Crossing Over, and Over

Migrant shelters along the Mexican border are filled with seasoned crossers: older men and women, often deportees, braving ever-greater risks to get back to their families in the United States — the country they consider home.
By DAMIEN CAVE
The New York Times
Published: October 2, 2011

AGUA PRIETA, Mexico — "My wife, my son — I have to get back to them," Daniel kept telling himself, from the moment he was arrested in Seattle for driving with an expired license, all the way through the deportation proceeding that delivered him to Mexico in June.

Nothing would deter him from crossing the border again. He had left his hometown at 24, he said. Twelve years later, he spoke nearly fluent English and had an American son, a wife and three brothers in the United States. "I’ll keep trying," he said, "until I’ll get there."

This is increasingly the profile of illegal immigration today. Migrant shelters along the Mexican border are filled not with newcomers looking for a better life, but with seasoned crossers: older men and women, often deportees, braving ever-greater risks to get back to their families in the United States — the country they consider home.

They present an enormous challenge to American policy makers, because they continue to head north despite obstacles more severe than at any time in recent history. It is not just that the American economy has little to offer; the border itself is far more threatening. On one side, fences have grown and American agents have multiplied; on the other, criminals haunt the journey at every turn.

And yet, while these factors — and better opportunities at home — have cut illegal immigration from Mexico to its lowest level in decades, they are not enough to scare off a sizable, determined cadre.

"We have it boiled down to the hardest lot," said Christopher Sabatini, senior director for policy at the Council of the Americas.

Indeed, 56 percent of apprehensions at the Mexican border in 2010 involved people who had been caught previously, up from 44 percent in 2005. A growing percentage of deportees in recent years have also been deported before, according to Department of Homeland Security figures.

For the Obama administration, these repeat offenders have become a high priority. Prosecutions for illegal re-entry have jumped by more than two-thirds since 2008. Officials say it is now the most prosecuted federal felony.

President Obama has already deported around 1.1 million immigrants — more than any president since Dwight D. Eisenhower — and officials say the numbers will not decline. But at a time when the dynamics of immigration are changing, experts and advocates on all sides are increasingly asking if the approach, which has defined immigration policy since 9/11, still makes sense.

Deportation is expensive, costing the government at least $12,500 per person, and it often does not work: between October 2008 and July 22 of this year, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spent $2.25 billion sending back 180,229 people who had been deported before and come back anyway. Many more have returned and stayed hidden.

Some groups favoring reduced immigration say that making life harder for illegal immigrants in this country would be far more efficient. They argue that along with eliminating work opportunities by requiring employers to verify the reported immigration status of new hires, Congress should also prohibit illegal immigrants from opening bank accounts, or even obtaining library cards.

"You’d reduce the number of people who keep coming back again and again," said Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform. The alternative, says Doris Meissner, the country’s top immigration official in the mid-1990s, is to accept that illegal immigrants like Daniel "are people with fundamental ties to the United States, not where they came from."

"Our societies are so deeply connected," Ms. Meissner said, referring primarily to the United States and Mexico, the main source of illegal immigrants. "And that is not reflected at all in policy."

The administration acknowledges that immigrants like Daniel are rooted in the United States and typically have otherwise clean criminal records. But under its new plan introduced in August — suspending deportations for pending low-priority cases, including immigrants brought to the United States as children — repeat crossers are singled out for removal alongside "serious felons," "known gang members" and "individuals who pose a clear risk to national security."

Administration officials say they are trying to break the "yo-yo effect" of people bouncing back, as mandated by congress when it toughened laws related to illegal re-entry in the 1990s.

But some experts argue that this commingling actually undermines security. After a decade of record deportations, critics argue, it has become even harder to separate the two groups that now define the border: professional criminals and experienced migrants motivated by family ties in the United States.

"If you think drug dealers and terrorists are much more dangerous than maids and gardeners, then we should get as many visas as possible to those people, so we can focus on the real threat," said David Shirk, director of the Transborder Institute at the University of San Diego. "Widening the gates would strengthen the walls."

Crime and the Border

The border crossers pouring into Arizona a decade or two ago were more numerous, but less likely to be threatening. David Jimarez, a Border Patrol agent with years of experience south of Tucson, recalled that even when migrants outnumbered American authorities by 25 to 1, they did not resist. "They would just sit down and wait for us," he said.

Over the past few years, the mix has changed, with more drug smugglers and other criminals among the dwindling, but still substantial, ranks of migrants.

The impacts are far-reaching. In northern Mexico, less immigration means less business. Border towns like Agua Prieta, long known as a departure point, have gone from bustling to windblown. Taxis that ferried migrants to the mountains now gather dust. Restaurants and hotels, like the sunflower-themed Girasol downtown, are practically empty. On one recent afternoon, only 3 of the 50 rooms were occupied.

"In 2000, we were full every day," said Alejandro Rocha, the hotel’s manager.

New research from the University of California, San Diego, shows that crime is now the top concern for Mexicans thinking of heading north. As fear keeps many migrants home, many experienced border guides, or coyotes, have given up illegal migration for other jobs.

In Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, one well-known coyote is now selling tires. In Nogales, the largest Mexican city bordering Arizona, power has shifted to tattooed young men with expensive binoculars along the border fence, while here in Agua Prieta — where Mexican officials say traffic is one-thirthieth of what it once was — the only way to get across is to deal with gangs that sometimes push migrants to carry drugs.

It is even worse in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Tex. Just standing at the border fence brings out drug cartel enforcers demanding $300 for the right to pass. Migrants and the organizations that assist them say cartel lieutenants roam the shelters, looking for deportees willing to work as lookouts, earning $400 a week until they have enough to pay for passage north.

"I was thinking about doing it, too," said Daniel, looking down. "But then I thought about my family."

American law enforcement officials say the matrix of drugs, migration and violence has become more visible at the border and along the trails and roads heading north, where more of the immigrants being caught carry drugs or guns — making them more likely to flee, resist arrest or commit other crimes.

"There’s less traffic, but traffic that’s there is more threatening," Mr. Jimarez, the border agent, said.

Larry Dever, the sheriff of Cochise County, Ariz., which sits north of Agua Prieta, agreed: "The guys smuggling people and narcotics now are more sinister."

His county, 6,169 square miles of scrub brush, ranches and tiny towns in the state’s southeast corner, has been an established crossing corridor since the mid-1990s. Since 2008, the police there have tracked every crime linked to illegal immigrants, in part because state and federal officials frequently requested data, treating the county as a bellwether of border security.

Indeed, when a Cochise rancher named Robert Krentz was killed in March 2010 after radioing to his brother that he was going to help a suspected illegal immigrant, the county quickly became a flash point for a larger debate that ultimately led to SB 1070, the polarizing Arizona bill giving the police more responsibility for cracking down on illegal immigrants.

Yet, crime involving illegal immigrants is relatively rare (5 percent of all local crime, Sheriff Dever said). Mostly it consists of burglaries involving stolen food. And, public records show, in 11 of the 18 violent crimes linked to illegal immigrants over 18 months, immigrants were both the victims and attackers.

