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San Jose Mercury News , CA
Tri-Valley Herald, CA
Aug 8 2004
Mexico catches more migrants on way to U.S.
By Ginger Thompson
New York Times
MEXICO CITY - It's 6 p.m., the busiest time of night during the
busiest time of the year at Benito Juárez International Airport:
Jumbo Hour.
The migration supervisor, Alberto Pliego, has at least six 747s
pulling in from Frankfurt, Germany; Madrid, Spain; Paris; Amsterdam,
the Netherlands; and Vancouver, British Columbia, and just five
agents to check out all the passengers pouring out. Their challenge
is to distinguish true visitors to Mexico from migrants who aim
simply to get past Pliego so they can make it to the United States.
``A migrant who makes it past the airport today,'' Pliego said,
``will be in Tijuana tomorrow, and probably in Chicago the day after
that.''
Pliego's suit and tie made him look a little too buttoned-down to
guard against some of this country's most unscrupulous criminal
operations. But by the end of the night, he had stopped more than a
dozen Brazilians who tried to enter Mexico as tourists, but lacked
suitcases, hotel reservations or credit cards. He supervised the
deportation of two undocumented Armenians. Three Guatemalans were
caught trying to enter the country with false visas. And one of
Pliego's agents caught four undocumented Chinese travelers lingering
over soft drinks and sandwiches in an airport restaurant.
The agent spoke no Chinese. The Chinese spoke no Spanish. But in
limited English, each side seemed to completely understand the other.
The agent speculated that the Chinese men were waiting for a guide to
help them get past migration checkpoints.
The Chinese said they were hungry.
The agent asked the Chinese for their travel visas.
The Chinese said they planned to stay in Mexico for only one night.
The agent escorted the Chinese men back to the same airplane on which
they had arrived, ordering them back to Amsterdam.
The Chinese boarded without putting up a fight.
The Mexican authorities report that a surging number of migrants from
all around the world are traveling through Mexico to get to the
United States. So far this year, Mexico has detained nearly 112,000
illegal migrants, compared with 150,000 in all of 2001. Authorities
said they expected total detentions for this year to reach 200,000.
The Mexicans are under tough pressure from the United States, which
since Sept. 11, 2001, has feared that global terrorists could easily
slip into Mexico and then cross into the United States.
The overwhelming majority of those detained are migrants from Central
and South America, authorities report. But there are also increasing
numbers from as far away as Pakistan, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Poland, Ethiopia and China.
The migrants often arrive at Mexico's main airports and then travel
by land to the border. But illegal migration routes and methods are
as diverse as the people who use them. Wednesday, the Mexican
authorities detained four Chinese migrants on a private jet that made
an emergency landing for fuel in the southern state of Chiapas. The
pilots reported that they had picked up their undocumented passengers
in Caracas, Venezuela, and that they planned to deliver them to
smuggling contacts at a small airport north of Mexico City.
At a migration detention center to the east of Mexico City holding
500 people of every background -- farmer, bricklayer, auto mechanic
and accountant -- all had an epic story to tell. The director of the
center, Hugo Miguel Ayala, said they had come from more than a dozen
countries.
Among them was a 35-year-old Ethiopian woman named Alemayehu, who
said she had traveled from her homeland to Egypt, Moscow, Havana and
Nicaragua before boarding a bus bound for Mexico City, hoping to be
on her way to New York.
And there was Yu Youqiang, who had left his wife and small daughter
in Fujian, China, to seek work in New York. He said he traveled to
Frankfurt, then to Mexico, taking nothing but a backpack and travel
instructions from a smuggler scribbled on a scrap of paper.
A 32-year-old vegetable vendor, Yu said he had made it all the way to
the border before he was caught by the Mexican authorities in a town
whose name he could not recall. He said he had paid smugglers $5,000
for help reaching the United States. Relatives, he said, had agreed
to pay $25,000 more once he arrived in New York.
``We come through Mexico because it's cheaper,'' he said. He said
some Chinese migrants flew directly to the United States from Hong
Kong. But false visas cost a lot. And entering the United States
through an airport is much harder than entering through the border.
``They say that it's easy to get across,'' Yu said. ``You just have
to walk.''
