Stories from the Border
September 29, 2016, 6:30pm
Fox Theater, Tucson, AZ
complied by Betty Meikle
OVERVIEW
The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson’s daily newspaper, published the announcement: The public was invited to a panel discussion about life on the US-Mexican border. The event was sponsored by: Community Foundation of So. Arizona (CFSAZ.org). The Fox Theater was completely filled.
Maria Hinojosa, moderator of the event, is the anchor and executive producer of the long-running weekly NPR show, “Latino USA.” There were four additional panel members:
- Javier Garza, longtime Mexican journalist has worked extensively to protect reporters working in Mexico, who are often targeted by drug cartels. Garza is a Knight International Journalism Fellow in Mexico.
- Nancy Montoya, is a border reporter for Arizona Public Media (AZPM). She has 35 years’ experience in broadcast in the US and Latin America. With the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, her family’s ranch went from being in Mexico to being in the US almost overnight.
- Curt Prendergast is currently the Arizona Daily Star’s border reporter has lived in South America and has covered the border for the residents of Santa Cruz County from 2012 to 2015 as a reporter for the Nogales International.
Fernanda Santos, the Phoenix bureau chief for the New York Times hails from Brazil and contributed to “Latinos in the United States: A Resource Guide for Journalists.” She is author of “The Fire Line,” a book about the Granite Mountain Hotshots killed in the Yarnell Hill Fire.
The panel of five professional communicators were quite engaging during the hour and a half presentation. As they spoke, their individual images were projected on a large screen above their heads. They spoke in English while Spanish interpretations were displayed below their images. Several videos, in English with Spanish subtitles, were projected onto the screen during the evening. A few times when Maria Hinojosa spoke there was no display on the screen; she spoke first in English and then translated her own remarks into Spanish. To gather questions from the audience, a technology I had not seen before, Slido (www.slido.com) was used. It allowed attendees to use their cell phones to sign into the event number and type in questions for the panel. Several audience questions were addressed by the panel, almost real-time. Several questions came from the panel to the audience, and were tallied by Slido and contrasted to the actual answers, such as:
Each of the panel members told personal stories of encounters on the border. They did not always agree, but spoke of their truths and experiences. It was an informative and sometimes shocking evening.
SPECIFICS
Maria Hinojosa spoke of the wall and how 93% of Mexicans oppose it. She led the discussion and told stories of illegal immigration. Today, most persons crossing the border are from Central and South America. There are harrowing stories of the men, women and children who make journeys from Mexico and other Latin American countries to find new lives. The Internet websites at the end of this report cover these stories well.
Javier Garza spoke of how Mexican cartels hunt journalists down and kill them. This makes Mexico the most dangerous place in the world for journalists to be. He talked about how as one moves south from the border more and more Mexicans do not understand the issues of the border area and avoid the area because of the violence. People in central and southern Mexico do not relate to the border residents. This is causing a gap between the cultures and beliefs of Northern and Southern Mexico.
Nancy Montoya grew up in a large family. Theirs was one of the ranches that the border crossed. Her heritage was that of Latin America. Her belief is that many of the prejudices and even hatreds of those on the other side of the border are caused by fear. She shared that even though her family lived in the U.S., her father was quite against “white” people. He drilled it into his many children not to trust them, ever. The worst thing he could imagine was if one of his children married a gringo. Nancy laughed at this and said, “Not a one of us married within our heritage.”
Curt Prendergast said Pima County (which includes Tucson) understands the borderlands pretty well, but further north Maricopa County (which includes Phoenix) does not. This seems to mirror the gaps in understanding that Javier Garza spoke of in Mexico. Curt also spoke to the cooperation between Nogales, Arizona, U.S. and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
Fernanda Santos is an attractive young woman from Brazil. However, at the border, sometimes there is not a distinction of origin. She has had to wait before crossing into the U.S. because Border Patrol thought she was Mexican and suspected her Brazilian passport was fraudulent.
A Little History
In 1848, as a consequence of the Mexican American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo the U.S. acquired over 500,000 acres of land from Mexico that today encompasses most of six southwestern states and portions of two others. The red area on the map below shows the territory transferred to the control of the U.S. when Mexico “redefined” their border. The new border also acknowledged Mexico’s loss of Texas which had never been recognized by Mexico.
The U.S. paid $15,000,000 ($482 million in 2016 dollars) for the land, and agreed to assume $3.25 million in debts Mexico owed to U.S. citizens. While technically the territory was purchased by the United States, the $15 million payment was simply credited against Mexico's debt to the U.S. at that time.
