Illegal Entry From Mexico to U.S. Soaring

Forums: Politics
Email this Topic • Print this Page

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/printer/ap.asp?category=1102&slug=Mexico%20Rush%20to%20America

By OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

SASABE, Mexico -- After a four-year decline, illegal immigration from Mexico is spiking as several thousand migrants a day rush across the border in hopes of getting work visas under a program President Bush proposed. Many also are trying to beat tighter security to come in June.

The U.S. border patrol told The Associated Press that detentions - which it uses to judge illegal migration rates - jumped 25 percent to 535,000 in the six months ending March 31 compared to a year ago.

Near Sasabe, a town bordering the Arizona desert that's the busiest illegal border crossing area, an average 2,000 people arrive daily.

On a recent day, at a break in a barbed-wire fence outside Sasabe, about 300 migrants scrambled out of 10 trucks and four vans within 30 minutes with their smugglers, who led crowds along a worn trail. As the sun set, they disappeared into rolling hills that hide the treacherous desert.

Raudel Sanchez, a 22-year-old farm worker, said he wanted to get back to his job at a Minnesota ranch.

Sanchez crossed into the United States through Sasabe three years ago, but says the journey is getting more difficult. He walked three days in the desert and was out of water when he was caught in Arizona and deported.

Undeterred, he said he planned to take a bus to Altar, a northern city about 70 miles from the border where migrants hire smugglers. From there, he planned to head back to Sasabe and cross again.

"It's already very hard to cross, but it's going to be even harder," he said in Nogales. "I need to try again, at least one more time, and if I fail, I'll go back home."

Many migrants are betting on the approval of Bush's migration proposal, which faces an uphill battle in Congress. About 75 percent of those arrested are Mexican, while the rest are from Central America and other places, U.S. customs officials said.

In January, Bush proposed a guest-worker plan that would give legal status to undocumented migrants already working in the United States and to those outside the country who can prove they have been offered a job.

Because it's hard to get a job offer while in Mexico, many are heading north now, hoping to get settled before a program is in place.

Mexicans living in the United States have criticized Bush's proposal. Many say they wouldn't apply, fearing it could be a trap to deport them.

But in Mexico, the program has given many migrants hope that they might be able to seek something better north of the border, and that is enough to convince some to cross now rather than later.

"I want to try and make it to the United States to find out more about the permits because I've heard that with a job it will be easier to get" a visa, said Jaime Ulloa, speaking in Nogales after being deported for a third time. He is trying to get to Florida, where a U.S. farmer has promised him a job picking vegetables.

Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that favors stricter immigration policies, said the rise in illegal migration also shot up in 1986 when an amnesty was announced.

"Illegal aliens will respond to the messages the government sends," Krikorian said. "When we send the message that we are thinking about amnesty, they decide it may be worth it to try to cross."

Illegal migration had been declining along the U.S.-Mexico border since 2000. U.S. border patrol figures show detentions dropped from 1.6 million in 2000 to 905,000 in the fiscal year that ended last Sept. 30.

There is no exact data on the number of people crossing illegally. But in an indication of increased traffic, 535,000 illegal migrants were arrested along the U.S.-Mexico border from Oct. 1 to March 31, said Gloria Chavez of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Bureau.

In the same period, the border patrol's Tucson sector detained 70,000 more people, an increase of 49 percent.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Robert Bonner attributes part of the jump to increased security. "The main reason we're seeing an increase in apprehensions is because the border patrol is more effective, particularly in the Tucson sector," he said.

But Mexican officials are also seeing an increase. Grupo Beta, a Mexican government-sponsored group that tries to discourage migrants from crossing and aids those stranded in the desert, said 56,000 migrants went through Sasabe in March compared to 41,000 in March 2003.

In Altar, a farming town that has become the gathering point for those heading to Arizona, street vendors sell backpacks, water jugs and salt pills by the thousands.

The modest homes around the plaza, crowded with triple-decker bunk beds, serve as makeshift motels for migrants. They're almost always at capacity, said Francisco Garcia, a former mayor who now volunteers at the town's only migrant shelter.

"We're a town with a population of 6,000, and there have been weeks when we have twice as many people," Garcia said.

Under new security measures, about 300 more U.S. border agents will be deployed by June 1 along the Mexico-Arizona border. The number of border agents assigned to the Tucson sector will eventually increase from 1,800 to 2,500, Bonner said.

