A Path to Work

Rogaciano is 19 years old.  His family is living in the village of Revolucion in southern Mexico.  He speaks a native dialect and only knows the little Spanish he learned attending school through 4^th grade.  Rogaciano said his family are poor farmers.   He said his parents have done everything for him and he has a responsibility to take care of them.  His brother left home several years ago and sends money home to his parents.   He believes his brother lives in New York.  He is traveling with 2 friends about the same age.  We met him in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.  In his village, he says, there is not enough work for him to find a job.  These three were planning to cross the U.S. Border fence in the next couple days to find work.   He says all the young men in his village have either left to for the US or are planning to leave.  Rogaciano planned on finding his way to New York.

No photos were allowed at Grupos Beta.
I snuck one of their truck.

We met him at Grupos Beta.  Grupos Beta is a Mexican Federal Agency that provides advice for those newly deported or planning a crossing.  

These 3 boys looked fit, as 19 year olds do, and were about to go on a major expedition.   Although Rogaciano was a quiet sort it seemed these boys were excited for this adventure.  

These guys ought to be excited - they had one of the big journeys of their life ahead.

What stands in their way? 

Why don’t they just get a visa?

A tourist visa to the U.S.

There are a couple types of visas that are possible.  Unfortunately they are out of reach for the Mexican poor.  One is a tourist visa.  To get a tourist visa you must demonstrate that you have $5,000 to $10,000 on deposit in a Mexican bank.   You could get a H2B service worker visa.  That is possible, but they are few and you need to be fortunate enough that you have an employer sponsor in the U.S.  If you have a immediate family member who is a U.S. citizen you can apply for a work permit.  Remarkably the waiting list for these work permits is over 20 years long.  Other than that you need to be wealthy, have special skills, or be famous.   The visa avenue is never going to cut it for the poor in Mexico. 

No Visa?  You’ve got to cross the wall.

Supplies:  These boys were about to walk 70 or more miles across the desert.  They each had a small backpack which held a jacket and a couple cans of food.  They were planning on bringing 2 gallons of water each.  These boys seemed to have sturdy shoes but we saw others who were wearing street and tennis shoes.  Other than that they had the clothes on their back and each had a baseball cap.   They expected to walk continuously, day and night, for at least 3 days.  He said they want to be able to move fast.  They had no compass or map. Would REI be satisfied with this plan?   How does this stack up to supplies you might take on just a 1 day hike?

Where do I cross?

Kino Border Initiative, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico

The general rules seem to be to cross at night and do it away from town.   Since they don’t have a map they either walk until it seems like the right place or maybe they can hitch a ride with someone.   At Grupos Beta there were quite a few people and you might get some hints of where and when from them.  If you had gone to the Kino Border Initiative you might have studied the map on the wall and gotten some ideas and you might have even been given a small compass.   The Kino maps really don’t get into much detail as they mostly show where people have been found dead in the desert versus where to travel.   See more details on Kino in Steve’s blog post titled Tucson to Nogales and Back.

Won’t someone help me find the way?

Sure, there are plenty of people in town for hire.  They are called coyotes and their service is to guide you to Tucson on Phoenix and sometimes all the way to your destination anywhere in the US.  We were told the going rate is about $3000.   Assuming you have that money, you've got a guide.   Unfortunately the coyotes are unreliable or maybe I should say reliably undependable.  They say that if you are injured they will leave you, if you fall behind they will leave you, maybe they will rape you, and some will guide you to a house on the US side where they will hold you for ransom until your family pays up, or maybe they will sell you into servitude, and in the worst cases they will kill you.   The New York Times reported “The question is not if a female migrant will be raped,” Shura Wallin, an aid worker in Arizona, told me, “but when and how often. Things are getting so much worse here.”²   I a talk by Richard Crocker, Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security Investigations, Phoenix he shared many examples of rampant kidnapping and violence that inflicts this shadow society. 

Other helpers?

Some coyotes are not coyotes.  These guys are sometimes drug traffickers looking for mules to transport drugs into the US. They will give you a load to carry with you with the threat of death to you or your family if you refuse or fail.  

Being Poor has its perks!

If you are poor you might not be able to afford a coyote.  This at least keeps you out of buying your way into trouble.   Of course this is not all sunshine as often the poor are simply kidnapped by drug or human traffickers.   Many of these migrants simply disappear.

