Illegal Immigrants Fleeing Back Home As Entitlements End And Laws Get Enforced
PHOENIX (Reuters) - Mexican illegal immigrant Lindi sat down with her husband Marco Antonio in the weeks before Christmas to decide when to go back to Mexico.
She has spent three years working as a hairdresser in and around Phoenix, but now she figures it is time to go back to her hometown of Aguascalientes in central Mexico.
“The situation has got so tough that there don’t seem to be many options left for us,” Lindi, who asked for her last name not to be used, told Reuters.
The couple are among a growing number of illegal immigrants across the United States who are starting to pack their bags and move on as a crackdown on undocumented immigrants widens and the U.S. economy slows, turning a traditional Christmas trek home into a one-way trip.
In the past year, U.S. immigration police have stepped up workplace sweeps across the country and teamed up with a growing number of local forces to train officers to enforce immigration laws.
Meanwhile, a bill seeking to offer many of the 12 million illegal immigrants a path to legal status was tossed by the U.S. Congress, spurring many state and local authorities to pass their own measures targeting illegal immigrants.
The toughening environment has been coupled with a turndown in the U.S. economy, which has tipped the balance toward self deportation for many illegal immigrants left struggling to find work.
“It is still just a thought, although we are preparing to leave,” said Ernesto Garcia, a carpenter from Caborca in northwest Mexico, who stood in line at the Mexican consulate in Phoenix this week for paperwork that will allow him and his family to resume their lives south of the border.
PACKING THEIR BAGS
There is no tally of the number of illegal immigrants who have already left the United States, many of whom simply head south over the border with their belongings packed into a car during the annual Christmas exodus, or board scheduled flights for other destinations.
Mexican consular sources in Phoenix say they are seeing a spike in the number of immigrants applying for Mexican citizenship for their U.S.-born children, which will allow them to enroll in schools in Mexico.
They are also seeing a rise in requests for papers enabling families to carry household belongings back to Mexico, free of import duties.
Members of the Brazilian community in the U.S. northeast, meanwhile, say they are starting to see an increase in the number of illegal immigrants heading back to their homes in Brazil in recent months.
“They are beginning to put in the balance the constant fear of being detained and deported, and many are deciding to leave,” said Fausto Mendes da Rocha, executive director of the Brazilian Immigrant Center in Boston.
Other returning immigrants cite a slowdown in the U.S. economy as a factor, and the falling value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies, which has eaten into the value of remittances sent to support families at home.
Aluisio Carvalho, 66, left a wife and four children behind in Brazil in 2001 when he set off to find work in Boston. Since then, he has managed to pay for the education of his children by working in a restaurant, but is now planning to leave himself in February
“Salaries are really low, and living costs are high. We also face too much exploitation at work here, too many demands,” he said.
MOVING WITHIN THE UNITED STATES
While some illegal immigrants are simply self deporting, others are moving within the United States to avoid federal immigration raids and pro-enforcement measures passed by a patchwork of state and local authorities.
Among them are undocumented immigrants in Marshalltown, Iowa, where Mexicans and Central Americans workers at a Swift & Co meatpacking plant were arrested during coordinated immigration raids across six states a year ago that netted hundreds of employees.
Moses Garcia, a U.S. citizen who came from Mexico 18 years ago and knew many of the families affected by the 2006 raid through his church and real estate work, said most of the workers have left to other states, not back to Mexico.
“They feel like they are not welcome here,” Garcia said. “They go to Minnesota, Atlanta, Nebraska, California.”
In Arizona, where some specially trained sheriff’s deputies already enforce immigration laws and a new state law sanctioning businesses hiring undocumented workers is due to come in to effect January 1, many illegal immigrants are eyeing a move to states they see as less hostile.
Among them is day laborer Fernando Gutierrez who trekked illegally into the desert state 18 months ago from Mexico, and is now thinking of joining a cousin working in Oregon in the Pacific northwest.
“Everyone lives in fear of the police stopping you for some minor infraction and then asking for your papers,” Gutierrez said as he touted for work in the chill morning air at a Phoenix day labor site.
“I want to get as far away from here as possible.”
(Additional reporting by Adriana Garcia in Washington and Andrea Hopkins in Marshalltown; Editing by Eddie Evans)
© Reuters 2007 All rights reserved
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Now all we have to start doing is putting politically incorrect pressure on the corrupt Mexican government and shame them into spreading out amongst its poor some of that oil money we give to PEMEX.
December 24th, 2007 at 5:44 pm“Everyone lives in fear of the police stopping you for some minor infraction and then asking for your papers,” Gutierrez said as he touted for work in the chill morning air at a Phoenix day labor site.
What the hell are we doing? Running a POLICE state here where everyone lives in fear?
Merry Christmas.
December 24th, 2007 at 5:55 pmA’dios amigos–
December 24th, 2007 at 6:03 pmTime to go home and take your country back.
You have learned a trade in the U.S. at the expense of many of our young people by blowin them out of a decent paying job in the trades and scum employers who hire illegals will be put out of business.
You illegals have decimated the middle class people of this country.
That ALL ends here in Arizona on Jan 7th—(you other states had better get a plan!)
Now grow a set, go home, and drag your country into the 21st century. DAMN.
Leave your “re Conquista” activists” here, we’ll take care of that little problem locally,———- real “local”
I love how:
1. A slowdown in the economy is cited as a factor, but not a single figure is cited to support it, while intimating that economics is causing some jealous nativist impulse against the poor oppressed illegal immigrants. Of course, most information I’ve seen/heard gives the opposite economic picture, but that doesn’t matter to Reuters.
