Reform Law Does Little to Stop Aliens at the Border

As historic immigration reform legislation sat on President Reagan’s desk, it was business as usual last month along the U.S.-Mexico border. The long-awaited, much-ballyhooed law elicited little more than a collective shrug and perplexed expressions from those at whom it is directed.

“I don’t see how a new law will stop anybody from crossing,” said Juan Samudio, 25, a native of the interior Mexican state of Michoacan, who was attempting to cross the border illegally on a recent afternoon.

“Even if they put hundreds of new police on the border, people will always cross,” said Guillermo Sumano, 23, who said he had been living in Encinitas before being returned to Mexico.

As always, groups of men and women gathered daily at favorite crossing points for nighttime forays into San Diego County. They spoke of plans to continue to Los Angeles, Fresno, Chicago--wherever they believed a job awaited them. Most had been there before; many looked forward to being reunited with relatives and friends on “the other side.” Most had traveled 1,000 miles or more, primarily from the interior of Mexico but also from Central America, to reach “El Norte.”

Juan Samudio, an upholsterer, gathered with about a dozen people at a hole in the border fence on the northern fringe of one of Tijuana’s residential neighborhoods. Occasionally, a U.S. Border Patrol van would negotiate the dusty dirt track leading to the fence, temporarily chasing the migrants back to the Mexican side. They had no intention of staying there for long, however.

‘It Doesn’t Pay’

“Yes, there’s work in my profession in Mexico,” Samudio responded when asked why he didn’t seek work in his own country. “In Tijuana, there’s plenty of work. But the pay is so low it’s not worth it. In Los Angeles, I can earn five times as much. The bosses are happy to hire Mexican laborers; we work harder.”

The same story was repeated over and over again. To the migrants, at least, it seems a compelling argument. The debate in Washington seemed far away.

Contrary to official views in the United States, Samudio and others gathered along the border in Tijuana appeared extremely skeptical that any law or increase in Border Patrol strength would deter them from entering the United States. Most had heard only the vaguest reports about the new law; they alluded to it as something that really didn’t concern them.

The migrants were certainly interested in the possibilities for amnesty or legalization for those who had lived continuously in the United States. But few expressed the belief that they would qualify, because most had returned to Mexico on numerous occasions and had few documents to prove their occasional residence in the United States.

“People can barely live in Mexico,” said Jorge Rivera, 19, a native of Sinaloa who said he had deserted the Mexican army to try to cross the border illegally. “A law isn’t going to stop anybody when there’s work over there and people can’t earn enough to hardly live in Mexico.”

Insulting Effort

In Mexico, many experts appear equally doubtful that any U.S. law is going to stem the flow of illegal aliens across the border. Generally, the law was received south of the border as a short-sighted, naive, overtly political and somewhat insulting effort by the United States to unilaterally deal with a problem that involves the complex socioeconomic realities of two very different nations.

“It (the law) is more political than real,” said Jorge Bustamante, director of the College of the Northern Border, a government-funded Tijuana study center. “The law itself is not going to change migratory behavior. . . . Migratory behavior depends more on the labor market than it depends on the law. If there is no demand for Mexican labor, then the undocumented workers wouldn’t come.”

Added Jose Luis Perez Canchola, who heads the independent Center for Migratory Studies and Information in Tijuana: “This new law totally ignores the enormous benefits that undocumented workers have brought to the United States. Instead, it would reduce their rights and create fear in the undocumented community.”

A central component of the immigration law is the creation of federal sanctions against employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens. Federal authorities have maintained that criminal and civil penalties will effectively discourage the hiring of illegal aliens and are therefore essential “to bring our borders under control,” in the words of Harold Ezell, Western regional commissioner for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.

However, now that the sanctions appear to be nearing reality, those interviewed on their way into the United States hardly seemed fazed by the prospect of sanctions. The reason: an abundance of fraudulent documents and a confidence that U.S. farmers, factory owners and others are anxious to hire them.

The workers reason that prospective employers will simply ask for some kind of identification, like driver’s licenses, Social Security cards, or so-called “green cards” or micas-- official immigration documents allowing foreigners to remain in the United States. Like many U.S. immigration experts, the border-crossers say that black-market copies of such documents are widely available.

“In Los Angeles, I know where you can buy a Social Security card for $25 and a driver’s license and a mica for $50 each,” said Ricardo Camacho, a 24-year-old butcher from Ensenada. “It’s easy to buy them. Once you have them, you can show them to your boss, and there’s no problem.”

INS and federal officials have maintained that they can handle the expected boom in fraudulent documents, but workers crossing into the United States seemed equally confident that they could slip by with fake identification. And a number of workers said they had already managed to acquire California driver’s licenses, Social Security cards and other useful documents.

Apart from the widespread availability of fake documents, however, there seemed to be an utter confidence among these men and women that their labor was needed--and wanted--in the United States.

“Who’s going to work in the fields and factories if there are no undocumented (workers)?” asked Jesus Garcia, 22, of Guadalajara. He said he had a wife and a young child in Fresno but would, for now, look for field work in the San Diego area.

“I’ve worked in the fields before, and I’ve never once seen an American working there,” said Garcia, who said he had been caught by the Border Patrol and returned to Mexico three times.