JESSE
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3370
Registered: 11-5-2002
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Mexican school children part 2
I have an uncle in the school board here in Tijuana, so i talked to him about this issue so he could clear up the truth, these are facts:
1.-In school trips to the US, adults other than the teachers are NOT allowed without regular visas, if any adult wanted to stay in the US, they could
just cross the border and save 100us for the trip.
2.-Kids that dont come back are extremely rare, THE teacher cannot depart from their destination without one of its kids, if so he has to inmediately
reported the disapearence to the US police.
3.-Only children that are enrolled in the school and the class room thats taking the trip can go, you CANT invite your kid neighbor.
4.-The trips are made at the end of the school year usually or at least planned, so any kid that goes on them usually has no less then 1 year of
attendence in school. I understand that a few of you think that everybodies dream is to live in he US and thats a LIE, if you ask most Mexicans, they
do not like living in the US and are only there for the $$$.
I would like to say that i think its totally ridiculous that a few americans complain that they have to pay 21 dollars to go past a certain part of
the border, we Mexicans have to pay 100$us only to make the application for a visa and that comes with NO guarantess that you will get it and NO money
back if it doesnt. Add to that the endless waiting, the loss of work, and the very common humiliation of being rejected for forgeting to bring the
most ridiculous papers like "Telefone Bill", add to that inmigration inspectors that treat you like they are doing you a favor. Also, i think its
pretty sad that you complain about this $$ issue when an american makes 21 dollars in two hours and a Mexican makes that sometimes in a week.
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Stephanie Jackter
Senior Nomad
Posts: 566
Registered: 11-3-2002
Location: Arizona
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Touche on the immigration problems that Mexicans deal with. I used to relate all the stories of Americans' struggles with immigration problems in
Mexico, including my own. But I soon learned that most of the Mexicans I've known who've dealt with the American system can trump my stories and then
some with tales of mistreatment by a moneyguzzling and systemically rude and disrespectful INS. -Stephanie
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Q87
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Security fears put border life on hold
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/nation/468...
BY KAREN BRANDON
CALEXICO, Calif. - (KRT) - U.S. immigration officials are no longer giving Mexican children customary waivers that allow them to cross the border for
humanitarian medical care or cultural exchanges, damaging U.S.-Mexican ties and sowing resentment across the region.
Citing security concerns over terrorism, U.S. officials insist that all foreigners have valid passports and U.S. visas, an insurmountable hurdle for
most poor Mexicans.
The human, cultural and economic costs of the policies are profound, critics say.
In Otay Mesa, Calif., on Friday, more than a dozen Mexican children were denied entry into the United States for scheduled surgeries to correct
disfiguring medical conditions, such as cleft palates, that American medical workers treat for free through Fresh Start Surgical Gifts Inc.
Next weekend, for the first time in memory, the Christmas parade in the border town of Calexico will not include hundreds of children from its Mexican
sister city, Mexicali. And the 10-block-long parade route will not be filled with thousands of Mexicali family members, who come as spectators and
shoppers, making the day the most profitable of the year, according to merchants.
One-day field trips brought tens of thousands of Mexican children from impoverished border colonias to San Diego's museums and renowned zoo for years.
That stopped this fall, too.
"It's such a misjudgment of risk," said A. Nash Williams, president of the Palomar chapter of the Flying Samaritans, an organization that provides
free medical care to Mexican children in Mexico and the United States. "If this is for security reasons, al-Qaida is winning."
Officials said the vast majority of such treatments occur in modern facilities on the U.S. side of the border.
U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, a Democrat from San Diego, tried to persuade the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the State Department to reconsider
the policies.
"These are not terrorists," Filner said. "These are kids getting cleft palates repaired.
"This is a perfect example of how Washington, in its reaction to Sept. 11, has created enormous problems for people living on the border," he said.
"The whole way of life - family, employment, culture - depends on cross-border communities that are incredibly symbiotic. What Sept. 11 has done in
some big and small ways is disrupt that life in a very significant fashion."
Adele Fasano, INS director for the San Diego District, which encompasses California's border with Mexico, defended the changes. She said they will
allow officials to better track who enters the country, and, eventually, who leaves.
Asked whether the changes make the border safer, she added, "Yes, clearly.
"To exercise discretion (as had been done previously) really involved putting the law aside," she said. "It was being done on an inappropriate level."
Now, she said, the immigration service will strictly interpret the section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that stipulates that the need for a
visa may be waived "on the basis of unforeseen emergency."
