Thread: Immigrants crossing U.S.-Mexico border come with slim pocket

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Immigrants crossing U.S.-Mexico border come with slim pockets, big dreams

By Ruth Morris
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

June 16, 2006

He carried a plastic bag across the desert, the bare bones of his existence packed inside: a comb, three pair of underwear, water and a steak bought in a scruffy border town.

Others brought toothbrushes and razors to arrive well groomed, if not clean.

As Congress deals with conflicting immigration proposals, thousands of immigrants from different countries trek across the U.S.-Mexico border illegally every week. The possessions they have with them are monotonously similar and scant. Like the Lake Worth roofer who crossed with a plastic bag, many come with little more than a roll of dollar bills sewn into a seam.

The virtually empty pockets of many immigrants reflect how little they have to lose, and how much they have to gain, by coming to the United States. Experts say nothing short of sweeping change will slow the flow of workers desperate for significantly higher wages.

"When you're born, you bring nothing into the world. Here, we come to be born again. We come with nothing," said Martha Pardo, the Colombian-born director of the Latin American Cultural Center in Lake Worth.

President Bush's plan to rotate thousands of National Guardsmen through border duty might stem the tide of illegal immigration, Pardo said. But given the bare spot many immigrants start from, she could not foresee a day when the influx would stop.

Bush has urged Congress to produce a comprehensive immigration package to match foreign workers to U.S. jobs. Before that can happen, though, members must reconcile a Senate bill that offers permanent residence to roughly 8.3 million illegal immigrants with a tough House version that would make felons of the same people. Both bills would bolster border enforcement.

Hundreds of thousands are thought to sneak across the Mexican border every year, accounting for about half the illegal immigrants in the United States. Some had to pay thousands of dollars to smugglers to help them. Many who have made their way to South Florida started their journeys in remote adobe villages.

The gray-haired Lake Worth roofer started his trip in Guatemala. He learned to sing the Mexican national anthem -- a common test by Mexican immigration authorities -- and imitate the upward lilt of Mexican speech. He didn't carry pictures of his wife and seven children, who wear traditional indigenous garb, in case they gave him away. He discarded clothes after he wore them along the way because he couldn't wash them, and looking dirty might attract attention from immigration officials.

Those who make the long journey north through Mexico often fall prey to bandits and even law enforcement officers who rob them, local immigrants said -- another reason to travel light. Small bundles are also easier to carry during the three-night desert hike into the United States.

"Colgate, tortilla and a can of beans, juice, apples, water," said a Guatemalan woman, also of Lake Worth, ticking off the contents of her own plastic bag when she crossed two years ago. Like the roofer, she did not want to be identified because of her illegal status.

After arriving in Cancun from her Mayan village, she dumped her hand-woven skirt and traditional blouse in the garbage so that Mexican authorities wouldn't identify her as an outsider. It was the first time she'd worn Western clothes.

"We are poor in Guatemala. I came here to work," she said. "I came alone."

This minimalist approach marks a reversal from another immigration spike during the early 1900s, when Europeans poured into processing centers like Ellis Island with trunks, prayer shawls, sewing machines, pots and accordions. Many of those possessions are now on exhibit at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum.

"They couldn't return easily, and many were coming to a place where they had no strong cultural commitment or ties," said museum librarian Barry Moreno. He noted that immigrants who came to the United States from 1892 to 1924 arrived legally. U.S. officials required those entering Ellis Island only to be listed on a captain's manifesto.

But Moreno said the early European immigrants shared a basic motivation with many of those who steal across the border today: better wages.

"There were different goals. One goal among Greeks would be to raise the money to pay your sister's dowry," Moreno said. "Some people thought gold would be found on the streets. But most of it was poverty, because they realized the pay was higher here."

For others, the United States' shiniest lure is the chance of survival, but they, too, have come with very little. Some members of South Florida's Haitian community who came by boat or plane said they arrived with empty pockets because they had no time to pack.

Joanes Dumercy, 47, a Haitian immigrant, said he had been hiding in the bushes of his parents' home and sleeping at the homes of friends to evade Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier's henchmen, when he suddenly received a U.S. visa. It was 1982, and he went directly to the airport.

"I had $10, one shirt, one pant, one shoes," he said with a wide grin, sitting behind a friend's stall of soccer shirts at the Fort Lauderdale Swap Shop. "Now, I have a house."

Dumercy went to work picking green peppers and tomatoes in Immokalee when he arrived, and now he sells auto accessories.

"Maybe they don't understand the life we live in our home countries," he said of U.S. citizens who want to severely restrict immigration. "We appreciate being in this country. It's beautiful ... heaven. I've not been there yet," he said pointing upwards, "but ... heaven."

Ruth Morris can be reached at rmorris@sun-sentinel.com or 305-810-5012.

And the question arises: "Why can't these people be productive and flourish in their own countries?"

My heart bleeds - NOT.

I am afraid my heart has hardened. Get out of my state, get out of my country!