Thread: Pending illegal border crossers in dark on possible law chan

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Pending illegal border crossers in dark on possible law change

By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 22, 2006

TIJUANA – While the impassioned debate in Washington, D.C., about immigration reform is making headlines and filling talk show time across the United States, word of impending change may be slow to reach the rural corners of Mexico.
At immigrant shelters in Tijuana, where people bide their time as they wait for the best time to make an illegal crossing, life seemed unchanged.

Three members of the Salinas family, for example, said word hadn't reached their village in Oaxaca about potential changes in immigration laws or the debate about a guest-worker program.

What they knew was this: Despite owning land back home, they didn't have the technology and couldn't make the necessary investment to cultivate crops for export. The corn and beans they grew went to feeding their own families. They had been told that higher-paying jobs awaited them in Northern California.

Alfonso, Juventino and Cornelio Salinas had already made two unsuccessful attempts to cross the border since arriving in Tijuana this month.

“I think there should be an agreement between the governments of Mexico and the United States,” said Alfonso Salinas, 26, as volunteer student groups from the United States buzzed around the immigrants with plates of freshly cooked food.

For now, the challenge is for U.S. lawmakers to reach an agreement on immigration policies. In December, the House passed a controversial bill that focuses on enforcement, making unlawful entry into the United States a felony and empowering local police to enforce federal immigration laws. Hundreds of miles of border fencing would be built.

Last week, Senate Judiciary Committee members continued to debate their own immigration reform proposals. Compromises were reached that would set up a guest-worker program and a pathway to legal status for people who are in the country illegally. A committee vote may occur Monday, but significant opposition to such measures exists in both houses of Congress.

For the Salinas family, a guest-worker program is of great interest.

Salinas, his brother Juventino, 36, and their cousin Cornelio, 26, are from the village of Juquila, about five hours by bus from the capital city of Oaxaca. About 8,000 people live there, but about 20 percent of the population immigrates to the United States to work, the men said.

“I think it would be good to have a permit system,” Alfonso Salinas said. “I'm planning on working there (the United States) for just two years, and then I want to return. I would like to open a store back home selling products. With the money I earn, I would like to build a one-story house to live better.”

He said that back home he shares a room with a brother, and six family members live in the same house.

The three men arrived in Tijuana by plane. Cornelio Salinas said he couldn't go back because he had sold his seven cattle to pay for the plane ticket. The men had been trying to cross by foot in the area between Tecate and Mexicali, and had been caught twice by the U.S. Border Patrol.

“We've heard that border enforcement has increased, and we are seeing how difficult it is,” Alfonso Salinas said. “But I'm already committed to doing this, so perhaps we will try to cross somewhere else.”

Cornelio Salinas said he needs to earn money to help support his wife and three children. He said putting up more fences would make it harder for people like him to get to the United States, and that he would favor some sort of guest-worker program.

“I would like to see a way for me to pay something to work a year or two, and then I could return to Mexico,” he said.

Mexico is full of tiny villages like the one the Salinas men come from. As family members and friends settle into U.S. communities, immigration networks develop that link the villages with certain regions of the United States. The Salinas men said many other villagers have gotten jobs in communities in California, Florida, New York and North Carolina.

About 11 million to 12 million people are thought to be living in the United States illegally.

“Where we live is very far from work options,” said Cornelio Salinas, adding that the village has no factory or other source of jobs aside from small snack shops run out of people's homes.

As the men prepared last week for their third attempt to make it to the United States, their focus was miles away from political discussions. They were more worried about the weather and if it would delay their crossing.



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Anna Cearley: (619) 542-4595; anna.cearley@uniontrib.com

This would be a great place to turn loose those rumors that peole who come to the US illegally are going to be eaten by gruzzly bears or shipped to Siberia or something. head them off at the pass..........