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Mexicans deported from US face shattered lives
2008-08-24
TIJUANA, Mexico - The towering black gate opens silently to an alley with walls of corrugated metal. Scrawled in large white letters on one wall is: "The End." Muzi.com News 10077177-0 (muzi.com)For those deported from the United States, the words are an unnecessary reminder. Nearly every hour of the day, guards unlock this gate that leads back into Mexico, clicking open the padlocks hung on each side, in each nation. Muzi.com News 10077177-1 (muzi.com) Every time the gate slams shut, it wipes out a dream, divides a family, ends a life lived in the shadows of the law. Muzi.com News 10077177-2 (muzi.com) On average, 700 Mexicans expelled from the United States walk through this gate daily, according to Mexican government figures. They include farmers, construction workers, prisoners, nannies, children, entire families. Muzi.com News 10077177-3 (muzi.com) A few steps from the gate, American tourists pose for photos in front of a stone relief. They are oblivious to the men, women and children sadly shuffling into a homeland many risked their lives to leave. Muzi.com News 10077177-4 (muzi.com) ___ Muzi.com News 10077177-5 (muzi.com) U.S. deportations have jumped by more than 60 percent over the past five years. Mexicans accounted for nearly two-thirds of those deportees, helping to roll back one of the biggest migrations of recent history. All along the border, shelters once full of people trying to cross into the United States are now home to thousands of deportees who sleep on mattresses strewn inches apart on cement floors. Muzi.com News 10077177-6 (muzi.com) In a week spent at the Tijuana gate, The Associated Press watched busload after busload of deportees arrive, some in a daze, still stunned over their sudden expulsion. Many stumbled over the Mexican official's question, "Where are you from?" after spending decades in the United States. Muzi.com News 10077177-7 (muzi.com) The faces of those who stream through reflect how tough and far-reaching the U.S. crackdown on illegal immigration has become. Muzi.com News 10077177-8 (muzi.com) Among them are young people. There were more than 18,000 repatriations of children under 18 to Mexico this year, and in more than 10,000 cases they were alone, according to the Mexican government. Muzi.com News 10077177-9 (muzi.com) There are also criminals. The U.S. does not break down figures by country, but it has deported about 55,000 prisoners so far this year. One man walked through the gate in slippers with 80 cents in his pocket, after being picked up by police during a violent fight with his wife in their backyard. Muzi.com News 10077177-10 (muzi.com) And there are women, with more than 40,000 repatriations since January -- about 13 percent of all cases, according to the Mexican government. Sometimes the women are dropped off alone, at night. The U.S. Border Patrol in Washington says the safe repatriation of women is a major concern, but acknowledges there is no overall policy along the 2,000-mile border. Muzi.com News 10077177-11 (muzi.com) Mexico must now deal with a population that it has long ignored. And those returning must deal with Mexico, a land that for many now seems foreign. The challenge starts the day they walk through the gate the U.S. Border Patrol calls Whiskey II, military code for west of the port of entry. Muzi.com News 10077177-12 (muzi.com) ___ Muzi.com News 10077177-13 (muzi.com) Tuesday morning. Muzi.com News 10077177-14 (muzi.com) At 11:03 a.m., six teenagers -- three girls, three boys -- line up at the gate, accompanied by a Mexican Consulate official. Muzi.com News 10077177-15 (muzi.com) "Where are you from?" the Mexican immigration official asks each one after calling off their names. Muzi.com News 10077177-16 (muzi.com) Paola Riveras' face is puffy and red from crying. Muzi.com News 10077177-17 (muzi.com) Three hours ago, the 16-year-old had jumped into the long line of Mexicans waiting to go to school, work or shop in California. When it was her turn to stop before the U.S. immigration agent, she panicked and kept walking. Muzi.com News 10077177-18 (muzi.com) He yelled "Stop!" three times. Finally, he stepped in front of her and told her to put her hands behind her head. Muzi.com News 10077177-19 (muzi.com) Riveras told him in Spanish that she had no visa and sobbed. Muzi.com News 10077177-20 (muzi.com) She says she only wanted to see her mom, who went illegally to Los Angeles when Riveras was 8 and left her with her father in Chimalhuacan, a slum outside Mexico City. When he died in December, her mother asked Riveras to come live with her. Now Riveras is not sure what she will do. Muzi.com News 10077177-21 (muzi.com) In the first six months of this year, 18,249 youths under 18 were sent back to Mexico by the U.S., according to the Mexican government. Those numbers may include youths detained more than once. U.S. immigration authorities say they do not keep figures on minors. Muzi.com News 10077177-22 (muzi.com) The teens are escorted to a Mexican government trailer where a psychologist and social worker help them call relatives. Some nap on bunk beds covered in Porky Pig and Donald Duck sheets. Others watch "Ice Age" on the TV. Muzi.com News 10077177-23 (muzi.com) After calling her aunt in Tijuana, Riveras wipes her nose and dries her tears with a tissue. She says she can't go back to Chimalhuacan. She keeps thinking about the explosive fight when her dad's family told her that her mom doesn't want her, that she has formed another family in Los Angeles. Muzi.com News 10077177-24 (muzi.com) "I just want to study and be with my mom," she says. Muzi.com News 10077177-25 (muzi.com) ___ Muzi.com News 10077177-26 (muzi.com) Wednesday morning. Muzi.com News 10077177-27 (muzi.com) The prisoners arrive at the gate chained together at 10:43 a.m., some still in gray prison pants and black slippers. Once released, they scramble for the pile of paper bags on the ground that contain their few belongings -- a belt, diabetes medicine, a few coins. Muzi.com News 10077177-28 (muzi.com) A Mexican official checks off their names on a clipboard as they file into the country. Muzi.com News 10077177-29 (muzi.com) The men do not know what they will do next. Residents of the already violent city of Tijuana also wonder what will become of the ex-cons filling the city's shelters. Muzi.com News 10077177-30 (muzi.com) Almost a third of the 278,000 people deported in 2007 were prisoners. Last year, the U.S. started speeding up the removal of prisoners and deported a record 95,000 after they served their sentences. The U.S. also has detained or deported 10,000 gang members since 2005. Muzi.com News 10077177-31 (muzi.com) Alejandro Fonseca was convicted on drug charges and deported last year. He now lives in Tijuana with his American wife and three U.S.-born children. Muzi.com News 10077177-32 (muzi.com) They have survived by eating at the Salvation Army shelter in a rough Tijuana neighborhood near the border. But his 13-year-old daughter has missed a year of school. She cannot go to school in Mexico because she does not speak Spanish. Muzi.com News 10077177-33 (muzi.com) Fonseca says the new life has been hard on his family, but has also forced him to give up his drug habit. Muzi.com News 10077177-34 (muzi.com) "A lot of guys try to run the same game that they ran over there, but they end up falling on their face," says Fonseca as he waits for dinner at the shelter. Muzi.com News 10077177-35 (muzi.com) Fonseca is searching for work in the impoverished city, but even filling out an application is difficult. Fonseca has spent 30 of his 31 years in the United States, so English is his main language. Muzi.com News 10077177-36 (muzi.com) "You see, we know Spanish, but we don't know the exact words, and when we try to explain to somebody something, they're like 'huh?'" he says. Muzi.com News 10077177-37 (muzi.com) ___ Muzi.com News 10077177-38 (muzi.com) Thursday morning. Muzi.com News 10077177-39 (muzi.com)
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