Tri-Valley Herald, CA
Aug 8 2004
Mexico catches more migrants on way to U.S.
By Ginger Thompson
New York Times
MEXICO CITY - It's 6 p.m., the busiest time of night during the
busiest time of the year at Benito Juárez International Airport:
Jumbo Hour.
The migration supervisor, Alberto Pliego, has at least six 747s
pulling in from Frankfurt, Germany; Madrid, Spain; Paris; Amsterdam,
the Netherlands; and Vancouver, British Columbia, and just five
agents to check out all the passengers pouring out. Their challenge
is to distinguish true visitors to Mexico from migrants who aim
simply to get past Pliego so they can make it to the United States.
``A migrant who makes it past the airport today,'' Pliego said,
``will be in Tijuana tomorrow, and probably in Chicago the day after
that.''
Pliego's suit and tie made him look a little too buttoned-down to
guard against some of this country's most unscrupulous criminal
operations. But by the end of the night, he had stopped more than a
dozen Brazilians who tried to enter Mexico as tourists, but lacked
suitcases, hotel reservations or credit cards. He supervised the
deportation of two undocumented Armenians. Three Guatemalans were
caught trying to enter the country with false visas. And one of
Pliego's agents caught four undocumented Chinese travelers lingering
over soft drinks and sandwiches in an airport restaurant.
The agent spoke no Chinese. The Chinese spoke no Spanish. But in
limited English, each side seemed to completely understand the other.
The agent speculated that the Chinese men were waiting for a guide to
help them get past migration checkpoints.
The Chinese said they were hungry.
The agent asked the Chinese for their travel visas.
The Chinese said they planned to stay in Mexico for only one night.
The agent escorted the Chinese men back to the same airplane on which
they had arrived, ordering them back to Amsterdam.
The Chinese boarded without putting up a fight.
The Mexican authorities report that a surging number of migrants from
all around the world are traveling through Mexico to get to the
United States. So far this year, Mexico has detained nearly 112,000
illegal migrants, compared with 150,000 in all of 2001. Authorities
said they expected total detentions for this year to reach 200,000.
The Mexicans are under tough pressure from the United States, which
since Sept. 11, 2001, has feared that global terrorists could easily
slip into Mexico and then cross into the United States.
The overwhelming majority of those detained are migrants from Central
and South America, authorities report. But there are also increasing
numbers from as far away as Pakistan, Armenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Poland, Ethiopia and China.
The migrants often arrive at Mexico's main airports and then travel
by land to the border. But illegal migration routes and methods are
as diverse as the people who use them. Wednesday, the Mexican
authorities detained four Chinese migrants on a private jet that made
an emergency landing for fuel in the southern state of Chiapas. The
pilots reported that they had picked up their undocumented passengers
in Caracas, Venezuela, and that they planned to deliver them to
smuggling contacts at a small airport north of Mexico City.
At a migration detention center to the east of Mexico City holding
500 people of every background -- farmer, bricklayer, auto mechanic
and accountant -- all had an epic story to tell. The director of the
center, Hugo Miguel Ayala, said they had come from more than a dozen
countries.
Among them was a 35-year-old Ethiopian woman named Alemayehu, who
said she had traveled from her homeland to Egypt, Moscow, Havana and
Nicaragua before boarding a bus bound for Mexico City, hoping to be
on her way to New York.
And there was Yu Youqiang, who had left his wife and small daughter
in Fujian, China, to seek work in New York. He said he traveled to
Frankfurt, then to Mexico, taking nothing but a backpack and travel
instructions from a smuggler scribbled on a scrap of paper.
A 32-year-old vegetable vendor, Yu said he had made it all the way to
the border before he was caught by the Mexican authorities in a town
whose name he could not recall. He said he had paid smugglers $5,000
for help reaching the United States. Relatives, he said, had agreed
to pay $25,000 more once he arrived in New York.
``We come through Mexico because it's cheaper,'' he said. He said
some Chinese migrants flew directly to the United States from Hong
Kong. But false visas cost a lot. And entering the United States
through an airport is much harder than entering through the border.
``They say that it's easy to get across,'' Yu said. ``You just have
to walk.''