By: Jéssica Medrano
There is a line that
thousands of people are watching. On one side is Mexico, on the other, the U.S.
Raul, a man as many others, will cross the border again and again. It
doesn't matter how. Anything to be with his family.
"Your car is nice," said a man to Raul that
morning. Raul didn't know the man, and he thought that maybe he wanted to buy his
car. "Did you bring it from Mexico?" added another man with a hint of sarcasm. "No, I bought it here," Raul
answered, confused by the question. He soon realized why they had come. "Do you know who we are?"
asked the second man. At that moment Raul noticed the golden eagle and the letters
ICE on their chests. They were U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement´s agents, or, as Latinos call them, La Migra. Their mission was to send Raul to Mexico.
Raul had arrived in the United States almost
21 years before, on May 16, 1989. He was 17 years old and his new life had begun.
He arrived as many other Mexicans and Central Americans do: illegally. However,
in 2002, Raul got a permit to stay in the U.S . He doesn't know what program he
qualified for, but he was very happy the day he
was granted permission to stay. He didn't have to live in the shadows.
At least for a while.
Nevertheless, after five
years he needed to renew his permit. In order to stay legally, Raul had to
prove that he had a family, a wife, or a daughter who depended of him. But Raul
was single at the time, and childless.
So he lost his permit, and he received the Final Removal Order.
Raul didn't leave, but he
didn't hide either. He had a Social Security card and a California ID. He
worked, he paid taxes, he rented a house, and he bought a car. In 2009, he
married Daniela. "She is the woman that I was looking for," he says
today. Daniela sits next to him, smiling..
She is from Guatemala; he is from Mexico—the work of an international Cupid.
"Do you know who we
are?" asked on of the ICE agents that day. They showed Raul a picture.
"Do you know this man?”
"Yes, that's
me," said Raul. He was sure that it could be his last day in the US.
"We have an order to
send you back to Mexico again. We were told that you are a very dangerous drug
dealer," said one of the agents.
The last phrase was a
slap in the face for Raul. "Okay, but you can check my records. I didn’t do
any of those things. I am clean," said Raul in his soft, low voice.
They checked his
background. Raul was not lying. They put
him in their ICE truck, and went into Raul’s house.
"What I am going to
do in Mexico?" Raul asked himself while he was waiting. "What's going
to happen to my wife and my baby?" Inside, Daniela was still
sleeping. She was five months pregnant. Raul
promised himself that he would come back soon. No matter how..
When the agents came
back, they brought his brother,
Federico, as well.
According to a recent Homeland
Security report, 387,242 undocumented aliens were
removed from the U.S. in 2010. Of those, 282,003 were Mexican. The same data
shows that 168,532 deportees have criminal records, and 218,710 of them, like
Raul, were not criminals..
Daniela woke up when she
heard her mother in-law crying. "They took my sons," she cried.
Daniela didn't understand. Her cell phone rang . It was Raul. "Sweetie,” he said. “La
Migra caught me and I will be deported, but don't worry. I will come back soon.".
Daniela started crying.
She knew that the word “soon” could mean hours, days, months, or even years.
Raul
also called his boss. "Don't worry, Raul. I know you are a good worker.
When you come back, there will be a job waiting for you," his boss told
him.
On April 6, 2010, Raul and Federico crossed
the border, this time heading south instead of north. It was 2:00 pm, just seven
hours after the ICE agents had confronted them, and now they were in Tijuana.
On January 25 2011, the
Republican Majority asked President Barack Obama to increase the number of
raids of undocumented immigrants. "Every day that the ICE arrests or
deports an Illegal worker, it's creating an opportunity of employment for an American
worker," emphasized Lamar Smith, President of the Judicial Committee in
the House of Representatives, to the press.
For pro-immigrant organizations,
these kind of statements are not realistic . "In 2010, there were more
than 500,000 people deported," says Marvin H. Andrade, Executive
Director of The Central American Resource Center (CARECEN). "However,
those raids were not in agriculture places; these took place in cities. Why?
Because the U.S. needs immigrants to harvest, to plant, to pick up the food
that everybody is eating in this country.".
When
Raul got to Tijuana, he thought, "My family is in the other
side. In Mexico I don't have anyone. I've spent most of my life in the U.S." He had to cross the border
once again. For six thousand dollars, a human smuggler, or coyote, promised him
to get him across the border. He said goodbye to the money he had saved for his
baby’s birth. The smuggler gave him a fake ID. He got past the first agent, but not the second.
Federico
had better luck. On the twelfth day, he employed
his contortionist skills hid behind the seat of a car, and crossed
the border safely. Two weeks later, Raul
and five others got into the trunk of another car, one next to the other, like
a packaged sausages. All undocumented immigrants with different stories but the
same goal. "Knock Knock," said the Border patrol agent with a smirk.
"Are you doing okay in there?" The agent opened the trunk, and soon
Raul was back in Tijuana.
A few days
later, after much searching, Raul found a little hole in the border fence and
snuch through while the agents were looking the other way. Behind him was
Mexico; it meant nothing to him. In front of him was the future—his wife and
his baby. He cleaned up and went to a restaurant. Three hours later, a car
arrived and took him to Phoenix. A couples days later, he was in Los Angeles.
On January
17, 2010, after spending hundreds of millions on a virtual border fence, the
U.S. Government canceled SBInet, a
program intended to
strengthen surveillance in sections of the border with Mexico. Raul, and
thousands of others just like him, had proved that in spite of U.S. efforts,
immigrants still are crossing.
"They can build another Great
Wall of China, but in Mexico,” said Andrade. “Nevertheless, immigrants are
still coming through, because immigration is like water. It always find a way.”
After one month and 23 days, Raul saw
Daniela again. "She had gotten bigger since I left," Raul says,
laughing. She was almost seven month and a little girl was growing in her womb.
"And he was skinnier," says Daniela, sadly.
Raul and Daniela are not their real
names. Both are living in the shadows now, both are dreaming with an
immigration reform that can give them peace. The one that for them still is a promise. They live afraid that La Migra
will separate them again. However, if that happens, Raul says he will find
another hole in the wall.