This is not the portrait given by Republican border governors, including Rick Perry of Texas, a presidential candidate who recently said that "it is not safe on that border." But while Mexican drug cartels have increased their presence from Tucson to New York — sometimes engaging in brutal violence after entering the country illegally — Americans living near the border are generally safe.

A USA Today analysis of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California in July found that crime within 100 miles of the border is below both the national average and the average for each of those states — and has been declining for years. Several other independent researchers have come to the same conclusion.

But the border is not safe for people crossing or patrolling it. The number of immigrants found dead in the Arizona desert, from all causes, has failed to decline as fast as illegal immigration has, while assaults on Border Patrol agents grew by 41 percent from 2006 to 2010, almost entirely because of an increase in attacks with rocks. The heightened risks have stimulated a debate: Has the more aggressive approach — bigger fences, more agents and deportations — contributed to, or diminished, the danger?

Sheriff Dever, lionized as an "illegal immigration warrior" by immigration opponents, says that increased enforcement has made Americans safer and should continue until his neighbors tell him they are no longer afraid.

But some immigration advocates contend that the government’s approach is too broad to be effective. "We have to really separate out the guy who is coming to make a living with his family from the terrorist or the drug dealer," said Peter Siavelis, an editor of "Getting Immigration Right: What Every American Needs to Know."

Home Is Where the Children Are

Deportations have muddled that delineation. In a recent line of deportees piling off a bus on the San Diego side of a metal gate leading to Tijuana, all were equal: the criminal in prison garb with the wispy goatee; the mother averting her eyes; and longtime residents like Alberto Álvarez, 36, a janitor and father of five who said he was picked up for driving without a license.

"Look, I’ve been in the U.S. 18 years," he said, slinging a backpack over his Izod shirt. "Right now, my children are alone, my wife is alone caring for the kids by herself — they’ve separated us."

During the immigration wave that peaked around a decade ago, deportations often meant something different: many deportees had not been in the United States for long; they were going home.

But now that there are fewer new arrivals, the concept of home is changing. Of the roughly 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, 48 percent arrived before 2000. For the 6.5 million Mexicans in the United States illegally, that figure is even higher — 55 percent, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. There are now also 4.5 million American-born children of unauthorized immigrant parents.

Experts on both sides of the debate say this large group of rooted immigrants presents the nation with a fundamental choice: Either make life in the United States so difficult for illegal immigrants that they leave on their own, or allow immigrants who pose no threat to public safety to remain with their families legally, though not necessarily as citizens.

Steven A. Camarota, a demographer at the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington, said the government should revoke automatic citizenship for children born to illegal immigrants, and seize assets from deported illegal immigrants so they have fewer incentives to return.

President Obama, having made no progress on getting his legalization plan through Congress, has instead been trying to make enforcement more surgical. Under the new guidelines, officials will use "prosecutorial discretion" to review the current docket of 300,000 deportation cases, suspending expulsions for a range of immigrants.

Several factors prompt "particular care and consideration" for a reprieve, including whether the person has been in the United States since childhood, or is pregnant, seriously ill, a member of the military or a minor, according to a June memo that initiated the change.

The issue of "whether the person has a U.S. citizen or permanent resident spouse, child or parent" appears in the memo’s secondary list of factors to consider. But it is not clear how broadly leniency will be applied. Repeat crossers are given a special black mark, and the administration has already deported hundreds of thousands of minor offenders, despite claiming to focus on "the worst of the worst."

Several Democratic governors and law enforcement officials are particularly angry about Secure Communities, a program to run the fingerprints of anyone booked by the police to check for federal immigration violations. A large proportion of those deported through this process — 79 percent, according to a recent report by the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University — were low-level offenders, often arrested for traffic violations.

Administration officials dispute that, saying the ratio of serious criminals is increasing, and that ultimately they must enforce immigration law against all violators. They have mandated that the program be used nationwide by 2013.

Mexico’s border cities offer a portrait of what that could mean. Nearly 950,000 Mexican immigrants have been deported since the start of fiscal 2008. And in Tijuana — a former hub for migrants heading north, which now receives more deportees than anywhere else — the pool of deportees preparing to cross again just keeps growing.

Maria García, 27, arrived here after being deported for a traffic violation. She said she had spent six years living in Fresno, Calif., with her two Mexico-born sons, 11 and 7. She was one of many who said that without a doubt, they would find their way back to the United States.

"They can’t stop us," she said.

The constant flow of deportees has become a growing concern for Mexican officials, who say the new arrivals are easy recruits, and victims, for drug cartels.

One former deportee was arrested this year for playing a major role in the deaths of around 200 people found in mass graves. In Tijuana, a homeless camp at the border has swollen from a cluster to a neighborhood, as deportees flow in, many carrying stories of being robbed or kidnapped by gangs who saw their American connections as a source for ransom.

Minutes after he arrived, Mr. Álvarez, the janitor, said he was worried about surviving — "you’re playing with your life being here," he said. But his twin sons would turn 2 in a few weeks, and like many others, he said that no matter how he was treated in the United States, he would find his way back.

"I feel bad being here, I feel bad," he said. "I’ve got my kids over there, my family, my whole life. Here" — he shook his head at the end of his first day in Tijuana — "no."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/03/world/americas/mexican-immigrants-repeatedly-brave-risks-to-resume-lives-in-united-states.html

Festejaron deportados Fiestas Patrias en Tijuana

Por Sonia García Ochoa
El Sol de Tijuana
17 de septiembre de 2011

Tijuana.- Los deportados, esos mexicanos que dejaron su país para buscar oportunidades en el extranjero, nunca dejan de amar su nación y más todavía cuando le abre los brazos como al hijo pródigo que un día se fue, pero que es esperado su regreso, como se apreció en la celebración del 16 de septiembre que hizo Esther Morales Guzmán, mujer que hace un año fue expulsada de Estados Unidos por indocumentada.

A la fiesta que fue más recordando la grandeza de México, nación que se mantiene erguida pese a las sacudidas políticas, económicas y sociales, convocó Morales Guzmán, para recordarle a propios y extraños que la República Mexicana, "no es egoísta, carece de rencor y no se queja cuando es criticada por quienes no encontraron en ella la calidad de vida que se demanda", expuso Esther.

María Trinidad Álvarez Anguiano, Karina Hernández, María Guadalupe Álvarez Anguiano y Lluvia Hernández, fueron las primeras tijuanenses en llegar a la fiesta, a la que luego se le sumaron medios de comunicación, amigos residentes de California y deportados como ahora es Esther Morales Guzmán, quien escribió un poema para la ocasión, que es el siguiente:

"Mexicanos al grito de guerra. Eso dice nuestro Himno Nacional. Hoy mujeres y hombres, celebrando su independencia mexicana. Realmente no importa el lugar si te sientes de colores, y en especial, verde, blanco y rojo".

"Hoy en este día haré un recuerdo a algunas celebridades que han puesto en alto nuestro México lindo, tierra de estrellas, tierra de hombres valientes, por la cual fuimos independizados, tierra de hombres ilustres, poetas y bohemios, tierra de mujeres hermosas".

