On The Road to Where? - Part 2

Immigration and Border Control (or the lack thereof)

I preparing for this trip, one of my interests was in finding more about illegal immigrants to the US from Mexico, particularly in talking to people that have crossed, or tried to cross.

I didn't have to look far. It seems every other male over the age of twenty has crossed, or tried to cross, at some point in their life. People often greet me and ask "Donde Vienes?" - "Where are you from?" When they hear that I'm from Colorado, a not uncommon response is, "Oh, really? I worked in Aurora." Or Golden. Or Denver. Or Phoneix. Or Kansas City. Most, if not all, were relatively open about the fact that they did so without papers.

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It's also interesting to hear where people worked. Burger King, Old Chicago Pizza, and at one of the large casinos in Colorado. I somehow had this image that most would be working in typical under the table manual labor sorts of positions to avoid the necessity of papers, such as landscaping, construction, and such. Nope. It seems that a lack of papers isn't a big deal as far as big corporations are concerned.

I've been meaning to ask how much people are being paid. I'm curious to see if it's comparable to those with papers, or even if it's above minimum wage.

Last night, walking around Zargoza, two men in a pickup truck who spoke a little bit of english stopped and talked to me. They were enjoying th eevening in what appears to be true Mexican style - cruising up and down the main streets, along with the rest of the town, at slightly over walking pace, an open beer in their laps. They said that last weekend, they'd tried to cross the border near Deming together.

They said that they were carrying some food and a gallon of water apiece, for what amounted to a 36 mile, 2 day walk across the desert. They said they slept during the day, and walked at night, presumably both to beat the heat, and the border patrol.

Most of the way there, a border patrol caught them. People say, when you get caught, they throw you in a jail cell for a day or two, until they can get a big enough group together, and then they put them all on a bus, and ship them back to their home town. One person I talked to said that if you wanted to try again and were smart, you just said you were from Chihuahua, which is one of the border states. This way, it was a shorter trip back to the border. Other than the cost of another bus ride, and the time, food, and water involved, there seems to be little penalty in trying as many times as is necessary to cross.

I spoke with a hotel owner who said that it's not common for people from all over the world, but particularly Central and South America, to come to Chihuahua to try and cross the border. It's possible to arrange a "package deal" for entry to the US from as far down as the Guatamala border. Your transport, food, accomodations, guides, and the necessary bribes will all be arranged for you. The cost is steep, however - somewhere in the range of $3000-5000 per person if you want passage from the Guatamala border.

It is not uncommon for people to sell their homes, their farms, and their vehicles, all for money to pay the fee. If they are caught at the border and sent back, they come back home with absolutely nothing - nowhere to live, no way to get food or earn money.

It seems the guides that arrange these "packages" are the ones who make out the best in the whole operation. The hotel owner said it wasn't uncommon for two men to show up and rent rooms for one hundred people at a time, and going out and buying food for the same number. He said more than once, the mexican immigration police have showed up at the hotel, and demanded to see everyone's papers. They would gather them all out in the courtyard behind the hotel. Once they'd established the size of the group, they'd demand a bribe - usually on the order of $100 per immigrant. He said the money, despite being an enormous sum, especially by Mexican standards, would quickly appear from nowhere, and the immigration police would be sent on their way.