‘It was like a horror movie’ – the undocumented Latinos living in fear

*A fascinating story about how a 100 mile limit, a surge in border security spending and idle Border Patrol agents caused split families, broken dreams and affected the floral industry. VL

By Rory Carroll, The Guardian

The rainforests around Forks, a small town in Washington state, have long attracted hunters and fishermen, but beginning in 2008, this lush, remote landscape acquired a new breed of pursuer and prey.

That year, Border Patrol agents started targeting undocumented Latinos who lived in the town and worked in the woods, collecting mushrooms and salal, a shrub used by florists.

The agents set up roadblocks, tailed vehicles and trekked through the forests, sometimes disguising themselves as hunters, in a tense – and, eventually, lethal – game of cat-and-mouse.

Not all the Latinos living in Forks at the time were undocumented, but dread still gripped much of the community, which represented about a third of Forks’ population of 3,500. To avoid “la migra”, they kept watch for patrols, shopped at night and minimised contact with schools, police or anything official.

Click HERE to read the full story.

[Photo by Marcus Ward/Flickr]

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