Thread: Living in the shadows

Living in the shadows: An illegal immigrant tells what life is like and why he's going home
By RICK LAVENDER
The Times
GAINESVILLE
http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/news/st ... 6275.shtml
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Leonardo has a wife, a steady job and money in the bank. Leonardo also has a secret: He is in the United States illegally.

The slender, 29-year-old Mexican national with slick black hair, a thin mustache and liquid green eyes crossed the border with the help of smugglers in 2005. He joined family already in Gainesville. He has lived here since, avoiding detection through fake documents and a quiet life.

Leonardo agreed to talk with The Times because he wants others to know "hard" truths he said many Mexicans who consider coming to America never hear.

For the newspaper, the source identified here by part of his name offers a glimpse into the shadow lives of thousands of Hall County residents. Questions about illegal immigrants crop up daily in a community where a quarter of the population is Hispanic and a fifth is foreign-born, according to 2005 Census Bureau estimates.

The wave of immigration, legal and not, that flooded Hall in the late 1980s and '90s was stirred by poultry industry jobs but quickly spilled into all corners of the market. On the stretch of Atlanta Highway called "Little Mexico," El Expresso bus company is advertising four destinations: Mexico, Florida, Texas and Gainesville.

The topic of illegal immigration recently became more toxic as the U.S. Senate tried and failed to pass reform legislation pressed by President Bush.

The president reaffirmed his support this week for a guest-worker program and a path toward citizenship for the country's some 12 million illegal immigrants.

In Georgia, debate ramped up as new state laws reinforcing federal restrictions kicked in three weeks ago. Worried immigrants hoarded money and considered moving. One newspaper reported a drop in car sales from new vehicle registration requirements targeting an illegal immigrant population estimated at 470,000, most from Mexico.

Hall County's share of people living without documents is anyone's guess. But the widespread belief is there are thousands more than can be inferred from census figures, which do not address legal status.

Leonardo, a gentle, polite man with imperfect English, does not speak for them all.

But he is willing to speak.

Why did you come here?

Family and finances.

Leonardo was living in Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city, with his parents, sister and two brothers when a 1994 economic collapse blamed on former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari sent interest rates and product prices soaring nationwide.

Leonardo said his father left his small meat market and restaurant for America. "He said, 'I need to make some money, because right now it's too hard over here.' He tell me, "I'm gonna stay over there probably two, three years.'"

Leonardo, 17 and the oldest son, quit school to work and help support the family. He got a job at his uncle's tire shop and later worked part-time in security at concerts.

Life in the U.S. proved harder than expected for his father, however. Then in Gainesville, he asked Leonardo to come.

Leonardo said no. He cited his father's promise to return.

But in 1998, Leonardo's mother left for America with his brothers. His sister followed a year later. All crossed the border illegally.

Leonardo stayed in the family's four-bedroom home, paying utilities but not realizing there also was a mortgage. A telephone call from the bank telling him and his new wife the house had been sold "(hit) me like a hammer on the head," Leonardo said softly.

In about 2003, his wife said she thought they needed to go to America so that Leonardo, now back on speaking terms with his father, could see his family. He balked at first, but later agreed.

He and his wife tried unsuccessfully to get a passport. Leonardo said he told the U.S. Consulate General office he wanted to vacation in America. An unfriendly staff questioned him harder.

He walked out, losing about 1,000 pesos, or about $100, in the process.

"We left the office very upset. We said, 'Well, we tried for the good way.' They make it hard anyway."

Leonardo is clear, though, that need did not drive him from Mexico. Unlike some coming from the country's poor rural areas, he lived in a large city where there were "a lot of opportunities."

"We not die for lack of money or anything like that. ... We got our problems, but you still can ... make a good life over there. It takes a little bit longer, but you can make a good life over there."

Still, they came.

How did you cross the U.S. border?

In January 2005, he and his wife left by bus for the border. The trip north took 2´ days.

Leonardo's father had arranged the crossing through "coyotes," or smugglers. He gave his son few details.

Leonardo had a phone number and directions to stay in a rundown hotel in the Mexican border town of Nogales. The area is rife with drugs and crime, he said. He and his wife were scared.

"We talked about coming back," he said, a slight smile on his face.

A woman contacted them the next morning. That evening, smugglers shuffled took them to another house. It had a bathroom but no running water. Others arrived. They were told they would walk across the border that night. It would take 30 minutes.

