Human Cargo, Boxcar Deaths : U.S., Mexico Are Guilty of Driving Migrants to Desperation

Few Americans can imagine the desperation that drives 19 men to allow themselves to be locked into a boxcar for a train ride through south Texas on a sweltering July night. Clearly, the smuggler responsible for locking the men in the car should be brought to justice. But that is not enough. Americans should not view the ghastly deaths of all but one of the immigrants as an aberration of the picaresque story of young Mexican workers leaving their homes to search for opportunity here. Death is not uncommon among the thousands of immigrants who travel every day through the Southwest, walking through deserts, hiding in trunks and boxcars. The extraordinary aspect of the carnage at Sierra Blanca is that so many died at one time.

The ultimate responsibility for the 18 deaths lies in both countries. Little attention has been paid to the welfare of the migrants on either side of the border. The Mexican government has been mostly concerned with keeping the “escape valve” open, fearful of the consequences to the already troubled economy if these laborers stayed at home. Protection of their human rights gets little government attention beyond stale rhetoric.

From the American side, the migrants are portrayed by politicians as a menace to the nation that must be restricted by coercive legislation, while employers take advantage of their vulnerability to fill low-wage jobs that Americans won’t take.

Decades ago Mexico embarked on a policy of economic development that neglected the interests of rural peasants. The idea was that industrial progress would cause sufficient growth to employ the peasants in factories as they moved to the cities. That never happened. The result was immense wealth for a few and a growing urban middle class demanding affluence and comfort. The countryside stagnated, and employment opportunities in the cities never matched the numbers seeking jobs. Incapable of offering a piece of the pie to everyone, development planners in government and wealthy businessmen were content to see peasants go to the United States in search of work.

The men in the boxcar--now famous in death--are figures that stick out only temporarily from the faceless, nameless mass of young Mexicans for whom opportunities at home are few and the ultimate freedom is in emigrating to the United States. One million Mexicans will join the labor force each year for the rest of the century. More than half the country’s population of 80 million is under 15 years old. Although every official in the Mexican government knows these statistics and uses them in speeches, the economic policies are aimed not at job creation but at rebuilding a debt-laden economy that benefits only a few.

Mexico’s ill-conceived development is only partly responsible for this latest tragedy. The powerful neighbor to the north must also assume its share of the blame. Obsessed with “regaining secure control of its southern border” and fearful of a “silent invasion” that will rend the fabric of its society, the United States has turned the Mexican immigrants into quasi-criminals who must be hunted, seized and expelled. The immigration law that was passed last November has sent the message to Mexican peasants that pursuing their dreams of prosperity across the border is now more costly and dangerous than ever.

The climate of suspicion that is enveloping the law has undermined its generous amnesty program, and its chilling effect has only temporarily slowed migration. However, the Texas deaths make clear that many will take whatever risk they think necessary--even to the point of being locked in a boxcar--to get the jobs that are still available here.

Nor has the United States been sympathetic in any substantial way to the economic troubles in Mexico. The Reagan Administration has demanded great sacrifices from Mexico to assure the prompt payment of its $100-billion foreign debt. Few resources remain to promote growth and create jobs.

The inability of the two countries to look at the tragedy of the migrants’ fate has aided the creation of a hideous criminal subculture that profits in shipping human cargo across the border. The “coyotes”--smugglers--merely deliver the migrants to an underworld of prejudice and human-rights violations in the United States.

History shows, and Americans themselves know, that immigration is a process laced with difficulties. Sometimes, as in the case of Indochinese and Haitian “boat people,” the process ends in death. The assumption here is that such immigrants are driven to take that risk by an even greater fear of persecution and death in their home country; reaching freedom and opportunity in this country brings an end to their nightmare.

The irony, as Americans now have seen, is that, for Mexicans, desperation may begin in their own village, but fear and the possibility of death start when they cross the border.