Grupo Beta agents Bertha Alicia De la Rosa, left, and Waldo Montiel talk on a road running south along the U.S.-Mexico border just west of Naco. (By Jonathan Clark)
Posted on 04/09/2006 12:34:42 PM PDT by SandRat
WEST OF NACO, Sonora, Mexico — Grupo Beta agent Waldo Montiel had just finished a brief off-road spin through a gully known to be a waiting area for migrants when the red Chevy Suburban roared past, headed west along the dusty border road.
“Do you recognize that truck?” asked fellow agent Bertha Alicia De la Rosa from her seat beside Montiel.
“No,” he said.
“It’s not from one of the ranches around here?”
“I don’t think so,” he answered as he pulled the bright orange Dodge Ram truck back on to the road and took up pursuit of the Suburban.
In a few minutes he was on its tail, honking his horn and flashing his lights.
Reluctantly, the Suburban pulled over to a stop, a quarter-mile east of the San Pedro River, a few feet south of the wire fence separating the Mexican state of Sonora from Palominas.
Montiel bounded from the cabin and was met on the dusty road by the driver of the vehicle, a nervous young man in his early 20s.
“How many do you have in there?” Montiel asked.
“Fourteen,” the driver answered.
“Do you mind if I open the back?”
“Go ahead.”
Montiel pulled open the hatch to reveal 14 dusty men, women, boys and girls packed together inside. The youngest members of the group appeared to be around 11 or 12. The majority looked to be teenagers.
“Where are you going?” Montiel asked the group. When nobody answered, he asked again, this time more authoritatively. Montiel came to Grupo Beta from law enforcement and brought his policeman’s stern, non-nonsense demeanor with him.
Still no answer.
“You, skinny, where are you going? Phoenix? Denver?” he asked a thin, weary looking man in his mid-40s.
“Yeah, Phoenix,” the man replied.
With the ice broken, others began to chime in. “North Carolina,” “Los Angeles” and “Washington,” they said.
“You know it’s dangerous out there in the desert,” Montiel told the group.
“I want you to take a look at this,” he said as he passed out a pocket-sized brochure filled with simple, cartoon drawings offering survival tips such as, “If you get hot while walking in the daytime, don’t take off clothing or you’ll dehydrate faster” and “Rub garlic on your skin and clothing to repel biting animals.”
The brochure is reminiscent of the 32-page “Guide for the Mexican Migrant” comic book produced last year by the Mexican Foreign Ministry that angered some Americans — including U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz. — who saw it as a government-sanctioned effort to promote illegal migration to the United States.
Unlike the Foreign Ministry guide, however, the Grupo Beta booklet offers only safety tips; there is no advice on how to go undetected by immigration officials while living in the United States.
“And remember,” Montiel added, “although you are entering the United States illegally, you still have rights.”
He handed out a second, larger booklet titled “Human Rights Handbook for Migrants,” which, in addition to a crash course on basic rights, lists contact information for Mexican consulates in the Southwestern United States and hotline numbers for the 15 Grupo Beta offices throughout Mexico’s northern and southern border regions.
“If you get into trouble on your journey, call Grupo Beta and we can help you,” Montiel said.
“Take care of yourselves,” he added as he shut the hatch and headed back to his truck.
The agency
Grupo Beta is the agency within the Mexican National Immigration Institute charged with assisting migrants — both nationals and foreigners — traveling on Mexican soil. The Agua Prieta office, staffed with nine field agents and three administrators, is responsible for the border region stretching from the Sonora-Chihuahua state line to the east to the areas fronting the Huachuca Mountains to the west.
De la Rosa, an energetic 50-year-old grandmother who has served as coordinator for the Agua Prieta branch for the past two years, bristles when asked if Grupo Beta’s assistance efforts could be interpreted as a government-sponsored agenda to help migrants cross illegally into the United States.
“We give them an orientation on personal safety, we give them food and water, we advise them of the dangers of crossing the desert and we try to convince them to turn around and go home,” she said. “But we don’t tell them anything about how to cross the border.
“We are concerned only with trying to keep them from dying.”
Johnny Bernal, a spokesman for the U.S. Border Patrol Tucson Sector, said his agency viewed Grupo Beta as a partner in border safety — not as an advocate for illegal migration.
“We’ve actually done a lot of cooperative training efforts with them on medical skills, GPS (Global Positioning Systems) and things like that,” he said. “It’s a joint effort to try to save lives out there.”
On the other side
Back on patrol, the Grupo Beta agents watched the Suburban turn around and drive off. A few minutes later, they turned their own truck around and started back in the direction of Naco.
Suddenly, De la Rosa noticed movement in the brush a few hundred yards ahead.
