Posted on 06/13/2014 8:35:48 PM PDT by Uncle Chip
There's a network of freight trains that runs the length of Mexico, from its southernmost border with Guatemala north to the United States. In addition to grain, corn or scrap metal, these trains are carrying an increasing number of undocumented immigrants whose aim is to cross into the U.S....
People call the train La Bestia, or The Beast....
It's estimated that up to a half-million migrants now ride The Beast each year, sitting back-to-back along the spine of the train cars, trying not to get knocked off their rooftop perch.
"They're just packed," says photojournalist Keith Dannemiller, "There's not much room for anyone else to get on board by the time the train pulls out."
For the International Organization for Migration, he recently documented the exploding number of migrants riding these trains....
Journeys on the train can take anywhere from a week to several months, and many migrants have made this trip more than once....
Some attribute this crisis — the reason people are willing to risk their lives on a train like The Beast — to the United States.
Genevieve Wood articulated this in her most recent installment on The Daily Signal, an online publication from the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
"The fact that the United States is having a debate over immigration," says Wood, "and [because] it appears to many people that amnesty will be a part of any immigration reform, many people believe, 'If we can just get into the country, if we can get there and live there illegally, eventually we're going to be given legal status.'"
She believes it is that illusion — sometimes fatal — that drives people to make this journey to the U.S.
Wood says current immigration policy is "encouraging people to put their children at risk."
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
Sherman’s neckties.
A well-armed drone would but the Kenyan doesn’t have the testicular fortitude to do it.
They should be introduced to the railroad to dress it up.
Has the NTSB seen that picture???
ahahahahah I seriously doubt that!! OSHA?
I do hear that amtrak finds it rather inspiring...
And mexico doesn’t notice. LOL
We doh no noutheen main...!!!
I thought this was going to be about Moochelle.
Now THAT’s mass transit!
The Beast would be empty if Ubama wasn’t recruiting them.
I call BS on the NPR theory the illegal invaders are trying to escape the danger in Central America. They’ve been living with it for seemingly ever, so why now!?
Although I believe the spokesperson at Heritage has stated close to the truth as one can get in her position I believe the Left is providing financial assistance to move these invaders, as well some incentives sufficient to cause them to act. I believe this is all part of the Cloward-Piven style assault on this country by the Left.
America was built by people who snuck in on top of a train ...
we need to send some teams to blow bridges along this rail line ....
IMPEACH OBAMA!
People who sneak in on the top of a train are our future.
Note the third rail in that photo. The Guatemalan railroad (now defunct) was narrow gage... The photo is most likely at Mexico’s southern border where railroads interchanged.
I once rode all the way through Mexico and Guatemala by rail... it was not very glamourous... from Juarez to Mexico City, to Vera Cruz, to Tapachula, to Ciudad Hildalgo... walking across the border to Tecun Uman and taking the narrow gage train to Guatemala City. My total passenger train fare was about $30, if I recall correctly.
I did ride the roof in Guatemala... but that was normal... they still had brakemen riding the tops of the cars with brake clubs tucked under their armpit for cranking down the handbrakes.
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