Flow of Undocumented Immigrants Continues Despite Arizona Law

[Jeanfromfillmore]

Flow of Undocumented Immigrants Continues Despite Arizona Law

By Maria Leon
NOGALES, Arizona – Neither the dangers of the desert, nor Arizona’s new law criminalizing illegal immigrants are slowing down the northward flow of migrants from Mexico.

Detentions of undocumented immigrants increased by 6 percent between Oct. 1 and April 30 compared with the same period a year ago, with a total of 148,232 arrests, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Border Patrol, which has roughly 3,200 agents in Arizona.

The recent approval of law SB1070 in Arizona has made the state the center of the debate on both sides of the frontier and while it is causing unease among the undocumented migrants who live in the United States it does not seem to be instilling any fear among those who want to leave Mexico and find work and better opportunities north of the border.

“What are we going to do? It’s as God wills,” Mario Martinez, 36, told Efe.

Martinez, along with a group of five men, including his 18-year-old cousin, has been in the border city of Nogales, Mexico, for more than a week waiting for “the best moment” to attempt the crossing into the United States.

The group has already been apprehended twice by the Border Patrol, the latest time after they had been walking through the desert for three days, but even so they have not lost hope of getting to Tucson, where they hope to find transportation to their final destination: Los Angeles.

“I didn’t know anything about that law (SB1070) until I got here,” Martinez said.

The undocumented immigrant is concerned about the idea that he could be thrown in jail for crossing the border illegally, but he said he feels that “the risk is worth it.”

“We’re very poor people. For a year, I haven’t had a fixed job in Mexico and we can’t go on like this,” said the father of two.

He added that they invested their meager savings in trying to go “north” and now the only thing left for them to do is to keep trying to make the crossing.

Raquel Goldsmith, a researcher at the University of Arizona’s Binational Migration Institute, says the southwestern state is the “epicenter” of the debate about illegal immigration and that explains the fact that some of the most severe laws against the undocumented have sprung up here.

It is no surprise that the approval of SB1070 is not stopping the migration flow because “it’s not the answer to the problem of undocumented immigration,” she said.

The new regulation, set to take effect July 29, requires state and local law enforcement personnel to verify the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being in the United States illegally.

In addition, it makes it a crime to ask for employment on the streets, like day laborers – many of whom are migrants – do, and it demands that foreigners always carry their immigration documents with them, among other things.

“The undocumented immigrants are not stopping crossing the border. It doesn’t matter how many more laws are approved on the state level in Arizona,” Goldsmith says. “Seeking a real solution is needed that allows people to come to work in a legal manner.” EFE http://www.laht.com/article.asp?Arti...tegoryId=12394