Map from skepticism.org
Politicians and conquering heroes draw lines on maps to define their areas of influence; however, these lines defining constituencies, influencing culture and language, and providing or taking away opportunities are invisible to the people standing right next to them. People find community with their neighbors without regard to which side of the line they are on.
With the Gadsden Purchase in 1854 (the beige area of the map), the border changed again. Even more of what had been Mexico became a part of the U.S. People’s interaction with one another did not change. They still found community with one another. Living so closely, they still experienced life in much the same manner. Mexicans who found their lands now in the U.S. were promised that little would change; they would be able to continue living as always. They continued to think of their lands as part of a region rather than part of two countries. They passed freely over the invisible lines. However, over time much has changed.
The U.S. had a better developed and more accountable government than Mexico. Its economy was stronger over time. Its people were generally better educated. Actual outcomes for those people who still say, “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us” have not been carried out in accordance with the U.S. promises. A primary reason for this is because the governments of both countries so were, and still are, far removed from the border lands. Very few legislators come from the border area; so within the governing bodies there is no good understanding or representation of the problems and promise of the border.
Some Facts
People stories from the border come in many shades of grey.
Today there are cultural differences, food differences and music differences between the people on both sides of the border. Many families have relatives living on both sides of the border. There are long held prejudices on both sides of the border. But, even as the wall separates residents of the region, there are examples of people, businesses and even law enforcement rising above prejudices and differences to cooperate with one another across the border.
Nogales, Arizona, US and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico
Nogales, Arizona has a population of just over 20,000. Nogales, Sonora has a population of over 213,000. The largest concentration of maquiladoras along the border is in Ambos Nogales (both Nogales).
Cooperation between these two cities has been going on for decades. Here’s a great story from 1986.
… a sewer leak flowed downhill from the Mexican city under the fence through downtown Nogales, Ariz.
"We could have gone through the usual bureaucracy, appealed to the border commission for help and waited for weeks or months," [the mayor of Nogales, Sonora] recalled. "Instead, [mayor of Nogales, Arizona] and I met, as we often do. We discussed the problem and resolved it."
Pipes were hooked up on both sides of the border diverting the sewer leak into the waste water plant on the American side.
Throughout the history of the two Nogales, firefighters have answered alarms from either side.
"When we have a major fire we call over there for help," explained Joe de la Ossa, Nogales, AZ, fire chief.
The Sonora firefighters roll through the international gate when needed on the American side. Until two years ago, the Nogales, Ariz., fire department rolled on major fires crossing into Mexico when requested to do so by the Nogales, Sonora, fire department.
"We ran our trucks over there until our liability insurance went sky high and we had to quit," De la Ossa said. "Nogales, Sonora, has ample manpower and good equipment but they don't have sufficient water pressure or enough water."
Now, when serious fires occur in Nogales, Sonora, the Nogales, Ariz., fire department tank trucks roll to the fence and American firemen pass hose lines across the border. If the fire is within 1,000 feet of the border, Mexican firefighters use the U.S. hoses to fight the blaze. If the fire is more distant, water from American fire trucks is pumped into Mexican tank trucks and rushed to the scene.
In 2005 the two cities signed a Binational Prevention and Emergency Response Plan. This plan has formalized and extended arrangements for assistance to provide law enforcement, firefighting personnel and emergency response personnel between the cities. There is even a provision which eliminates payment for these services. “The municipalities involved in this understanding will not be required to pay compensation to the other for services rendered.”
School Children
At every border crossing there are children moving through the gates every morning and back each evening. Most are coming to the U.S. for schooling. Some of these children are U.S. citizens, but many are not. While some Americans see schooling these non-citizens as a terrible drain on the local and state budgets, others believe that denying any child a good education is killing future potential.
In Ambos Nogales, children actually move both ways across the border each morning and evening. Some U.S. parents wish their children to learn Spanish in Mexico and be schooled there, just as many Mexican parents wish their children to learn in the U.S.
Border Patrol
While there are many stories about the Border Patrol as a para-military group and its agents having no compassion for the residents of the area, there are also stories that show agents to be problem solvers and to exhibit care for the residents of the area no matter which country they claim as their own. The residents seem to give the Border Patrol the benefit of the doubt. They usually blame the violence and brutal treatment on specific agents, not the entire agency. During a 12-month period in 2011-12, Border Patrol agents made 1,312 rescues along the Mexico-United States border, nearly half occurring in the Tucson Sector.
