Migrants Rush to Border Hoping for Passage

AP on Yahoo ^ | 4/12/06 | Olga R. Rodriguez - ap

[NormsRevenge]

NOGALES, Mexico - At a shelter overflowing with migrants airing their blistered feet, Francisco Ramirez nursed muscles sore from trekking through the Arizona desert — a trip that failed when his wife did not have the strength to go on.

He said the couple would rest for a few days, then try again, a plan echoed by dozens reclining on rickety bunk beds and carpets tossed on the floor after risking violent bandits and the harsh desert in unsuccessful attempts to get into the United States.

The shelter's manager, Francisco Loureiro, said he has not seen such a rush of migrants since 1986, when the United States allowed 2.6 million illegal residents to get American citizenship.

This time, the draw is a bill before the U.S. Senate that could legalize some of the 11 million people now illegally in the United States while tightening border security. Migrants are hurrying to cross over in time to qualify for a possible guest-worker program — and before the journey becomes even harder.

"Every time there is talk in the north of legalizing migrants, people get their hopes up, but they don't realize how hard it will be to cross," Loureiro said.

South-central Arizona is the busiest migrant-smuggling area, and detentions by the U.S. Border Patrol there are up more than 26 percent this fiscal year — 105,803 since Oct. 1, compared with 78,024 for the same period a year ago. Along the entire border, arrests are up 9 percent.

Maria Valencia, a spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said the rise in detentions did not necessarily mean more people were crossing. She attributed at least some of the additional detentions to an increase in the number of Border Patrol agents.

"We've sent more technology and agents there, and I think that's had an impact," she said.

But Loureiro, who has managed the shelter for 24 years, said the debate in the U.S. Congress has triggered a surge in migrants. In March, 2,000 migrants stayed at the shelter — 500 more than last year.

Many migrants said they were being encouraged to come now by relatives living in the United States.

One of them is Ramirez, a 30-year-old who earned about $80 a week at a rebar factory in Mexico's central state of Michoacan.

He spent an entire night walking through the Arizona desert with his wife, Edith Mondragon, 29. When her legs cramped, their guide abandoned them and the couple turned themselves in to U.S. authorities. They were deported.

But they said they would try again when they regained their strength.

"We want to try our luck up there," Mondragon said. "We can't go back to Michoacan because there is no future there."

Ramirez said the draw was not only the prospect of work in Minnesota, where two of his brothers milk cows on a ranch. He was also excited about the idea he might be able to do it legally.

"My brothers said there is plenty of work there, and that it looks like they will start giving (work) permits," he said.

Many of the migrants also are being driven by a desire to get into the United States before the likelihood that lawmakers further fortify the border.

Since the United States tightened security at the main crossing points in Texas and California in the 1990s, hundreds of thousands of migrants have turned to the hard-to-patrol, mesquite-covered Arizona desert, risking rape, robbery and murder at the hands of gangs and now facing armed U.S. civilian groups.

About 2,000 people a day pass through Sasabe, a hamlet of just a few dozen houses and a Western Union office west of Nogales, says Grupo Beta, a Mexican government-sponsored group that tries to discourage migrants from crossing the border and helps people stranded in the desert.

On a recent afternoon, at least 40 vans overflowing with migrants arrived in the desert near Sasabe in less than an hour. Migrants and their smugglers waited for nightfall before starting a desert trek that would involve up to a week of walking in baking heat during the day and biting cold at night.

Grupo Beta agent Miguel Martinez mans a checkpoint 20 miles south of Sasabe, where he warns of the dangers of the desert, such as bandits armed with knives or guns who order migrants to strip naked, rob them and sometimes rape them.

He also tells about the volunteer border-watch groups that have sprung up in Arizona.

"Right now there are migrant hunters who are armed, and you should be careful," Martinez told a group traveling in a rickety van missing some of its windows.

At Grupo Beta's office in Nogales, Raul Gonzalez, 44, said he walked in the Arizona desert for five days before turning himself in when the blisters on his feet started bleeding and his left leg swelled up.

Like most migrants interviewed for this story, Gonzalez said he was robbed at gunpoint just after crossing into the United States.

"The guides and the robbers are all the same," he said.

Gonzalez said the first time he sneaked into the United States, he did it through Tijuana, across the border from San Diego. He said he worked illegally at a printing shop in Chicago for 15 years but got homesick before he could settle the paperwork for legal residence.

Despite the robbery and his failed trek, Gonzalez said he would try again once his feet heal. His bricklayer's salary of about $60 a week in the western state of Jalisco simply is not enough to provide for his four children.

"It's hard to cross," he said. "But it's harder to see your children have little to eat."

