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Number of illegal migrants on the rise
Wed May 3, 2006 4:29 PM ET


By Tim Gaynor

REYNOSA, Mexico (Reuters) - The number of people caught crossing the U.S. border from Mexico illegally is on the rise, and many may be heading north in the hope that Congress will effectively grant an amnesty to undocumented workers in immigration reforms, U.S. authorities and immigrants say.

The U.S. Border Patrol said on Wednesday it had arrested 724,613 undocumented migrants crossing the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border from Mexico since October 1 last year, a rise of 6 percent from the same period a year earlier.

The increase comes as U.S. lawmakers debate a proposal by President George W. Bush offering millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, and as Hispanic activists staged protests and a work stoppage in cities nationwide.

The plan, which includes a temporary worker program, faces serious opposition in the Senate from Bush's own Republicans, and a bill passed by the House in December proposes a crackdown on illegal immigration.

But new migrants making their way up from Central America and Mexico are clinging to the long-shot hope that they can be included in any plan to legalize aliens passed by Congress if they can just get to the United States quickly enough.

Would-be immigrants gathering south of the Rio Grande river from Texas say that dream motivated them to trek north and try to cross the border, after they saw huge recent pro-immigration marches in U.S. cities on television.

"We saw the protests on TV and heard about an amnesty, and that's why we're here," said Honduran mechanic Jose Alberto Rosales, as he rested at a Catholic church shelter in the Mexican border city of Reynosa.

"Back home, you work just to get food, and I want to be able to build a house for my wife and children," added the 31-year-old, who had walked and ridden train box cars in a journey from his home in the city of San Pedro Sula.

Rosales and other migrants said they had swum across the green waters of the Rio Grande several times in recent days, only to be caught and sent back by U.S. Border Patrol agents guarding the northern banks.

"I'm going to keep on trying until I succeed in reaching my destination," said Felipe Martinez, 39, a truck driver from Saltillo, in northern Mexico, who said he was heading to join relatives working in Florida.

DANGEROUS TRIP

"There is no work back home, so there's no question for me of giving up," he added as he waited for nightfall before heading out again to cross the river on a tire inner tube.

He said the possibility of looser immigration laws spurred him onto making the dangerous trip.

Customs Border Protection spokeswoman Corina Robison said the increase in illegal crossings from Mexico might be linked to the immigration debate in Congress.

"The rise could be to do with reports of an amnesty getting out (south of the border), but again, other factors could also be involved ... it could be anything," she said.

The figures showed a sharp rise in illegal immigrants sneaking into southern California from Tijuana, where arrests have jumped by almost one third during the same period to just over 89,150.

San Diego Sector Border Patrol spokesman Kurstan Rosberg said shifting migration routes and stepped up policing in the area also contributed to the rise there.

"We are seeing a shift in migration from Arizona, where there has been an increase in vigilance ... and we have also been increasing enforcement activity in our sector," he added.

Last year, almost 1.2 million illegal immigrants were arrested crossing the deserts and rivers of the U.S. border, and at least 464 died making the journey, most of them from heat exhaustion.