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HERMOSILLO, Sonora - The shrill whine of the jet engines slowed, and amid businessmen in suits, families and tourists, Pablo Silva emerged in a faded, dirty shirt and a baseball cap. His first time on a plane, he was heading for the border where he would meet a smuggler to take him across. Tuesday, he joined the first crush of illegal entrants who will be smuggled into the United States this year, a wave border agents gear up for each January. Before he leaves Mexico, Silva will leave a trail of money from the airport to the shuttle that will take him to the migrant hotel at the border. He will buy warm clothes, food and water, boosting a support industry that caters to the crossers as he makes his way to a manual labor job building American homes. The U.S. Border Patrol marks Jan. 7 as the day illegal crossing numbers surge, a diaspora of people being smuggled at more than 1,000 a day in the Tucson Sector alone. Last year, the numbers reached their peak in May before the deadly heat left at least 152 dead in the desert. Silva is more worried about opportunists preying on him, knowing he's carrying cash and traveling alone. He climbed down the plane stairs hesitantly and looked over his shoulder as passengers moved around him through the immigration checkpoint and toward the waiting line of taxis out front. Cabdrivers, standing in small groups smoking, threw down their cigarettes and picked up torn red towels, waving the impromptu flags at the migrants as they stepped out of the airport. "Naco, Naco, Naco!" "Nogales, Nogales!" "Altar!" they shouted. Within three minutes, more than 40 people including Silva were hustled into 10- and 15-passenger vans for a four-hour drive to the border. Silva, 23, from Veracruz, was on his way to Altar, where he says he will cross to Phoenix and arrange a ride to New Mexico for construction work. He left Veracruz at 3 a.m. and arrived in Hermosillo by 11 a.m., expecting to be across the border that night. "I'm aware of the laws, but I know there's more people coming after me and there's bandits waiting up there," he said. Silva is only one of thousands expected to take that risk this January. The number of Border Patrol arrests drops in December as illegal crossers return to Mexico for the holidays, then picks up again weeks later. Consider: On New Year's Eve, agents captured 438 illegal entrants. On Wednesday, they captured 702. "We're starting to see an increase already," agency spokesman Andy Adame said. They come by bus, foot and train, but hundreds more simply fly in, using planes like the full-sized Airbus A-320 Silva rode to cut the trip from days to hours, Mexicana Airlines Hermosillo station manager Jorge Carrillos said. Seeing a need, Mexicana opened a direct flight several years ago from Oaxaca to Hermosillo with a stop in Mexico City. With three flights per day into the city, Carrillos estimates about half of the 290 daily passengers are people heading for the United States. Three other airlines provide the same service, likely with the same numbers, he said. Flights also originate in Veracruz and Chiapas, bringing more migrants to the border. Plane tickets from the poorest Mexico states, such as Oaxaca or Chiapas, cost about 2,150 pesos, roughly $215, said Mexicana Airlines supervisor Jesus Jorge Villareal. That's about $65 more than a bus ride to the same place, but the ease and speed compared to a bus ride guarantees a faster, safer passage, he said. Silva says he paid $250 for his ticket from Veracruz via Mexico City to Hermosillo. Even though airports in Mexicali are closer, it's easier to cross the border in this area, Carrillos said. Illegal entrants do not use the Nogales airport because it doesn't offer flights from as many places, he said. Mexico does not track how many who come to Hermosillo will cross the border illegally, said Jesús Alberto Hernandez, the airport's National Migration Institute administrator. "What we're more concerned with are the people who come into Mexico," he said. Monday night, immigration officials captured four Hondurans at Hermosillo's Gen. Pesqueira International Airport with false documents, he said. Meanwhile, on the U.S. side, the Border Patrol is preparing a new operation for what it considers the start of the busiest half of the year, said spokesman Adame. As intelligence filters back about where migrants gather, schedules are adjusted so other points on the border don't lose agents. Medical teams, horse patrols and special operations units are brought in to saturate an area, he said. Victor Alfonso Martinez, 14, from Veracruz, came in on the same flight Silva did and said he wanted to get to Agua Prieta as soon as he could. "I hear things start to cost more the more people get to the border," he said. "All I know is I need to go to Agua Prieta quickly," he said. He said he had relatives across the border to live with, but was vague about where. Most would-be crossers are just as vague, not trusting anyone but the people responsible for moving them closer to the border, said Jesus Valencia, a shuttle driver for three years who moves people up to the border-area cities of Mexicali, Sonoyta, Altar, Nogales, Naco and Agua Prieta. "These people are scared; they know there are polleros to take advantage of them, bandits to attack them and federal police to arrest them," he said. "They trust us. We're not criminals." Clemente Romero, 33, from Tulancingo, Hidalgo, about 1,500 miles from the border, was among a group of four men speeding across the brown Sonoran Desert toward Agua Prieta. For the equivalent of $40 a passenger, drivers move up to 15 people in large white passenger vans to the border, stopping to give the crowded passengers a rest every hour. Regular buses provide the same service for half the price but the shuttles move them in more quickly, shuttle driver Reynaldo Aguila said. Aguila acknowledged that many of his passengers are heading to the border to cross illegally. "We offer a service to people, that's all we do," he said. Romero and his three companions rented a room at the San Antonio Hotel, a migrant hotel with plywood balcony floors and concrete walls in Agua Prieta. They would meet with a smuggler to negotiate their price and then cross the border on their way to Concord in Northern California. One will work on a strawberry farm; another, Jorge Barranco, 27, in a junkyard he worked in two years ago; and the others at a rug business. Last Wednesday, Romero kissed his little sister goodbye in Hidalgo, climbed into the waiting truck and headed for the airport at 4 a.m. He arrived in Hermosillo at noon that day, Agua Prieta by 5 p.m. He says he has crossed before. The cold hotel room, at $15 a person, has two beds covered in rough blankets. A bedsheet serves as a curtain over the single window, which lets in the odor of exhaust from the city and doesn't mask the mustiness of old blankets and clothes from the hundreds who have stayed here before. Barranco returned to Hidalgo two years ago and, with the money from his U.S. job, bought a house for his family. Back for more money, he wanted to come before the crowds of illegal entrants. When the masses arrive, he says, so do the opportunists. "They know mojados are carrying a lot of money; they start charging us extra for everything from tacos to water to backpacks," he said, using the Spanish slang term "wetbacks" for illegal entrants. "That's a big problem and we haven't even run into the bandits yet." He said he's experienced price-gouging every step of the way. "Our same people assault us, steal our money, overcharge us and press down on us," he said. Not so, says Domingo Martinez Lopez, a shopkeeper who sells backpacks, sweat pants, gloves and socks to illegal border crossers. Anticipating the business, he dropped his price on backpacks to $5 Wednesday. "Business is good today," he said. "The migrants come prepared with cash and they're looking for a great deal." Stores are starting to fill their shelves, said Maria Rodriguez Vasques, who owns a long-distance-calling business in Altar, a springboard for migrants on their way to Sasabe. "They're starting to come," she said. "Every year is good, but hopefully this year will be even better than last year." |
