RE: Mexicans Migrants in NYC

[Guest guest]

By Charlie LeDuff

The New York Times, September 28, 2001

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/28/nyregion/28MEXI.html

HOLBROOK, N.Y. -- The Mexicans here are holding their fingers

into the winds of war. If they are gauging it correctly, this year's

Christmas is shaping up to be a lonely and indigent one.

Normally, the migrant men who work illegally on Long Island's East

End would be making travel plans. The summer construction and

landscaping jobs are drying up, and the holidays are approaching.

This is the time they begin drifting back to Mexico with money

orders in their wallets and chocolates for their women.

But the ambushes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on

Sept. 11 have changed all that. Word from the southern frontier is

that there is now an almost impenetrable wall of federal agents on

both sides of the border guarding against terrorists determined to

sneak into the United States.

In this atmosphere of high anxiety, illegal workers say they believe

that if they go home now, they have little chance of returning later.

To make matters worse, the Mexicans say, if the attacks have socked

the American economy, then they have pummeled the already

anemic Mexican job market.

" It's like living in purgatory, " said Lorenzo Castillo, 53, a former

tenant farmer from central Mexico who walked the desert for two

days last spring to make his way to Farmingville, a small Long Island

town about an hour and a half's drive east of Manhattan where illegal

immigration has sparked crackling tensions. Farmingville is still a

place where a man can make $10 an hour raking another man's

leaves.

" I want to go home, " Mr. Castillo said. " But I can't go home. I

haven't made enough money. And if I go, will they arrest me? Or if I

come back, will they arrest me then? I can't take the chance. I'm

staying here for the winter. "

In fact, only 3 of the 15 men who sleep and eat in a small, well-kept

house here said they would risk the return home. Cervantes

arrived in April after being robbed in the desert. The work has run

out and he has saved enough money, he said. Besides, he has not met

a Mexican woman since he moved to the suburbs. Santillan

wants to see his wife. Huerta is a new father who has yet to

lay eyes upon his child.

They will take the chance, they said. The others will wait.

This appears to be the trend nationwide, said an official with the

United States Border Patrol, who offered his expertise on the

condition that he not be named.

" We're counting less footprints on the dirt roads around the border

and we're apprehending fewer people, " the official said. " My gut

feeling is no one is moving anywhere. The Mexican economy is in

the dumps and there is a feeling of insecurity among those men. "

Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, came to the United States less than

a month ago, lobbying Congress and the American people for the

legalization of some of the 3.5 million Mexicans working here

unlawfully.

But with the terrorist attacks, the Mexican workers who had hoped

for an immigration amnesty just three weeks ago now say they

believe that the discussion is dead.

" The border is going to be tougher than I've ever seen it, " said Lalo

Cervantes, 38, who has drifted around the United States for 18 years

making his living. " But closing it down is the correct thing to do at a

time like this. The Mexicans here are just going to have to do what

they have to do. "

Escobar, the Mexican consul in , Ariz., said the lines

at the legitimate crossing points into the United States are long and

the checks are exhaustive as a consequence of the attacks.

Moreover, Mr. Escobar said, the Mexican government has added

agents along the border in an effort to close the porous points where

illegal immigrants routinely cross. Agents now rummage through the

guest houses where people wait to be walked across the border by

guides for a $1,000 fee.

" We have more people at the federal, state and local levels working

the border, and it is paying off, " Mr. Escobar said. " For example, 13

men from Yemen were apprehended last Saturday in Agua Prieta,

just across from . "

None of the men in the Long Island house has any desire to spend the

holidays in an immigration detention cell.

But, while there was work at the beginning of the construction

season for anyone who wanted to stand on the street corners and

battle for it, on any given day now, a quarter of these migrant

workers stand idle.

" Things just aren't as abundant as they were, " Lalo Cervantes said.

" But this won't discourage the men. We have too many ties to this

country now. "

In the aftermath of the attacks, some of these men drove to

Manhattan to help in rescue efforts. They carried buckets on their

backs and distributed food in the shelters. And in the front of the

Mexicans' house here is a sign torn apart by the wind. It reads:

" America We Are With You. "