El Diario (1-23-2013)/Proceso (1-24-2013)
Translated by un vato for Borderland Beat
This short article, combined with the longer one I will attach below, is, sadly enough, just another chapter on the endless tragedy that undocumented migration represents. I know some of these people, not the specific ones mentioned in the articles, but persons whose stories are substantially identical.
One of them, we'll call him Jose, was such an undocumented immigrant. I hired him to repair my roof, build a staircase, plaster some siding, the usual. He was hard working, absolutely honest, and was very good at the jobs he did for me and other people around here. He was married to, or lived with, a woman in the U.S. and had children with her, but he also had a family and children in Mexico. He would send part of every paycheck to Mexico and support his other family on the remainder. He worked a lot of jobs.
I hadn't seen him for several months, so I asked what the problem was. He said he had gone back to Chihuahua to take care of some family business and, when he tried to come back to the U.S., he was caught three times by the migra and sent back. He tried coming over through the Valle de Juarez/El Paso area, through the desert west of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and through the Lajitas/Big Bend area on the Texas-Mexico border. He was caught each time and sent back.
He made it through on his fourth attempt through the Arizona desert. In the summer. I asked him how it had gone, and he told me. Twenty illegals/undocumented, pick a tag, began the trip on the Mexican side. Six died on the way. Some were so weak they had to leave them behind. Others were so dehydrated that they wandered off in the night. One of them simply didn't wake up one morning.
When they got close to Tucson, the remainder split up when the migras spotted them. Only Jose and another man escaped. The rest were rounded up and presumably arrested or deported.
I know Jose broke the law by coming into this country illegally. And I also know that, had he been caught in Tucson, he would have made every effort to come back to his family, again and again. Or died trying. But it takes a lot of courage and determination to do what he and other "illegals" do on a daily basis; after all, the fatality rate was thirty percent on that trip. Like another friend once said when talking about Lindbergh's solo flight across the Atlantic, that man had special equipment to do what he did, and he was not talking about aviation gear or instruments. (We were looking at a photograph of Charles Lindbergh after a hunt on my friend's ranch, with an antelope strapped to each wing of the famous airplane, Spirit of St. Louis, hence the topic of that conversation.) -- un vato
The number of immigrants who die on their way to the United States has increased 130%
MEXICO, D.F. (Apro).-- The number of undocumented immigrants who lose their lives traveling to the U.S. has increased by 130% from October to this date, according to U.S. authorities.
This phenomenon takes place despite the fact that in recent years, the number of detentions has undergone a marked decrease in the southeastern border..
According to the Border Patrol, in the last three months of this past year and so far this month, its agents have recovered the remains of 50 undocumented persons in south Texas, an increase of 130% over the same period last year.
Likewise, it was also stated that approximately 190 immigrants indangerous situations have been rescued by the federal officers, which translates to an increase of 210%.
The main risks faced by the undocumented in their trip to the United States are rapes, mainly of women. According to the reports received by the agency, women are raped by the 'coyotes' themselves in safe houses or while they are being transported through unpopulated areas.
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| Arizona |
During the latter part of December, last year, Judge Raul Ramirez disclosed, the remains of 127 persons-- almost twice as many as last year-- had been found in ranches in Brooks County, in the vicinity of the border checkpoint in Falfurrias, which is an hour's drive from the border between Mexico and the U.S.
In statements to the San Antonio Express News, he stated that the county had run out of spaces for graves intended for unknown persons in the Sacred Heart Cemetery.
"When you get 127 dead people in your county in one year, that's too much,: said Ramirez. "One body should be too much," he added.
The cost of dealing with illegal immigration and unidentified bodies, including mortuary costs and autopsies, represents hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said.
Due to the crisis in Latin America, the flow of immigrants has exploded in Mexico
SALTILLO, Coahuila, (proceso.com.mx).-- The shelters that offer lodging and meals to Central Americans who cross Mexico to reach the U.S. border were crowded in 2012, after being almost empty for two years because of threats from the "Zetas", persons responsible for the Casas de Migrantes (Migrants' Homes) in northern Mexico told Apro.
From the end of 2009 and during all of 2010, the Posada Belen de Saltillo, the largest, most important refuge for migrants in the country's northeast, "was receiving an average of 80 persons per day," said Alberto Xicotencatl, its director.
"There were months when we barely admitted eight Central Americans every day," he added.
He attributes the immigration decrease to the fact that 2010 was the most violent period in the war between the Gulf Cartel and "Los Zetas", mainly in the border states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and the northern part of Veracruz.
"In recent months we have been caring for between 250 and 320 migrants per day," Alberto Xicotencatl emphasized.
He attributes the surge to the fact that today, the railroad that leaves the southern part of Mexico to the nation's capital is more closely watched.
The director of the Posada pointed out that the flow of migrants decreased at the end of last year because Central Americans prefer to spend this season with their families.
