Thread: After a hard journey north, couple considers going home

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3629739
After a hard journey north, couple considers going home
Tijuana man rejoices at being reunited with his wife but struggles with heart trouble, bleak job prospects
By Bruce Finley
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com



Their illegal journey to Denver taught them that they might be better off together at home.

If only he could get his heart fixed.

It started when burnt-out taxi driver Amador Venegas, 43, of Tijuana, Mexico, decided to cross into Texas.

But two weeks alone in an El Paso safe house without Blanca, his bride of two years, was too much.

Amador still hadn't found work. He'd labored before in U.S. potato fields, sending money home to his previous wife, and knew how lonely he'd be. Now with his heart trouble, he might never see Blanca again.

"It's a question of a man and a woman being together," he said, telling his story Wednesday afternoon in a Denver homeless shelter.

So Amador telephoned Blanca in Sinaloa and told her to go to the border.

They had no money for a high-end "coyote" who, for $1,000 or more, could haul Blanca in a jam-packed van all the way through to a job. Those rides are dangerous, anyway.

Amador arranged a crossing for $200, relayed directions to a house in a colonia at the edge of Juarez.

Blanca, 32, left her kids with her mother and met the coyote. "I had to trust him," she said. They hiked for six hours, up and down steep mountains.

Amador paid up at the "plaza of the alligators" (Jacinto Plaza) in El Paso.

Now they were free. But the church-run safe house stank. "Like a cage," Amador said. And he wasn't well. Medicine from a Tijuana doctor was running out.

Migrants there dreaded the trip north. U.S. Homeland Security agents ran a checkpoint at Las Cruces, N.M.

But Amador told Blanca: "We have to risk it. If they catch us, we go back to Sinaloa. And if not ... ."

She borrowed $57 from a mother with three kids for a bus ticket to Denver and promised to call Amador when she got there.

At Las Cruces, two security agents boarded. Blanca sat still in the very back row - "thinking they'll make me get off the bus and go back to Mexico."

They didn't ask for her papers.

And she made it.

Reaching Amador proved difficult. No phone. Amador followed to Denver anyway. He wandered around lost and found a place in the homeless shelter.

At a nearby day shelter, he telephoned the El Paso safe house. "If Blanca calls ... ."

She did. And two days later, they met in the lobby of the day shelter. They hugged, crying.

Now they're together whenever possible.

For $100, Blanca bought a fake work ID. She found a job cleaning at a restaurant that brings them $180 a week - not much more than what she earned cleaning houses in Tijuana while he drove a cab.

He went to an emergency room and got a doctor to check out his heart. Bad news. "The operation I need costs a lot of money, more than $50,000." A doctor gave him medicine that has helped hugely - "he didn't say anything about money."

Now by day, Amador wanders the icy streets north of downtown looking for day jobs while Blanca cleans. In their one month here, he's worked about seven days.

One minute they talk about buying an apartment and getting out of the shelter, the next about going back to Mexico.

She put her arms around him.

"I want to go back to Mexico," he said.

She acknowledged she thinks about it, too.

"Mexico is poor - poor but noble," he said as rush-hour traffic whizzed past.

"Here, there's no sun."

Originally Posted by Newmexican

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3629739
After a hard journey north, couple considers going home
Tijuana man rejoices at being reunited with his wife but struggles with heart trouble, bleak job prospects
By Bruce Finley
Denver Post Staff Writer
DenverPost.com



Their illegal journey to Denver taught them that they might be better off together at home.

If only he could get his heart fixed.

It started when burnt-out taxi driver Amador Venegas, 43, of Tijuana, Mexico, decided to cross into Texas.

But two weeks alone in an El Paso safe house without Blanca, his bride of two years, was too much.

Amador still hadn't found work. He'd labored before in U.S. potato fields, sending money home to his previous wife, and knew how lonely he'd be. Now with his heart trouble, he might never see Blanca again.

"It's a question of a man and a woman being together," he said, telling his story Wednesday afternoon in a Denver homeless shelter.

So Amador telephoned Blanca in Sinaloa and told her to go to the border.

They had no money for a high-end "coyote" who, for $1,000 or more, could haul Blanca in a jam-packed van all the way through to a job. Those rides are dangerous, anyway.