“Did you see that? There are people up there,” she said.
But by the time the truck arrived at the spot, the handful of young men was already vanishing into the scrub on the opposite side of the fence. The last member of the group had picked a branch from a bush and was using it to sweep footprints from the dirt road on the U.S. side. He did not even pause to look up at the Grupo Beta truck.
“They’re on the other side now,” De la Rosa said. “They know there’s nothing we can do over there.”
Even on the Mexican side, there’s little Grupo Beta can do to deter migrants. Since the Mexican Constitution grants citizens freedom of movement within national territory, migrants violate no law until they enter the United States.
Critics in the United States have accused Mexico of using the law as an excuse for not stopping the tide of migration, and while the government of President Vicente Fox has responded to the complaints with overtures such as a new immigration policy that calls for creation of economic and housing programs to keep citizens at home, without a change in Mexican law, all Grupo Beta can do is try to talk the migrants out of their plans.
It can be a difficult task.
“A lot of these people have traveled a long way already. They have sold everything they had to pay for the journey, or their children or spouses are already in the United States,” De la Rosa said. “So they don’t even listen to us. They’re looking around, their minds somewhere else, while we talk.”
Watching the migrants vanish into the Arizona desert, De la Rosa was reminded of another time she was left powerless by the fence that separates Mexico and the United States.
A little over a year ago, the Grupo Beta office in Agua Prieta received a distress call from a teenage boy who said his 42-year-old aunt was in trouble in the desert. She had been trying to cross the border to join her children in Pennsylvania after fleeing from an abusive husband at home. Her two nephews had tried to talk her out of the journey, but she was insistent. Concerned for her safety, the two teenagers decided to accompany her on the trip.
The three family members had been walking through the desert east of Agua Prieta with a pollero, or migrant smuggler, when the woman complained that she didn’t feel well. The pollero told the boys to leave her behind and continue on, but they refused. One stayed with the woman while the other went for help.
When the Grupo Beta agents followed the teen, they found that the woman had crossed into U.S. territory, and so they had to call the Border Patrol to respond. The wait seemed like an eternity to De la Rosa.
“We were just 15 minutes away from her, but we couldn’t do anything,” she said.
Border Patrol agents eventually evacuated the woman, unconscious, to a hospital in Sierra Vista, but she could not be revived. Her children took her body to Pennsylvania for burial.
“In one sense, I guess, she succeeded in getting to Pennsylvania,” De la Rosa said.
“That was just about my worst experience on the job.”
Crossing paths
The Grupo Beta truck was now a mile or so past the spot where the last group of migrants had been seen crossing. Suddenly, on the other side of the fence, a Border Patrol truck raced past in the opposite direction.
“They saw them,” De la Rosa said matter-of-factly.
Grupo Beta does not alert the Border Patrol to crossers — it would destroy their credibility with migrants, they said. According to De la Rosa, it’s hard enough already to get migrants to stop and talk with them.
“When they see us, they often try to run,” she said. “They know the Border Patrol can see us and our orange truck and jackets, so they worry that they will be seen, too.”
De la Rosa has little contact with Border Patrol agents other than exchanging greetings across the border fence.
“I don’t speak English,” she explained.
Earlier that morning when the truck pulled up across from two Border Patrol vehicles whose drivers had stopped to chat, De la Rosa decided to take advantage of the English-speaking reporter who was riding along that day.
“Ask them if they’ve seen any Minutemen,” said De la Rosa as the truck rolled to a stop.
The Border Patrol agents said no, they hadn’t seen any of the civilian volunteer border watchers.
“From what I’ve read in the paper, they’re staying farther west this year,” one agent said amiably.
The two parties exchanged goodbyes and the Grupo Beta team drove on.
“We really don’t know what to think of the Minutemen,” De la Rosa said.
“They don’t communicate with us at all, so we don’t know what their intentions are. All we know is that they carry guns, and so when they are around, we warn the migrants that they are out there.”
Grupo Beta agents do not carry weapons, which can put them in a precarious position at times.
De la Rosa said they sometimes get calls from migrants who are being robbed or assaulted by bandits or by their polleros. In those situations, they try to detain the assailants without using force.
“It’s difficult and it puts us at risk,” she said. “We’re way out here in the desert, alone with some bad individuals.”
Spirit of service
Back in Naco, Sonora, De la Rosa jumped from the Grupo Beta truck, handed off her bright orange windbreaker to a fellow agent, said goodbye to Montiel and climbed into her own car. She was suffering a head cold and was eager to get out of the desert wind.
On the return ride to Agua Prieta, she talked about her life experiences and how they contribute to her work at Grupo Beta.