[NormsRevenge]

Daniel Toto, 40, who was caught by the border patrol in Phoenix, Ariz., after walking the Arizona desert for 3 days, rests at a migrant shelter in Nogales, Mexico, Thursday, April 6, 2006. Illegal migrants are rushing to the Arizona border, encouraged by the prospect of a guest-worker program in the U.S. and anticipating a toughening of border security that would make a dangerous journey even more perilous. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)

---

Can you hear your people, Vicente?

They need your help yet all you do is let them seek it North of the Border.

[NormsRevenge]

Meanwhile.. North of the Border.

Cirilo Guardiole, 68, left, and Sue White, 59, both from Toledo hold signs during an immigration protest in Toledo, Ohio Wednesday afternoon, April 12, 2006. The march was far smaller than tens of thousands who gathered Monday at dozens of rallies held across the nation from New York to San Francisco.Many are angry that a bill passed by the U.S. House would crack down on illegal immigrants and strengthen the U.S. border with Mexico. A broader overhaul of immigration law stalled in the Senate last week and lawmakers are now on a two-week break. (AP Photo/Madalyn Ruggiero)

[NormsRevenge]

People march for immigration rights during a large rally on 10 April in Washington, DC. Mass protests demanding legalization of undocumented migrants has bolstered US Latinos, but it is too early to know if they can muster voters in upcoming elections.(AFP/File/Paul J. Richards)

[mtbopfuyn]

And once again, ICE knows exactly where the illegals are but they're kicked back at the local donut shop.

[drpix]

But don't you realize that "they are only coming here like our ancestors"....

THEN

Queuing up:

Being Tested:

NOW

Queuing up:

Being Tested:

[taxed2death]

....just followin' orders from the top...

[Conservative Goddess]

Who didn't see this coming a mile away. What morons. The prospect of amnesty will draw them like moths to a flame.

[stopem]

We need strict border control NOW!

[Tench_Coxe]

You know, I actually believe I could have greater freedom by going down to Mexico, sneaking back across the border with a new name, be an 'illegal' for a while, and get free stuff and all the benefits I suposedly have from being an American citizen.

Ironic, is it not?

[T.L.Sink]

We've all heard the famous words of Santayana, "Those who don't remember the past are condemned to relive it." Yes, and we certainly don't remember the past when in 1986 amnesty was granted, with the result that we know have about ten times the number of illegals here -- giving us social, economic, and fiscal disaster. Yes, we have condemned ourselves to relive it -- but much worse than before. What happens to a society that willfully practices collective amnesia for free votes and cheap labor?

[Right Wing Assault]

Cretive way to establish a new identity. You could be several different illegals and get goodies under each name. Watch a few Mexican movies to get the accent in shape. My favorite in "Pedro" in Napoleon Dynamite. "Mah name ees Paydro and I am running for preseedent."

[Dr. Marten]

...and after the amnesty crap goes through, there'll be a hoard of others coming behind them to wait for the next amnesty.

Great idea...encourage illegal immigration with amnesty proposals.

Will someone please help our politicians to pull their heads out of their arses...

[Paperdoll]

OMG, what did they expect on the Hill after suggesting an open-armed reception? And Fox gladly sends his "forces" over the border to comply with our limp-wristed governing body who wouldn't know a law if they saw one. They make 'em so they can break 'em!

[mobyss]

Why "go down and sneak back"?

Just go to a Mexican consulate, get a Matricular ID card - and enjoy your new life, Jose!

[DumpsterDiver]

Ping.

Those mean ol' Minutemen are pestering people again.

... hundreds of thousands of migrants have turned to the hard-to-patrol, mesquite-covered Arizona desert, risking rape, robbery and murder at the hands of gangs and now facing armed U.S. civilian groups.

"Right now there are migrant hunters who are armed, and you should be careful," [Grupo Beta agent Miguel] Martinez told a group traveling in a rickety van missing some of its windows.

[dagnabbit]

Just go to a Mexican consulate, get a Matricular ID card - and enjoy your new life, Jose!

With all the attention on Dubya's wished-for overt amnesty lately, it's easy to forget his covert amnesty, the Matricular ID stealth amnesty you just mentioned. Bush has let Mexico hand these things out in the USA for years, his FAA accepts them as plane-bording ID, and his banking regulators think they're fine for banking.

[Two-Bits]

I also heard thru the grapevine President Bush will be starting the draft and only the illegals young Mexican men will be drafted then they can have citizenship after they come back from Iran............shhh....this is suppose to be secret so don't let the word get out..

[EnglishOnly]

I fear the government won't help at all.

We need to organize, we need to publish a list of companies that use illegals and boycott commerce with such companies.

Let the invisible hand of economics sweep these lawbreakers away.