"Por la cual el poeta se inspiró entonando María Bonita, María del alma, mujer, mujer divina, sin duda estoy recordando al inolvidable Agustín Lara, poniendo siempre en alto su lindo Veracruz".

"Mujer mexicana, inspiración perfecta, por su piel color canela y tus rasgos mestizos, versos, poemas, cartas de amor. Allá por los años 1922, un hombre escribía exitosamente inspirado por la mujer mexicana, sin duda estoy recordando al poeta Amado Nervo, poniendo siempre en alto su Tepic, Nayarit".

"Debo recordar también al bohemio entonando no tengo trono ni reina ni nadie que me comprenda, la vida no vale nada, pero ¿sabes?, sigo siendo el rey, sin duda estoy recordando al inolvidable José Alfredo Jiménez, poniendo siempre en alto su León, Guanajuato".

"México, México lindo no eres presumido y eso que tienes a tu Frida Kahlo y a tu Diego Rivera que dejaron tus colores plasmado en todo el mundo".

"Ilustres hombres ilustres, los llevo orgullosamente en mi corazón. Benito Juárez, quien fue presidente de México, orgullosamente oaxaqueño. México tierra de agave, tequila y mezcal, tierra del mariachi, tierra de la serenata bajo la luna, tierra de mujeres hermosas por la cual el poeta se inspiró y entonó María Bonita, María del Alma, mujeres, mujer divina".

"Sin olvidar la valentía de los hombres que han sabido defender a su patria, a su familia, a su honor. ¡Viva México, porque como México no hay dos!".

sgarcia@elsoldetijuana.com.mx

http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldetijuana/notas/n2230393.htm

Deportaciones por Nuevo Laredo se duplican; Benjamín Galván

Benjamín Galván Gómez, manifestó que la última estadística arrojó que se han deportado más de 50 mil migrantes, y de 114 repatriados al día la cifra ascendió hasta los 240
Por: Liliana Torres
Hoy Tamaulipas
31/08/2011

Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas.- La última estadística arrojó que se han deportado más de 50 mil migrantes, y de 114 repatriados al día la cifra ascendió hasta los 240, informó el alcalde de Nuevo Laredo, Benjamín Galván Gómez.

“Las últimas estadísticas que tenemos es de más de 50 mil migrantes repatriados o deportados que es prácticamente la mitad de los migrantes que reportan o repatrían a través de las fronteras tamaulipecas”.

“Se ha venido incrementando tenemos datos que en ocasiones de los 114 que se reportaban diariamente ha habido ocasiones que ascienden a los 240 reportados”.

Galván Gómez refirió que las autoridades estadounidenses están haciendo deportaciones en horarios inadecuados, sin aviso ni información correspondiente, además es necesario que la federación apoye con recursos puesto que el gobierno del estado y municipal ya lo hacen.

“Creemos debería de haber un programa y un recurso asignado para que el gobierno federal también apoyara en esta causa tan importante de la migración y poder solventar un fenómeno que se da desde hace muchos años”.

El alcalde de Nuevo Laredo Cuando refirió que hablar de la migración significa tocar tres vertientes; la migración de repatriados o de deportados, la migración transmigración y la migración interna.

“Nosotros creemos que no ha disminuido sin embargo es relativo a las rutas que ellos escogen, en el caso de nuevo Laredo por datos que tenemos a través de la casa del migrante sabemos que sigue la migración generándose y luego tenemos la migración interna dentro de México donde muchos optan por ir a la frontera en una migración con la finalidad de buscar trabajo y oportunidades y esta también se sigue dando”.

http://www.hoytamaulipas.net/notas/40955/Deportaciones-por-Nuevo-Laredo-se-duplican-Benjamin-Galvan.html

Exiled From America: One Student’s Deportation Story

by Sydney Bouchat
Campus Progress
August 23, 2011

Hector Lopez is arrested before he knows his crime. At the age of twenty, the Portland State University sophomore discovers he is an undocumented immigrant while sitting in a federal holding cell in Portland, Oregon. After spending ten days at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, and before he could find a lawyer, he is deported to Mexico, knowing neither the people nor the language. This is only the beginning of what becomes a grueling four-month ordeal for Hector, away from his home, family, and friends.

You were arrested on August 23, 2010. What was that experience like? It must have been very difficult.

Absolutely, especially when you’re not expecting anything to happen, and with me not knowing anything about my legal status. At first, you’re kind of . . . you think it’s not real. Like, ‘Oh, you must have the wrong person.’ But after you realize that it is you that [the authorities] are after, it quickly puts you into a panic.

So you were not aware at the time that you were an undocumented immigrant?

No. I have a Social [Security number] and a driver’s license. And, you know, usually when you hear about people with immigration problems, you hear of them changing names or doing things to fit in, but I never had to do any of that. I figured if I was [illegal], my parents would have told me.

How exactly did the US immigration authorities go about taking you out of the country?

I thought that as soon as I talked to a judge, someone would come to their senses and realize that this shouldn’t be happening and everything would be okay. And then, [immigration] just said, ‘Hey you, you’re leaving today.’ And I said, ‘Well, I don’t know anyone. I don’t speak the language. What do you want me to do?’ They said, ‘Well, we can’t give you legal advice.’ At around 9 a.m. [September 1, 2010], I was taken from my cell. I was given my clothes back and then handcuffed at my waist, wrists, and ankles. Then I was put on a prison plane. It made three stops. It was a twelve-hour process. We landed in Brownsville, Texas, at about 9:30 p.m. that same day. From there, [the other deportees and I] were driven to the border and made to walk across.

You were made to transport yourself across international lines?

They kind of just drop you right off at the border. You can’t go anywhere because you’re immigrant of a federal area, so you only have one way to walk, and that’s toward Mexico.

At this time, where was your father? Was he with you?

No, my dad was going to ask for asylum, but when I got deported before him for no reason, he gave up his right to fight for his case so he could be with me in Mexico. He was deported about two weeks after me because he gave up his case. But this whole situation when I was deported was by myself.

You were in Mexico for two-and-a-half weeks before your father gave up his right to asylum to be with you. Describe that experience.

That [first] night, I went to the bus station that was a little ways away from the border. There was a group of about 150 of us that had just been deported. My phone was dead, so I couldn’t call anybody. I couldn’t ask for a hotel. Three people had gotten murdered in that area a couple hours beforehand. I found a gentleman who spoke some English and he told me I probably shouldn’t be leaving the bus station because it was dangerous. So I slept at the bus station that night. The next day, I called my mom, who told me to get a bus ticket to Mexico City, where a lady who was my mom’s old neighbor was going to take me in for a while. I took about a sixteen-hour bus ride from the border to Mexico City. The lady picked me up when I got to the bus station in Mexico City. I stayed there for almost two months.

What was it like living in Mexico?

I saw moms and children sleeping on the street. They were homeless. And I thought, ‘You know, where I grew up, we don’t let that happen.’ I wasn’t used to seeing things like that. I didn’t want to be there, but I couldn’t leave. The majority of the two months I spent in my room by myself. It was almost like I didn’t even have a life. It was too much to handle, and you just kind of hide yourself and try to deal with it.

