by: John Rodriguez
When coming to the United States-Mexican border it is expected that you would have to show some illegal documentation at a checkpoint, especially before you can enter the States from Mexico. These checkpoints are not all that surprising considering the recent attention geared towards illegal immigration today, however what if you were leaving the United States and crossing into Mexico? Do you encounter being stopped? Yes, you actually do.
In Nogales, Arizona there are such checkpoints where vehicles that are planning on leaving the United States to enter Mexico must stop and be inspected by border police. Due to the recent push of immigration laws, Arizona and several other states are described as designing a new system that is making life for illegal immigrants more difficult. Apart from becoming “invisible citizens” where they must avoid encountering members of law enforcement due to fear of deportation, illegal immigrants who wish to pack their belongings and return home are forced into law enforcement hands.
Prior to this new system, entering Mexico from either San Diego, El Paso, including Nogales was fairly simple and provided no true problems with the United States border police. But in an effort to reduce the flow of guns, drug, and drug money in-between the U.S and Mexico, the Obama administration changed such procedures for entering and leaving the U.S. But now these changes are now being used by states to take action against the ongoing issue on immigration.
Currently, Agents at border crossings are required to board southbound buses and vehicles, including pedestrians of migrate seeking to return to Mexico. And more recently, when questioning departing civilians about illegal contraband Border Agents find migrants who are not of smuggling rings yet do not have permission to be in the U.S. Those with clean records are permitted to leave, but others who have any record at all–whether the crime is severe or far from it–are finger-printed and photographed for illegal entry and then permitted to go. Once those who have records are recorded, they remain in the system and face strict penalties if they are caught within the U.S.
According to officials, the new system is not to discourage illegal immigrants from leaving but it is an effort to stem the flow of contraband in-between both countries. Recent weekly reports from Arizona’s Customs & Border Protection report that from July 18 to July 24 Border Agents seized $22,102 in cash being smuggled out of the state. During the same period, a total of 5,943 rounds of ammunition had been recovered. Border Agents had detained a total of 1,606 illegal immigrants both incoming and outgoing from the state.
The reason behind many immigrants wanting to leave the United States, particularly Arizona, is due to the laws in-which makes their lives less livable. However, when trying to return home to achieve some sense of normalcy the very feat itself is potentially incriminating civilians who shouldn’t be incriminated in the first place. If an illegal citizen is trying to head home in order to avoid public and governmental persecution why must they face the potential of being stopped and documented as a criminal?
Jennifer Allen of Border Action Network, a human rights group based in Tucson that aids immigrants in Southern Arizona, find the newer system faulty since, “Why do we want to spend resources apprehending people who are removing themselves anyway? I’ve heard of people wanting to leave the country and wondering if they should risk it. It’s in the fore front of people’s minds when they’re deciding to leave.”
Those who favor tighter immigration controls in the country, find the government policy that is slowly taking hold to be faulty. “This is about the only situation we would ever advocate that our immigration laws be waived,” said William Gheen, President of Americans for Legal Immigration PAC, in a statement calling for the Obama administration to ease the immigration checkpoints, “we want to encourage the illegals to leave America on their own, and thus we ask Obama to provide them safe passage out of America.” Gheen also suggested the checkpoints would only gear the “illegals” to leave states with tough immigration laws for more hospitable states within the United States.
While they are those on both sides of the fence who disagree with the growing policy, the Obama administration finds the policy valid and made sense. “We’re not trying to discourage anyone from leaving, but we do want to send the message that there are consequences for breaking immigration laws,” An administration official said, who was reported as not being authorized to speak on the matter. Publicly.
Some immigrants who have learned of the policy are not only dismayed by it, but are also confused by its purpose. Analleli Rios Ramirez, 24, is seeking to return to Mexico with her husband after the death of her brother-in-law prompted the married couple to live closer to relatives.
Departing immigrants offered a variety of reasons for leaving Arizona. Tough laws and law enforcement sweeps made life less livable. The economic downturn made it tougher to make ends meet. Then there was also a host of personal concerns. For Analleli Rios Ramirez, 24 and assistant manager of a pretzel shop near Phoenix, it was the death of her brother-in-law in Cuernavaca that prompted her and her husband to decide to live closer to relatives came across the policy’s confusion firsthand.
Preparing to cross the border to join her husband who crossed months before, Rios waited anxiously since she did not have her papers in order and assumed she would be detained for it. A decade ago, Rios entered the country illegally when she was 11-years-old and was leaving to go and live in a country she barely knew from one she grew up in. “I thought this is what Arizona wanted, for me to leave. And I have to worry about them catching me on the way out.” said Rios packed preparing to leave the United States. Rios made it safely into Nogales, Mexico from Nogales, Arizona without any incident.
Departing from the states has become as difficult as entering it. This notion of outbound checks creates the idea that illegal immigrants seeking to leave the country are locked within a limbo. Wanting to avoid a life of persecution, and being demeaned as lesser civilians living a country a majority of its citizens and representatives do not want them living within leaves illegal citizens bounded. They are trapped, forced to face eventual arrest if they stay and imprisonment if they attempt to leave. The longer this issue continues, the more outlandish policies appear to develop in the hopes of settling an issue. Instead, it appears to make them worse.
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