SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2003

Smuggled into the U.S. - The Risks and Rewards

BY LARRY SCHWARZ

On the morning of May 14, Tyrone Williams unhitched the trailer of his 18-wheeler and deserted more than 70 people at a truck stop on US Highway 77.

He had decided to abandon the group when he realized that 17 of them were already dead in the back.

Williams of Schenectady, NY, was heading north on Highway 77 in Texas with dozens of illegal immigrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic. He was promised US$5,000 to drive them from Harlingen to Houston.

When he stopped to examine a dangling taillight, he heard the passengers screaming and banging on the trailer walls.

Upon opening the door, he discovered his passengers were on the brink of death. Panicking, he unhitched his truck and left the trailer in Victoria, about 125 miles southwest of Houston.

Men, women and children died from heat-related injuries. Williams soon surrendered at a Texas hospital and remains in Federal custody, awaiting a trial set for June 2004.

The Reality

Williams was one of many "coyotes," whom desperate Latin Americans pay to smuggle them into the United States.

The smuggling ring that he worked for was led by a Honduran, Karla Patricia Chavez Joya. She was arrested last June while trying to cross over from Honduras into Guatemala.

Earlier this month, forty of the illegal immigrants who survived the incident were issued permits allowing them to stay and work in the United States for a year. Their permanent status has yet to be determined.

It is for just that sort of opportunity that so many people are willing to cross the border illegally.

Even occurrences such as the one in Texas, the deadliest in US history, haven't helped reduce the flow of illegal immigrants into the country across its Mexican border.

Most of the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border is unpatrolled. Heavy truck traffic along highways from the south leaves immigration authorities with a nearly impossible task. It is said that only about two percent of these trucks are searched.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), Latin Americans continue to head north for two specific reasons: jobs and family connections.

The typical Mexican worker earns one-tenth of his American counterpart's salary, says the CIS on its Web site, and numerous American businesses are willing to hire cheap labor from abroad. The immigrants often send some of the money from these jobs to family and friends back home.

Before the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S., there was serious discussion of an amnesty program for immigrants in the United States. However, since 9/11, the issue has moved to the back burner.

People who support amnesty argue illegal immigrants fill jobs unemployed citizens are reluctant to take. Those opposed argue an amnesty plan would drag down the economy, making it more difficult for the unemployed to find work.

Similarly, senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) recently introduced a bill called the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2003. If passed, it would allow undocumented immigrants to work legally in the United States. Opponents of the bill say illegal immigrants should not be let off the hook and that the bill won't reduce the flood of undocumented arrivals from Latin America.

In California, a hotly debated bill will allow illegal immigrants to obtain drivers licenses. The new governor of the state is currently working to overturn the law before it goes into effect January 1.

Meanwhile, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has just begun testing pilotless aircraft in the Arizona desert as a possible method for detecting illegal immigrants and drug traffickers.

In January 2000, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) - now known as the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) - estimated there were 7 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

Unofficially, estimates are as high as 10 million. The majority are Mexicans who live in California and Texas. About 138,000 Hondurans are included in the figures.

The Rewards

Oscar Miranda fully understands the grave dangers of sneaking across the border, looking for rewards on the other side. At the height of El Salvador's civil war, his mother paid coyotes US$3,000 to bring him and his brother into the United States.

He said that at the time, both the Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA) and the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) frequently pulled over buses, gave male passengers a quick glance, and forcefully recruited the strongest ones, regardless of age.

"I was 14 and nervous," said Miranda, now 33.

"I didn't know anything about Mexico or Guatemala. We were totally dependent on the coyotes. We didn't know if we would make it."

It took 28 days for Miranda and his brother to reach Los Angeles. They spent several unstable months with family members and in a foster home, where he learned English.

He went to school for a time, but eventually quit. Instead he spent his time on a street corner where illegal immigrants gathered to solicit employment. He eventually encountered some American roof installers who offered him a job doing all of their grunt work for US$ 5.00 an hour.

"It was really difficult work," he said, "but I spoke better English than the others, and I had a drivers license."

After three months of grueling manual labor, Miranda sustained a back injury that prevented him from working any longer.

At 16-years-old, Miranda had saved enough money for a new bicycle, plus an additional $1,000. Seeing no other opportunities in the States, he returned to El Salvador to live with family.

But within four months he was almost out of money. He decided to try to return to the United States with his cousin and two other friends.

With about $200, they began the long, arduous journey. They found a truck driver who promised to drive them to the U.S. border for $160, but abandoned them in Mexico City. They used the remaining money to catch a bus to the border.

Once again, a coyote smuggled them out of the country.

Miranda found a job as a personal driver for the manager of a neon sign company and the two became friends.

"I earned his trust so he allowed me to come in at 5 a.m. to practice blowing the neon glass," Miranda said. Despite repeated employment obstacles, he was able to borrow enough funds to open his own neon sign company.

It wasn't long until the money started rolling in.

After about nine years he returned to El Salvador to open Roca Sunzal, a hotel and restaurant just west of La Libertad. He had the help of an American whom he had befriended through his work at the sign company.

Because of his unusual success story, some in his community question the source of his funds.

"People think I'm a drug dealer," he said. "They don't realize that if you are a businessman in the U.S., you can make it."

Miranda regularly returns to the United States for business and personal reasons. For him, the hotel is both a job and a hobby.

"I meet people from everywhere in the world," he said. "I feel proud I have a place where people can come to my country."

He's also proud to have created 20 new jobs for his community. He thinks he might have come in on the ground floor of a burgeoning tourism boom in El Salvador.

Miranda still drives a red truck he purchased in the States as a constant reminder of the long road he has traveled from illegal immigrant to repatriated businessman.

When he looks back on the dangerous border crossings, injury and other difficulties he endured, he has no regrets.

"If you never risk anything, you'll never gain anything. Sometimes you have to risk it all," he said.