez said. “We just have to get more personnel and we have to get some of the issues taken care of and we will go back to our old ways of being there every weekend and enforcing this.”

On the border, customs agents can stop a person for any reason, but cannot enforce Arizona state laws at the port of entry, Gonzalez said. Drunk, underage U.S. nationals cross the border without having to worry about consequences from the law if they are not giving the police a reason to stop them.

“Once in a very long time, customs will detain someone for us,” Gonzalez said. “It is very seldom that customs will call us on something like this because it becomes a norm. When somebody gets caught down there for underage consumption, what we do here is not a penalty that customs sees fit, so sometimes they feel like, ‘Yeah we are doing our job in participating and handing them over to you, but you guys don’t do anything.’”

Officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection do not have the authority to arrest people who have been drinking, said Brian Levin, from the Office of Public Liason for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They cannot arrest people in violation of Arizona state laws and it is not their job to do so.

The Cost of Crossing the Border Drunk

Jacob Tadeo, an 18-year-old student and resident of Douglas, was questioned coming across the border after partying one Saturday night not by the local police but by a DUI task force, a faction of the Department of Public Safety for the state of Arizona.

“They put the flashlight in my eyes and made me do a breathalyzer,” Tadeo said. “I blew a .03 and got underage consumption.”

After receiving his charge, Tadeo was sent to court.

“They cited me and I got community service,” he said. “It wasn’t that bad. The only reason I even got stopped was because it was the DUI task force and they aren’t here that much. I never get questioned otherwise.”

Gonzalez says that the lack of discipline for underage drinking comes from many factors including an understaffed police department. With only about 35 police officers, the Douglas Police Department falls about six officers short, meaning they cannot focus as much time or attention on the underage drinking at the border.

Along with this, Gonzalez said that the punishments associated with being cited for underage consumption are not harsh.

“I can tell you nine times out of 10, because it is a misdemeanor they do get released immediately so,” he said. “After that, they either get to go through the court systems or they get to attend a diversion program. The court usually includes community service or a fine.”

Not only do students feel that it is easy to get back into the country, many of them believe they will not get in trouble in Mexico either, Herbert said.

Tadeo agrees.

“The Mexican police threatened that they would take me to prison and impound my car, but when push comes to shove I just paid them off,” Tadeo said. “Thirty in American money did the trick.”

Cooperation from the Mexican police department is another thing that Gonzalez said is needed before the underage consumption problem can be solved.

“If the municipal police in Agua Prieta or any other form of government agencies down there would help us out and keep juveniles out of their clubs and bars then that would reduce our case load drastically,” Gonzalez said. “We’ve had talks with them, we’ve brought up these concerns, but what they are telling us is pretty much the same thing we are faced with over here and that is lack of personnel.”

Though there are many factors working against law enforcement to stop this growing problem, the presence of the DUI task force has helped, Gonzalez said.

The DUI task force is a specialized group of law enforcement that comes down and does details in Douglas a few times a year, Gonzalez said. Since their involvement in the border town, drunk driving arrests have dropped drastically due to what he said is an awareness of law enforcement throughout the town.

When the DUI task force is not in town though, students do not feel the pressure of avoiding drinking and crossing.

“The only time I have ever been stopped on the border was by the DUI task force, and I’ve been across a lot,” Zepeda said. “If they aren’t around it’s no big deal.”