Rick Dean
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http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/041...crossers11.html
Deported migrants try, try again to enter U.S.
Ignacio Ibarra
Arizona Daily Star
Apr. 11, 2004 12:00 AM
TUCSON - Newly deported migrants traveling in groups of as few as four people and as many as 30 get dropped off at the border in Agua Prieta, Mexico, at frequent if irregular intervals.
At times they fill the tables at Cafe Viva Mexico. They keep the cluster of pay phones and the liquor store just south of the border busy, along with the drugstore, where they stock up on diet pills and snack food to en
rgize them for another attempt to sneak into the United States.
The process of illegal immigration here is a revolving door in which migrants spend lots of money and time making repeated border-c
ros
ing attempts.
It's made easier because the Borde
r Patrol deports undocumented immigrants to the nearest port of entry, putting them almost immediately back in the hands of the people-smugglers, and gives entrants nearly a dozen chances to make it before the agency stops simply giving detainees a short ride back to the border.
Ten years after the Border Patrol launched Operation Gatekeeper, chasing people-smugglers and their clients from California and Texas to the border in Arizona, Douglas and Agua Prieta have become the transit hub for soon-to-be undocumented entrants. They arrive every day in buses, vans and even cabs to connect with smugglers who promise to lead them into the United States for fees that can exceed $1,500 per person.
The U.S. Border Patrol at Douglas
captures 200 to 300 undocumented border crossers each day. Most of them are returned at their own request to Agua Prieta. That's a much lower apprehension rate than four years ago, when up to
1,5
00 p
eople, mos
tly Mexicans, were being caught each day.
While th
e numbers indicate the problem of illegal immigration is diminishing here, the reality is illustrated in a common exchange at the border when agents release their charges.
"Adios, buena suerte," the agents often say, wishing farewell and good luck to deportees, who reply, "Hasta maÃԚ±ana," until tomorrow.
The deportation process begins in the field. Every captured undocumented immigrant must provide agents with a name, place of origin, parents' names and details of their journey. Agents also collect other information, including the time and location of the capture, and the number and makeup of the group they were caught with, said Michael Hyatt, a Border Patrol supervisory agent in Douglas.
Capture
d undocumented entrants are given three options: see an immigration judge who will hear arguments they have for staying in the country; request political asylum based on a fear of ret
urning h
ome; or
accept a voluntary
return home. The third option is the most popular. It means a ride back
to the border.
Agents type information gathered from field interviews into a computer database. They also scan each detainee's fingerprints and take a photograph.
Before entrants leave, another team of agents reviews their individual files. They make the final decision on removability based on a check of the file against the agency's database, part of the system used by the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies across the country.
The goal is to identify criminals hiding among the migrants, Hyatt said.
If a captured border crosser is wanted in the United States, the Border Patrol asks the jurisdiction if it wants to extradite. When the answer is yes, the local sheriff's department
is called. If not, the individual is held for an appearance before an immigration judge.
Having gone through such a formal removal process in the past can make a pe
rson ineligi
ble for a v
oluntary return to Mexico,
as can having a criminal record or being from someplace other than Mexico, Hyatt s
aid. Having been caught too many times can also keep a detainee from getting a ride to the border.
"In most cases, we try to return them with the people they were found with, and we never split up a family," said Hyatt. Groups and families do get separated, though, and deportees often arrive back in Mexico injured, hungry and tired.
"I came because I'm a single mother with no work and no future. What else was there for me to do?" asked Sara Garcia, 21, as she sat with several companions inside Cafe Viva Mexico, just yards from the border.
Back from her third capture and voluntary deportation in a week, Garcia lacks the money to pay for the food she has been eatin
g as she waits to connect again with a smuggler who has agreed to help her get to New Jersey.
Her knees ache. Her body is scratched and bruised from a tu
mble she took tr
ying to cross a
wash in the middle of the night.
She could barely breathe, much less sleep, in the tiny cave where she and 40 others rested and hid from t
he Border Patrol the night before.
Garcia said she'd rather be home in Morelos state, south of Mexico City, with her 1-year-old son. But the chance to work in a New Jersey restaurant earning enough money to provide for her son drives her to go on.
The deportation turnaround is lucrative for people-smugglers - coyotes - like Jose Luis Alvarez Mejia of Chihuahua and his companion, Obert Madrid of Obregon, Mexico.
The teens earn several hundred dollars apiece each time they sneak a group of pollos - chicks - into the United States.
Alvarez Mejia said he and his companion have each been caught four times leading groups of undocumented immigrants into the
United States. They were able to hide each time among the pollos, returning with them to Mexico.
"It's pretty hot right now, so thing
s have gotten pretty
hard," Alvare
z Mejia said. "There's a lot of
migra (immigration officials), but there's a lot of people wanting to cross and they pay well."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/041...crossers11.html
Deported migrants try, try again to enter U.S.
