Thread: FEWER ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS EXPECTED TO GO HOME FOR HOLIDAYS

Fewer illegal immigrants expected to return home for holidays

By: EDWARD SIFUENTES - Staff Writer

Tally of fire victims points up border crossing dangers

Immigrants and authorities say they expect fewer illegal border crossings over the holiday season, which would be consistent with trends recorded by U.S. Border Patrol statistics in recent years.

But immigrants and their advocates say the dangers of crossings amid increased border enforcement -- made mortally clear by the death of a Vista woman in last month's Harris fire -- have more Mexican nationals choosing to stay on this side of the border this winter.

The recent wildfires offered deadly evidence of the risks that the immigrants take in their attempts to cross the border illegally. Twenty people were admitted to the burn center at the UCSD Medical Center with wildfire-related injuries after the fires broke out Oct. 21. These patients included 11 suspected illegal immigrants, two of whom later died.

Fire was just one of the dangers worrying several men waiting at a day-labor site in Escondido on Tuesday morning.

"Until we get legal documents, we're not leaving," said Jose Alfonso, an 18-year-old native of Michoacan, Mexico, who lives in Escondido. "Coming over the mountains is too dangerous."

Several other men standing at a day-labor site in Escondido on Tuesday morning echoed the young man's concerns, saying they feared crime in Mexico, abuses by Mexican authorities and increased border security upon return.

A dangerous journey

The death of a Vista woman, Maria Guadalupe Beltran, from injuries she suffered during wildfires brought to the public's attention a problem that immigrant rights advocates have been discussing for years: Hundreds of migrants die each year at the U.S. border with Mexico in their attempt to enter the country illegally.

Beltran, 27, died Nov. 6 at UCSD Medical Center from extensive burns that the San Diego County medical examiner's office concluded had she suffered in the Harris fire while returning from Mexico on Oct. 21.

"What happened to Maria Guadalupe is not unique," said Claudia Smith, a longtime immigrant rights activist who has called attention to the deaths at the border for more than a decade.

For decades, migrants timed their returns home to coincide with the winter agricultural off-season and the winter holidays.

One way to measure this trend, which by its nature is difficult to track, is with recent Border Patrol statistics that show a dip in border crossing arrests during the holiday months.

For example, arrests slowed to 7,733 last November and to 6,340 in December before surging to 13,961 in January -- a pattern repeated each year.

Matthew Johnson, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in San Diego, said it's difficult to say how many people travel back and forth during the holiday season, because agents don't ask. But he said the trend is "pretty significant."

Pattern changing

For a variety of reasons, many immigrants and immigrant-rights advocates say immigrants are increasingly avoiding travel to their home countries, except in the most extreme circumstances.

"Many are not leaving anymore," said Jose Gonzalez, a former migrant worker who is now a naturalized U.S. citizen and immigrant rights activist in North County. "They are not thinking about those vacations, because they know that if they leave, they will not easily come back."

An unintended consequence of the increase in border enforcement is a rise in the permanent illegal immigrant population in the country, according to Wayne Cornelius, director of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, an immigration research organization based at UC San Diego.

A key factor is what Cornelius calls "reduced circularity," which means fewer Mexican migrants are returning home seasonally due to the cost and danger involved.

Caught by an inferno

Vista's Beltran reportedly traveled to Guerrero, Mexico, to visit her mother after her father's death. She was believed to be traveling to her Vista home when she was trapped in the Harris fire.

Another suspected illegal immigrant, identified only as a 20-year-old male, died of his injuries on Nov. 11, UCSD Medical Center spokeswoman Kimberly Edwards said.

Still another burned body, that of a man believed to be Juan Carlos Bautista Ocampo, was found in an area north of Tecate after his brother, Armando Bautista, mounted a search effort with the help of volunteers, officials with the Mexican consul's office in San Diego said.

How many dead?

Claudia Smith said at least 4,500 people have died trying to cross the border since 1995, an estimate she bases on Mexican government statistics.

That year, the U.S. federal government began stricter immigration enforcement efforts near urban areas such as San Diego County. The strategy was intended to redirect illegal immigrant traffic to more remote mountain and desert areas to the east. More fencing and more agents and electronic surveillance equipment were added in California and Texas.

"We did believe that geography would be an ally to us. ... It was our sense that the number of people crossing the border through Arizona would go down to a trickle, once people realized what it's like," former Immigration and Naturalization Commissioner Doris Meissner said in 2000.

As of Oct. 8, the Mexican government reported 382 people had died attempting to cross the border illegally this year, including 17 deaths reported by the Mexican consul office in San Diego. The highest number, 148 deaths, was reported by the Mexican consulate in Tucson.