[The Beast]
[The Beast]
The priest Pedro Pantoja, the head of the Social Pastoral of the Saltillo Diocese, pointed out that since the month of May, the shelter "has had a flow of migrants that had not been seen in a long time."
Pantoja, who received the international Letelier-Moffitt Human rights Award from the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., for his work in support of Central American migrants, attributed the increase to several factors.
He commented that the aftereffects of the past government coup in Honduras continue to be felt, in addition to the destruction caused by hurricanes in the region and the poverty increase as a consequence of the violence all over Central America.
This last has even caused the arrival in the migrant shelters of migrants of homosexual orientation, "who have had to flee their countries because of their sexual preference (sic)," says Pantoja.
"There is also an increase in migration of women in our shelters. We had an average of one or two women a month, and now we see 10 in a single day," he added.
The priest Jesus Guerra Garza, who manages the shelter Casa del Forastero Santa Martha, located in the Colonia Industrial, a popular neighborhood in Monterrey's inner city, stated that the insecurity reduced the migration flow, "but it doesn't stop Central American migrants."
He mentioned that the Monterrey shelter is one of the most irregular in the country, since migrants prefer to stay on the train all the way to the city of Saltillo, where they have more options to travel to several border cities.
He stated that in the past two years they had been receiving an average of one thousand migrants per year.
During the last months of 2012, migrants admitted by the shelters have increased and they say that now, "they travel in groups of 40 or 50 persons."
However, from these groups, "only two or three disembark in Monterrey," says Father Guerra Garza.
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| The American Dream (top) becomes a nightmare. All the bodies in photo are migrants |
The priests all agreed on one point, telling Apro that not all migrants passed through their shelters.
He said that the Monterrey shelter has been subjected to constant harassment from organized crime.
"The families of migrants who live in the U.S. pay 'polleros' (smugglers) to cross their relatives over," said Father Guerra.
As a protective measure, the priest laid down the rule that migrants were not to have contact with the 'polleros' in the vicinity of the Santa Martha shelter.
Father Guerra is one of the pioneers of the Migration Pastoral, and he has served as Executive Secretary of that section in the Catholic Church.
"The first migrant shelter began operations in the late seventies in the border city of Tijuana," recalled Father Jesus Guerra.
He stated that, subsequently, the congregation of San Carlos Scalabrinianos established a network of migrant shelters in the states of Chiapas, Chihuahua, Sonora and Baja California.
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| US Immigration dump Central American deportees at the international bridge of the Mexico/US border, over 1000 miles from their native country and tell them to walk into Mexico. In Mexico they are scorned, undocumented with only cartels are happily awaiting their arrival. -click to enlarge- |
The migratory Pastoral, which forms part of the Social Pastoral of the Catholic Church, was established in the year 2000.
Currently, there are 57 throughout the country, including shelters and dining rooms, that offer rooms, food, medical care, clothing, bathrooms and at least one telephone call so the Central American migrants can contact their relatives.
All the homes (shelters) maintain a relationship with the Catholic Church and, on average, they offer three days of lodging to the Central Americans. Only in the shelter Posada Belen, in Saltillo, may migrants stay for an indefinite period.
In the shelters established throughout the country, (Central Americans) are also alerted as to the safest routes to reach the border, and they are told that the most dangerous states to travel through are Oaxaca, Veracruz, and, above all, Tamaulipas, birthplace of the "Zetas."
The flow of migrants to the United States saw a major decrease after the bodies of 72 migrants murdered by the "Zetas" were found in San Fernando, Tamaulipas.
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| Pregnant and alone caught between two nations and undocumented in both, gives birth while at a Casa Migrante Piedras [chivis fotos] |
The Honduran migrant who identified himself only as "Giovanni" said that today, "the Federal Police is the one who steals their money."
"I left San Pedro Zula two weeks ago because there is no work," said Giovanni, who was staying at the Casa del Forastero shelter in Monterrey.
He said that he had attempted to cross the border four times, but has been unsuccessful and will no try to cross through a city in Tamaulipas.
Another migrant interviewed, who identified himself only as "Pablo", stated that because of the insecurity in Mexico they have to be in constant communication with their families, which they do every time they arrive at a shelter that lets them make a phone call.
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| Receiving donated basic supplies-Saltillo (chivis' fotos) continues on next page- |
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| Going home...these deportees has an option thanks to a US foundation who picked up the tab. Otherwise they are on their own. (Chivis' fotos) |
He reported that these days, "Los Zetas" infiltrate the shelters passing themselves off as migrants. "They offer you their cell phones so you can call your relatives in the United States."
After the Central American leaves, they call the phone number recorded on their cell phone and tell the family that they are holding the migrant hostage and ask for payment of between $1,000 and $1,500 to release him.
"They already did that to my family," Pablo finished.