Trade and trade agreements
Mexico´s main trading partner for goods and services is the United States (80 percent of total exports and 51 percent of imports). Mexico is the United States’ third largest goods trading partner. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect on January 1, 1994 creating the world’s largest free-trade zone. Its provisions were argued before it was passed in December of 1993, and some provisions are still being argued today.
NAFTA was blamed for job losses in the United States; and it did impact many individual lives. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, six million U.S. jobs now depend on U.S. trade with Mexico. A Congressional Research Service review, in 2014, of the academic literature on NAFTA concluded that the "net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP." For a more complete discussion of the financial facts influenced by NAFTA see “Knowledge @ Wharton http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/naftas-impact-u-s-economy-facts/.
An unquestionable fact is that NAFTA increased the traffic crossing the border tremendously.
In 1993, before NAFTA took effect, Mexico bought $41 billion in goods and services from the U.S. and sold $39 Billion worth to the United States. Total: $80 billion. In the first year of NAFTA, the $80 billion increased to $99 billion, a 25 percent increase. In 2003, almost twenty years after NAFTA began, total trade with Mexico was $506 billion — half a trillion dollars — which is 632 percent more than 1994.Trade with Mexico totaled an estimated $583.6 billion in 2015.
The top import category in 2015 was: vehicles ($74 billion).
Many products cross the border several times prior to their complete manufacture. For example, it is estimated that a new car goes back and forth across the border eight times before it is ready to be sold.
Mexican Workforce
When it was determined that Mexican workers were taking jobs away from U.S. citizens, several states passed legislation to make it illegal to hire these workers. States have repealed some of these laws because the available jobs were not being taken by U.S. citizens. Lettuce not being picked. Cotton was not being harvested. Populations of turkeys and chickens were not being managed. Thousands of jobs were not being done.
The greatest incentive for illegal aliens to come to the United States is to find work. The Immigration and Reform Act of 1986 outlawed hiring illegal alien workers, although common practice has proven that measure ineffective for two reasons:
“Historically, immigration law enforcement has been the exclusive province of federal law enforcement, but states are increasingly joining with the federal government in that effort and enacting legislation to punish employers for hiring violations. On January 1, 2008, an employer sanctions law took affect in Arizona. Business owners face the nation's first state law that requires employers to verify the work documents of their new employees. The law says any business that knowingly hires a worker who is in the country illegally will have its business license suspended. For a second offense, the business' license could be revoked. That is different from the federal penalties of fines and possible criminal prosecution that have been infrequently imposed for similar offenses.”
Agricultural Cooperation
Yuma, Arizona’s Agribusiness sector is responsible for supplying the U.S. with 80% of its winter, leafy vegetables while also being the largest producer of crops in the State of Arizona. Much the same as the agreements which allow Ambos Nogales to operate as a region with the Binational Prevention and Emergency Response Plan. Yuma boasts a seamless border region with its partners to the south in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. The communities on both sides of the border share workforce and resources to make for strong industrial and logistics sectors.
The Cross-the-Border Journey
The following websites have information about the journeys people from Mexico, Central and South America make to try to improve their lives and the lives of their families. If you want to read the horror stories, simply Google: horror stories about crossing the Mexican border illegally.
Why are so many crossing illegally? http://abc13.com/news/why-are-so-many-crossing-border-illegally/169895/
Yale Divinity School. Dying to Live: Theology, Migration, and the Human Journey http://reflections.yale.edu/article/who-my-neighbor-facing-immigration/dying-live-theology-migration-and-human-journey
Riding the Beast across Mexico http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/06/05/318905712/riding-the-beast-across-mexico-to-the-u-s-border
Border issues are not easy to solve. What can we do?
The Arizona Daily Star, Tucson’s daily newspaper, published the announcement: The public was invited to a panel discussion about life on the US-Mexican border. The event was sponsored by: Community Foundation of So. Arizona (CFSAZ.org). The Fox Theater was completely filled.
Maria Hinojosa, moderator of the event, is the anchor and executive producer of the long-running weekly NPR show, “Latino USA.” There were four additional panel members:
- Javier Garza, longtime Mexican journalist has worked extensively to protect reporters working in Mexico, who are often targeted by drug cartels. Garza is a Knight International Journalism Fellow in Mexico.