Steve and me at the Nogales barrier, US side

Crossing the Fence:  The fence is imposing.  It is a monument to intimidation.  In Nogales it is 18 feet high and in some places, on berms, it is made of large square metal posts with a gap between each of about 4 inches.  It goes on for many miles each direction from the town.  They call this a bollarded fence when it has spaces.  Near the top is a large steel plate that makes the top difficult to climb.  Beyond the fence there are some clear lands, large lights, night vision cameras, and numerous Border Patrol Agents posted in vehicles at intervals.   The challenge is to cross the fence quickly, avoid getting injured during the climb and descent, avoid detection, and run north into the desert.  

This fence is not trivial.  The New York Times has reported that sections of the fence have cost about $16 million per mile to construct¹.   Currently the fence is 671 miles long (about 1/3 of the total Mexican border).   Do the math – that’s $10.75 billion so far.  Some reports say that it cost only $8 billion so far since some sections are less complex than others.  

Now how much might the rest of this barrier cost?  The remaining parts are in remote locations with difficult terrain. I think the cost would be on the high end of average – closer to the $16M/mile number.   Okay, 1200 miles of barrier times $16 million = $19.2 Billion.   This is consistent with the number found in the New York Times article already mentioned. 

Right now the fence is not being expanded very quickly.  The current year Department of Homeland Security budget calls for only $329M for Border Security Fencing, Infrastructure, and Technology which is down form over $500 million 2 years ago. 

So you crossed the wall?  Now what? 

You just jumped from the wall and hit the desert floor.  No broken ankles – that’s good.  Looks like the other travelers with you made it without injury - that’s good.  Now you need to avoid being seen.  In Steve’s blog entry titled The Desert Walk you see a story of the desert.  It is dry, there is no water to be found except for rainfall a couple times a year.  It is cold at night and blazing hot during the day.   The vegetation is thick and is covered with thorns, and there are snakes, scorpions, and very rugged terrain. 

People are after you.  There are about 20,000 border patrol guards along the Mexican border and several hundred National Guardsmen.  Of course these guys work in shifts so probably about 1/3 of this crew is working and any given time.  So something over 6500 guards are watching for you.  Stay in the few trees you can find or crouch low, close to the cacti, to avoid these guys if you can and split up if your group is caught as they can’t catch all of you. 

The USA Jobs website, where Border Patrol jobs are advertised, reports starting salaries of $38,000 to $63,000/ Per Year.  So lets say that these guys average someplace in the middle.  That’s about $51,000 per year.  Of course $51,000 is without medical, social security payroll taxes, leave, health insurance, retirement, and other benefits.   A reasonable multiplier might be 75%.  So the real cost to the government per person is probably more like $89,000.   So you have $1.78 billion in security guards trying to track you down. 

This of course that does not include the hundreds of trucks, weapons, surveillance equipment, supply depots, maintenance crews, and all the associated logistics and administration to keep these agents working.   That cost is probably another $750 million. 

View Larger Map
Drive from Nogales, AZ to Tucson, AZ.

The walk:

The drive from Nogales to Tuscon is striking.  There are wide open views across a vast scrub desert with mountains in the distance on both sides.   The drive takes about an hour with only one stop where Border Patrol Agents check your vehicle for smuggled contraband and immigrants.  

Of course you're walking this 70 miles.  Steve talks about this in his blog entry titled The Desert Walk.  The immigrants avoid the roads for fear of being caught.  You will see lots of things people have left behind in the desert, such as jackets, toothbrushes, blankets, empty water bottles.  Your job is to keep going, avoid being seen, avoid getting hurt, and keeping your wits.  Your walk is over if you can’t keep it together.    The US Border and Customs Patrol reports that between 350 and 400 people die a year crossing the Southwest deserts despite significant reductions in apprehensions in recent years.

Finding Safety:

You've traveled 70 miles through the desert under the harshest conditions.  You avoided being caught, you avoided being kidnapped, you did not get seriously injured, you did not get hypothermia or heat stroke, and you did not die.   Now you need to find a safe place.  Who do you talk to?  Where do you go?  Who do you approach and who do you avoid?  This is where you must use your wits as you reenter the community and hope you find a friend or at least a willing conspirator.   Now to find work.

References:

¹ New York Times,  Oct 19, 2011, Some Cheer Border Fence as Others Ponder the Cost, Julia Preston, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/us/politics/border-fence-raises-cost-questions.html?_r=0

² New York Times, June 21, 2012, Death in the Desert, Amanda Rose, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/opinion/migrants-dying-on-the-us-mexico-border.html

3 Huffington Post, August 17, 2012, Border Crossing Deaths More Common As Illegal Immigration Declines, Carolina Moreno,  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/opinion/migrants-dying-on-the-us-mexico-border.html