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Merchants say whole class of shoppers has vanished
U.S. 'laser visa' program that often turns away low-income visitors from Mexico sparks anger on both sides of the border.
By Lynn Brezosky
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, October 01, 2006

MCALLEN — Luxury sport-utility vehicles bearing Mexican license plates dot the retail centers of border cities such as this one, but the bus station that used to bring scores of low-income shoppers is nearly empty.

Shopkeeper Monica Weisberg-Stewart and others blame the five-year-old "laser visa" and stricter enforcement of its requirements for short-term Mexican visitors.

The laser visa, a biometric, machine-readable card, was required as of Oct. 1, 2001, replacing the old border crossing card. But it costs $100 instead of $65 for the old one, fingerprints and photo are now required and the State Department says it is putting each applicant under increased scrutiny.

The visa gives a visitor 90 days in the border region.

The result is that Mexicans who can easily prove they have income and assets in Mexico can get a visa, while those who don't own property or have a full-time job often cannot.

"Essentially, for a temporary visa the applicant has to prove to the officers that they have a good reason for travel temporarily," State Department spokeswoman Laura Tischler said.

Proof of economic solvency in Mexico is a major factor, she said.

Customs agents who approve the visas work on the knowledge that it is easier to deny entry to someone than find and deport him or her later.

State Department records show 1.9 million visas were issued in 2001, declining each year to 702,308 in 2005. Tischler said the figures reflect an initial jump as people replaced their cards and that the numbers dropped off because the replacement phase was over.

More than 3 million border crossing cards were issued in each of the years from 1996 to 2000.

"It wiped out the whole lower socio-economic class of people," Weisberg-Stewart said.

"To some people, that customer didn't mean anything. But for people selling on the volume basis, making a dollar or two profit on an item, it really hurt."

Residents with friends and relatives in Mexico who were denied the new laser visa say the new requirements have cut down or eliminated their visits.

Mercedes Leal, who has worked at the Weisberg-Stewart store for 41 years, says her sister-in-law, Maria Theresa Leal Suarez, had her visa revoked by Customs officials and can no longer cross the Rio Grande from Reynosa, Tamaulipas.

"She was coming to visit, with cheese and nopales (cactus pads)," she said. "She said she was going to visit my brother. They said 'No, you can't pass,' and said her visa was being revoked for a year."

That year has passed, but trips to the U.S. consulate in Monterrey and about $200 in fees have not gotten her another visa.

"It's done," Leal said, shaking her head.

Maria Leal's neighbor in Reynosa used to come to buy bagfuls of used clothing to resell in Mexico.

"They told her $20 was too little to come over with. They took her visa. But $20 buys a lot of used clothing," Leal said.

McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez said many have similar family stories, including himself.

"Here on the southern border we have grown to really be interdependent with one another," he said. "My son married a girl from Reynosa who happens to be a U.S. citizen. When we have parties, sometimes some of her cousins can't come over because they don't have a laser visa."

A new $5 million bus station was completed around the same time that the laser visa came about, which proved to be unfortunate timing. It has 10 new lines, but it processes barely more than the 1.3 million that the old bus station handled in 2000 with just one line.

"We resent it very much," said Laura Riveroli de Perera, operator of Noreste, a Mexican bus line. "We have a good time in the holiday season. The U.S. people go to Mexico to see their relatives or something, but the Mexican people have a lot of difficulties to come.

"They need to fill a lot of papers, give their proofs of rent, telephones, light, banking accounts, friends and family on the other side," she said.

The denials have not affected the border's overall economic picture. Researchers at University of Texas-Pan American, University of Texas-El Paso, Texas A&M International and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas all show that the Mexicans that are coming across are spending more than ever in trips across the border, though they are making fewer trips.

But some worry that honest short-term visitors are being denied.