2. They only interview illegal immigrants and sympathizers.
3. The whining of those interviewed is grossly exaggerated. Their only punishment is getting sent back to their home country. That’s it. No fines, no imprisonment (except for temporary holding while they get sent back), and no other consequences of any kind.
What the hell are we doing? Running a POLICE state here where everyone lives in fear?
They’re breaking the law. They’re in the country illegally. Generally, those who are breaking the law are afraid to get caught. If you’ve ever seen one of the numerous cop shows, then you know the standard story of how a cop stops a car for a minor infraction (broken taillight, overdue registration, speeding…) and they suddenly find that the car was stolen, the person in possession of drugs, it’s someone with a warrant out for their arrest, et al., the person(s) act very nervously while the cop goes through his routine.
Oh, and I love this gem: “Everyone lives in fear of the police stopping you for some minor infraction and then asking for your papers…” They don’t “ask you for your papers.” A police officer asks for I.D., as is standard procedure, which produces complications for someone who’s here illegally. The officer goes back to his car to check if there are outstanding warrants or other items on a person’s record (again, standard procedure) and it’s likely that that little issue of them BEING HERE ILLEGALLY might come up.
“They feel like they are not welcome here,” Garcia said…
No, what I don’t welcome are people breaking the laws of my country, then telling me that my culture doesn’t matter, and that I *have* to accommodate their every whim, while they exploit social services that our tax dollars pay for. It’s like a person breaking into your house, sh**ing on your carpet, and then demanding that you feed them dinner. Of course, if you move to call the police to drag this trespasser out of your home, they’ll yell and spit in your face, calling you every vile thing possible.
If you come here to become an American, great, then you’re my countryman and we’re glad to have you. If you come here, thinking of this place as a candy store and that you don’t have to respect our laws, our society, and our culture, you can kiss my backside and head back home. “You’re just mean. You’re racist.” No, I’m doing the exact same thing you would do if I came to your country and did the same things there. And chances are, you would do far worst to me.
I’m not unsympathetic to the plight of those desperate to escape poverty or persecution, which is why I abhor the fact that our immigration system shuts a lot of good honest people out of this country through red tape and incompetent bureaucracy, and wish for reform, but I’m also well aware that a person can apply for asylum or go to one of the numerous US embassies around the world and plead their case there.
So, in short, come as guest, not a trespasser.
December 24th, 2007 at 6:39 pm@0311inOHio
“What the hell are we doing? Running a POLICE state here where everyone lives in fear?”
Nope….just the ones who are here illegally!
December 24th, 2007 at 6:42 pmEnjoy Oregon. Oregonians are extremely liberal, so I’m sure they will welcome you with open arms. Enjoy it Oregonians.
As a legal resident of Phoenix, I will continue to enjoy Arizona.
As far as a police state goes, I fear nothing as I am not a law breaker. I sleep well.
December 24th, 2007 at 6:43 pm@DC:
I was being sarcastic…
December 24th, 2007 at 8:11 pmThe problem I see is that these people can be useful to us and they can be good workers while we have people here that are citizens and are worthless.
December 24th, 2007 at 9:59 pm“Martin Herrera, a 40-year-old illegal immigrant and masonry worker who lives in Camp Verde, 70 miles north of Phoenix, said he is planning to return to Mexico as soon as he ties up loose ends after living here for four years.
‘I don’t want to live here because of the new law and the oppressive environment,’ he said. ‘I’ll be better in my country.’ ”
December 24th, 2007 at 11:46 pmhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22370480
–
Hmm, better in my own country? Just what I thought, NOT an immigrant. A Mexican carpetbagger.
I’ll pay more for my lettuce, thats fine, AMF.
December 25th, 2007 at 12:32 amBuh by
http://www.grouchyoldcripple.com/archives/Not yours yours-1.JPG
December 25th, 2007 at 7:06 amBest way to stop illegal immigration is to stop the employers that hire them. Don’t want to pay SS taxes employers? No probs. Pay a stiff fine instead.
Bah bye illegals.
And let us not be so cruel as to seperate illegal families. Ship the whole family back. That way the can be together.
Did I say bah bye yet? And don;t let the door hit you on the ass on the way out. Hasta Luego.
December 25th, 2007 at 8:40 amIllegal Immigrants Fleeing Back Home As Entitlements End And Laws Get Enforced
What a wonderful Christmas present to wake up to!!!
December 25th, 2007 at 9:28 amFriggin Reuters - “…the U.S. economy slows….The toughening environment has been coupled with a turndown in the U.S. economy…” As if that false scenario has anything at all to do with illegals wearing out their unwelcome.
Yeah, like we’re supposed to believe the U.S. economy is so bad the illegals will have it better in Mexico. U.S. unemployment remains at all time lows, retail sales shooting through the roof, tax revenues due in large part to tax cuts are up, etc, etc. The U.S. economy has only slowed in your twisted dem-talking-points-minds Reuters.
December 25th, 2007 at 9:47 amIhave to agree with cb10
There are many Americans that should have been uplifted by jobs taken by illegals and scum employers.
December 25th, 2007 at 6:43 pmWe spent our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the local ER . . . my 15-year-old daughter was really ill with vomiting and dehydration, etc, (she is finally getting better tonight) . . . a funny moment was when the registration representative came in to collect our $200 ER copayment, my husband pretended to only speak Spanish . . . my daughter, as sick as she was, had to laugh . . .
December 25th, 2007 at 10:37 pmSo once they drag down our economy to their own country’s level, they leave? Is Hillary at work here? Equal economy for everyone? Then they wait in line at the mexican consulate so they can get back to mexico? Why didn’t they go through the lines and paperwork to get here in the first place? Then they could stay and potentially get better paying jobs legally. Foreign doesn’t mean dumb? My ass.
December 26th, 2007 at 8:18 am