What brought about your returning to the border to seek asylum?

I can’t go too in-depth with the reasons of what happened, but after multiple incidents, and you start realizing that you’re the one being targeted, you just lose patience. I know two months doesn’t seem like that long, but every day I didn’t know when I was coming home. That’s what eats at you the most. Around the beginning of November, the panic started to sink in a little more and a little more, and I spoke to my lawyer. She said I could seek asylum. It was the thing I was trying to avoid in the first place, going back to jail, because I knew how horrible it was. But after we realized that [asylum] would probably be the quickest and safest way to get me back into the US, on November 17, I took a bus from Mexico City to Nogales, Sonora. I surrendered myself at the border at the walkthrough where people show their visas and passports. From there I was arrested and taken to the detention center, where I stayed for a little over a month.

What was the detention center like?

It’s not technically a prison, though I don’t know what the difference is. I’ve never been to prison, but I’m pretty sure it’s the same thing or almost the same thing. When I was detained in Seattle, I had my dad there. I had someone to talk to, someone who I knew, so it wasn’t as bad. I went to Arizona by myself because I didn’t really have a choice. I figured I’d rather be here than scared for my life. You get acclimated after a while. You get used to spending your whole day doing nothing. For the first couple days it was rough, and definitely a shock, but you start getting used to it.

At one point, you were allowed to go home to Milwaukee, Oregon, for Christmas. Did they do that special for you?

Yes, the [immigration] let me go home on December 23. It’s not something that they do too often. My case was a higher profile case, and there was an 1,800-signature petition sent in. There were hundreds of phone calls made. They took a little better care of me, I guess. They let me go sooner than most people. I got out without paying a bail. They do it, but it’s on a case-by-case situation, and it’s not very common.

Now you’re back with your mom and your brother in Milwaukee. What is your current legal situation?

I’m waiting for a court date. I should be receiving it in the mail soon. But right now, I’m, I think it’s called ‘out-of-status.’ I’m not really legally here, but I’m not illegally here. I’m in the middle. But hopefully I can get another start. I start school in the spring, my work application is pending to get a work permit, and I can get my license soon.

How difficult has it been for you to re-establish your American life?

I thought that was going to be a problem. I have a gentleman from Dallas who’s an advocate and he’s been helping me. His name is Ralph Isenberg. He and my mom and everyone were worried that I would suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or something along those lines because it was pretty traumatic, what I went through. But I hopped into my life pretty quick. The first few days were a little groggy and weird, but right now I’m fine. I know it sounds weird, but right now I’m just waiting to get back to work, and that’s probably going to be before I get back to school. And then I’ll just pick up where I left off. What I told everybody is that I’m not going anywhere. I’ve been guaranteed multiple times by some of the best attorneys in the country that I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going back to another country. And that’s always reassuring. I’m going to stay here, so I might as well start my life again.

How do you think this experience has changed your opinion about being an American and living in the United States?

I think I’m an American. I may not be an American citizen, but I think I’m as American as baseball and apple pie. I grew up here. I only know one pledge of allegiance. I only know one president. For all accounts, in my eyes, I am an American, and I think a lot of people feel the same way. The reason I came back is because I believe in the American system. I knew I wouldn’t be in jail for years and years and years. I knew the right thing would be done, and the right thing was done. I’m not mad that I got arrested. A lot of people say, ‘You should be mad at the system. You should be mad at your parents.’ Well, I’m not mad at the system. They were doing their jobs. And now that things have been brought to light, they have done the right thing. They have been very helpful with everything, to release me and get me home. I guess it gives me even more admiration for the country and the American system and everything that it stands for.

Has this experience helped you grow at all, or has it only hindered you?

I don’t think it’s helped me too much, but it’s definitely opened my eyes. I now realize that when you’re talking about immigration, you have one idea of it, like what we see on the Discovery Channel or the news. But, being in it, being in jail and in the country, it’s a sad thing, and it’s not all murders and drug cartels. I saw a little four-year-old kid in a jail because someone had tried to smuggle him over. It’s a really sad thing to see. This isn’t right. So it definitely opened my eyes.

This article originally appeared in Ethos, a student publication that receives funding and training as a member of Campus Progress' journalism network.

http://campusprogress.org/articles/exiled_from_america_one_students_deportation_story/

For one man, Mexico is too dangerous

Judge rules government south of border can't protect him.
By Jason Buch
August 14, 2011

The subject of this story is a marked man.

Members of Mexican drug cartels have threatened him, kidnapped him, beaten him and shot at him. Identifying him by name could get him killed.

They want to kill this man because he worked with the government to combat the cartels. His efforts as a private government contractor resulted in large drug seizures and significant financial losses to the criminal organizations.

“They were calling me to threaten me that they were going to kill me,” he said during an interview this summer in San Antonio. “If I kept doing my job, I was going to get killed.”

His story isn't too different from what tens of thousands of Mexicans face as a matter of course in a country that saw more than 15,000 drug war fatalities last year, and where everyday citizens and legitimate business owners are targeted by indiscriminate drug traffickers.

It's also not too different from the experience of thousands of Mexicans who come to the U.S. every year seeking refuge from the narcos.

But there’s one big difference between this story and theirs: In May, an immigration judge ruled that the man — who requested anonymity because of the risks to his safety — could stay in the U.S. because of the perils that could befall him in his native country.

The decision by Immigration Judge Margaret D. Burkhart found it’s too dangerous for the man to return to Mexico, allowing him to live and work in the U.S. until it’s safe for him to go back.

Burkhart ruled that as a private citizen who worked with the government to combat the cartels, the contractor fits in a class that’s protected by U.S. immigration law.

She also ruled the cartels have so corrupted Mexican law enforcement that the government there couldn’t protect him.

The contractor is so well-known in his profession that printing his occupation might identify him. In fact, it’s that recognition, the court ruled, that made returning to Mexico so dangerous for him.

“Due to his notoriety, the threats he received and the attempts made upon his life even after he had relocated to Mexico, (the contractor) fears torture and even death if forced to return to Mexico,” Burkhart wrote in her decision.

“He believes his life is in danger no matter where he goes in his country,” she continued. “Even if he entered another profession, he believes he would be targeted by the cartels because his name is so well-known in Mexico. His fear is further magnified because it does appear that the authorities also are involved with those persons seeking to do harm to” him.

Threats start

The contractor said he knew the power of the cartels. A colleague in northern Mexico had been tortured and killed for helping the government. But back then, in the mid-2000s, the drug-war violence largely was confined to Mexican states bordering the U.S. He thought he was safe living in central Mexico.

In 2006, he started receiving threatening phone calls but didn’t think much of them. That fall, the contractor said, he was stopped at a red light when two men with guns approached his car.

At gunpoint, they warned him to stop his business. Terrified, he and his partner began canceling contracts with Mexican government agencies.

But by December of that year, his partner noticed a black SUV with Texas plates in front of their business. And one day, the SUV followed him.

