"It's Our Job to Stop That Dream"

The endless, futile work of the Border Patrol

Malia Politzer from the April 2007 issue

(Page 11 of 13)

 

In 2005 a Tucson-based activist group, the Coalición de Derechos Humanos (Coalition for Human Rights), recorded 282 bodies recovered in Arizona alone. The 2006 GAO report recorded 472 bodies found across the entire U.S.-Mexico border. Wayne Cornelius, an immigration expert at the University of California at San Diego, says the U.S.-Mexico border has been about 10 times deadlier to immigrants in the last 10 years than the Berlin Wall was to East Berliners in its entire 28-year existence.

 

Besides making crossings deadlier, the increased risk of entry and higher coyote prices are keeping people from going back to Mexico even if they'd like to. Massey, the Princeton sociologist, finds that "illegal immigrants are less likely to return to their home country, causing an increase in the number of illegal immigrants remaining in the United States." In "Backfire at the Border," a study published by the Cato Institute in 2005, Massey reports that before the current enforcement policies return migration was highly likely and predictable.

 

Massey's research finds that if 1,000 migrants were to enter the U.S. each year with the former rate of return, 45 percent annually, then 950 (95 percent) would return home within five years, staying an average of 1.7 years. But now, of 1,000 entrants, only 760 or so will return home in five years. In addition to the decrease in the rate of the return (from 45 percent to 25 percent), the average stay per person has increased to 3.5 years.

 

More people are now staying permanently as well. Before, migrants from Mexico tended to be young male seasonal workers who would return to their families after the work season was over. As the risk of crossing increased, more chose to bring their families along and settle permanently in the United States.

 

A larger permanent illegal population leads to greater anxiety from an increasingly xenophobic native population, leading to more attempts to beef up security at the border, leading more illegals to stay here permanently. Which brings us back here, to the desert, searching for people who don't want to be found but whose lives might depend on it.

 

‘Probably They'll Try to Cross Again'

Armando Ramirez and his three companions wait in the back of Vasquez's truck. Soon another Border Patrol vehicle will pick them up. Ramirez will be brought to the little checkpoint along I-19 and dropped off in the trailer that acts as a de facto holding cell for migrants. Border Patrol agents will begin his paperwork before formalizing the deportation process at the Mariposa center, where they will record all 10 of his fingerprints and cross-check them with an FBI database.

 

If Ramirez has many prior immigration violations, he may be brought to immigration court. If he's found to be a serious criminal-a sex offender or an arsonist, say-he will be transferred to the U.S. attorney's office, where he will be held and tried. If he's found to be a first-time offender, as he claims, he will be given three options. He can have his case heard before an immigration judge. If he's afraid of returning home, he can have a hearing for amnesty. Or he can choose "voluntary return"-to be deported promptly back to his home country.

Comments

Trackback| 1.16.10 @ 2:35AM

az credit repair, on az credit repair, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:

I just stopped by to check out your site.

nfl jerseys|11.6.10 @ 3:01AM|#

syr

log in or register to reply

UggBoots On Sale|11.25.10 @ 9:10AM|#

FHG

log in or register to reply

Ugg Boots Online Store|11.25.10 @ 9:13AM|#

XVVVVVV

log in or register to reply