Thread: TX: illegal immigrants from Arizona released in Texas

Caught by border patrol, illegal immigrants from Arizona released in Texas

The following report was written by John MacCormack of the San Antonio Express-News.

A day after being caught in Arizona by the U.S. Border Patrol, a weary and disoriented Federico Velez Vargas found himself a free man hundreds of miles from his last point of reference.

"I don't have any idea where I am. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't have any money to go home," Vargas, 37, said as he collected his thoughts in the Mexican immigration office at the Ojinga international bridge after crossing over from Texas.

Around him, dozens of other Mexicans who also had just arrived from Arizona were eating sandwiches, pulling their belongings from plastic bags marked "Department of Homeland Security" and trying to make sense of it.

Some 12 hours earlier, all had boarded a silver Wackenhut bus in Tucson that headed east through the chill desert night.

Arriving at midday in Presidio, the shivering deportees were sent trudging across the Rio Grande bridge into Mexico.

In October, when the long-distance repatriation program was announced by the U.S. Border Patrol, Texas officials reacted with concern that the deportees might stick around or cross back into the United States -- this time in Texas.

Gov. Rick Perry quickly used it as ammunition in his ongoing political war with the federal government, accusing the Obama administration of dumping thousands of unauthorized immigrants on unprepared Texans.

If "they are faced with the Chihuahuan Desert or Texas, they're turning around and going back to Texas," he declared of the deportees in a speech in Midland.

But despite Perry's predictions, local communities so far have been unaffected.

"We haven't had a bit of trouble," said Brad Newton, city manager of Presidio, a community of 6,000 with minimal infrastructure."If we didn't know they were going over there, we wouldn't even know they were coming through," he said of the Mexicans who arrive twice daily by bus.

The mayor of Ojinaga, a quiet Mexican city of 18,000 people, is likewise relieved.

"I was very worried, but so far, it's working," Cesar Carrasco said of the repatriation program.

"While these Mexicans have a complete right to be here, we are encouraging them to go to their hometowns," he said, noting the city has only one small shelter for the homeless.

The program was launched without much notice to Mexican officials, according to Raul Acosta, the Mexican consul in Presidio, whose office is coping with up to 94 needy countrymen each day.

"The Border Patrol did not coordinate this with us. It's a unilateral program. They didn't give us time to plan or listen to our objections," he said.

The theory behind the long-distance deportation program, which also is used by the Border Patrol in California, is to add another obstacle to the already daunting task of illegally entering the United States.

"The basic idea is to get them away from the smugglers who brought them across the first time," said Bill Brooks, a Border Patrol spokesman in Marfa, Texas.

Thanks to Mexico's effort to quickly move the immigrants out of Ojinaga back to their hometowns, none appears to be staying around, much less trying to sneak back across the Rio Grande.

"I can tell you we're quite pleased with the way it's turned out. To our knowledge, no one has crossed back over in the Marfa sector," Brooks said.

In November, he said, some 2,100 immigrants were transported from Arizona and sent back to Ojinaga. According to immigration officials there, a couple of hundred Mexicans were being sent back each month before the start of the long-distance repatriation program.

Despite the continuing assurances from federal officials, Presidio County Judge Jerry Agan remains uneasy with the program, which he said caught local officials by surprise.

"I'd rather they do it somewhere else. I'm still not comfortable with it," Agan said. "That's a lot of people being put in our rural area, but I didn't have a vote in the matter."

The repatriation program works smoothly only as long as there are funds on the Mexican side to quickly transport the deportees out of Ojinaga.

"This is a multiagency program. The state of Chihuahua is helping us with funds for bus tickets, and Chihuahuenses (the local bus line) is providing a big discount," said Elsa Villa, an official at the Mexican consulate in Presidio.

Mexican immigration officials also are helping to process the deportees.

With two busloads arriving daily, it costs Mexico about $135,000 a month to accommodate and transport the deportees inland, according to figures provided by another Mexican official.

"On average, it costs about ($62) 800 pesos ($63+) per person to buy them food and a bus ticket to their place of origin," said Julieta Nunez, a spokeswoman for Mexican immigration in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua.

Carrasco worries about what might happen if funds run short.

"If the money ends, we'll have a big problem. If we can't help them leave, they'll stay here, and we don't have the capacity to handle them," he said.

Despite these concerns, Acosta said the Mexican government is committed to underwriting the repatriation program.

"We have funding to finish December and start January. We are requesting additional money from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and are assured of funds to support this program," he said.

"We cannot leave our nationals in the port of entry, knowing nothing about what they are going to do," he said.

