http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/12054939.htm
Posted on Tue, Jul. 05, 2005

Rising tide of Brazilians seeking illegal U.S. entry

A surge in the number of Brazilians arrested at the U.S.-Mexico frontier has highlighted a wave of illegal immigration.

BY HENRY CHU
Los Angeles Times Service

GOVERNADOR VALADARES, Brazil - They were only modest dreams that led Wendel Pereira to leave his family and country just before Christmas. He promised to return in three years with enough money to marry his fiancee, buy a house and maybe a car.

His first ride on an airplane, to Mexico, went fine. Wading across the cold Rio Grande into Texas was manageable. Two weeks after slipping into the United States, however, the 23-year-old was dead of an apparent asthma attack, his body destined for a pauper's burial.

His tragic fate made news here in his hometown. But it has not stanched the rising tide of Brazilians trying to enter the United States illegally, an upsurge over the last year whose scope has caught authorities by surprise.

Driven by nagging unemployment, increasingly sophisticated smuggling rings and even, some say, a wildly popular soap opera about Brazilian immigrants in the United States, the number of people from Latin America's most populous nation attempting to sneak into the land of opportunity up north appears to be hitting levels not seen in years -- if ever, officials in both countries say.

They cite the steep climb in the number of Brazilians arrested at the U.S.-Mexico frontier, the main point of entry.

For the year ending last Sept. 30, U.S. authorities detained about 8,900 Brazilians trying to cross the border, mostly into Arizona or Texas. Since then, with three months remaining before the end of the current fiscal year, that figure has nearly tripled, to more than 25,600 detentions.

BEHIND HONDURAS

Excluding Mexico, by far the largest source of illegal immigrants, Brazil ranks behind only Honduras in the number of nationals apprehended at the southwestern border, having surpassed El Salvador on the strength of the recent wave, according to U.S. government statistics. If present trends continue, this nation with a population of about 180 million, many mired in poverty, could eventually eclipse Honduras.

''The numbers are staggering,'' said a U.S. official who works on the issue, speaking on condition of anonymity. The numbers suggest that there is more going on than stepped-up enforcement, he said. And, of course, they represent only the Brazilians who get caught.

YEARLY INCREASE

Authorities are hard-pressed to identify an overriding reason for the increase from a year ago. But they note that illegal immigration from Brazil had been on the upswing in previous years and that economic prospects remain bleak for many in this country. The Brazilian National Congress has established a committee to investigate the issue.

In part, the United States blames the influx on Mexico, which stopped requiring visas of visiting Brazilians in 2000. That has facilitated a rush north, as planeloads of Brazilians touch down in Mexico City and many passengers, passports in hand, sail through customs and head for the border.

Washington has pressured the Mexican government to scrap its visa-free policy, which was expected to happen in May. But a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Brasilia said there was no confirmed date for visa applications to resume.

The would-be immigrants hail from throughout this vast country, including the wealthier south. But the nerve center of the human traffic remains here in the eastern state of Minas Gerais.

Americans flocked to this area after World War II to help build a railway and to exploit the region's minerals, metals and gemstones.

Historians say many of these Americans brought Brazilian wives and maids home, which triggered a northward stream of immigrants.

''There was no intention to stimulate immigration, but the development of support networks for the pioneers who left in the '60s and, on a greater scale, in the '80s led to this,'' said sociologist Ana Cristina Braga Martes.

Signs of American influence abound in Governador Valadares, a city so well known for exporting sons and daughters and benefiting from money sent home that a resident once called the United States ''the cradle of Valadares civilization.'' Hipsters groove at a nightclub called America, and motorists often carry U.S. driver's licenses.