It took all night.

They had no flashlights, food or water. Leonardo was robbed at knife point. He couldn't see the thief's face. He handed over 30 pesos and bolted.

He and his wife stumbled with the group through the rugged, cold desert, dodging border patrol agents. By night's end, he was half-carrying her.

They stayed in the woods and a private barn the following day. Next came a human shell game: Coyotes moved them among six cars and a handful of houses.

Three days later in Arizona, he and his wife joined about eight other immigrants in a Ford Windstar minivan. It carried them to Indianapolis, then North Carolina and finally Gainesville.

For secrecy's sake, "I stayed on the floor the whole way," Leonardo said.

He remembers occasionally asking on the cross-country ride, "It's pretty close now?"

The driver's answer: "No, not yet."

How do you justify living here illegally?

"That's hard to say," Leonardo said, pausing to think, and finally acknowledging, "I can't do that. ...

"The only thing I can say is I been here for two years and a half and I'm trying to do good things. I mean, respect the law."

He paid about $75 each for a false Social Security number and card, and an identification card. Both are critical to finding work. Finding someone to supply such documents apparently is not hard in Gainesville. Others tell whom to call, Leonardo said.

He drives but he does not have a fake driver's license. He reasons that if caught behind the wheel, it is better if he does not also face a charge of driving with illegal documents. His father, he said, has a license and carries insurance on the vehicle.

Leonardo said he does not have a criminal record in Mexico. Nor has he been charged in the U.S. He emphasizes he is trying to do "good things." Others who do "mean things" have fed the backlash against undocumented workers, according to Leonardo.

"It's like I tell you, it's hard to say. I like to respect the law. I justify it because I need the money. I need to make a good life over there. ...

"So when you (make) the decision, you got no choice. Because you got to sell all your stuff over there. You can leave nothing over there."

What is your life like?

Low-key. Intentionally.

"Wake up early. Take the shower. ... Drive (to) work. Make six, seven, eight hours and come back home before the sun come down. Because I feel more comfortable if I drive in the daylight.

"I'm afraid to drive in the middle of the night."

Afraid that he might draw attention from police. Leonardo said he checks his car lights and blinkers before driving. He also thanks God.

"I'm gonna say thank you, Jesus, that nobody pull me over."

He lives with his parents and siblings. His wife returned to Mexico more than a year ago. She longed to see family.

"She say, 'Well, I'm gonna come back over there and stay there and wait for you. So make it whenever you can make it and come back to me.'"

He sends money to her and sometimes helps his family, all while trying to save money.

He sometimes attends St. Michael Catholic church in Gainesville. But he has leanings toward Protestantism. "Because I don't need to speak with nobody about my sins ... just Jesus."

Leonardo watches Atlanta-area TV news, and follows happenings in Mexico through Spanish-only cable channels. "I'm wishing I could go to Atlanta, and (visit) like a discoteque. But it's hard. A lot of people tell .. you can't go by yourself, because it's very dangerous sometimes."

He also has heard that neighbors can alert immigration officials to undocumented residents.

"You gotta live in the shadows because sometimes we are afraid somebody sees you and point you (out) as illegal."

Are you scared of being caught?

Leonardo nods.

"My mind sometimes goes crazy. It's like a headache every day. You gotta forget about it. Because if you don't, you're gonna stay in you're house. ...

"I've been living here like I'm under probation. Because if somebody catch you, you go straight to the jail."

Why did you learn English?

"You have to. If you want to survive over here, you got to learn the language. .. Wherever you go, you have to learn the language."

He spent 10 to 12 months studying in a Lanier Technical College program. It's free, he said. He also practices through his work, which The Times agreed not to identify.

"The bad thing is, if you're working with the Hispanic people, you're never going to practice nothing, because everybody speaks Spanish."

But Spanish-friendly businesses, particularly along Atlanta Highway, make survival easier for residents who don't speak English, he said.

"You can survive. But it's gone be hard."

Do you think you're treated differently as a Hispanic?

Leonardo perceives that many see him as "a problem," because he is Hispanic.

"If you have (documents), they still look at you like you're a troublemaker. Sometimes, that kind of situation makes you feel bad. You can feel like -- I don't like to say this -- but like trash."

Some residents are friendly, he said. Many tend to lump Hispanics into one category: Mexicans.

