http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld...d/14751431.htm

Immigration reform remains vague for those crossing the border
BY HUGH DELLIOS
Chicago Tribune
TIJUANA, Mexico - As they contemplate when and where to scale the border fences, Mexicans often are at a loss to figure out what we Americans are up to on the other side.

That was the case last week with Eduardo Barrios, 21, a trained mechanic who had climbed back into Mexico over the fence between San Diego and Tijuana after he and four fellow illegal immigrants were spotted by a U.S. Border Patrol helicopter.

By chance dropping down in front of an American journalist, Barrios struggled to catch his breath but then took advantage of the chance encounter to ask a question that had bugged him during four unsuccessful attempts to cross over.

"These, what do you call them, Minutemen?" he said. "What do they get for catching a Mexican? Does someone give them medals?"

Barrios probably would not have believed an explanation about law and order as a motivation, after hearing so many people tell him how easy it is to get a job in the United States. But such guessing at U.S. intentions was behind a flurry of activity at the border here in recent days.

Illegal crossings in the Tijuana area fell dramatically after the first 14 miles of reinforced border fence were built here in the mid-1990s. But U.S. officials say there has been a substantial increase in recent months.

One reason may be that fewer illegal immigrants want to face the Arizona desert where most of the traffic had been diverted. Possibly they know that more Border Patrol officers were deployed there and that private groups like the Minutemen - called "immigrant hunters" in Mexico's new media - were there trying to catch them too.

A similar guessing game was inspired by President Bush's deployment of the National Guard to the border beginning this week. It apparently conjured up visions of battalions of battle-ready, camouflage-uniformed troops guarding the fence line, instead of the real plan for "logistical" help.

In the eastern Tijuana neighborhood of Eagle's Nest, where the border fence ends, a group of 14 would-be immigrants were standing wide-eyed but silent in the shade of a tree Friday, just across the patrol road that runs along the fence.

Standing in the road were two sinewy, hard-looking men with cell phones to their ears - human smugglers. Suddenly the polleros gave a signal and their 14 pollos, or chickens, scurried across the road, scaled the fence and dropped out of sight into America.

In broad daylight, without waiting for the cover of darkness.

Before they dashed, one man whispered why the group might take such a chance in such a hurry.

"It's going to get tougher," he said. "That's what they say."

The man had been living in San Diego, working for a painting company, but had crossed back into Mexico to attend the funeral of his parents, who died in an accident. Now he was hurrying back "home" to his family - his wife is a U.S.-resident nurse - before the Guard was deployed.

Misreadings or exaggerations of what's going on in the U.S. are not limited to job hunters so busy trying to cross the border that they might be excused for not reading the fine print. Even Mexican President Vicente Fox got carried away last week after the U.S. Senate approved its immigration plan.

During a visit to California, Fox hailed the measure as a "monumental step forward . . . a moment that millions of families have been hoping for . . . the moment that millions of people have been working for."

Only after that, almost as a postscript, did Fox acknowledge that the Senate plan faces stiff opposition in the U.S. House and probably will not be enacted into law in its current form.

One man who definitely knew what he was talking about was Marco Perea, 43, who was contemplating another fence-scaling with his daughter Angeles, 13, and Barrios, the mechanic.

Perea, originally a Mexico City mini-bus driver, boasted that he had worked for three years in the San Diego area, where for $8.50 an hour he ran four avocado-packing machines at once. He had returned to Mexico a few weeks ago to bring his children north with him.

Perea seemed to know every detail of the Senate plan, including that his time in the U.S. (between two and five years) might qualify him for eventual residency if he left and registered to come back. And he was optimistic he would continue to be able to work in California, reforms or no reforms.

"Because," he said, "Americans need Mexicans like Mexicans need work."