NACO, Mexico ---- Sitting near the U.S. border with Mexico, 36-year-old Alberto Gonzalez said he was concerned but not deterred by the Minuteman Project, a civilian border-watch group that aims report illegal immigrants coming across the Arizona border with Mexico. "I think they should leave that work to authorities," said Gonzalez, who said he was contemplating crossing the border illegally.
Thousands of illegal immigrants cross the border through Arizona each year. The members of the Minuteman Project said they want to call attention to the problem and to have the federal government increase resources to the U.S. Border Patrol.
Last year, more than half of the 1.1 million people caught by the U.S. Border Patrol were caught in Arizona, according to immigration authorities. Much of the illegal immigration has shifted to this part of the country after significant resources were poured into securing California's border with Mexico 10 years ago.
Gonzalez said he spent six years working in Seattle as a plumber and doing other odd jobs until he returned to Mexico because of a death in his family. He said most illegal immigrants go to the United States for work, not to collect benefits or commit crimes as some of the Minuteman volunteers claim.
About 30 miles away, in the dusty Mexican border town of Agua Prieta, a group of other would-be migrant workers said they were also preparing to cross the border illegally for economic reasons in the coming days.
"In Mexico, I make 50 pesos (less than $4), but over there I can make $50 or $100 a day," said a man named Hector, who declined to give his last name. "That's the difference."
The 22-year-old man said there are thousands of people like himself ---- well educated, but unable to earn enough money to live. He said that many were willing to risk their lives to find better opportunities in the United States, even if that means facing groups such as the Minuteman Project.
"If there was a legal way for me to go work for six months and then come back, I would use it," he said while in the lobby of a hotel in Agua Prieta, surrounded by another 15 people who said they too are hoping to cross the border illegally.
Another man, who declined to be identified, said no matter how many Minuteman volunteers watch the border or how many Border Patrol agents are stationed there, illegal immigrants will find a way to get through.
"There are many more of us," he said. "We will get through, we have to."