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Immigration See other Immigration Articles Title: Mexican security, railway damage slow flow of illegal immigrants from Central America to U.S. ARRIAGA, Chiapas — For thousands of illegal immigrants from Central America, the long journey to the U.S. has started here, on the groaning back of a freight train they call "The Beast." These days, however, fewer of them are finding their trips to be a success. Central Americans without documents face increased security within Mexico, including checks on the train for stowaways. It's also harder for them to head north once they cross into Mexico because of hurricane damage to the tracks. The result: The number of non-Mexican immigrants stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol has dropped almost 60 percent from 2005. About 68,000 non-Mexican immigrants — mostly Central Americans — were detained last year, compared with 165,000 in 2005. Non-Mexicans make up about 10 percent of the immigrants detained by officers. Mexico is seeing fewer illegal immigrants — 120,000 were arrested last year, a 50 percent drop from 2005, when Hurricane Stan hit and destroyed the railroad, according to the the National Immigration Institute. Since President Felipe Calderón took office two years ago, Mexico has added soldiers and federal police on its border with Guatemala and more checkpoints in the south. Despite its efforts to secure its southern border, Mexico does not try to stop its citizens from crossing north illegally into the U.S., beyond pursuing drug and people smugglers. By law, Mexico said, Mexicans can go wherever they want within the country, including the border. They don't break any laws until they are on U.S. soil. Many Mexicans are sympathetic to illegal immigrants from Central America, but the issue causes tensions that echo the U.S. debate. Isaac Castillo, owner of the Hotel La Posada in Arriaga, says immigrants often end up working in Mexico, where wages can be double earnings at home. "The problem isn't just in the U.S., but in Mexico, because a lot of Central Americans want to stay here and compete with Mexicans for jobs," he said. Immigrants are searching for new routes. Some pay smugglers $7,000 to go by boat into southern Mexico, then hide in tractor-trailers. The operators of those boats and trucks try to evade checkpoints set up every few miles along southern roadways. Immigrants have died when false floors collapsed under the weight of freight, and 22 Salvadorans drowned in an October shipwreck off the coast of southern Oaxaca state. For immigrants unable or unwilling to risk the sea, "The Beast" is the only option for the 2,000-mile trip to the U.S. The trek begins at the Suchiate River, on the border with Guatemala, where for $1 they cross on makeshift rafts into sweltering jungles. They hike along sun-scorched tracks to Arriaga for up to nine days. Arriaga, 200 miles from the border, is the closest place to hop a train since the hurricane destroyed the Chiapas-Mayab line. As they go, they pay off thieves, immigration officials, police and railroad workers. When they're caught, migrants say they're often abused by Mexican authorities. In one case last year in the northern city of Saltillo, immigrants complained to the National Human Rights Commission of rectal exams done by officials who said they were checking for cholera. "The mistreatment of migrants here is brutal, and no one does anything about it because everyone sees them as booty," said Heyman Vasquez, a Roman Catholic priest. The slowdown in immigrant traffic is notable in Arriaga, a town of corn and sorghum farmers. Only a few clusters of Central American men and women linger in the mostly abandoned, graffiti-covered station, where they wait for the first train they can grab. Sitting on a cracked sidewalk outside the shelter, one Nicaraguan man says he once saw a group of criminals rape a woman and shoot her boyfriend. A Honduran couple talked of fleeing their country after gang members killed their teenage daughter, leaving their seven children, ages 18 to 1, in hiding. After immigrants catch a train, they often bribe private guards and police stationed along the tracks. Some are too tired to hold on to the train and fall, losing limbs. The trip itself can be deadly.Jorge Guevara, a 21-year-old Salvadoran, said he first rode the train to the U.S.-Mexico border in 2001 and saw 20 people crushed when cars derailed. It took Milagros Rivera and her family a month to reach Ixtepec, 85 miles north of Arriaga. By then, the 36-year-old from El Salvador said they had been robbed three times. The first time was at the river crossing into Mexico. Soldiers demanded money before allowing her, her boyfriend, her son, 20, and her daughter-in-law, 18, to continue on. About 50 miles later, gunmen held them up along the tracks, forced them to strip naked and took $1,500, Rivera said. "It was a terrible moment because they took my daughter-in-law away, and we thought they were going to rape her," Rivera said. The thieves freed the girl unharmed. But then they were robbed by a local police officer of the $40 they had collected begging on the streets. Rivera said she is bound for Virginia, where friends have promised to help her. "There is a lot of suffering," she said. "But the hope of reaching your destination helps you to keep going."
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#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
There is indeed. Everywhere. The story I posted earlier about the father accidentally killing his 8 yr old son while hunting almost did me in. This story added to the despair...along with the realization of the coming martial law in the usa, food riots and gas riots. I see no earthly way out for us..Act III Scene III begins..
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