- Nancy Montoya, is a border reporter for Arizona Public Media (AZPM). She has 35 years’ experience in broadcast in the US and Latin America. With the Gadsden Purchase in 1854, her family’s ranch went from being in Mexico to being in the US almost overnight.
- Curt Prendergast is currently the Arizona Daily Star’s border reporter has lived in South America and has covered the border for the residents of Santa Cruz County from 2012 to 2015 as a reporter for the Nogales International.
Fernanda Santos, the Phoenix bureau chief for the New York Times hails from Brazil and contributed to “Latinos in the United States: A Resource Guide for Journalists.” She is author of “The Fire Line,” a book about the Granite Mountain Hotshots killed in the Yarnell Hill Fire.
The panel of five professional communicators were quite engaging during the hour and a half presentation. As they spoke, their individual images were projected on a large screen above their heads. They spoke in English while Spanish interpretations were displayed below their images. Several videos, in English with Spanish subtitles, were projected onto the screen during the evening. A few times when Maria Hinojosa spoke there was no display on the screen; she spoke first in English and then translated her own remarks into Spanish. To gather questions from the audience, a technology I had not seen before, Slido (www.slido.com) was used. It allowed attendees to use their cell phones to sign into the event number and type in questions for the panel. Several audience questions were addressed by the panel, almost real-time. Several questions came from the panel to the audience, and were tallied by Slido and contrasted to the actual answers, such as:
- How many US jobs do you think depend upon trade with Mexico?
- Has NAFTA benefitted the Mexican economy?
- Do the majority of Mexicans oppose the “wall?”
Each of the panel members told personal stories of encounters on the border. They did not always agree, but spoke of their truths and experiences. It was an informative and sometimes shocking evening.
SPECIFICS
Maria Hinojosa spoke of the wall and how 93% of Mexicans oppose it. She led the discussion and told stories of illegal immigration. Today, most persons crossing the border are from Central and South America. There are harrowing stories of the men, women and children who make journeys from Mexico and other Latin American countries to find new lives. The Internet websites at the end of this report cover these stories well.
Javier Garza spoke of how Mexican cartels hunt journalists down and kill them. This makes Mexico the most dangerous place in the world for journalists to be. He talked about how as one moves south from the border more and more Mexicans do not understand the issues of the border area and avoid the area because of the violence. People in central and southern Mexico do not relate to the border residents. This is causing a gap between the cultures and beliefs of Northern and Southern Mexico.
Nancy Montoya grew up in a large family. Theirs was one of the ranches that the border crossed. Her heritage was that of Latin America. Her belief is that many of the prejudices and even hatreds of those on the other side of the border are caused by fear. She shared that even though her family lived in the U.S., her father was quite against “white” people. He drilled it into his many children not to trust them, ever. The worst thing he could imagine was if one of his children married a gringo. Nancy laughed at this and said, “Not a one of us married within our heritage.”
Curt Prendergast said Pima County (which includes Tucson) understands the borderlands pretty well, but further north Maricopa County (which includes Phoenix) does not. This seems to mirror the gaps in understanding that Javier Garza spoke of in Mexico. Curt also spoke to the cooperation between Nogales, Arizona, U.S. and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
Fernanda Santos is an attractive young woman from Brazil. However, at the border, sometimes there is not a distinction of origin. She has had to wait before crossing into the U.S. because Border Patrol thought she was Mexican and suspected her Brazilian passport was fraudulent.
A Little History
In 1848, as a consequence of the Mexican American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo the U.S. acquired over 500,000 acres of land from Mexico that today encompasses most of six southwestern states and portions of two others. The red area on the map below shows the territory transferred to the control of the U.S. when Mexico “redefined” their border. The new border also acknowledged Mexico’s loss of Texas which had never been recognized by Mexico.
The U.S. paid $15,000,000 ($482 million in 2016 dollars) for the land, and agreed to assume $3.25 million in debts Mexico owed to U.S. citizens. While technically the territory was purchased by the United States, the $15 million payment was simply credited against Mexico's debt to the U.S. at that time.
Map from skepticism.org
Politicians and conquering heroes draw lines on maps to define their areas of influence; however, these lines defining constituencies, influencing culture and language, and providing or taking away opportunities are invisible to the people standing right next to them. People find community with their neighbors without regard to which side of the line they are on.
