La Migra Cracks-Down On Immigrants Leaving U.S.
Okay, so now I’m confused – and a little worried.
It used to be, in the good ole days, that all I had to keep in mind was the possibility of being stopped for looking like an immigrant in certain parts of the country. There were cities like Hazleton, in Pennsylvania, and the entire state of Arizona, where I could be detained by police or be hassled by landlords because they suspected I was an undocumented immigrant.
It made sense, warped sense, but sense nonetheless. These are nasty laws enacted by opportunistic people, but logical from their point of view. I didn’t like it, but I knew where I stood.
Now comes this, reported in the New York Times:
(Immigration) Agents now regularly hop aboard southbound buses, a common way for migrants to return to their towns and villages. At permanent checkpoints set up at border crossings, they also stop southbound vehicles and confront pedestrians going south on foot.
That’s right, la migra is now asking for papers on the way out of the country.
I used to cross the border every day, literally. I lived in Mexico but went to high school in the U.S. (it was a private school, so I didn’t take advantage of benevolent American tax payers). Crossing the border into Mexico was as natural and easy as crossing the street. I was part of the bustle that you find at any busy border crossing – honking cars and street vendors running between them; the huge trucks of international commerce that made the bridge bounce as they filled the air with exhaust; people on foot, scurrying on the sidewalks; and a din that reached its peak at the line that divides one country from another. It was a constant flow that filled the senses.
That’s the way I remember borders should be. This paper-checking by U.S. officials when you leave the country is absurd. But it makes sense in the absurd reality of immigration politics. On the one hand there are laws that are designed to make undocumented workers pack-up and leave, and on the other there are laws that make that leaving more difficult.
The intent, officials say, is not to discourage illegal immigrants from leaving. Rather, it is to stem the flow of contraband.
Going out of the country? They must mean guns – what else could it be? But in the process people are being forced off buses heading south and detained as they cross the border on foot. They’re finger printed and entered into a national data bank, some are arrested and formally deported. And word is spreading.
As immigration politics heats-up and the economy worsens many immigrants are opting to go back to their counties of origin. You’d think that would be encouraged. But this new twist is frightening. Immigrants are now thinking twice about making the trek south. They’re persecuted coming in, going out and many places in between – when they drive their cars, rent homes or look for work. And those of us who look the part, U.S. Latinos, run the same risks of being detained – it affects us all.
I understand this is in response to calls for the Obama administration to get though on gun smugglers that are feeding the Mexican drug cartels with the weapons that supply their violence. Smugglers purchase guns and ammo in U.S. gun shops then sneak them into Mexico. So shouldn’t this be addressed at the point of sale?
People on both sides of the immigration debate think this is a bad idea.
“This is about the only situation we would ever advocate that our immigration laws be waived,” William Gheen, president of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, said last year in a statement calling for the Obama administration to ease its southbound immigration checks. “We want to encourage the illegals to leave America on their own, and thus we ask Obama to provide them safe passage out of America.”
But we’re long past the point where bad ideas become the new normal. And as bad as this one is, it doesn’t surprise me.
Follow Victor Landa on Twitter: @vlanda
[Photo by Octavian Cosma]
