Journey Into U.S. Turns Deadly for Brazilian

They were only modest dreams that led Wendel Pereira to leave his family and country just before Christmas. He promised to return in three years with enough money to marry his fiancee, buy a house and maybe a car.

His first ride on an airplane, to Mexico, went fine. Wading across the cold Rio Grande into Texas was manageable. Two weeks after slipping into the United States, however, the 23-year-old was dead of an apparent asthma attack, his body destined for a pauper’s burial.

His tragic fate made news here in his hometown. But it has not stanched the rising tide of Brazilians trying to enter the U.S. illegally, an upsurge over the last year whose scope has caught authorities by surprise.

Driven by nagging unemployment, increasingly sophisticated smuggling rings and even, some say, a wildly popular soap opera about Brazilian immigrants in the United States, the number of people from Latin America’s most populous nation attempting to sneak into the land of opportunity up north appears to be hitting levels not seen in years, if ever, officials in both countries say.

They cite the steep climb in the number of Brazilians arrested at the U.S.-Mexico frontier, the main point of entry.

In the year that ended Sept. 30, U.S. authorities detained about 8,900 Brazilians trying to cross the border, mostly into Arizona or Texas. Since then, with three months remaining before the end of the current fiscal year, that figure has nearly tripled, to more than 25,600 detentions.

Excluding Mexico, by far the largest source of illegal immigrants, Brazil ranks behind only Honduras in the number of nationals apprehended at the southwestern border, having surpassed El Salvador on the strength of the recent wave, according to U.S. government statistics. If present trends continue, this nation with a population of about 180 million, many mired in poverty, could eventually eclipse Honduras.

“The numbers are staggering,” said a U.S. official who works on the issue, speaking on condition of anonymity. The numbers suggest that there is more going on than stepped-up enforcement, he said.

Authorities note that illegal immigration from Brazil had been on the upswing in previous years and that economic prospects remain bleak for many in this country. The Brazilian National Congress has established a committee to investigate the issue.

In part, the U.S. blames the influx on Mexico, which stopped requiring visas of visiting Brazilians in 2000. That has facilitated a rush north, as planeloads of Brazilians touch down in Mexico City and many, passports in hand, head for the border.

Washington has pressured the Mexican government to scrap its visa-free policy, which was expected to happen in May. But a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy in Brasilia, the Brazilian capital, said there was no confirmed date for visa applications to resume.

“We would cut [the influx of Brazilians] down by 50% easily” if Mexico reinstituted its visa requirement, the U.S. official said.

The would-be immigrants hail from throughout this vast country, including the wealthier south. But the nerve center of the human traffic remains here in the eastern state of Minas Gerais, whose ties to the U.S. have run deep for half a century.

In a reverse image of the current situation, Americans began flocking to this area after World War II to help build a railway and to exploit the region’s minerals, metals and gemstones.

Historians say many of these Americans took Brazilian wives and maids home with them, which triggered a northward stream of immigrants as the women invited relatives to join them. Within a few decades, Brazilian enclaves were well-established in the U.S., and striking out for America became a part of life in Minas Gerais.

“There was no intention to stimulate immigration, but the development of support networks for the pioneers who left in the ‘60s and, on a greater scale, in the ‘80s led to this,” said sociologist Ana Cristina Braga Martes.

Signs of U.S. influence abound in Governador Valadares. Hipsters groove at a nightclub called America, motorists often carry U.S. driver’s licenses and Western Union plays a major role in the life of the community.

“All the pretty houses are built with money from America,” said cabby Gilson da Silva, who has a sister and a cousin living in the Boston area.

The constant hammer-and-saw medley of new homes being erected with money from the U.S. acts as a powerful advertisement for emigrating, especially to young people glum about their opportunities in Brazil.

So does the telenovela “America,” a nightly soap opera about Brazilian immigrants in the U.S. Although the idea of viewers uprooting themselves and moving to a foreign country because of a TV show might sound farfetched, it is impossible to overestimate the hold that such programs exert on the public imagination here. Federal police officer Rui Antonio da Silva thinks there’s a connection and says scenes of hardship on the show don’t outweigh the tantalizing depictions of success.

“Brazilians have a spirit of adventurism and self-sacrifice, so a little suffering is no big deal,” Da Silva said.

“There was a time in the ‘60s when parents in the northeast would pat their kids on the head and say, ‘Grow up and go to Sao Paulo,’ ” he added, referring to Brazil’s industrial center. “Here in this region, the parents pat their kids on the head and say, ‘Grow up and go to the United States.’ ”

The federal police station in Governador Valadares is responsible for 136 towns with a combined population of 2.1 million. Da Silva laughed when asked how hard it would be to find someone willing to help an aspiring immigrant gain illicit entry into the United States.

“The first person you meet when you walk outside will have the solution to your problem,” he said.

He estimated that the region has as many as 40 smuggling rackets, each headed by a so-called consul. A typical package deal, including an airline ticket to Mexico, a guide in crossing the border and assistance in getting settled on the other side, costs about $10,000. Those who can’t pay upfront work off their debt in the United States.

Cracking down on such operations is difficult, Da Silva said, because ostensibly the rings are merely helping clients travel abroad legally, to Mexico; what happens after they get there is beyond Brazil’s jurisdiction. Authorities look instead for ways to nail the groups on charges of financial fraud or other crimes.

Douglas, who asked that his last name not be used, found his own way to Mexico City, then paid someone $3,000 to get him across the border into the United States. He succeeded but was picked up by authorities the next day. He spent 30 days in a detention center before being deported.

“I have lots of friends there” in the United States, said Douglas, 34, who went in search of better employment. “They must be better off, since they haven’t come back.”

As a single man in his 20s, Wendel Pereira fit the classic profile of the would-be illegal immigrant. But his alleged “consul” who the family said arranged everything was anything but typical: Wanderley Vieira de Souza was the mayor of neighboring Sao Felix de Minas, where Pereira worked as a civil servant.

The Pereiras allege that Vieira de Souza assured Wendel that the journey would go without a hitch.

“He said that the end of the year was the best time, because there would be a lot of holidaymaking going on then and the authorities would be distracted,” said Pereira’s sister, Weslayne, 19.

After crossing into Laredo, Texas, the young man holed up for days in a hotel on his smuggler’s orders. The last time his family heard from Pereira was Jan. 11, in a phone call to his fiancee, telling her that he was suffering an asthma attack but that help was on the way.

His body was found on a sidewalk hours later.

Weslayne Pereira accused Vieira de Souza of lying repeatedly about her brother’s whereabouts and welfare, saying the mayor kept insisting that the young man was well for days after his body had been discovered.

A spokesman for Vieira de Souza denied that the mayor was involved in a human-smuggling ring. However, the local newspaper Diario do Rio Doce reported that the mayor was under police investigation and that a search of his home turned up documents showing him to have received money from people who had traveled to the U.S. via Mexico.

Devastated, the family now worries that the serious young man who promised to return in three years may never come back to rest in his native soil.

To claim his body from where it lies buried in Texas, in a pauper’s grave, would cost more than $7,000 -- money the family does not have.