“They were about to pass me and I saw them with a weapon so I just turned the wheel against them and they went into the curb and they crashed into a tree,” he said.

It wasn’t until he got home that he saw the bullet hole in his windshield.

That was enough for him. He packed up, moved to a smaller town, stopped working with the Mexican government and lived a solitary lifestyle.

When a year had passed, thinking he was safe, he went into business with the Mexican federal highway police. That proved to be a near-fatal mistake.

In May 2008, he was pulled over by a federal police officer. Instead of asking for his license, he said, the officer ordered him out and handcuffed him. A van stopped in front of the cop’s car and the officer handed him over to the men in the van.

“As long as you cooperate with them, you won’t have problems,” the officer said. The men in the van hit him with a rifle butt when he looked at them and ordered him to look away. They threatened him with death and torture.

“I was sure that they were going to kill me this time,” he said. “This time I couldn’t do anything. I was already with them, in their hands.”

Crying, he begged for mercy. The narcos laughed in his face and insulted him.

“They said, ‘We need you to work for us,’” the contractor said. “And I realized, ‘OK, they were just playing with my mind.’ They didn’t want me dead, they wanted my job. So then I realized they were not going to kill me as long as I worked with them.”

The contractor asked for two months to meet the traffickers’ demands. They gave him one. He accepted, but instead of going to work, he began plotting his escape to the U.S.

“Obviously, I didn’t think about working for them or anything like that,” he said. “Because working for them, first of all, it is not right what they are doing. And second, you’re going to get killed anyway.”

Days later, he had a tail again, this time a black Ford Crown Victoria favored by Mexican police. Again, he made a series of odd turns to see if he was being followed. He was. Again, he fled.

The Crown Victoria chased him, pulling alongside his vehicle as they crashed over speed bumps.

“They were going to pass me and that’s when I turned the wheel,” he said. “It worked last time, so I did the same. ... This time, I saw the weapon, but they didn’t shoot this time. So then I run.”

He didn’t go home. He had an employee bring him his belongings.

“So from there I didn’t go back to my house,” he said. “I just took the highway coming to U.S.A.”

Letting him stay

The contractor was allowed to stay in the country under a provision of immigration law called withholding of removal. Like asylum, in order to receive withholding of removal, the man had to prove he risked persecution because of his race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.

The judge ruled that as a government contractor working against the cartels, the man was being persecuted as a member of a social group.

Last year, immigration judges ruled on 83 withholding requests made by Mexican citizens, according to the Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review, which operates immigration courts. Of those, just 17 were granted.

Unlike asylum, which would have given him a green card, withholding only allows the contractor to live and work in the country until the situation in Mexico improves enough for him to return.

Withholding also has a higher threshold than asylum. He had to prove there was a probability of harm if he returned to Mexico, rather than just a credible fear of harm. Immigration courts have balked at awarding either to those fleeing the drug war in Mexico. And because immigration court files are closed, the ruling can’t be used by other attorneys.

“Withholding is very difficult to get granted ... especially for Mexican natives,” said San Antonio immigration attorney Juan Gonzalez, who represents the subject of this report. “Because Mexico’s not considered a country that is unstable or is working against its people.”

The intrusion of the cartels into everyday life is driving more asylum-seekers to the U.S., San Antonio immigration attorney Lance Curtright said.

“Definitely, there’s been an uptick in the number of people who are afraid to return to Mexico based on the drug violence,” Curtright said. “Now some of these people have had family members that have been extorted. A lot of times a common story you’ll hear is to operate a business you need to pay protection, need to pay a fee. A lot of times they have guys walk into their storefronts and demand money.”

In 2007, the year after Mexican President Felipe Calderón increased the use of the military in combating drug traffickers, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services saw the number of asylum requests from Mexican nationals jump from 1,302 in 2006 to 2,073.

In 2009, the number fell to 1,393, but last year 2,320 Mexicans came to the U.S. asking for asylum, and the total already has exceeded 2,812 in 2011. Those numbers don’t include people who seek asylum through immigration courts after going into deportation proceedings.

Asylum-seekers from Mexico generally have to claim membership in a social group that’s being persecuted. But it’s hard for a business owner who doesn’t want to pay the cuota, the protection fee charged by criminal organizations, to get asylum in the U.S., Curtright said.

It’s widely known that elements of the Mexican government are in collusion with the cartels, but asylum-seekers, he said, find it difficult to prove that the “state is unable or unwilling to protect the asylum-seeker.”

And engaging in a business that’s targeted by cartels doesn’t necessarily make someone a member of a social group, he said. Journalists and human rights activists have had some success winning asylum in the U.S., but police officers, for example, have a tougher time because some judges believe they take on risks when they put on the uniform.

“It’s going to be tough to win some of these cases,” Curtright said. “And some of them are going to depend on who the adjudicator is.”

Last year, USCIS granted only 115 asylum cases to Mexican nationals.

The government contractor, the subject of this report, wasn’t eligible for asylum because he’d already been deported.

Fighting deportation

The contractor lived in the U.S. for two years, trying to fly under the radar by operating his own business and not seeking employment. He drove to Laredo to renew his tourist visa every six months, but in May 2010 he ran into trouble.

An immigration officer who thought he seemed nervous and noticed he had a U.S. cellphone canceled the contractor’s visa and ordered him removed from the country. He spent the night on the border and the next day hired a coyote, or human smuggler.

“When you hire the smugglers, that was when the scary things started,” the contractor said. “Because they are gangsters and they are doing drugs or they are drunk. They have weapons. They have new vehicles, but of course they are stolen and they run like crazy in Mexico and even here in the U.S.A. And they are talking about you like you are cattle and you are just a thing, you’re not a human being.”

He was shuffled from stash house to stash house, crammed with other immigrants into the back of a truck and led for days walking in the brush, only to be caught by local police and turned over to the Border Patrol. Facing deportation again, he decided to stay in the U.S. and fight removal.

The contractor ended up spending 364 days in custody before the judge ruled May 25 to grant him withholding.

His fight isn’t over yet. The government has appealed the ruling. And while he’s lucky to have family in the U.S. to support him, recovering from years on the run and in detention hasn’t been easy.

“At the beginning, when I was released, I was so happy I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “When I was inside, all I was thinking was to get out, to get regular food, to sleep in a bed, to have a regular shower, a regular restroom. ... That was all I wanted. But then you get out and it’s not like that, it’s not as easy as that.”

Read more: http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/article/For-one-man-Mexico-is-too-dangerous-1978887.php#ixzz1V0iKCvGn

Temen por su vida si son deportados vía Juárez

By Alberto Ponce de León
El Diario de El Paso
15-06-2011

Un grupo de 21 personas –la mayoría oriundas de Sinaloa y que en la actualidad se encuentran detenidas por ser indocumentadas en Torrance, Nuevo Mexico– teme por su vida si se les deporta por Juárez y el resto de las fronteras de los estados de Chihuahua, Coahuila y Tamaulipas.

“Por favor, sálvenos. Nosotros, como internos, quienes nos encontramos en el Centro de Detención del Condado de Torrance, tememos por nuestras vidas”, escribieron en la primera línea los indocumentados mexicanos en una carta enviada al grupo humanitario “No más muertes”.

