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Posted on 10/03/2003 2:12:57 AM PDT by sarcasm
NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO - Exhausted from stumbling around the desert for over a week and shaken by the first airplane ride of his life, Noe Asuna Felix is sitting on his haunches, trying to figure out what to do next.
He's got less than $5 and knows no one in Nuevo Laredo, where he's been deported. His home in Hermosillo, Sonora - the Mexican state that borders Arizona - is a two-day bus ride from here. "I don't know what I'm going to do," he says, looking around the parking lot. "I don't even know where I am."
Mr. Asuna is part of one of the last groups of illegal immigrants to take part in an experimental deportation project, known as the Lateral Repatriation Program. It involves rounding up illegal immigrants in Arizona and flying them to four Texas border cities before releasing them back to Mexico. The goal, according to the US Border Patrol, is to save lives.
So far this fiscal year, 147 illegal immigrants have perished in the Arizona desert, making it the nation's most dangerous border crossing. Through the Lateral Repatriation Program, the Border Patrol is trying to discourage repeat attempts by Mexican immigrants, many of whom simply turn right back around after being deported, and try again to cross into the US.
But Mexican officials blast the program as shortsighted and inhumane, while officials in Texas say it's adding more stress to their already beleaguered border cities. It raises old questions of how to keep illegal immigrants from crossing and new questions of how to protect them when they do.
The pilot program was launched Sept. 8 and ended this week. Border Patrol agents say they are considering repeating it next summer, and point to a drop in deaths and detentions as proof of success. During three weeks in September 2002, for example, six immigrants were found dead in the Arizona desert. Last month, there was only one.
But Daniel Hernández Joseph, the Mexican consul in Laredo, says that logic is faulty and there is no clear evidence that the program saves lives.
"There are too many variables to draw such quick conclusions," he says, taking a break from processing this latest group of immigrants. Mexico, for instance, is currently experiencing some of the worst flooding in a century, and that could be keeping Mexicans at home.
In addition, Mr. Hernández says, the program does nothing to address the real issue. "We need an immigration accord with the US. Law enforcement alone can't be the solution." He estimates that his Laredo office has spent some $9,000 in bus fares, meals, and telephone cards for the immigrants.
The US government, on the other hand, is spending $28,000 per chartered flight. There are two a day, carrying about 150 immigrants each, and they rotate between El Paso, Del Rio, Laredo, and McAllen.
That money is not being diverted from other programs within the Border Patrol, says Alfonso Moreno III, the agent in charge of intelligence for the Laredo sector. It had already been set aside under a border-safety initiative.
Regardless, says Mr. Moreno "this program was designed for one reason only: to save lives. And how can you place a price on that?"
He says since the program began, there have been only three confirmed reentries in Laredo and no increase in apprehensions - challenging the idea that the Border Patrol would simply be moving the immigration problem from one state to the other.
While some mayors along the Texas border remain unconvinced, the real impact is on the Mexican side. In Nuevo Laredo, for example, a total of 1,426 illegal immigrants arrived during the month-long experiment.
Of those, the Mexican government calculated that 511 bought bus tickets home. The rest simply vanished into the bustling border city. Many have been spotted sleeping in town squares, in parks, or at the bus station.
At the Casa del Migrantes Nazareth, a Nuevo Laredo shelter that provides migrants with food, clothing, and a place to sleep, Sister Leonor Palacios says they have been struggling to meet the increased demands. Last week, for example, 130 showed up to eat within a few hours of each other. "But they're not sleeping here," she says, gesturing into a large room crammed with old mattresses.
This is not the first such program. In the mid-1990s, the Interior Repatriation Program flew illegal immigrants to their hometowns in Mexico. But it was canceled because so few immigrants volunteered.
The idea behind this latest voluntary repatriation program is that most immigrants come from Mexico's interior, so getting home from Texas should be no different from getting home from Arizona.
Victor Corte is one of them. Clutching his dusty backpack, he says he'll just board a bus and head back to Mexico City. "It doesn't really matter to me."
But it matters to Asuna, whose home is a short trip from the Arizona border. This was his first crossing, and he says it will be his last. The ordeal has been horrible.
Border Patrol agents say they're trying to screen out immigrants like Asuna, but some have slipped through the bureaucratic cracks and been sent to Texas - adding to their frustration.
"We were lost in the desert for a week, dodging snakes and drinking dirty water. And now I'm even further from home," says Asuna. "I'm never going to try that again.
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| Lighten Up, Francis! |
| Fundraising posts only happen quarterly, and are gone as soon as we meet the goal. Help make it happen. |
They say this as if it is legal to cross here. I can't stand it anymore. I don't care if they all die. I am sick of this crap about how we have to feel sorry for these criminals.
At minimum, we should be sending them the bill to pay for humane treatment of THEIR citizens. Don't THEY care about the lives of THEIR people?
LOL! Like they would know...
He is more lost in Mexico than the U.S.?
Gee, something paid for by the Mexican taxpayers to address their own problem.
The answer to your question is no, they do not care about their own people. Like rulingg elites in most third world countries all they care about is staying in power and amassing more wealth.
Being able to export their unemployed and restless el norte is a critical safety valve for maintaining their iron grip.
The WTF was he doing in the USA?
Mr. Asuna is part of one of the last groups of illegal immigrants
Otherwise knows as criminals
The goal, according to the US Border Patrol, is to save lives.
Hmmm, these people come into the country illegally taking the risks of crossing the desert. Presumably they are not too stupid to know that the desert is a dangerous place, so if they croak so what? Darwin awards time
So far this fiscal year, 147 illegal immigrants have perished in the Arizona desert, making it the nation's most dangerous border crossing.
This is bad because? If the greedy tyrants in both parties in Washington would wise up and stop pandering to these criminals then there wouldn't be as much of an incentive for them to come here as start sucking up welfare benefits at the expense of those of us who pay far more than our "fair share" of the taxes. The county I live in has the highest percentage of hispanic immigrants in the entire USA, and I guarantee they do not add anything worthwhile, although they've been a godsend to county government which has grown like cancer hiring more sef important bureaucrats to make sure that every single one of them has the best of health care, special hispanic cultural programs, special classes for their children, and plenty to eat, all at the expense of those of us who pay taxes rather than work for cash and then send it back to Mexico. The only good thing (if this can be considered a good thing) is that some of the money that was being spent on providing free daycare for "single mother" welfare queens is being spent on the offspring of illegal immigrants instead. The queens are getting upset that they're no longer as privileged a minority, and that they have to share the taxpayer funded largess with another group
Gwinnett county board of education is the largest employer in the county. Every penny that they spend is taken at gunpoint from the honest citizens.
All too true. I got some tires at the Big Ten tire store on Jimmy Carter and the only english speaking one on the whole crew was the manager. I feel like I went to sleep in the USA and woke up in Mexico.
Unless they are wealthy, well-connected, and white, no, not really.
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