By Devona Walker
The Oklahoman
Traffic to El Paso, Texas, has been so steady in recent weeks that the downtown Oklahoma City Greyhound bus terminal has started running buses there twice a day. Every Christmas, thousands of Hispanics living in the U.S. return to Mexico to visit their families. This year, many say they are not coming back.


Bartolome Flores, 35, has been working in Oklahoma City for several weeks. He has family in Nogales, which is just south of Arizona. However, he is from Mexico City, which is well into the Mexican interior.

Flores said he will travel to El Paso, the farthest south that Greyhound will take him.

He will then buy another ticket in El Paso for transport to Juarez. There he will spend a day with extended family members before traveling to Nogales to spend Christmas with his family.

He heard about some work in Phoenix, but he is not sure how he will re-enter the country. He’s heard that immigration enforcement has made entering Arizona more difficult. He also heard that employers are more fearful of hiring Hispanics without documentation.

“So really, I don’t know where I will be New Year’s Day,â€