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Naturalized Citizen Knows Trials of Illegal Immigration FirsthandJuly 7, 2006, 08:20 AM MST


By J.D. Wallace, KOLD News 13 Reporter

In the desert battleground of illegal immigration, Sergio Pacheco found one of the latest casualties north of Arivaca: the body of his friend Antonio Torres Jimenez.

"So he took this route and by Sunday, he passed away at this point," Pacheco said, as he pointed to a map.

Torres Jimenez had been crossing for decades from the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. Pacheco even did it a couple of times before he became a citizen under the 1986 Amnesty Act, something he doesn't expect to see again.

"Crossing the desert in that time was very easy. I mean, you walk two hours, somebody come and pick you up, was very easy. I mean, coming into Amnesty in 1986, just come from the sky. I never thought we were going to get papers," Pacheco said.

What could happen next is the subject of U.S. House and Senate hearings. The Senate is proposing that some of the 12 million illegal immigrants already here have a path to citizenship, along with increased border enforcement.

The House bill makes being in the country illegally a felony, and puts more emphasis on border enforcement, which has the approval of the Minutemen.

"The top priority to us is to secure the border, then we will address whatever is inside of this country. So at this point we don't want to talk about anything but to secure our border," said Carmen Mercer, V.P. of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps.

"Why don't we engage in that kind of effort where we attempt to have economic development in those countries so that people don't feel the need and aren't compelled to come into this country?" argued Isabel Garcia, with immigrant rights group Derechos Humanos.

Pacheco agreed that Derechos Humanos' approach could work, but said that something needs to be done now, with first enforcing the border and then offering guest worker programs, so that he won't need to look for another friend's body.

"No matter how much immigration is going to be, it's going to be the same situation, maybe less, but they'll always find a way in. There's no question about that," Pacheco said.

Derechos Humanos said that amnesty should be offered the millions of immigrants already here.

Pacheco said that he doesn't expect to see amnesty offered again because the concern is it will attract more immigrants across the desert.

He and others raised enough money to send his friend's body back to the family in Mexico.