Amnesty talk moving immigrants Smugglers busy as workers hope for a deal to
be made
08/27/2001
By SONNY LOPEZ / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
CASAS GRANDES, Mexico – Frantically waving an empty can of Prestone with a
$10 bill in his other hand, Edmundo appeared to be nothing more than a
stranded motorist along a roadside seeking help.
But the 32-year-old man, who would give only his first name, is a coyote, or
human smuggler, on his way to pick up a group of immigrants when his panel
van overheated along the two-lane highway linking Ciudad Juárez to Casas
Grandes, about 140 miles to the southwest.
Business, he said, has been good since Mexico's President Vicente Fox began
urging President Bush and the U.S. Congress to approve an amnesty plan that
would grant guest-worker status and eventually legal residency to an
estimated 3 million Mexicans living in the United States.
"Some of these people – most of them are poor peasants – think they can get
a visa or some kind of status once they're on the other side," the coyote
said during the 30-mile ride into town to fetch water for the van's ailing
cooling system.
"A lot of them are going to wait in Juárez or Palomas, and the others will
cross somewhere in the desert and try their luck."
From Juárez, it's a matter of crossing the heavily guarded Rio Grande into El
Paso. Palomas, 80 miles west along the desert frontier, sits across from
Columbus, N.M.
The status of a proposed amnesty program remains under debate. The Bush
administration has shied away from a policy that would include large numbers
of Mexicans lacking proper documentation, but living in the United States.
The administration has said it is open to discussing a program that would
allow Mexicans to legally enter the country to work on temporary visas, and
to offering similar permission to some Mexicans already working illegally in
the United States.
In late July, Mr. Fox said all Mexicans working in the United States should
be given amnesty or legal status because of their contributions to the U.S.
economy.
As the discussion continues, at least 30 coyotes such as Edmundo have been
arrested trying to lead small bands of immigrants along the open desert from
Ciudad Juárez to Palomas, said Jaime Torres Valades, assistant deputy for
immigration at Mexico's migration agency in Ciudad Juárez.
Mr. Torres said the coyotes have abandoned well-known urban crossings in
favor of dangerous open desert routes. He said that up to 30,000 immigrants
are believed to have crossed the 80 miles of desert between El Paso and
Columbus since the beginning of the year.
"People try to cross every day, but it's unclear if it's because of the
amnesty" discussion, said Mr. Torres, who believes many immigrants from
Central and South America now use the Ciudad Juárez International Airport as
a transfer point, then begin their overland trip north.
"There is a sense that many of these immigrants are trying to take advantage
of this [amnesty] program, but we'd have to interview each and every one of
them to be certain," he said.
"The truth is that the movement of people north into the United States is a
constant, and it is going to continue as people seek a better life."
Doug Mosier, U.S. Border Patrol spokesman in El Paso, said the number of
immigrants trying to illegally enter the country is down 5 percent from last
year.
"At the beginning of the calendar year, there was a wait-and-see attitude
regarding the amnesty program, but right now we're not hearing that," he
said.
The reasons why the immigrants come seemed not to matter to coyote Edmundo as
he worried about the possibility of having to buy a new radiator. But he
strongly agreed with Mr. Fox that Mexicans living and working illegally in
the United States should not be considered second-class citizens.
"I don't think these people should be mistreated, because they work and are
not lazy freeloaders. They help keep two economies going," said the smuggler
who charges immigrants $100 to $500 per trip.
"I'm just a businessman. I'm not taking sides or care about the reasons, but
I know that a hard-working man should never have to hide or be treated like a
criminal."
Mr. Fox is scheduled to visit Washington, D.C., in early September and he has
said he hopes to make progress on the amnesty issue while there. He faces
stiff opposition from anti-immigrant groups and congressional conservatives
who have opposed any program other than the temporary, guest worker visas.
Sonny Lopez is an El Paso free-lance writer.
http://www.dallasnews.com/texas_southwest/455092_crossers_27tex.html
