Thread: Longer Stays Make GoodBye Harder for Illegal Immigrants

I'm sure you'll all get teary-eyed reading this story.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/m...sfarewell.html

Longer stays make saying goodbye hard for Mexican migrants heading north

By Olga R. Rodriguez
ASSOCIATED PRESS

12:43 a.m. May 23, 2006

Associated Press
Israel Morales, 30, a migrant from Mexico City, shows some lentils, corn, a coin and two images of the saint San Judas Tadeo. Morales' mother had given him the items to bring him good luck and to protect him on his trip to cross undocumented to the Unite States.
TIJUANA, Mexico – Before Israel Morales boarded a plane from Mexico City to Tijuana, his mother slipped a tiny plastic bag containing a coin, lentils and an image of Christ into his pocket, so he wouldn't be without money, food or faith.
Then his 10-year-old son wrapped his arms around him and wouldn't let go.

“The hardest part is leaving your family behind, hearing your child cry as you walk away, even if you're leaving so he can have a better life,” said Morales, a truck driver who was planning to jump the metal fence dividing Mexico and the United States.

“For children this is hard to understand.”

Migration to the United States has long been a fact of life for many Mexicans. In some villages, mariachi music and feasts are customary sendoffs for those heading north. But tighter border security is now keeping many migrants away from their homes for longer stretches, making their last moments in Mexico more somber occasions.

Many spend time with loved ones, reassuring their children that better days will come. Others go to churches and shrines, praying for a safe journey. Then there are the young boys who parade through town saying goodbye to neighbors they might not see again for years.

Eduardo Orozco went to Tijuana's cathedral to ask for divine protection.

“I asked God to take care of me and to protect me from snake bites,” Orozco said, his backpack stuffed with water, canned tuna, crackers and chocolate. “I asked him to help me because this time I'll have to make it.”

Orozco, a 30-year-old construction worker, was preparing for his third attempt to sneak into the United States through a hilly section of California. He said a Los Angeles contractor had promised him a job paying $300 a week, twice what he earned in Guadalajara.

With about half of Mexico's 107 million people living in poverty, the promise of better paying jobs has lured millions of migrants north – so many that about 10 percent of Mexico's population now lives in the United States.

Earlier this month, President Bush unveiled a plan to bolster security along the border by sending 6,000 National Guard troops to patrol the area. Congress is also debating the most far-reaching immigration bill in two decades. It would strengthen border enforcement, create a guest worker program and eventually offer the possibility of citizenship to many of the millions of men and women already in the country illegally.

Because of these measures, many migrants are making fewer passages back and forth between the United States and Mexico. When they do undertake the sometimes dangerous journey, some count on divine protection, stopping at churches, makeshift altars and the tombs of saints on the way. The Roman Catholic Church offers a half-dozen patron saints for travelers, but many Mexican migrants turn to someone not recognized by the church: “Juan Soldado,” or Soldier John.

Soldado was a soldier who was falsely accused of the rape and murder of a girl and executed by a Mexican firing squad in February 1938. He is worshipped as a man wronged by those in power.

Migrants have filled the wall of a small chapel built around his tomb in Tijuana with flowers, locks of hair, marble plaques and handwritten notes thanking him.

In one note written in pencil and taped to a wall, a woman credits him for helping her get to the United States: “I thank you Juan Soldado for the miracle of having crossed safely with my children to Los Angeles and for now having my papers and being able to come see you.”

Another man left a copy of his tourist visa, which he credited Soldado with helping him get. One woman offered a foot-long braid, nailed to the wall with a note thanking him for helping her brother obtain his freedom after being accused of smuggling migrants.

Migrants make the trip knowing that death – or even a new life in the United States – may keep them from returning. That was on Morales' mind as he left his son behind: “I wanted to leave him with good memories because you never know when or if you'll come back.”

At our house and in our family, we are not hard-hearted nor void of compassion. Rather we tend to be big-hearted, helpful, friendly, giving, etc. (you get the picture .. most of us are like that to one extent or the other)

But we don't bring home every homeless person we see on the streets or house everyone currently "down on their luck." We love animals too but we can't and don't take in every stray or pup down on its luck out at the shelter. Our city has a household pet limit.

What a novel idea! How about an invader limit? :P

The US cannot continue to do this either but our leaders, despite the expressed will of the majority of the American populace surveyed, has taken us past the breaking point in pandering to illegal immigrants -the majority of the invaders being from Mexico.

Remember Jorge campaigned as a "compassionate conservative."

There is nothing compassionate about pushing out the legal citizens in favor of whining demanding illegals nor is it a conservative move either!

Someone pass the violin.

We first must ask ourselves - are they coming here just to make money for basic sustenance - are do they see America as the newest gold rush.

I think it is the latter.

One was taking an airplane, for goodness sakes.

No one is more compassionate than Americans - maybe some are AS compassionate - but we are compassionate to the extent of being kinda silly sometimes.

We send a lot of foreign aid to Mexico - and I think this president doubled that foreign aid, didn't he? What has happened to that?

Also, if they are starving, if they need medical care and we want to help - why don't we help them in their own country?

Then the country of Mexico might prosper and become a more stable neighbor - and a better place for the citizens.

Also, it will much cheaper to help them in their own country than bringing them here to help them. Medicene, food, and everything is much more expensive here - than in Mexico.

The fact that they are coming here is destroying this country - it literally is .

When the US is destroyed or has become a third world cesspool unable to even care for its own - who will help the poor then?