Posted on 09/20/2009 2:12:32 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch
None of his wealth could protect Mexican entrepreneur Pierre Oliver Gama Valdes from organized criminal gangs threatening his family for money; if anything, business success put a bull's-eye on his back.
But wealth did help Gama, who said he has started businesses that employ 500 people, get him and his family a ticket out of Mexico's line of fire, fast. It bought him legal residency in San Antonio and perhaps citizenship later, almost no questions asked.
Gama, 34, and a business partner who followed him here are among thousands of Mexico's affluent citizens using U.S. business visas to essentially buy an escape from their nation's drug war.
These visas, known as the “E” and “L” series, allow this growing class of elite drug war refugees involved in business and trade to gain residency and possible citizenship and bypass immigration entanglements that commonly block their less-affluent countrymen. They are taking full advantage as never before, according to immigration attorneys, real estate agents and business people.
Last month, Gama and partner Manuel Octavio Espejo Pantoja bought the Village Gourmet Grill and Bakery on Stone Oak Parkway on what's known as an L-1 visa and then moved themselves and their families to San Antonio legally. In Mexico, the partners own a nationwide mail service for banks and a company that sells body armor and provides security guards.
In recent interviews, Gama and Espejo Pantoja recounted an escalating series of extortion plots, kidnappings and death threats against their families.
As part of an extortion attempt six months ago, someone placed a funeral wreath at Espejo Pantoja's home doorstep bearing the name of his youngest daughter.
That persuaded them to move.
“I had money in the bank. I had a big house. I have buildings and properties in Mexico City,” Gama, a husband and father of two young children, said through an interpreter. “But I would rather wash dishes in the U.S. than risk my family's life in Mexico.”
The partners, neither of whom has restaurant experience, said their last concern is whether the new venture turns a profit.
“I am willing to take losses as long as it keeps me in America,” Gama said. “This is all about my kids.”
Thousands of Mexican business people are moving to the U.S. — exactly how many to San Antonio is unknown — and bringing their families and personal fortunes.
“The scale is larger than anything we have seen in 80 years,” said former San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, a businessman whose family fled to San Antonio from Mexico in the 1920s. “I think this is the highest-water mark since the last big movement in the 1920s. What's happening now is akin to the Cuban diaspora to Miami after Castro.”
In contrast to people such as Gama, less-affluent drug war refugees such as municipal police officers, journalists and everyday people face much more difficulty obtaining residency in the U.S, if at all. Some have risked illegal entry or tried to gain political asylum in the U.S. But some immigration judges are rejecting asylum claims on legal grounds and sending petitioners back to Mexico.
The political asylum route is complex, time consuming and ultimately considered an obstacle by those who can afford to buy their way around it, Texas immigration lawyers say.
“Political asylum is not an option,” said San Antonio immigration lawyer Nancy Shivers, who reports an increasing number of people seeking business visas. “That's what I advise my clients. Just because you got kidnapped does not mean you get asylum. I find more creative things to do.”
E-1 and E-2 visas give residency leading to citizenship for Mexicans who are involved in trade or invest in certain types of U.S. businesses, renewable upon government inspection every three to five years.
L visas enable business people, generally in an executive or specialized role, who are in Mexico and working for foreign companies to transfer themselves and family to the U.S.
American consulate officers review the applications. Consideration does not take into account issues such as fear of criminal gangs, said Edward McKeon, minister-counselor for Consular Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.
“We don't care why they want to do it,” he said. “If they're qualified, we issue them.”
Contrary to perceptions about large increases in business visas, McKeon said his offices in Mexico haven't noticed any drastic jump. He said the numbers are steady, if up slightly in recent years.
Immigration statistics published by the Homeland Security Department show the number of issued E visas more than doubled from 7,893 in 2005, just before President Felipe Calderón mounted his war against drug cartels, to 16,411 through September 2008. The number of L visas, including those for spouses and children, issued during the same time jumped from 25,429 to 33,675. Numbers for 2009 have not been released.
Luis Escobar, a kidnap survivor who made his move on an L visa six years ago, runs a San Antonio company that specializes in helping wealthy Mexicans relocate. He said he has brought 259 families to San Antonio since January. But he said his ads and outreach in Mexico have brought in more than 23,000 inquiries so far this year.
“The reason is Calderón's decision to fight against the drug dealers and the violence,” he said. “Because of the situation, these Mexicans are looking for another option to live.”
Some people moving from Mexico show the marks of kidnapping, torture and extortion, Escobar and others say. They are missing fingers or an ear, cut off by kidnappers eager to up the size and speed of ransom payments.
Many of them, through intermediaries, declined to be interviewed because they fear jeopardizing family members and businesses in Mexico.
Escobar said one tycoon showed up in San Antonio recently missing a foot. He said the businessman told him kidnappers had hacked off the foot at the ankle without anesthesia and sent it to family members to urge faster ransom payment. Escobar is now helping the family arrange L visas so the man and his family can stay.
Another family now in San Antonio told Escobar that kidnappers released a son with a message cut into his chest that read: “Next time, when we say $500,000, we mean $500,000.” Another wealthy businessman talked of captors who had forced him to spend 35 days in an underground tank before payment of a ransom freed him, Escobar said. A blindfold that never came off disfigured the man's face.
“You have no clue what these incidents do to these people,” Escobar said. “Sometimes, all I can do is cry with them.”
Several immigration lawyers in Texas, who have seen a jump in E and L visa applicants from Mexico, report similar stories.
“I've had people come and see me who are missing fingers,” said Ramone Curiel, a San Antonio lawyer. The targeting of Mexico's wealthy by criminal gangs “is definitely a motivation for people to come here and set up businesses.”
Anthony Matulewicz, an immigration lawyer in McAllen, said he has worked on hundreds of E visa applications over the past two years. Some clients have had their fingers chopped off; others are sick of paying huge monthly extortion fees to keep their families safe.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
count me in, please.
I have several affluent Mexican national friends in San Antonio who love their country, but love being alive more, and are happy with the opportunities here in Texas. My hearts go out to them because they have seen their associates killed, kidnapped. One of my friends recently lost his business partner and his partners family to a violet home invasion in Mexico. He himself was shot, but it was a shoulder injury. He is pleading his wife to move here permanently - but she doesn’t want to leave Mexico for more than a few weeks at a time. It truly is a war-zone down there. He is down there with her now. We always pray we will see him again.
Ever noticed the large number of pubs in Florida? Lots of trade from an old visa holder to a new one. Same stuff. It’s primarily a brain drain story, though. The guys who can run a successful business aren’t burdens on us.
If they are coming here legally and employing others legally, Bienvenidos!
Hopefully they will become Americans, as opposed to hyphenated-Americans.
Basically, anybody who is lower to upper middle class by US standards is targeted as wealthy adversaries while in Mexico.
These kinds of people we can use. They contribute, not take. It’s like the fleeing of Cuba’s middle class when Castro took over.
This story doesn’t do justice to the number of affluent people coming in. They are starting all kinds of legitimate businesses and they are employing as a group thousands. I personally know of one family that pays almost $2000 a month for their own health insurance so they take nothing for free.
More nonsense!
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