Although the 2000 Census listed 84 percent of Hall's Latinos or Hispanics as Mexican, the county has foreign-born residents from other Latin American countries, such as El Salvador and Guatemala.

"But for (onlookers), all the people are Mexicans," Leonardo said. "They say, 'Well, you look like the same.'"

Sometimes, because of his lighter-colored skin, speaking skills and an education that runs deeper than many rural Mexicans', other Hispanics say he doesn't "look like a Mexican."

"Sometimes I feel, is that good for me or not? You can be confused. You lose your identity.

"You want to be American when you are not."

How would children affect your return to Mexico?

Leonardo and his wife hope to have children. If one had been born while his wife was here, Leonardo said he would want to raise them in Mexico.

Part of the reason is what he sees as prejudice from some against Hispanics. Also, he said, "sometimes it's easy to lose your kids over here. They can go to the alcoholic way, drugs, gangs."

He also has heard about male Hispanic teens dropping out of school.

"So I'm afraid to have kids over here."

Have you tried to become legal in the U.S.?

Leonardo said he did, but his answer is somewhat confusing.

The gist is that he tried for some form of temporary worker permit last year, but ran complicated labor issues and ended up forfeiting $3,500.

"The money come back later. I think," he added.

Leonardo landed a job when he came to Gainesville and has never left it.

Have you used free government health services?

"Never. In all this time, I've been trying to take care of myself, trying not to get (bad) sick."

Yet, Leonardo also suggested that restrictions regarding health services are "like a big slap on the face of the Hispanic community."

Some services can be denied for lack of documents. "And a lot of people need the ... medical service because sometimes we don't take care of our bodies pretty good."

Do you think illegal immigrants help or hurt America?

They help, Leonardo maintained. Not only do they "raise" Gainesville's economy by filling many blue-collar positions in industries, money taken out of their checks for taxes and Social Security goes into state and U.S. coffers.

"They take it out of your checks anyway. They don't care if you're legal or illegal."

He looks askance at the call to send all illegal immigrants back.

"If you want to send everybody over there. If you say, I want all the Hispanic people out of here. Can you imagine?

"I think the Hispanic community ... helps (Gainesville) industry a lot."

What about stalled immigration reform and Georgia's crackdown?

On the federal side, a pathway to citizenship is "one of those big dreams we been thinking about," he said

"It's good for a lot of people, but it's still hard, to me. (Even) if you got papers, you gone see bad faces. Somebody say, 'Well, there's a Mexican.' And they don't care if you got papers or not."

Leonardo had little comment on the state law changes, possibly because their impact is more complicated. He did say that because of tighter laws, he has heard that a number of immigrants living locally are planning to return to their home countries in December.

His family is among them.

"We're fixing to come back home. Finally."

What are your plans?

Leonardo plans to go home soon, too.

If his wife were still here, he might try to stay. "Because now I have a good job. I am with very good people here.

"But it's just a dream. We gotta dream with the feet on the floor, that's what we say over there."

Over there, in Guadalajara, he hopes to start a business or buy a house.

He wants to see his wife again, start a family and forever leave the shadows.

"I want to be free again. ... For sure, I'm gonna make a better life. Better than over here.

"Because over there, I am completely free."

And Leonardo laughs.

Immigrant profile:

Leonardo fits the profile of the majority of an estimated 12 million unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., according to Pew Hispanic Center research:*

40 percent have been here five years or less. (He came in 2005.)

58 percent of adults are males.

Most are employed.

56 percent come from Mexico.

*2006 analysis of the March 2005 Current Population Survey

Contact: rlavender@gainesvilletimes.com; (770) 718-3411.


Originally published Sunday, July 22, 2007

I won't even bother reading this story, I don't care why they came becuase its illegal for them to come the way they do.

Do you think illegal immigrants help or hurt America?

They help, Leonardo maintained. Not only do they "raise" Gainesville's economy by filling many blue-collar positions in industries,

They are filling blue collar positions? Gee who knew? According to Presidente Boosh they are only taking jobs American won't do!
This proves they are not working in agriculture any more they have moved onto factory, hospitality, construction, and a host of other jobs that at one time used to pay well and supplied Americans with decent living.....Now because of greedy companies these jobs are not available to Americans anymore...We do not all have 4 year degrees...some American still need these types of jobs to survive!