The rate of illegal Mexican immigrants that have crossed the border into the United States has drastically decreased over the past few years. This may be partly due to the fact that crossing the border comes with many potential risks and consequences. Some of these risks include death, deportation and being separated from family members for a long period of time. For the immigrants, these outcomes are detrimental. However, despite the negative consequences, the immigrants choose to face them for many reasons. First of all, they know they can have a better life in the United States. Although they have to face many risks while crossing the border, actually getting into the United States isn’t that difficult. Then, the economy in Mexico is not as good as the United States so they choose to come here in hopes of making more money. Most immigrants send the money they make here back to their families in Mexico. This is very prevalent in the story Diary of an Undocumented Immigrant by Ramon “Tianguis” Perez. With all of these people immigrating from Mexico, it obviously impacts the people in the United States very much. Crossing the border comes with many problematic downfalls. Some that are very prevalent include, injuries, death, family separation and deportation. These problems often stem from the economy and the desire to live a better life. Immigrants often face many dangerous or undesirable outcomes when illegally crossing the border and more control or safer alternatives may need to be implemented so that illegal immigrants don’t face the hardships they do.
Some of the outcomes of illegally crossing the border for Mexican immigrants are positive. One of them is that they make more money in the United States than they would make in Mexico. When people immigrate, they do it so they can live a better life. Once more and more people find out about this, then they will try to get into the United States as well. This is the main reason that the Mexicans in the story, Diary of an Undocumented Immigrant, chose to cross the border illegally into America. Perez says, “People had learned that in the United States one could earn a wage much higher than the standard Mexican wage” (Perez 5). Of course, this is due to the fact that the Mexican economy is much worse than in the United States. It is estimated that “Official poverty lines in Mexico that consider the minimum, monthly household per-capita income are $941.38 & 1,311.95 Mexican pesos… to satisfy food, education and health necessities in the rural and urban sectors respectively in 2008” (Iniguez-Montiel). To put this into perspective, it is approximately $2.53 & 3.52 American dollars daily. Although this statistic was found in 2008 and the story takes place around 40 or 50 years prior, it gives an estimate of how bad the Mexican economy has been in the past. When Mexican immigrants cross the border illegally, they come here for jobs and to make money. This money is often sent back to their families in Mexico. This system has occurred for many years. It has been prevalent since the bracero program and still happens to this day. The problem with this lies within the Mexican economy. It is so corrupt that it has relied on American money to support regular citizens for many years. When monthly income is insufficient enough to support a family that they are forced to seek out other options of making money, the problem clearly lies within the economy. When people seek out other options for making money, they often fall into dangerous situations.
Making money in the United States illegally isn’t very difficult for Mexican immigrants to do. However, it can be very dangerous depending on how it is obtained. Having no legal documents means that the immigrants don’t qualify for insurance of any kind. This is a big problem because, often, the only jobs that illegal immigrants can take part in, are dangerous ones. Some of these include construction jobs and agricultural jobs where large, dangerous machinery is involved. During the bracero program explained in Diary of an Undocumented Immigrant, many of the workers were contracted to work as agricultural laborers. After the end of the bracero program, coyotes continued getting jobs for Mexicans in the United States illegally. Perez says, “They looked for employers in the U.S. and supplied them with workers illegally” (Perez 5). Often, this illegal work has been dangerous. Since illegal Mexicans can’t get any other jobs, they have to resort to taking these dangerous ones. A study done on the levels of risk in the workplace indicate that “in comparison with native workers and legal Mexican immigrants, low‐skill undocumented Mexicans – particularly men – have the highest level of occupational hazard… including work characterized by physical strain, exposure to heights, and repetitive motion” (Hall). The drawback here is that these immigrants have initially come here for better working conditions and a better job, however, they are getting the exact opposite. A study was done to discover the best alternatives for illegal Mexican immigrants. This outcome could help secure their jobs and make them safer in their jobs. Their findings indicate that “the alternative of “Make Current Illegal Immigrants US Citizens” is the best alternative,” and The “Guest Worker Program” alternative was the second best alternative (Crowe). The guest worker program could be a solution to the deaths and injuries caused from illegal jobs. This program states that illegal immigrants can reside in the United States as long as they have proof of employment. This type of program should be reinforced so that illegal immigrant can come to the United States and work for what they originally intended on doing.
Mexicans who come to the United States in hopes of a better life, may not always expect the difficulty in actually crossing the border. These immigrants are faced with many tough decisions to make and paths to follow. When beginning his journey to the United States, Perez states that he has “to keep company with thieves and maybe murderers” (Perez 14). It is common for people to resort to more dangerous ways of immigration since doing so has become increasingly harder due to increased border security. In the article, Is It Worth Risking Your Life?: Ethnography, Risk and Death on the U.S.–Mexico Border by Seth Holmes, the phrase “prevention through deterrence” has been explained. He states that it means “intentionally re-directing migrants to more dangerous, remote areas” (Holmes). There are many deadly effects of the US border policy. As seen in the story, Perez had to go through dangerous people just so he could try to cross the border. He, then, will have to cross over the Rio Grande River in hopes of not getting caught by Border Patrol. In itself, this is risky, let alone facing many other hardships once in the United States. In more recent years, new border policies have been implemented. Due to the new border policies, people trying to cross the border must resort to more dangerous and difficult ways to get into the United States. Prevention through deterrence isn’t the best way to solve the problem of illegal immigration. However, it may be a contributing factor in the decrease of illegal Mexican immigration to the United States.
