Thread: Desperate Crossings: Mexicans' struggle for a better life

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Desperate Crossings: Mexicans' struggle for a better life
Eyewitness News At The Border Part One
Eyewitness News' Diana Williams
(Arizona-WABC, June 12, 2006) - What's the fastest growing immigrant group in New York City? The answer: Mexicans -- and they are at the heart of controversial immigration reform legislation.

We've heard the rhetoric. Now Diana Williams takes us to the people in Mexico who are trying cross into the U.S. and make it to New York.
Right now, Arizona is the main gateway for illegal immigrants and we learned that crossing the border is run like organized crime. Human trafficking is big business and very profitable.

To understand the journey, we traveled inside Mexico to a town called Altar, a town whose entire economy depends on those making a desperate crossing.

In Mexico they call it 'la frontera', in the U.S., it's the border. It is two thousand miles long and most of it is unfenced, open and accessible. Arizona is the busiest border crossing, marked by strands of barbed wire and easy to cross on foot.

For most immigrants, the journey that begins 70 miles south of the Mexican border in a town called Altar.

Shops sell backpacks, medicine and electrolite, a drink to prevent dehydration, and everything else you need to survive the walk across the border undetected.

A shop owner we spoke with said everything has to be dark, from sneakers to the hat. He says immigrants want dark and cheap clothing because they don't have much money.

For 30 pesos, about three dollars, weary travelers get a metal bunk at a guest house and a chance to rest up. One newly married couple expects to leave for the border soon. The young bride is just 17-years-old.

Vans leave regularly for a two hour ride along a dirt road to the next stop, the brickyard, a junkyard turned way station just four miles from the border.

Leonel waits for the rest of his group. He will pay a smuggler, known as a coyote, $1500 dollars to get him to Phoenix. He leaves behind a wife and two young sons.

Other groups arrive. One woman is headed to Miami, another man is headed to California. All have paid smugglers, all are hopeful they will reach their destinations.

But word that the National Guard is going to join the border patrol has some here concerned.

One person we spoke with said people don't want to cross the border right now because they are afraid of getting shot.

Mexican officials say for every three who cross, two will be successful. One woman we found was not. She was caught by the border patrol when she was separated from her coyote -- her dreams dashed, her heart broken. She says she won't be back. She's going home to her two babies.

Back at the brickyard, a family is about to leave for the border. Their final destination: Atlanta.

And a little girl we found is going to see her father. Her mother says if it gets too dangerous, they'll turn back. They board a pick up truck and with a wave, they head down a dirt trail for the border, filled with faith and hope for a better life.

We don't know if they made it or not because the coyotes would not let us follow any groups directly to the border.

We as taxpayers will have to support everyone of these illegal parasitic illegals even though most of them will fraudulently obtain government services anyway. To hell with McCain, Kennedy, Hagel, Martinez and all the other jackass traitors who despise Americans.

Originally Posted by mrmiata7

We as taxpayers will have to support everyone of these illegal parasitic cockroaches even though most of them will fraudulently obtain government services anyway. To hell with McCain, Kennedy, Hagel, Martinez and all the other jackass traitors who despise Americans.

My thoughts exactly, thanks for typing for me....lol

Mexican officials say for every three who cross, two will be successful. One woman we found was not. She was caught by the border patrol when she was separated from her coyote -- her dreams dashed, her heart broken. She says she won't be back. She's going home to her two babies. ''''



Yeah, just leave your kids behind, why not you can just make more and get paid for it here right??? Unreal....

They would be much better served to put some of that stubborness on coming to america at all cost to put it to use in changing their country for the better, I have no sympathy. I lost any last dregs of sympathy I might have had the other night when I heard of the illegal deliberately running that poor woman down in N.O. with his pickup, dragging her inside raping her, mind you, as she lay paralysed and unconscious, then tossing her aside nude,left for dead in a park! What kind of animal can do this to another human being?

Mexican officials say for every three who cross, two will be successful. One woman we found was not. She was caught by the border patrol when she was separated from her coyote -- her dreams dashed, her heart broken. She says she won't be back. She's going home to her two babies.

What kind of mother would leave her babies at home, while breaking into our country? I'M GLAD SHE HAD "HER DREAMS DASHED, HER HEART BROKEN"!

Other groups arrive. One woman is headed to Miami, another man is headed to California. All have paid smugglers, all are hopeful they will reach their destinations.

This seems to be too organized for the government of Mexico not be to involved. They've got to be behind all of this smuggling.