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Hurricane damage pushes more toward U.S.
Illegal migration fueled by desperation in face of growing hunger crisis

12:00 AM CST on Friday, November 25, 2005
By ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News

ALONG THE MEXICO-GUATEMALA BORDER – For Oscar Pérez, the odds of arriving safely in the U.S. may be grim, but not grim enough to keep him from pushing ahead with his trek north. If anything, the arduous journey only confirms his decision to leave.

His home destroyed by Hurricane Stan, his family growing hungry, Mr. Pérez began the 1,300-mile trip to the Texas border by bus through his native El Salvador and neighboring Guatemala. Along the way, he saw evidence of mudslides, flooded rivers, homes washed away and hopes dashed.

"This is worse than I had imagined. What choice do we have when you go up against such force?" asked Mr. Pérez. "Either you starve, get restless, or go north, even if the odds of reaching the United States are against you."


A dramatic spike

Mr. Pérez isn't alone.

Aid agencies and government officials, including two senior U.S. officials, say that hurricane damage and a growing hunger crisis are sending a surge of migrants to the United States.

Already, U.S. officials are witnessing a dramatic spike in illegal migration from Central America. In the El Paso sector, for example, border patrol agents have detained nearly 800 non-Mexican illegal immigrants, the majority of them from Central America, since Oct. 1, the beginning of the new federal fiscal year. The figure for the same period last year was 319, according to a border patrol spokesman.

Hitting in early October, Hurricane Stan killed more than 1,500 in the Mexican state of Chiapas and in Central America and caused more than a billion dollars in damage. It left thousands more homeless or missing. And it leveled entire villages and economies.

In Chiapas alone, Mexican officials say, the destruction robbed the country of 10 years of infrastructure improvements, destroyed 70 percent of the coffee crop – the state's main crop – and more than half of the mangos and bananas, corn, vegetables and beans.

"Far from deterring them, the destruction has only pushed more of them north," said Olga Sánchez, director Jesus El Buen Pastor, a migrant refuge shelter in Tapachula, Chiapas. "And it will double in the months to come."

One senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Bush administration should halt its policy of repatriating immigrants from the stricken region, much as President Bill Clinton did following Hurricane Mitch in 1998. But recently, the Bush administration launched the Secure Border Initiative, which expedites the return of OTMs, or people Other Than Mexicans, back to their home countries.

Last week, some 330 Hondurans were deported, according to a spokesman at the Immigration Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

"The current policy is very rigid," said a senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "It is based on law enforcement, not driven by holistic policy concerns. We must realize we're dealing with nations in a region with no government bailouts and limited job creation. The poverty situation is already dire."

The official also warned of a hunger crisis in the winter months to come.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, speaking during the launch of the Secure Border Initiative, defended the policy.

"Flagrant violation of our borders undercuts the rule of law, undermines our security and imposes particular economic strains on our border communities," he said.


'Only way out'

Mr. Pérez had been deported from Houston, where he worked as a waiter, just days after Stan's torrential rains washed away his home in El Salvador, destroying everything he had built with money he had sent to his wife and three children during the last three years.

Instead of spending the holidays with his family, as he initially planned, he decided it was time to head north again.

As Mr. Pérez entered Chiapas – a trip he's made several times – he found the immigration and customs checkpoints reduced to rubble. The bridge itself, linking the Mexican border town of Ciudad Hidalgo to Guatemala's Tecum Uman, had been snapped in half.

Mr. Pérez was making the journey with five first-time crossers: his brother-in-law, Jorge Arana, 31, and four other men who lost everything. They carried boxes of stale cookies, chips, bottled water and their birth certificates.

Noting the region's long history with strife and conflict, Mr. Arana said, "Marginalization, hunger and desperation lead to social problems. That's why migration is the only way out."

In El Carmen, Guatemala, 18-year-old Luis Velásquez Pérez plans to try his luck in January, when he figures the food situation will grow desperate. In the meantime, he's selling punch at about 30 cents a cup, saving much of the $10 to $12 he makes daily to pay a smuggler.

"Our future has always been bleak. But after Stan, I don't see a future at all," said Mr. Velásquez, whose family lost its home.

Others are awaiting the reconstruction of railroads and highways or are staying for the holiday season before saying their goodbyes, Mexican officials say. Some bus companies are already expanding bus service to the northern border to accommodate growing demand.

In the steamy city of Ciudad Hidalgo, Mexico, Jorge LuÃÂ*s González, 27, dug through four feet of mud looking for his favorite chair, the family utensils, the children's toys and pictures of his daughters, Katerine, 4, and Sherlin, 2. He hoped to restore their home by Christmas because, he told his wife, Floridalma, this will be a special holiday.

Next year, he will head to Indianapolis, or perhaps Dallas or Houston, to work for the next two to three years and save money before returning home.

"I will go wherever God permits me, wherever he leads the way," he said, shovel in hand. "I wish I could stay, but how do I put food on the table?"


More danger

The journey, meanwhile, has become more perilous. After the hurricane, the Mara Salvatrucha, a violent gang that preys on migrants, took advantage of lax security along the border and expanded to more Mexican states, according to an intelligence report from the Mexican military. The report notes that the Maras now have a presence in 24 of Mexico's 32 states. U.S. investigators have expressed concern about the violent group operating along the U.S.-Mexico border and in Los Angeles, Houston and suburbs around Washington, D.C.

But the dangers may not be enough to discourage migrants.

At the Jesús El Buen Pastor shelter in Tapachula, three men missing arms and legs wait for donated prostheses. The three lost limbs while traveling as stowaways and falling off trains bound for Veracruz and on to Texas or California.

When asked whether their injuries were worth the goal of reaching the United States, the three men did not bat an eye in their response: "Yes!"

Oscar Franco, 19, who's missing his left leg and left arm, explained, "It's either taking a leap of faith, or staying behind and losing all faith."