With the Gadsden Purchase in 1854 (the beige area of the map), the border changed again. Even more of what had been Mexico became a part of the U.S. People’s interaction with one another did not change. They still found community with one another. Living so closely, they still experienced life in much the same manner. Mexicans who found their lands now in the U.S. were promised that little would change; they would be able to continue living as always. They continued to think of their lands as part of a region rather than part of two countries. They passed freely over the invisible lines. However, over time much has changed.
The U.S. had a better developed and more accountable government than Mexico. Its economy was stronger over time. Its people were generally better educated. Actual outcomes for those people who still say, “We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us” have not been carried out in accordance with the U.S. promises. A primary reason for this is because the governments of both countries so were, and still are, far removed from the border lands. Very few legislators come from the border area; so within the governing bodies there is no good understanding or representation of the problems and promise of the border.
Some Facts
- The border between Mexico and US is 368 miles. Currently, 306 miles of it has a wall.
- National news in the U.S. regarding the border area focuses on drugs, cartels and illegal immigrants.
- In Mexico, the border is viewed as an economic engine for the country. A gap in understanding is developing between the border residents and people in Central and Southern Mexico. They are beginning to develop different cultures and expectations.
- The Mexican middle-class is growing.
- The average number of entries into the U.S. in Nogales is close to 30,000 per day: trucks, busses, cars and people.
- In 2014, more than 380,000 trucks crossed the Arizona-Mexico border and our border gateways facilitated $31 billion worth of goods.
- Each year approximately 800,000 illegal Mexicans settle in the U.S.; however, reversing the growth of several decades, more leave the U.S. to go back to Mexico. Thus, the total number of Mexican illegals in the U.S. has been dropping for several years.
People stories from the border come in many shades of grey.
Today there are cultural differences, food differences and music differences between the people on both sides of the border. Many families have relatives living on both sides of the border. There are long held prejudices on both sides of the border. But, even as the wall separates residents of the region, there are examples of people, businesses and even law enforcement rising above prejudices and differences to cooperate with one another across the border.
Nogales, Arizona, US and Nogales, Sonora, Mexico
Nogales, Arizona has a population of just over 20,000. Nogales, Sonora has a population of over 213,000. The largest concentration of maquiladoras along the border is in Ambos Nogales (both Nogales).
Cooperation between these two cities has been going on for decades. Here’s a great story from 1986.
… a sewer leak flowed downhill from the Mexican city under the fence through downtown Nogales, Ariz.
"We could have gone through the usual bureaucracy, appealed to the border commission for help and waited for weeks or months," [the mayor of Nogales, Sonora] recalled. "Instead, [mayor of Nogales, Arizona] and I met, as we often do. We discussed the problem and resolved it."
Pipes were hooked up on both sides of the border diverting the sewer leak into the waste water plant on the American side.
Throughout the history of the two Nogales, firefighters have answered alarms from either side.
"When we have a major fire we call over there for help," explained Joe de la Ossa, Nogales, AZ, fire chief.
The Sonora firefighters roll through the international gate when needed on the American side. Until two years ago, the Nogales, Ariz., fire department rolled on major fires crossing into Mexico when requested to do so by the Nogales, Sonora, fire department.
"We ran our trucks over there until our liability insurance went sky high and we had to quit," De la Ossa said. "Nogales, Sonora, has ample manpower and good equipment but they don't have sufficient water pressure or enough water."
Now, when serious fires occur in Nogales, Sonora, the Nogales, Ariz., fire department tank trucks roll to the fence and American firemen pass hose lines across the border. If the fire is within 1,000 feet of the border, Mexican firefighters use the U.S. hoses to fight the blaze. If the fire is more distant, water from American fire trucks is pumped into Mexican tank trucks and rushed to the scene.
In 2005 the two cities signed a Binational Prevention and Emergency Response Plan. This plan has formalized and extended arrangements for assistance to provide law enforcement, firefighting personnel and emergency response personnel between the cities. There is even a provision which eliminates payment for these services. “The municipalities involved in this understanding will not be required to pay compensation to the other for services rendered.”
School Children
At every border crossing there are children moving through the gates every morning and back each evening. Most are coming to the U.S. for schooling. Some of these children are U.S. citizens, but many are not. While some Americans see schooling these non-citizens as a terrible drain on the local and state budgets, others believe that denying any child a good education is killing future potential.
In Ambos Nogales, children actually move both ways across the border each morning and evening. Some U.S. parents wish their children to learn Spanish in Mexico and be schooled there, just as many Mexican parents wish their children to learn in the U.S.
