Sonia Nazario won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing for her series of articles chronicling the attempts of a teenager from Honduras, Enrique, to reach his mother in the United States. She later turned the articles into a book which was made into an HBO movie.
Enrique experienced far more problems getting through Mexico than he did once in the United States. What do the Mexicans think of Central American immigrants?
Chiapas is fed up with Central American immigrants, says Hugo Angeles Cruz, a professor and migration expert at El Colegio de la Frontera Sur in Tapachula. They are poorer than Mexicans, and they are seen as backward and ignorant. People think they bring disease, prostitution and crime and take away jobs. Some cannot be trusted. People in Chiapas talk of being robbed by migrants with guns and knives. They tell of an older woman who welcomed an immigrant into her home and was beaten to death with an iron pipe.
Boys like Enrique are called “stinking undocumented.” They are cursed, taunted. Dogs are set upon them. Barefoot children throw rocks at them. Some use slingshots. “Go to work.” “Get out! Get out!”
Some migrants say Mexicans exploit illegals for a fraction of the going wage, which is 50 pesos, or about $5, a day.
Except for children throwing rocks and slingshots, does this all sound familiar?
Residents of the state of Veracruz are kind to illegal immigrants from Central America, but those by the border aren’t very accommodating.
He cannot beg 100 pesos. People in Nuevo Laredo won’t give. Mexicans along the border, he notices, are quick to proclaim their right to immigrate to the United States. “Jesus was an immigrant,” he hears them say. But most won’t give Central Americans food, money or jobs.
The age-old pesky U.S.-Mexico border problem has taxed the resources of both countries, led to long lists of injustices, and appears to be heading only for worse troubles in the future. Guess what? The border problem can never be solved. Why? Because the border IS the problem! It’s time for a paradigm change.
Never fear, a satisfying, comprehensive solution is within reach: the Megamerge Dissolution Solution. Simply dissolve the border along with the failed Mexican government, and megamerge the two countries under U.S. law, with mass free 2-way migration eventually equalizing the development and opportunities permanently, with justice and without racism, and without threatening U.S. sovereignty or basic principles.
For details, click the Website.
TL Winslow
June 24th, 2009
I just wanted to say I love you libertarian girl!
J.T.
July 1st, 2009