Ignacio Ibarra
Arizona Daily Star
Apr. 11, 2004 12:00 AM
TUCSON - Newly deported migrants traveling in groups of as few as four people and as many as 30 get dropped off at the border in Agua Prieta, Mexico, at frequent if irregular intervals.
At times they fill the tables at Cafe Viva Mexico. They keep the cluster of pay phones and the liquor store just south of the border busy, along with the drugstore, where they stock up on diet pills and snack food to en
rgize them for another attempt to sneak into the United States.
The process of illegal immigration here is a revolving door in which migrants spend lots of money and time making repeated border-c
ros
ing attempts.
It's made easier because the Borde
r Patrol deports undocumented immigrants to the nearest port of entry, putting them almost immediately back in the hands of the people-smugglers, and gives entrants nearly a dozen chances to make it before the agency stops simply giving detainees a short ride back to the border.
Ten years after the Border Patrol launched Operation Gatekeeper, chasing people-smugglers and their clients from California and Texas to the border in Arizona, Douglas and Agua Prieta have become the transit hub for soon-to-be undocumented entrants. They arrive every day in buses, vans and even cabs to connect with smugglers who promise to lead them into the United States for fees that can exceed $1,500 per person.
The U.S. Border Patrol at Douglas
captures 200 to 300 undocumented border crossers each day. Most of them are returned at their own request to Agua Prieta. That's a much lower apprehension rate than four years ago, when up to
1,5
00 p
eople, mos
tly Mexicans, were being caught each day.
While th
e numbers indicate the problem of illegal immigration is diminishing here, the reality is illustrated in a common exchange at the border when agents release their charges.
"Adios, buena suerte," the agents often say, wishing farewell and good luck to deportees, who reply, "Hasta maÃԚ±ana," until tomorrow.
The deportation process begins in the field. Every captured undocumented immigrant must provide agents with a name, place of origin, parents' names and details of their journey. Agents also collect other information, including the time and location of the capture, and the number and makeup of the group they were caught with, said Michael Hyatt, a Border Patrol supervisory agent in Douglas.
Capture
d undocumented entrants are given three options: see an immigration judge who will hear arguments they have for staying in the country; request political asylum based on a fear of ret
urning h
ome; or
accept a voluntary
return home. The third option is the most popular. It means a ride back
to the border.
Agents type information gathered from field interviews into a computer database. They also scan each detainee's fingerprints and take a photograph.
Before entrants leave, another team of agents reviews their individual files. They make the final decision on removability based on a check of the file against the agency's database, part of the system used by the FBI and other law-enforcement agencies across the country.
The goal is to identify criminals hiding among the migrants, Hyatt said.
If a captured border crosser is wanted in the United States, the Border Patrol asks the jurisdiction if it wants to extradite. When the answer is yes, the local sheriff's department
is called. If not, the individual is held for an appearance before an immigration judge.
Having gone through such a formal removal process in the past can make a pe
rson ineligi
ble for a v
oluntary return to Mexico,
as can having a criminal record or being from someplace other than Mexico, Hyatt s
aid. Having been caught too many times can also keep a detainee from getting a ride to the border.
"In most cases, we try to return them with the people they were found with, and we never split up a family," said Hyatt. Groups and families do get separated, though, and deportees often arrive back in Mexico injured, hungry and tired.
"I came because I'm a single mother with no work and no future. What else was there for me to do?" asked Sara Garcia, 21, as she sat with several companions inside Cafe Viva Mexico, just yards from the border.
Back from her third capture and voluntary deportation in a week, Garcia lacks the money to pay for the food she has been eatin
g as she waits to connect again with a smuggler who has agreed to help her get to New Jersey.
Her knees ache. Her body is scratched and bruised from a tu
mble she took tr
ying to cross a
wash in the middle of the night.
She could barely breathe, much less sleep, in the tiny cave where she and 40 others rested and hid from t
he Border Patrol the night before.
Garcia said she'd rather be home in Morelos state, south of Mexico City, with her 1-year-old son. But the chance to work in a New Jersey restaurant earning enough money to provide for her son drives her to go on.
The deportation turnaround is lucrative for people-smugglers - coyotes - like Jose Luis Alvarez Mejia of Chihuahua and his companion, Obert Madrid of Obregon, Mexico.
The teens earn several hundred dollars apiece each time they sneak a group of pollos - chicks - into the United States.
Alvarez Mejia said he and his companion have each been caught four times leading groups of undocumented immigrants into the
United States. They were able to hide each time among the pollos, returning with them to Mexico.
"It's pretty hot right now, so thing
s have gotten pretty
hard," Alvare
z Mejia said. "There's a lot of
migra (immigration officials), but there's a lot of people wanting to cross and they pay well."