Her three previous careers — public accountant, lawyer and nurse — provided her with a certain level of expertise in managing an office, promoting civil rights and helping people in trouble, she said. And as a mother and grandmother, she knows how to provide service to others.
Her family members, knowing the dangers of the job, worry about her at times. But De la Rosa said she is empowered, not intimidated, by her work.
“The spirit of service is something you always have,” she said. “And when you have the spirit of helping, you don’t think about death.”
HERALD/REVIEW reporter Jonathan Clark can be reached at 515-4693 or by e-mail at jonathan.clark@bisbeereview.net.
For your consideration and edification on a border issue.
Hey Bernal...the taxpayer is paying you to stop not facilitate illegal immigration. Are you registered as a foreign agent?
Thanks. More of the same... This is going to get a whole lot worse before it gets better, if ever.
If taxpayers are paying for this we need to stop and now! Nothing like giving a mixed message. Here's a message that should be there in it's place ARMED GUARDS turning them around and demanding they go back.
Hey
Pictures of Dane. ;)
The Mexican taxpayers are paying for Orange men directly. We pay for it when the illegals get here because the border isn't sealed tight.
"Reconnaissance by fire" - somebody should have put a long burst into that bush. Just to be safe.
“I don’t speak English,” she explained.
Earlier that morning when the truck pulled up across from two Border Patrol vehicles whose drivers had stopped to chat, De la Rosa decided to take advantage of the English-speaking reporter who was riding along that day.
“Ask them if they’ve seen any Minutemen,” said De la Rosa as the truck rolled to a stop.
I'm not sure what's going on here. Border Patrol agents speak Spanish. She could ask them herself. Perhaps she doesn't know that, but that would be a surprising ignorance on her part.
They assist nationals in leaving the country and they assist foreigners in staying leaving the country.
Give a man a fish that you stole from someone else and he will eat for a day. Affect a positive change in his narco-corrupt government and he will prosper.
Get out the TAR AND FEATHERS for the coyotes and the illegal alien sympathizers, also for certain politicians who favor Mexican interests over American interests. A good dose of tar and feathers might cure a lot of ills.
Better add the ACLU and the fresh split rails with LOTS of splinters.
The more pressure we keep on Mexico, immigration-wise, the more reformers
inside of Mexico can be emboldened and empowered to scale back monopolists'
abuses down there which keep our own country flooded with economic refugees.
Here's an interesting new thread on new legal reform progress that finally
emerged in Mexico I think as a result of immigration reform's failure:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1611677/posts
We can make a difference for our sake, and their's as well. Isn't it the
neighborly thing to do?
These guys are unreal...last year, we (the Minutemen) watched them reroute illegals to areas where the MMP were not on patrol.
That tells me they know more about the MMP than they're letting on the reporter, eh?
Complete and open borders. Free taxpayer funded education, food, medical, housing, and ranches for illegals. Turning a blind eye to "students" overstaying their forged visas. Known terrorists attending Yale. Cells all over the country. It's over folks....
We have all fallen down the rabbit hole, but it's not really Wonderland.
susie
Actually, the U.S. gives funding to Mexico to police the border...yet, we refuse to take care of the problem ourselves.
Support our Minutemen Patriots!
Be Ever Vigilant!
A good article and it needs this to fill in the details, to my way of thinking, note #42, 33,19, 15, 4 and all the others as they fill in the gaps of what has happened to our country.
It can be found on the internet, with a google search for:
Communist manifesto 1963
granny.........
Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35
January 10, 1963
Current Communist Goals
EXTENSION OF REMARKS OF HON. A. S. HERLONG, JR. OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, January 10, 1963
Mr. HERLONG. Mr. Speaker, Mrs. Patricia Nordman of De Land, Fla., is
an ardent and articulate opponent of communism, and until recently
published the De Land Courier, which she dedicated to the purpose of
alerting the public to the dangers of communism in America.
At Mrs. Nordman's request, I include in the RECORD, under
unanimous consent, the following "Current Communist Goals," which
she identifies as an excerpt from "The Naked Communist," by Cleon
Skousen:
[From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]
CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic
war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic
war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States
would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist
affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for
war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist
domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of
Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free
elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United
States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in
progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is
rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with
its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders
believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by
Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as
they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American
institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for
socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum.
Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or
organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments,
editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of
artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to
"eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute
shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to
promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them
"censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting
pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures,
radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal,
natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social"
religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual
maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the
schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of
church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate,
old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to
cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish
aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching
of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the
"big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the
Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over
any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs,
mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation
of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social
agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which
no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as
a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose
Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and
easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative
influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding
of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are
legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and
special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to
solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are
ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot
prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic
problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and
individuals alike.
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