In practice, that means the waivers will be considered for emergency medical care, for the funeral of an immediate family member, or for a visit to a
critically ill family member. In addition, waiver recipients will be asked to pay a $195 fee if immigration officials determine they have the ability
to pay.
The new procedures do not explicitly bar poor Mexicans from crossing the border for cultural exchanges or humanitarian medical care. But they have
that effect.
A Mexican passport costs $35 for one year, $91 for five years. Those 15 years of age and over must pay $100 for an appointment at the U.S. Consulate's
office in Tijuana to apply for a visa.
Children under age 15 may apply for a visa by paying $13, an amount Fasano characterized as modest. Still, that amount is nearly equivalent to the $15
in daily wages and benefits paid in the region's maquiladoras, the international manufacturing plants that pay Mexico's highest working-class wages.
The fees are for the right to an interview, said Lorena Blanco, media coordinator for the U.S. Consulate's Tijuana office. "It doesn't guarantee that
the person gets the visa," she said.
In fact, many of the poorest Mexicans, who eke out a living in jobs that don't bring formal paychecks - street vendors, gardeners, domestic workers
and the like - and live in makeshift houses constructed of wooden pallets, would not qualify for a visa. They would not have the documentation to meet
the financial and residency requirements for one.
"They have to have a steady job," Blanco said. "If they can show that they own a house, or if they own a car . . . that helps."
Javier Diaz, Mexico's deputy consul general in San Diego, said, "As usual, the poorest people suffer. We think there needs to be a balance between
security and the flow of normal life on the border."
The Sept. 11 attacks have raised security concerns along America's borders, particularly the southern boundary with Mexico, a 2,000-mile line that
remains porous to the illegal flow of goods and people despite towering fences, high-tech surveillance equipment and a growing army of Border Patrol
agents.
Three years ago, a terrorist was caught at the nation's northern border with Canada when Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian trained by Osama bin Laden, was
caught trying to cross into Washington state in a rental car carrying explosives. He later was convicted on charges that he planned to bomb the Los
Angeles airport.
Asked whether any suspected terrorists had been apprehended along the nation's southern border, Fasano of the immigration service said, "We do
periodically intercept individuals who are of interest to the national security community, but I don't believe we have apprehended anyone who
presented a serious threat to the security of this region."
Though they have never systematically tracked whether people who received visa waivers remained in the United States, immigration officials estimated
that violations occurred in about 2 percent to 3 percent of the cases.
The examples officials cited included smugglers using fake documents from funeral homes, Shriners hospitals or bi-national conferences as ruses. In
one instance, a funeral home took bribes to generate documents for funerals that did not take place.
On Friday, only four of 24 people were allowed to cross for appointments with Fresh Start Surgical Gifts, a charitable service based in Encinitas,
Calif., that has been offering free surgeries to poor Mexican patients for a decade.
To complete the paperwork for the group's 100 active patients - people who are in the midst of treatments that require years of medical attention and
numerous surgeries - would cost $40,000, said Candise Flippin, the group's medical program director. "That's $40,000 I can't spend on medication and
things we can't get donated."
Pedro Morales is a 17-year-old coronet player for Banda de Guerra, an acclaimed drum and bugle corps from El Colegio de Bachilleres de Baja
California, a public high school in Mexicali. The group, which has won first place in dozens of competitions in Southern California, was scheduled to
appear in Calexico's Christmas parade.
Morales said he asked his father, who sells clothing, for permission to apply for a visa that would allow him to perform.
"He told me we couldn't afford it," Morales said.
Jorge Barrera, Banda de Guerra's director, said he won't bring the group to the United States for any performances unless he can bring all of them.
About half of the 40 members don't have passports and come from families who are too poor to get them, he said.
"My second home is Calexico," Barrera said. "How is it possible to lose this relationship?
"How would you feel," he asked, "if someone invited you to a family celebration, but told you not to bring all your family?"
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Bajabus
Senior Nomad
Posts: 892
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: Elias Calles B.C.S. or NC USA
Member Is Offline
Mood: My friends..it's good.
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well I have to agree with Grover. Given the ridiculous intolerance by the US INS it's no wonder that the flying sams have difficulty in getting used
dental equipment into Baja. Instead of just writing to Mexican officials I hope they are also petitioning the US govt for a saner policy that
benefits real people and not just the home image of some political appointee.
"Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked of such a thing."
Dwight David Eisenhower
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