Many of the additional agents already have been sent to the Tohono O'odham Indian reservation, an area west of Sasabe where illegal migrant traffic has ballooned, said border patrol spokesman Charles Griffin.

The heightened border security is driving more migrants to more treacherous desert routes between Sonoyta and San Luis Rio Colorado in western Arizona, said Enrique Enriquez, an agent with Mexico's Grupo Beta.

Grupo Beta plans to assign rescuers to Sonoyta in May, Enriquez said. Every year, hundreds of migrants die in the desert, where temperatures soar above 100 degrees in summer.

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Discussion • Score: 1 • Views: 4,534 • Replies: 109

No top replies

Gosh. Real, live, Mexicans here in the USA. Lordy me! What are we a-gonna do?

0 Replies

How about enforce immigration laws for one? Of course, Bush wouldn't dream of cracking down on illegal immigration in an election year. In fact, he wants to go ya' one better and reward 8 million undocumented Mexican lawbreakers with American citizenship.

0 Replies

How about letting people live?

0 Replies

edgarblythe wrote:

How about letting people live?

What's wrong with letting them live in Mexico?

0 Replies

What's wrong with letting you live in Mexico?

0 Replies

What people don't want to admit is the truth behind the Mexican government's (heavily run by globalists) effort to ship their "undesirables" to Norte America.

Mexican nationals who are college educated professionals don't cross the border into the USA -- they remain in their own country, where they work, raise a family and contribute.

The Mexicans who cross into the USA (with the generous financial assistance from the Vicente Fox government to the coyotes) are uneducated laborers and criminals.

While this may leave a bitter taste on the tongues of the phoney multi-cultural crowd and those who hope to mine a few votes for Bush come November, it doesn't make it not true.

0 Replies

infowarrior wrote:

What people don't want to admit is the truth behind the Mexican government's (heavily run by globalists) effort to ship their "undesirables" to Norte America.

Mexican nationals who are college educated professionals don't cross the border into the USA -- they remain in their own country, where they work, raise a family and contribute.

The Mexicans who cross into the USA (with the generous financial assistance from the Vicente Fox government to the coyotes) are uneducated laborers and criminals.

While this may leave a bitter taste on the tongues of the phoney multi-cultural crowd and those who hope to mine a few votes for Bush come November, it doesn't make it not true.

where did you come up with this?

0 Replies

I have lived the bulk of my life around illegal aliens from Mexico. By and large they are some very good people.

0 Replies

edgarblythe wrote:

I have lived the bulk of my life around illegal aliens from Mexico. By and large they are some very good people.

Thank You! - Very True!

0 Replies

infowarrior wrote:

What people don't want to admit is the truth behind the Mexican government's (heavily run by globalists) effort to ship their "undesirables" to Norte America.

Crap.
What do you mean by "undesirables"? Are you implying, in any sense, that migrants to the US are government picked because of some negative trait?
In what paranoid world do you live in?
Promoting migration? Why does Grupo Beta exist, then?

infowarrior wrote:

Mexican nationals who are college educated professionals don't cross the border into the USA -- they remain in their own country, where they work, raise a family and contribute.

Crap.
Unemployment among college graduates in Mexico is higher than among people with less education (partly because Mexican college graduates aren't willing to get thje low paying jobs available).
The cross the border into the USA by the thousands. The only difference is that they make it legally.
My former sister in law, an accountant, lives and works in Houston.
Her husband, a mathematician, lives and works in Houston.
My former brother in law, an engineer, lives and works in Houston.
His ex-wife, a lawyer, lives and works in Chicago.
My brother, a pilot, lives and works in Wichita (eeeek).
They all studied in Mexico, with money from Mexican taxpayers.
(And the daughter of my former brother in law, born in Mexico, and who lived here up to Grade School now serves in the US Air Force).

infowarrior wrote:

The Mexicans who cross into the USA (with the generous financial assistance from the Vicente Fox government to the coyotes) are uneducated laborers and criminals.

Racist crap.
Where's the freaking financial assistance?

infowarrior wrote:

While this may leave a bitter taste on the tongues of the phoney multi-cultural crowd and those who hope to mine a few votes for Bush come November, it doesn't make it not true.