Hannah Hafter, vocera del organismo, con base en Arizona, dijo que el organismo ha iniciado una campaña a fin de frenar la deportación de los mexicanos a través de las fronteras de Texas y Nuevo Mexico, ante el temor de caer en manos de cárteles del narcotráfico.

“Tenemos testimonios de personas que dicen que eso les pasó”, afirmó vía telefónica. “Recibimos cartas firmadas por personas que pidieron nuestro apoyo. Nos dijeron que querían salir por Sonora y no por Texas o Nuevo Mexico. Son cuatro cartas, pero están firmadas por todos”.

Afirmó que la mayor parte de los indocumentados es originaria de Sinaloa y que al ser deportados por Ciudad Juárez, por ejemplo, su vida correría peligro, en vista de las disputas territoriales que en la actualidad libran cárteles del narcotráfico.

“Es que alguien que está en la cárcel con ellos les dijo que la última vez que fue deportado, fue secuestrado, y que mataron a otro que también iba, que porque su familia le había enviado dinero”, mencionó. “Nadie es de Juárez; son más de la costa oeste, pero creen que por los enfrentamientos que hay, van a ser atacados, porque son por ejemplo de Sinaloa”.

Viene de la 1A

Los indocumentados que firmaron las cartas, aseguró, dicen que miembros del Grupo Beta, pertenecientes a Instituto Nacional de Migración de México, filtran su base de datos a algunos policías de los municipios fronterizos con el fin de cometer los crímenes, entre ellos secuestros.

“Es una acción urgente. Tenemos una lista de correos y de e-mails”, agregó. “Organizaciones nacionales están compartiendo esta acción urgente. Hemos enviado mil 500 faxes y más de 500 llamadas al ICE”.

Explicó que los detenidos han pedido ser deportados por las fronteras de Agua Prieta o Naco, Sonora. En ocho meses, dijo, nadie ha sido repatriado por estos dos puertos de entrada a pesar de que representan un menor riego para los inmigrantes.

El miedo de los indocumentados es justificado, dijo, debido a que los inmigrantes frecuentemente son blanco de extorsión, violencia, raptos y amenazas de muerte en esta región.

La organización ha dicho que las 21 personas fueron detenidas luego de cruzar el desierto de Arizona sin documentos migratorios de Estados Unidos.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
Como parte de la campaña, ‘No más muertes’, se está pidiendo a la comunidad contactar a la oficina de la secretaria de Seguridad Nacional, Janet Napolitano y a la Oficina de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE) para frenar las deportaciones a través de la frontera de Texas y Nuevo México.

De acuerdo con los datos del grupo “No más muertes”, el gobierno estadounidense repatria a México un promedio de mil indocumentados por día, lo que ha provocado una situación única de explotación de inmigrantes, de la cual se “alimentan” las redes del narcotráfico.

La fecha de deportación programada para los 21 detenidos es entre el 15 y 17 de junio.

http://www.diario.com.mx/notas.php?f=2011/06/15&id=658c813c335d08980527ee728d2e0ba3

Migrantes deportados un problema social para Tamaulipas

Benny Cruz Zapata
EnLíneaDIRECTA
26 May 2011

Victoria, tamaulipas.-De enero a marzo casi 35 mil migrantes han sido deportados por la frontera de Tamaulipas, principalmente por las ciudades de Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa y Matamoros, reveló el Diputado Rolando González Tejeda.

Por ello , El Presidente de la Comisión de Asuntos fronterizos en el Congreso del Estado, habló de la importancia de apoyar presupuestalmente a esos municipios para que puedan costear los gastos que estas deportaciones conllevan.

“Tenemos un problema muy complejo de enero a marzo han sido deportado 34 mil 840 migrantes por nuestras fronteras, te estoy hablando solamente de Tamaulipas, pero los repatriados no solamente son de nuestro estado”

González Tejeda, expuso su beneplácito por la creación del Instituto de Atención a migrantes por la serie de violaciones que se cometen en contra esta población flotante, incluso explicó la Reforma a la Ley de Migración fue por que México tenía asignados protocolos de respeto a los derechos humanos y había demasiadas observaciones.

“En la Ley de Migración ya vienen sanciones penales que antes eran administrativas y eso dejaba mucho que decir, pero todas las leyes deben ser perfectibles, lo que pudo ser administrativamente sano, ahora no y si hay que incluir una sanción penal ya están incluidas en esa Ley de Migración”, sostuvo el legislador panista.

En este orden de ideas, mencionó que en la Ley de repatriación y servicios complementarios que ofrecen asilo político a los inmigrantes era también otro problema.

“El inmigrante entraba a México y pese a que el artículo primero de nuestra Constitución dice que eres libre y que todas las leyes te deben de proteger, eso no era así”.

Finalmente, el legislador local habló de la urgencia de difundir que el inmigrante en México tiene derechos, y que no esta oculto y no esta violando la Ley, además de que puede llegar a la frontera y pedir un permiso de tránsito si así lo desea parta que ninguna autoridad lo moleste.

http://www.enlineadirecta.info/nota.php?art_ID=155081&titulo=Migrantes_deportados_un_problema_social_para_Tamaulipas.html

México: alcaldes preocupados por deportación criminales de EEUU

Por E. EDUARDO CASTILLO
El Nuevo Heraldo
Publicado el viernes 27 de mayo del 2011

Alcaldes fronterizos mexicanos expresaron el viernes su preocupación porque un fallo de la Suprema Corte de Estados Unidos que ordenó a California reducir la población de sus prisiones se traduzca en la deportación al país de más personas con antecedentes criminales, lo cual podría provocar un problema de inseguridad en sus ciudades.

"Hay una indicación de que van a desalojar y limpiar las cárceles... en California", dijo Manuel Baldenebro, alcalde de San Luis Río Colorado, una municipalidad del estado norteño de Sonora fronterizo con Arizona y muy cerca de California, en Estados Unidos.

En rueda de prensa al término de un encuentro de alcaldes de la frontera norte de México, Baldenebro dijo que el fallo de la Corte estadounidense les provoca "temor e inseguridad".

Otros alcaldes mexicanos comentaron que la deportación a México de personas con antecedentes criminales por parte de Estados Unidos ocurre y con frecuencia las autoridades estadounidenses no se los notifican.

"Sí ha pasado, sigue pasando, en algunos casos nos han avisado, en otros no, y esa es parte de la coordinación que tenemos que tener (con Estados Unidos)", dijo Héctor Murguía, alcalde de Ciudad Juárez, fronteriza con El Paso, Texas, y considerada la localidad más afectada por la violencia del narcotráfico en México.

Señaló que "es obvio" que deportar a alguien con antecedentes sin que México lo sepa les genera problemas.

"No se trata de echar las pulgas y las cucarachas al de enseguida, se trata de que todos juntos vayamos matando las cucarachas y las pulgas para poder modificar el entorno", dijo.