Mexicans may immigrate here to live better, however, this isn’t always the outcome. They face many hardships when finally settling in a new town to live in. They will face many challenges just to get decent jobs and live a good life. Nowadays, illegal immigrants have been under extreme pressure. People are often getting deported like Xochimilco did in Diary of an Undocumented Immigrant. Perez recalls, “He managed to reach Houston but he only stayed a month because one night, on leaving a beer joint drunk, the police stopped him and turn him over to agents of La Migra, the Immigration and Naturalization Service. A couple of days later, he was taken back to Nuevo Laredo” (Perez 13). In today’s society, it seems as though deportation has been the “go to” method of removal of illegal Mexican immigrants. Now, more than ever, illegal Mexicans have gotten deported. In the article, Bye Dad, I Love You, by Haley Sweetland Edwards, apprehension and deportation statistics are given. In 2017, 143,470 undocumented immigrants were arrested, up about 33,370 apprehensions than 2016. Also, 226,119 undocumented immigrants were deported in 2017 (Edwards 36). Despite deportation being the main method of removal of illegal Mexican immigrants, it isn’t ranked as a good alternative of doing so. In the same study seen before, “The… lowest ranked alternatives, “Deport All Illegal Immigrants…” have tremendous costs and risks that outweigh any possible benefit that they could provide” (Crowe). Clearly deportation is not the best method to go about dealing with illegal immigration. Deportation often leaves people with less money and belonging that they started out with since they are losing it all. They are then dropped back into their old country right back at square one. Again, since deportation wasn’t a popular answer, the “Make Current Illegal Immigrants US Citizens” and the “Guest Worker Program” alternatives were found to be better options in Crowe’s study. Sometimes, the risk is very large, especially when immigrating to the United States illegally. Mexican immigrants need to foresee these risks and weigh their options before crossing the border.
The list goes on about the negative consequences for illegal Mexican immigrants, but another extremely prevalent outcome is family separation. Whether it be that only one member of the family chose to immigrate, or the family was separated during the trek across the border, it continues to happen in our society to this day. Since men are more likely the ones in families to cross the border into the United States than women, they are the ones who are expected to arrive safely and find a home and a job. Sometimes there is no way to check on them or be with them. Even though they are making money in the United States there's no way to live a good lifestyle without a family. When kids are left alone or sent to cross the border alone, it can be very dangerous for them. As explored earlier, people will go to extremes to make money. Perez knew that “to do it [make money] one had to suffer privations, like absence from one's family” (Perez 5). This is a typical occurrence seen with young men all over the world. In Train of the Unknowns: For Many, Crossing the Border Isn't as Hard as Getting to It by Joseph Sorrentino, we get an inside look on the process of crossing the border. In a village called La Patrona in Mexico, “Jose Luis, an 11 year old, was headed to the United States to look for work there” Sorrentino states, “It's hard to imagine the desperation that would make a mother allow her young son to travel over 2000 miles through Mexico, clinging to a train in the hope of making it to the United States” (Sorrentino). Published in 2012, the absence of one’s family in migration to the United States is still a relevant and important issue to explore. Many factors contribute to the need for this. One contributing factor is, again, the economy. The terrible labor conditions force young children to seek out work elsewhere, leaving family and friends behind.
It isn't always easy to stay in the United States as an illegal immigrant. You can only stay unknown for so long until people find out. However, when people get deported, if they are really relentless, they will come back to the United States as many times as they want. Although Immigration can deport someone back to their country, without giving sufficient enough punishment to deter immigrants, they will just attempt to cross the border again. Perez asks Xochimilco, “Do I have to pay for the boat every time it crosses the Rio Grande, or only to cross without incident?” He responds with “If La Migra catches you 10 times, we’ll put you across 10 times for the same money” (Perez 9). When crossing the border with a coyote, which happens very often, they will do whatever it takes to get the immigrants across the border just so they can get paid. When people get deported, it is very similar to this. Especially when someone has lived in the United States for a very long time, they are being deported to a completely foreign country where they can’t make a living. It is inevitable that deportees will return. In a study done by Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes and Susan Pozo, it says, “when examining the aggregated sample of individuals apprehended while crossing the border, and overwhelming 88% of deportees declare intending to cross again” (Amuedo-Dorantes and Pozo 2262). This is partially due to the “revolving door” aspect of border enforcement. Immigrants caught entering the United States illegally, may be arrested and brought back to Mexico. They are then free to come back or attempt to cross the border again. This type of border enforcement may not be ideal and should be altered to be more efficient. Again, there are many alternatives to dealing with immigration. Implementing an efficient and safe type of border control may be the best solution.
Illegal Mexican immigrants face many hardships when crossing the border. Not only during crossing the border, but their time in the United States isn’t always easy either. Many attempts at fixing these problems have proven to be unsuccessful. However, despite the media we see, the rates of illegal immigrants have actually decreased. This could be due to many reasons. This could be due to the border control or increase in apprehensions and deportations. This also could be due to discrimination or difficulty of getting better paying jobs. This decrease in illegally crossing the border is preventing death and preventing families from being split up. With more people in Mexico, and less people relying on the United States for money, the economy in Mexico may even get better. Since people believe that making all illegal immigrants legal United States citizens or implementing a guest worker program are the best options for the current situation, something like this may need to happen for any dramatic changes to be seen.