Smith said that does not include the many bodies that may lie undiscovered in remote areas.

The U.S. Border Patrol reported 400 people died entering the United States from Mexico in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, down 12 percent from the agency's tally of 453 deaths the previous year.

Last year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office criticized the Border Patrol for not keeping more accurate data on deaths at the border. It said the Border Patrol needed to create uniform standards and communicate with local officials, such as medical examiners' offices, to improve its analysis.

"Such incomplete data may in turn affect the Border Patrol's ability to understand the scale of the problem in each sector and affect the agency's ability to make key decisions about when and how to deploy resources across the border," the report stated.

Search and rescue

In 1998, the federal government formed the Border Patrol's Search, Trauma and Rescue team, known as Borstar, to help people left stranded deep in the brush or desert. Today, the unit has nearly 200 agents.

Immigrant rights advocates say they find irony in the concept of Border Patrol agents as rescuers -- especially, they say, when the agency's intensified apprehensions have led migrants to use routes through deadlier terrain.

Earlier this month, the team rescued six illegal immigrants who had slid down the slope of a canyon four miles west of the San Ysidro port of entry. Border Patrol officials said the rescue was an example of their concern for people's safety at the border.

While Smith said she welcomes the agents' efforts to rescue migrants, she added, "There is no search and rescue operation that can help offset a strategy that puts migrants in mortal danger."

Border Patrol officials blame smugglers for the deaths and for failing to warn their customers of the dangers of crossing the desert and bringing too little water to sustain immigrants during the long walk into the country.

"(Border Patrol agents) are not the ones out there beckoning these illegal aliens to come over," Border Patrol spokesman Lloyd Easterling said. "When you think about it, you have to tie it into the smugglers making false promises."

A vigil for the dead

Immigrant rights activists along the border say the deaths are a symptom of an enforcement strategy gone wrong.

On Nov. 2 -- the Mexican holiday known as the Day of the Dead when loved ones are remembered with food, drinks and flower offerings -- activists from both sides of the border installed a large mural at the border of a skull with the names of illegal immigrants who have died.

"We wanted to put it up because we didn't want the death of migrants to be something abstract," said Mary Galvan, who runs a shelter for migrant women and children in Tijuana. "Each name represents the failure of both governments on the issue of migration."

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at (760) 740-3511 or esifuentes@nctimes.com.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/11 ... _21_07.txt

I believe some Americans died in fires also -

If they weren't coming here illegally, and living here illegally, then they wouldn't have gotten caught in the fires.

Immigrant rights activists along the border say the deaths are a symptom of an enforcement strategy gone wrong.

The deaths are a symptom of illegal immigration--criminal strategy gone wrong.

No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Several other men standing at a day-labor site in Escondido on Tuesday morning echoed the young man's concerns, saying they feared crime in Mexico, abuses by Mexican authorities and increased border security upon return.

Yea, right. Asylum seekers.

Dixie

The U.S. Border Patrol reported 400 people died entering the United States from Mexico in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, down 12 percent from the agency's tally of 453 deaths the previous year.

And how many innocent Americans were killed by illegal alien murderers, gang bangers, carjackers, home invasion robbers, DUI and Hit & Run drivers during the same period? Oh yeah, that's right, they don't count. Americans don't have government or corporate funded groups advocating for their safety and civil rights, counting up the numbers of dead Americans and putting them in press releases and newspaper articles.

"Until we get legal documents, we're not leaving," said Jose Alfonso, an 18-year-old native of Michoacan, Mexico, who lives in Escondido. "Coming over the mountains is too dangerous."

We'll see about that!

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Longtime Resident

wrote on Nov 22, 2007 12:25 PM:

It's too bad the rage against illegal aliens is only limited to a message board from a local paper. Where is the downright, unabashed rage and protest in the streets? Where are the protesters? Why is there no organization to protest against these law breakers? Why are the politicians mum on the subject? Too many questions, not enough action. We're doomed.

Comments On This Story

Note: Comments reflect the views of readers and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff.


http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/11 ... _21_07.txt

Originally Posted by An Illegal Immigrant

"Until we get legal documents, we're not leaving," said Jose Alfonso, an 18-year-old native of Michoacan, Mexico, who lives in Escondido. "Coming over the mountains is too dangerous."

I think it's time to step up the complaint calls to all local enforcement agencies and help these guys get home safe and sound. In a warm bus, singing christmas songs with their fellow countrymen, and not over those pesky dangerous mountains.