While family groups caught in Arizona usually are sent directly back to Mexico, men traveling alone may find themselves being released almost 600 miles to the east.

The long-distance repatriation program is limited to Mexican men between the ages of 20 and 60, who are traveling alone and haven't committed any offense beyond illegally entering the United States, Brooks said.

Most are shipped out of Arizona the same day they are caught. Upon arriving in Ojinaga, the deportees are greeted by Mexican consular officials, and as needed, given clothes, food and medical attention. Each also is offered a ticket voucher for a trip back home.

"I always tell them, 'You are welcome back in Mexico. You're in Ojinaga,'" said Villa of the Mexican Consulate in Presidio.

"We tell them how difficult it will be to try to get back on this side. We tell them Ojinaga is a very small city, with no jobs. We tell them if they want to go back home, we will help them," she said.

As Vargas and the other arrivals quickly learned, there was little time or opportunity to go astray. While the tired and dirty deportees were busy eating and replacing shoelaces taken from them by agents in Arizona, immigration officials already were handing out bus vouchers.

Idling just outside the immigration office was a sleek gray Chihuahuense bus.

Within an hour of arriving, most if not all of the deportees would be bound first for Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, and then to their hometowns.

Vargas, who was caught on his first attempt to enter the U.S., had no plans on returning.

"I'll feel better to be back in my hometown. I was two days in the brush. I was suffering over there," he said.

Other deportees, however, were grappling with far more complex situations, among them two other Mexicans who had arrived with Vargas. Unlike him, both already had deep ties in the United States.

"I'm a cook in Atlanta. I've been working there for seven years," said Gilberto Diaz, 22, a lanky youth from Guerrero who said he was caught coming back through Arizona following his first visit home.

Diaz said he promised to pay a smuggler $2,000 to get him back to Atlanta, where his job in a Japanese steak house awaits. He was ambiguous about his future plans.

"I've already got my ticket and I'm going back home. After that, I don't know what I'll do," he said.

Seated nearby on a blue plastic chair, wearing a donated winter coat and eating a bologna sandwich, was Israel Hoyos, 32, who didn't plan to stay in Mexico.

A native of Mexico City, Hoyos said he'd lived in Arizona for eight years, rising to become a foreman in a framing company before being deported following a traffic stop.

"I can't go back to Mexico City. I've got a wife and six kids back in Arizona," he said, proudly displaying a business card with his name and company. I have to go back to Arizona, although I have no idea how."

http://blogs.chron.com/txpotomac/2009/1 ... ega_1.html

A native of Mexico City, Hoyos said he'd lived in Arizona for eight years, rising to become a foreman in a framing company before being deported following a traffic stop.

"I can't go back to Mexico City. I've got a wife and six kids back in Arizona," he said, proudly displaying a business card with his name and company. I have to go back to Arizona, although I have no idea how."

Six kids in 8 years?!?!?!?! WHen did he have time to work??? Get the wife and kids and ship them out to him NOW.

Around him, dozens of other Mexicans who also had just arrived from Arizona were eating sandwiches, pulling their belongings from plastic bags marked "Department of Homeland Security" and trying to make sense of it.

Make sense of it!!! Your @$$ has been deported back to your country of orgin! FIGURE IT OUT! You had little or no problems breaking into our country, but now that your back in your beloved mexico, you're suddenly disoriented!

A native of Mexico City, Hoyos said he'd lived in Arizona for eight years, rising to become a foreman in a framing company before being deported following a traffic stop.

"I can't go back to Mexico City. I've got a wife and six kids back in Arizona," he said, proudly displaying a business card with his name and company. I have to go back to Arizona, although I have no idea how."

A forman with a framing company huh! Another job Americans do not want to do I suppose!

A wife and six kids back in Arizona!!! We're losing our country folks!

Seated nearby on a blue plastic chair, wearing a donated winter coat and eating a bologna sandwich, was Israel Hoyos, 32, who didn't plan to stay in Mexico.

A native of Mexico City, Hoyos said he'd lived in Arizona for eight years, rising to become a foreman in a framing company before being deported following a traffic stop.

"I can't go back to Mexico City. I've got a wife and six kids back in Arizona," he said, proudly displaying a business card with his name and company. I have to go back to Arizona, although I have no idea how."

This right here is why we need to go after ALL employers and those that hire these illegal aliens as subcontractors.

I'm serious! Seizure of all personal and corporate/company assets and long jail time, for these greedy anti-American people that hire them.

Six kids!!! Who is supporting them on an illegals wages???? It is not Israel Hoyos!