Even as states were seeking to enact tougher immigration laws, Border Patrol agents in the southern U.S. saw an increase in the number of children attempting to enter the country from Mexico — many unaccompanied.
About 3,000 juveniles were repatriated to Mexico from Nogales between January and September last year, according to Alfonso Vera Sanchez, Mexican consul for protection at the Nogales Mexican consulate.
“We have the biggest number of unaccompanied minors repatriated every day,” Sanchez says, adding that some of the babies are only months old.
The numbers have not significantly changed since September 2010.
On the whole, there has been a drop in the number of immigrants crossing into the U.S. illegally as more checkpoints have been set up along the border. Border Patrol personnel posted in Nogales reported a 17 percent drop in apprehensions from 2008-09; that is down to about 30 per day from about 100, according to agent Richard Funke.
“Nogales was for a long time a hotspot for illegal immigrants until the last two years,” Funke says.
Despite this drop, the increasing number of children coming in is still a problem. Most of the population in Nogales has some migratory status, whether legal or not. Hispanics make up about 30 percent of the Arizona population, according to U.S. Census figures, and many of them have family ties in Mexico.
In the past, undocumented immigrants were able to go back to Mexico and see their families and then re-enter the U.S. With increased security at the border and tougher laws, more undocumented immigrants are afraid to go back home for fear of being denied re-entry.
Even when someone was repatriated, it was mostly voluntary and would not go onto his or her records. Now, apprehended immigrants are fingerprinted and photographed, and records are kept on who was sent back. Undocumented immigrants already in the U.S., therefore, stay permanently and the only way to reunite with their children is to have them brought into the country.
“The problem is that once the mother or father goes to get their child, they don’t have papers, so they get repatriated,” Sanchez says.
According to Funke, if a family is apprehended the father is put into the males’ cell and the woman into the females’ cell with the child if he or she is below 14. Children older than 14 are taken to a separate juvenile cell where they are fingerprinted and photographed.
Agents say the children are well care for before they interviewed by Mexican consulate officials to make sure they were not being trafficked. “We have to provide hot meals for the children and give them anything they want,” Funke says.
Besides children, the Mexican consulate in Nogales, which is responsible for repatriating the vulnerable, has also seen an increase in missing persons, some of whom are found alive but many of whom die in the desert. The city is laced with billboards of missing persons. Funke also says that they are increasingly seeing more people with criminal histories attempting to come into the U.S.
The Mexican government is stepping up its efforts to educate its nationals on the dangers involved in crossing to the U.S. illegally. Sanchez says that the strategy of the Mexican Department of Foreign Affairs is to increase preventive action in educating its nationals.
“The Mexican government is obviously aware that the migration problem is because of underdevelopment in our country, and we are trying to improve our economy, but as long as we have so much differences between our economies, there is always going to be immigrants,” he says.
Elvina Nawaguna-Clemente is a graduate student in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
loubator posted at 12:55 pm on Wed, Feb 23, 2011.
Has anyone seen anything in the local news about that moslem who lived in Glendale, Faleh Hassan Almaleki, who was convicted yesterday of killing his own daughter?
Player posted at 8:54 am on Thu, Feb 24, 2011.
Old Mexicans or young Mexicans, it doesn't really matter..They are still illegal, send'em packin with a lunchbox.
whonew posted at 11:28 pm on Thu, Feb 24, 2011.
Yea, in the end these will be more taxpayer sucking welfare glitches the government wants us to take care of. And then of course they can start breeding and have a reason for their families to join them. Its the land of the "FREE" right? I guess they took that statement literaly !
cactusjumper posted at 6:32 pm on Fri, Feb 25, 2011.
I guess the PC term would be Flanchor babies coming to a town near you. The BP can load em all up in a dog catcher truck and send them all back with a can of ALPO.
saguaro posted at 8:40 pm on Fri, Feb 25, 2011.
Invasion of the Anchor Babies. Next they will be launching them over the border with one of their trebuchets.
deein623 posted at 7:55 am on Sat, Feb 26, 2011.
Well nowadays they are kinda launched (thru a silo thats gonna BLOW up america)
AZMomma posted at 8:04 am on Sat, Feb 26, 2011.
Hand your kid over to a Coyote...a human smuggler.
Hope that sweet little girl doesn't end up in some 3rd world brothel or the little boy a sex-toy of a pedophile.
Is the chance of a life in America a better choice even if the life the child gets is one of misery and slavery?
We see activists screaming, marching getting media face time, but NEVER (repeat NEVER) addressing the issue of the children given to strangers and put at risk.
The cultural thought-process seems to be so alien to the American norm that it just boggles the mind. No wonder they are not welcome here.
[sad]
Masterrogue666 posted at 5:21 am on Tue, Mar 1, 2011.
"Border Patrol agents in the southern U.S. saw an increase in the number of children attempting to enter the country from Mexico — many unaccompanied." -- Don't supporters of ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION claim all they want is a job (STOLEN from an American). It's clear they want much more than that!!!
"17 percent drop in apprehensions" -- That doesn't necessarily mean there's been a decrease in crossings. The key word is APPREHENSIONS....
"Most of the population in Nogales has some migratory status, whether legal or not." -- In other words, their kids cross to get an education (which they don't deserve) paid for by US citizens. Worse, the education of children that are US citizens are NEGATIVELY AFFECTED by these leeches.
"undocumented immigrants" -- Geez Elvina, I call them what the TRUELY are: ILLEGAL ALIENS or INVADING FOREIGN NATIONALS.
It's about time they all get photographed and fingerprinted. That's what happens to CRIMINALS!!! Heck, "The Chandler Rapist" crossed ILLEGALLY at least THREE times!!! If I recall correctly, if a person is caught crossing a second time, the crime is then a FELONY!!!!
Freethinker posted at 7:46 am on Tue, Mar 1, 2011.
Masterrogue666 wrote:
"If I recall correctly, if a person is caught crossing a second time, the crime is then a FELONY!!!!"
Technically rogue, they are felons from the get-go; human smuggling and conspiring with human smugglers are already both felonies...and anyone in this country illegally is guilty of at least one of those crimes (not to mention the plethora of OTHER crimes they commit once here).
As always, it's not the laws that are the problem, it's getting our law "enforcement" officers to stop cherry picking which laws to enforce and which to ignore.
AZ Native posted at 11:50 am on Tue, Mar 1, 2011.
Call them what they are: ILLEGALS...they are NOT immigrants!
Masterrogue666 posted at 9:23 pm on Mon, Mar 7, 2011.
Freethinker: In regards to AZ laws, yes. I was referring to Federal laws. Which everyone knows, the Feds just don't care. That's why when multiple offenders like the "Chandler Rapist" gets so many free passes without more than a slap on the wrist, I get enraged.