El fallo de la Suprema Corte estadounidense ordenó a California a reducir sus población penitenciaria en unos 33.000 reos. Muchos prisiones en ese estado son migrantes mexicanos.

Autoridades de California han dicho que para reducir el número de presos intentarán transferir a algunos reos a penales de otros estados.

Algunas localidades fronterizas mexicanas enfrentan un problema de violencia de carteles del narcotráfico, que en todo el país ha dejado más de 35.000 asesinados desde diciembre del 2006.

El gobierno mexicano ha responsabilizado de dos masacres en el estado fronterizo de Tamaulipas a un mexicano, Martín Estrada Luna, que fue deportado en varias ocasiones de Estados Unidos y que tenía antecedentes penales en ese país.

Estrada, alias "El Kilo" y considerado un jefe local del cartel de las drogas de Los Zetas, fue detenido recientemente por su presunta responsabilidad en el asesinato de 72 migrantes en agosto de 2010 y al menos 183 personas más en los siguientes meses en la municipalidad de San Fernando, cercana a la frontera norte.

Everardo Villarreal, alcalde de Reynosa, Tamaulipas, dijo que las autoridades mexicanas y estadounidenses deben alcanzar una coordinación "para ver a quienes nos entregan" e incluso propuso que compartan sus expedientes para saber qué tipo de delitos cometieron.

El alcalde de San Luis Río Colorado señaló que enfrentan un problema más, pues si los deportados con antecedentes criminales no han cometido ningún delito en México no podrían detenerlo.

"Nos podrán informar qué delito cometió en California, Arizona, Texas, pero va a entrar tranquilamente" al país, dijo.

http://www.elnuevoherald.com/2011/05/27/v-print/949844/mexico-alcaldes-preocupados-por.html#ixzz1NfGqZDq8

Life after deportation: Young citizens left behind when Mom and Dad leave country Children try to carry on with American lifestyles as best as they ca

By V. Ortiz
The Chicago Tribune
April 06, 2011

In the two years since her father was deported, 13-year-old Elisabeth and her three younger siblings have settled into an after-school routine while their mother, Maria Lourdes, works long hours at a beauty salon.

The family shares a cramped bedroom in a Waukegan apartment. When school friends wonder why her father is no longer in the picture, Elisabeth has learned to change the subject.

"I don't answer," she said. "It's such a long story."

After Elisabeth's father was deported, the family moved briefly to Mexico. But domestic discord led Maria Lourdes to return to Waukegan with her children, who were born here and are U.S. citizens. She, like her husband, is undocumented, but has applied for a visa to remain in the country.

Now, the four children carry on in America as best as they can, just like a growing number of young people who were born in this country and have seen one or both parents deported.

Those who work with such children say they've seen an increase in the cases locally. As a result, churches, schools and advocacy groups are left scrambling to help once-stable households deal with poverty, foreclosures, academic failure and other problems that come when so-called mixed immigration status families are split up.

The separation creates an "angry generation" of children who feel traumatized and disaffected but still choose to stay in the U.S. rather than face potential poverty, violence, and cultural and language barriers abroad. For some, advocates say, life in America is all they know.

"It's a horrific situation," said Josh Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. "Given that we have this vastly increased number of deportations … we're trying to create infrastructure or support, specifically for people that have done nothing criminal other than come here to work, many who have U.S. citizen children."

But those who favor stricter enforcement of immigration laws assert that the struggles of families with a loved one deported highlight the need to keep people from entering the U.S. illegally.

"Issues surrounding U.S.-born children (with undocumented parents) remind us that the longer you don't enforce your immigration laws, the harder it becomes to do so," said Steven Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington.

In an estimate published by the Urban Institute in 2010, more than 100,000 immigrant parents of U.S. citizen children have been deported in the last 10 years.

At the same time, deportations have increased dramatically nationwide, from 122,000 in 2002 to 392,000 in 2010, with an emphasis on criminal deportations.

Locally, 12,000 people were deported from the detention center in Broadview in 2010, according to data from the Illinois coalition and the Archdiocese of Chicago.

After seeing such cases rise in recent years, Bill Bautista, a social worker at Community High School in West Chicago, has come to recognize the signs of teens dealing with a deportation at home.

These students often come to him seeking advice on how to get a job that earns money quickly. When he checks their academic records, it's not unusual to see an increase in absences, or a drop in grades, he said.

"There's a lot of privacy with this," he said. "They don't always share that with the school, and I wish they would because there are a lot of resources out there."

In Elgin, Maggie Dempsey has worked with as many as 10 students this school year with one or both parents deported. As liaison to the homeless for District U-46, she helped them get transportation to school after they moved in with a relative, encouraged them to stay involved in extracurricular activities, and even provided school uniforms and field trip money when they couldn't pay for them.

"They're just kids," she said. "They have no control over what their parents have done, and we may as well support them so that they can succeed and be contributing members of society and be able to make a difference."

Advocates such as Elena Segura try to provide solutions, or at least assistance, to families caught up in these situations.

Segura carries a notebook each week to the detention center in Broadview, where immigrants are deported every Friday. Whenever she sees children crying as they say goodbye to a loved one, she jots down their names. Later, she tries to connect them with a program she began in 2009 as director for immigrant affairs and immigration education for the Archdiocese of Chicago.

Called Pastoral Migratoria, it was developed to help the growing number of families dealing with immigration issues and life after deportation.

"I cry every Friday when I hear the stories," she said. "It's not just a moral issue here. To me, it's basic human rights."

In Cicero, Arturo Gonzalez juggles a list of families struggling with deportation. A community organizer for the Interfaith Leadership Project, he makes sure parents leaving the country have their U.S. citizen children registered, so the kids can visit them abroad without having trouble re-entering.

He also gives "Know Your Rights" presentations, informing families about what to expect from deportation proceedings.

Camarota, whose group advocates tougher immigration controls, notes that immigration law grants legal status each year to several thousand undocumented immigrants who argue hardship, including the presence of a U.S.-born child.

More than 3,200 people were granted so-called cancellation of removal in 2009, according to data from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Families are making the choice to separate after deportation, not the U.S. government, Camarota said.

"My sense of these things is we are going to have to start enforcing the law first," he said. "Some will have to go home in significant and large numbers."

Immigration advocates, however, contend that such solutions are oversimplified and come too little, too late.

Meanwhile, children such as a 15-year-old girl who attends Elgin High School try to cope with wrenching situations.

One day seven months ago, the teen grew worried when her mother didn't return home from work.

The girl, who asked not to be named, finally got a call from her mother at 9 p.m. that night confirming her fears. Her mom, she said, was arrested at work and taken into custody for being an undocumented immigrant.

Within hours, an aunt moved in with her own three children to help look after the teen and her two younger sisters. But the high school sophomore quickly inherited new responsibilities. She now had to do the laundry, make dinner and clean the house.

Although they haven't seen their mother since that day last summer, the teen said she and her sisters are resigned to their new life.

"My mom is over there, but I just want to graduate and go to college here," she said. "For kids, it's pretty sad and hard."