You really sound like those lunatic followers of LaRouche.

0 Replies

infowarrior wrote:

While this may leave a bitter taste on the tongues of the phoney multi-cultural crowd and those who hope to mine a few votes for Bush come November, it doesn't make it not true.

Oh, the bitter taste doesn't make it untrue. The fact that it's pure unmitigated bullshit does.

You will be unable to support the racist drek you spew as it is founded on fundamental falsehood.

0 Replies

I don't mind humanity so much, it's people I can't stand.

0 Replies

infowarrior- It looks like you've lite a fuse under the multicultural crowd and they're throwing rocks at you now! Duck and cover! Laughing

I, for one, am glad to see you tell the truth. All the regulars here who are anti-Bush are the very ones criticizing you. But they can't have it both ways.

How can they be anti-Bush when it's none other than Bush himself who is throwing the borders wide open and about to give American citizenship to 8 to 12 million lawbreaking undocumented Mexicans to buy votes? They should be working for his reelection campaign.

Having grown up in a border state and living today just 160 miles from the Mexican border, I have seen firsthand many of the things you mention in your post.

Nowhere did infowarrior say that he thinks the undocumented are "undesirables," but that Vicente Fox's government thinks they're undesirables -- learn to read.

Haven't any of you multicultural folks ever wondered how an uneducated Mexican peasant is able to get his hands on the $15,000 average fee a coyote charges to get him to the border? Vans filled with as many as 20 Mexican peasants arrive at the US/Mexican border every day. Do the math folks, that's $300,000 per vanload. An incomprehensible amount in the world of Mexican peasants.

There have been article after article in the LA Times and the San Diego Union about this topic, and the conclusion is always the same: the Mexican government is footing the bill.

0 Replies

I would like those in this country to be here legally. I would like for us to make it unattractive for people to be here illegally. Our porous borders do put us at higher risk for dangerous people to slip into the country and for that reason, given the current state of affairs, that is sufficient reason to do better to know who is here.

But having said that, the Mexican Nationals who are living and working legally and illegally in our area are mostly hard working, polite, and intelligent people that are fun to be around. They ask for little and they contribute much.

0 Replies

Tejas, California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona is their country.

Mexicans are after all native Americans and were tribal communities until the Spanish, English, Dutch, decimated their culture.

In addition there were no illegal aliens from Mexico until the Congress changed the law re temporary workers in 1070.

0 Replies

Deecups36 wrote:

infowarrior- It looks like you've lite a fuse under the multicultural crowd and they're throwing rocks at you now! Duck and cover!

I, for one, am glad to see you tell the truth. All the regulars here who are anti-Bush are the very ones criticizing you. But they can't have it both ways.

How can they be anti-Bush when it's none other than Bush himself who is throwing the borders wide open and about to give American citizenship to 8 to 12 million lawbreaking undocumented Mexicans to buy votes? They should be working for his reelection campaign.

Having grown up in a border state and living today just 160 miles from the Mexican border, I have seen firsthand many of the things you mention in your post.

Nowhere did infowarrior say that he thinks the undocumented are "undesirables," but that Vicente Fox's government thinks they're undesirables -- learn to read.

Haven't any of you multicultural folks ever wondered how an uneducated Mexican peasant is able to get his hands on the $15,000 average fee a coyote charges to get him to the border? Vans filled with as many as 20 Mexican peasants arrive at the US/Mexican border every day. Do the math folks, that's $300,000 per vanload. An incomprehensible amount in the world of Mexican peasants.

There have been article after article in the LA Times and the San Diego Union about this topic, and the conclusion is always the same: the Mexican government is footing the bill.

wow! I'm speechless of your ignorance of the culture and people.

0 Replies

Well, they lost that war and have no "right-to-return", so it is not their country.

0 Replies

JoanneDorel wrote:

Tejas, California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona is their country.

Mexicans are after all native Americans and were tribal communities until the Spanish, English, Dutch, decimated their culture.

In addition there were no illegal aliens from Mexico until the Congress changed the law re temporary workers in 1070.

Thank You!

0 Replies

McGentrix wrote:

Well, they lost that war and have no "right-to-return", so it is not their country.

Tell that to the native americans.

0 Replies

Illegal Entry From Mexico to U.S. Soaring

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know