Border Patrol
While there are many stories about the Border Patrol as a para-military group and its agents having no compassion for the residents of the area, there are also stories that show agents to be problem solvers and to exhibit care for the residents of the area no matter which country they claim as their own. The residents seem to give the Border Patrol the benefit of the doubt. They usually blame the violence and brutal treatment on specific agents, not the entire agency. During a 12-month period in 2011-12, Border Patrol agents made 1,312 rescues along the Mexico-United States border, nearly half occurring in the Tucson Sector.
Trade and trade agreements
Mexico´s main trading partner for goods and services is the United States (80 percent of total exports and 51 percent of imports). Mexico is the United States’ third largest goods trading partner. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took effect on January 1, 1994 creating the world’s largest free-trade zone. Its provisions were argued before it was passed in December of 1993, and some provisions are still being argued today.
NAFTA was blamed for job losses in the United States; and it did impact many individual lives. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, six million U.S. jobs now depend on U.S. trade with Mexico. A Congressional Research Service review, in 2014, of the academic literature on NAFTA concluded that the "net overall effect of NAFTA on the U.S. economy appears to have been relatively modest, primarily because trade with Canada and Mexico accounts for a small percentage of U.S. GDP." For a more complete discussion of the financial facts influenced by NAFTA see “Knowledge @ Wharton http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/naftas-impact-u-s-economy-facts/.
An unquestionable fact is that NAFTA increased the traffic crossing the border tremendously.
In 1993, before NAFTA took effect, Mexico bought $41 billion in goods and services from the U.S. and sold $39 Billion worth to the United States. Total: $80 billion. In the first year of NAFTA, the $80 billion increased to $99 billion, a 25 percent increase. In 2003, almost twenty years after NAFTA began, total trade with Mexico was $506 billion — half a trillion dollars — which is 632 percent more than 1994.Trade with Mexico totaled an estimated $583.6 billion in 2015.
The top import category in 2015 was: vehicles ($74 billion).
Many products cross the border several times prior to their complete manufacture. For example, it is estimated that a new car goes back and forth across the border eight times before it is ready to be sold.
Mexican Workforce
When it was determined that Mexican workers were taking jobs away from U.S. citizens, several states passed legislation to make it illegal to hire these workers. States have repealed some of these laws because the available jobs were not being taken by U.S. citizens. Lettuce not being picked. Cotton was not being harvested. Populations of turkeys and chickens were not being managed. Thousands of jobs were not being done.
The greatest incentive for illegal aliens to come to the United States is to find work. The Immigration and Reform Act of 1986 outlawed hiring illegal alien workers, although common practice has proven that measure ineffective for two reasons:
- The law requires proof that the employer knowingly hired the illegal worker.
- The prevalence of fake documents makes it difficult to prove the employer knew that the employee’s work documents were not legitimate.
“Historically, immigration law enforcement has been the exclusive province of federal law enforcement, but states are increasingly joining with the federal government in that effort and enacting legislation to punish employers for hiring violations. On January 1, 2008, an employer sanctions law took affect in Arizona. Business owners face the nation's first state law that requires employers to verify the work documents of their new employees. The law says any business that knowingly hires a worker who is in the country illegally will have its business license suspended. For a second offense, the business' license could be revoked. That is different from the federal penalties of fines and possible criminal prosecution that have been infrequently imposed for similar offenses.”
Agricultural Cooperation
Yuma, Arizona’s Agribusiness sector is responsible for supplying the U.S. with 80% of its winter, leafy vegetables while also being the largest producer of crops in the State of Arizona. Much the same as the agreements which allow Ambos Nogales to operate as a region with the Binational Prevention and Emergency Response Plan. Yuma boasts a seamless border region with its partners to the south in San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico. The communities on both sides of the border share workforce and resources to make for strong industrial and logistics sectors.
The Cross-the-Border Journey
The following websites have information about the journeys people from Mexico, Central and South America make to try to improve their lives and the lives of their families. If you want to read the horror stories, simply Google: horror stories about crossing the Mexican border illegally.
Why are so many crossing illegally? http://abc13.com/news/why-are-so-many-crossing-border-illegally/169895/
Yale Divinity School. Dying to Live: Theology, Migration, and the Human Journey http://reflections.yale.edu/article/who-my-neighbor-facing-immigration/dying-live-theology-migration-and-human-journey
Riding the Beast across Mexico http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/06/05/318905712/riding-the-beast-across-mexico-to-the-u-s-border
Border issues are not easy to solve. What can we do?