Amador arranged a crossing for $200, relayed directions to a house in a colonia at the edge of Juarez.

Blanca, 32, left her kids with her mother and met the coyote. "I had to trust him," she said. They hiked for six hours, up and down steep mountains.

Amador paid up at the "plaza of the alligators" (Jacinto Plaza) in El Paso.

Now they were free. But the church-run safe house stank. "Like a cage," Amador said. And he wasn't well. Medicine from a Tijuana doctor was running out.

Migrants there dreaded the trip north. U.S. Homeland Security agents ran a checkpoint at Las Cruces, N.M.

But Amador told Blanca: "We have to risk it. If they catch us, we go back to Sinaloa. And if not ... ."

She borrowed $57 from a mother with three kids for a bus ticket to Denver and promised to call Amador when she got there.

At Las Cruces, two security agents boarded. Blanca sat still in the very back row - "thinking they'll make me get off the bus and go back to Mexico."

They didn't ask for her papers.

And she made it.

Reaching Amador proved difficult. No phone. Amador followed to Denver anyway. He wandered around lost and found a place in the homeless shelter.

At a nearby day shelter, he telephoned the El Paso safe house. "If Blanca calls ... ."

She did. And two days later, they met in the lobby of the day shelter. They hugged, crying.

Now they're together whenever possible.

For $100, Blanca bought a fake work ID. She found a job cleaning at a restaurant that brings them $180 a week - not much more than what she earned cleaning houses in Tijuana while he drove a cab.

He went to an emergency room and got a doctor to check out his heart. Bad news. "The operation I need costs a lot of money, more than $50,000." A doctor gave him medicine that has helped hugely - "he didn't say anything about money."

Now by day, Amador wanders the icy streets north of downtown looking for day jobs while Blanca cleans. In their one month here, he's worked about seven days.

One minute they talk about buying an apartment and getting out of the shelter, the next about going back to Mexico.

She put her arms around him.

"I want to go back to Mexico," he said.

She acknowledged she thinks about it, too.

"Mexico is poor - poor but noble," he said as rush-hour traffic whizzed past.

"Here, there's no sun."

Love the part about a CHURCH RUN safe house...EXCUSE ME! It's time that the federal government revoke the tax exempt status of any church lobby for Amnesy on behalf of illegals, or caught helping them in any way.

How convenient that a reporter was able to follow them around and record their conversations and actions. I wonder who paid for his hospital visit and medicine. Where did she get the $100 to buy a fade ID. Isn't it nice that her mother was there for her, so she could leave her children behind. What a wonderful story.

So once again, we have illegal aliens not only perpetrating identity fraud, but going to one of our emergency rooms and getting free medical treatment. Looks like this guy is also working day labor sites, which means he isn't paying any taxes in either. His wife makes $180 per week? And let's say she pays taxes, which may or may not be true, it'd be virtually nothing to offset the cost of free medical.

Now let's multiply this by 12 million illegals. We tax payers are subsidizing this cheap labor. Don't even get me started on the pregnancies we pay for. I really doubt that MacDonalds is picking up the tab for those.

I really doubt that MacDonalds is picking up the tab for those.

No, but McDonalds is a corporate sponsor of MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. They're the group that goes around suing states like Arizona, who have passed laws against using taxpayer supported, social programs, for illegals. Remember that the next time you see the not so golden arches.

Originally Posted by WavTek

I really doubt that MacDonalds is picking up the tab for those.

No, but McDonalds is a corporate sponsor of MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. They're the group that goes around suing states like Arizona, who have passed laws against using taxpayer supported, social programs, for illegals. Remember that the next time you see the not so golden arches.

Boycott McDonald's!!

Originally Posted by moosetracks

Originally Posted by WavTek

I really doubt that MacDonalds is picking up the tab for those.

No, but McDonalds is a corporate sponsor of MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. They're the group that goes around suing states like Arizona, who have passed laws against using taxpayer supported, social programs, for illegals. Remember that the next time you see the not so golden arches.

Boycott McDonald's!!

I can truthfully say I haven't darkened the doors of any McDonalds in over 4 years. I tell others not to eat there.

After a hard journey north, couple considers going home

Good! Go on then. Be gone!