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2011-04-06/news/ct-met-deported-parents-children-20110331_1_citizen-children-immigration-laws-immigrant-parents

Improved economy has many Latinos returning to Mexico

REBECCA HUVAL
Napa Valley Register
January 19, 2011

Marbin Escalante, 26, and Olman Martínez, 32, both of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, sit together for a dinner of beans and tortillas on a recent night at the Calistoga Farmworker Housing Center.

The workers reminisced about their recent holiday spent at home and the family and friends they left behind. They estimate about 20 regulars at the Calistoga center from Mexico don’t plan to return to the Napa Valley this year.

“They spent some time here and they haven’t come back,” Escalante said. “They have their family, or they stayed to get married. Some don’t have papers and returning is very difficult.”

Seasonal workers from Mexico have more reason to stay home this year as the Mexican economy improves. While Napa and the rest of the U.S. struggle to add jobs and jolt the economy back to pre-recession levels, Mexico created 730,348 jobs in 2010, the highest number in 14 years, Mexican officials announced this month.

At the same time, a record number of people were deported from the U.S. in 2010.

Some friends who usually make the trip back to Napa Valley vineyards for pruning season have stayed home, the diners at the Calistoga Farmworker Housing Center said.

Daniel Alvarez-Garcia, 19, of Mexico City, mentioned two friends who will stay in Mexico this year to work as a taxi driver and a florist instead of making the trek to Calistoga.

They’ll stay in Mexico “not so much because the economy is good, but because rent and food is so expensive here,” he said.

Despite the high cost of living in Calistoga, Garcia plans to send $800 a month home to his family in El Centro, the central neighborhood of Mexico City.

The employment outlook in Mexico might not be as rosy as the job-creation number suggests. The manufacturing, service and commerce sectors in Mexico were the top creators of jobs in 2010, but the average salary for those new jobs was only $19.29 (232 pesos) a day.

Many seasonal workers at the Calistoga Farmworker Housing Center plan to keep sending money to families south of the border, they said.

Unemployment in Mexico persists. It fell slightly to 5 percent at the end of 2010 from a peak of 6.4 percent in September 2009, according to the Mexican government.

By comparison, Napa County’s unemployment rate was 10 percent in November, the most recent number released by state officials.

While it’s difficult to understand the full impact of an improved Mexican economy on Napa County, it does have the power to stimulate business locally, said Lisa Batto, CEO of the Napa Chamber of Commerce.

“Because we are 45 percent Latino, that has ramifications for Napa,” Batto said. “Our economy can grow.”

Often, workers who came to Napa yearly for jobs are now staying in Mexico due to the danger of border crossing or because they were deported, local immigration experts said.

The U.S. reported a record number of deportations — 392,862 — in the 2010 fiscal year, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Immigration officials attribute this increase to Secure Communities, the program in U.S. jails that enforces the checking of fingerprints against immigration records with every inmate booked. Secure Communities was implemented in Napa County Jail last August.

As a result, the largest increase in U.S. deportations was among convicted criminals. There was a 46.6 percent increase in convicted criminals deported from the U.S. to Mexico from fiscal year 2009 to 2010, according to ICE data.

Out of the San Francisco ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Office, which is also responsible for Napa County, the overall number of deported criminals increased slightly to 9,684 and non-criminal deportations decreased slightly to 6,055 in 2010.

Once deported, the newly repatriated “don’t have any other option than to start their own business,” said Teresa Foster, an immigration consultant in Napa. “A lot of them say, ‘Okay, I’m here, let’s face the fact that my family needs to eat.’ In Mexico, “The job situation is hard, so a lot of times they have to create their own jobs.”

Others have created jobs in Mexico deliberately.

Angel Calderon manages the River Ranch Farmworker Camp in St. Helena and also manages a factory in his hometown Timbinal in the state of Guanajuato, where he employs about 70 workers in the 600-population town.

In addition to producing robes, towels and baby clothes since 1999, the workers have recently started learning design, sales and marketing during work hours to increase their opportunities for advancement.

“You turned around in my community, and you wouldn’t have seen a place to work,” Calderon said. “They were pretty hopeless.”

Even still, many poor states in Mexico have bleak employment prospects, he said. But the lackluster job situation in the U.S. doesn’t always have the same draw it once did.

“To cross the border illegally right now is very dangerous, very expensive and it’s not worth it,” Calderon said.

http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/article_40cd43ec-23a3-11e0-98e5-001cc4c002e0.html

Hotel Migrante— Where Deportees Find Shelter

By David Bacon
New America Media
December 22, 2010

MEXICALI, Mexico-- Last year, almost 400,000 people were deported from the United States. That's the largest wave of deportations in U.S. history, even larger than the notorious "Operation Wetback" of the 1950s, or the mass deportations during the Great Depression.

Often the Border Patrol empties buses of deportees at the border gates of cities like Mexicali in the middle of the night, pushing people through at a time when nothing is open, and no services are available to provide them with food or shelter. Most deportees are young people. They had no money in their pockets coming to the United States, and have nothing more as they get deported back to Mexico.

These are invisible people. In the wave of anti-immigrant hysteria gripping the United States, no one asks what happens to the deportees once they're sent back to Mexico.

In Mexicali, a group of deportees and migrant rights activists have taken over an old, abandoned hotel, formerly the Hotel Centenario (the Hundred Year Hotel). They've renamed it the Hotel Migrante, or the Migrant Hotel. Just a block from the border crossing, it gives people deported from the United States a place to sleep and food to eat for a few days before they go home, or try to cross the border again. The government gives it nothing. Border Angels, the U.S.-based immigrant rights group, provides what little support the hotel gets. A cooperative of deportees cooks the food and works on fixing the building.

During the winter, about 50-60 people live there at any given time, while five or six more knock on its doors every night. Last summer, at the peak of the season when people try to cross the border looking for work, the number of deportees seeking shelter at the hotel rose to over 300.

"A lot of people get hurt trying to walk through the mountains around Mexicali," says Benjamin Campista, a cooperative member. "It's very cold there now, and when they get caught and deported, many are just wearing a T-shirt and tennis shoes. Some get sick -- those we take to the hospital. The rest stay here a few days until their family can send them money to get home, or until they decide to try to cross again."

Border Angels and the hotel collective agreed to pay the landlord 11,000 pesos a month in rent (about $900 USD), but they're already six months behind. Every day hotel residents go out to the long lines of people waiting to cross through the garita (the legal border crossing). They ask for money to support the hotel, and each person gets to keep half of what they're given. The other half goes mostly for food for the evening meal. Deportees have plenty of time to explain their situation to people standing in line, since on a recent afternoon the wait to get through the garita was two hours.

Every day Campista hears deportees tell their stories. "Three brothers stayed here last summer, before they tried to cross. A month later one came back. I saw him on the roof, crying as he looked at the mountains where the other two had died from the heat. A woman came here with her two-month-old baby. Her husband had died in the desert too."

"We're human beings!" Campista exclaims. "We're just going north to try to work. Why should we die for this? Our governments should end these violations of human rights. Then our hotel wouldn't even be necessary."

http://newamericamedia.org/2010/12/the-migrant-hotel---where-deportees-find-shelter.php