Illegal alien workers driven down hard road

Bad economy, job cuts forcing many into stay-or-go decision

By Leslie Berestein
STAFF WRITER

December 14, 2008

Waiting with little more than a plastic bag in hand at the Tijuana bus station, Javier Torres was traveling solo among the crowds of luggage-laden families making the holiday trip to their Mexican hometowns.

But unlike most, Torres, 20, a construction worker who spent three years residing illegally in Miami, was thinking he might stick around for a year in Ensenada, where his parents live, before trying to return to the United States.

“In the past few months, I haven't had much work,â€