American Dream Not Quite Reality

Agent Luis Bustamante discusses immigration statistics with the border wall behind him and Juarez on the other side.

Agent Luis Bustamante discusses immigration statistics with the border wall behind him and Juarez on the other side.

“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know, what I was walling in or walling out, and to whom I was like to give offense. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down,” – Robert Frost, Mending Wall.

In a small, quiet neighborhood on the edge of Lubbock, 31-year-old Priscilla Aguero lives a seemingly normal life.

She wakes up, sees her children off to school, watches her partner leave for work, and then heads out to begin her day as a supervisor for a local business.

Living in constant fear is what sets her apart from everyone else.

“My fear is every day. If he’s not home by 7 o’clock or 8 o’clock at night — is he even coming home?” Aguero asked.

Jose Loredo, Aguero’s partner of 10 years, is an illegal immigrant.

Aguero said she fears losing the father of her children to the immigrant removal laws of the U.S.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement data shows that during the 2013 fiscal year, ICE agents performed an estimated 368,600 removals nationally. Out of the estimated 13,000 criminally induced deportations conducted from within the U.S., an estimated 10,700 of those were performed due to previous convictions based on crime levels, with three previous convictions being the most severe.

The website also shows an estimated 241,500 of those immigrants were Mexican nationals.

At the age of 24, Mexico native Loredo crossed over into Laredo, Texas, to find a job where he could earn enough money to save up and move back to Mexico.

Fiscal Year 2013 ICE removals.

Fiscal Year 2013 ICE removals.

As soon as he saw his American income and new standard of living, he said, his goals changed completely.

“In Mexico when you work, one-day pay is like an hour’s worth here,” 40-year-old Loredo said.

El Paso native and Texas Tech University history professor, Miguel Levario, Ph.D., has built his career focusing on American, Mexican, immigration, and borderland history.

When asked about the most common motives for immigrating to the U.S., Levario said, the North American Free Trade Agreement plays a major role because of the effects it has on Mexico’s economy.

“In a lot of cases,” Levario said, “you have large corporate farmers who are buying up land and displacing small-scale farmers — who are then forced to either work for starving wages in Mexico or migrate.”

In Mexico, Aguero said, they live day-to-day with each work day only covering the cost of a meal for that evening.

She also said due to Loredo’s situation, he rarely visits his hometown, and when he does, he has to pay people labeled “coyotes” to bring him back illegally for $4,000 to $6,000 per visit.

Border Patrol agent Luis Bustamante, who is stationed in El Paso, said deaths are common because the coyotes don’t reveal the dangers of border crossing.

Loredo said he crossed the border with about 15 other people, and even though he did not witness people getting left behind, he did lose his cousin this way.

“He was one that got tired — couldn’t make it, and they left him behind. Nobody ever knew of him anymore,” Loredo said.

Aguero said the last time Loredo crossed over illegally was when he traveled to Mexico for his mother’s funeral.

“When he did come back illegally, I didn’t hear from him in two weeks, and he was at the border, and I thought he was lost,” Aguero said about her fear.

She said she finally heard from him on week three, but the fear still resides.

The Binational Migration Institute released a University of Arizona study covering undocumented border-crosser deaths in June 2013. With the help of the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner, the report concluded the remains of an estimated 1,200 immigrants were found near the Arizona, Mexico border.

Immigrants cross over through this area on a daily basis.

Immigrants cross over through this area on a daily basis.

Out of those deceased who have been identified, an estimated 984 were Mexican nationals.

Data obtained through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website reflects about 200 deaths in the Texas southwest border sector during the 2013 fiscal year.

Drowning, Agent Bustamante said, is very common due to the Rio Grande’s fast-flowing currents.

“Try to do the right thing. Don’t put your life in risk or danger, where you can either lose your life or somebody that is with you may lose their life,” said Bustamante as he showed a grim video of a young man being swept away along the river.

Agent Bustamante displayed a flyer depicting the dangers of crossing over illegally.

They are distributed along the border on both sides of the fence to serve as a warning.

“Do it the right way. Work at it. A lot of people have done it the right way, and they’re in the United States already,” he said.

Border fence half completed.

Border fence half completed.

Loredo’s cousin was in his early twenties.

Read more about Loredo’s cousin in “Long Wait Brings Focus to Restrictions.”

Aguero sat smiling next to Jose Loredo — who just arrived from a day’s work in construction.

In his work clothes, Loredo said he wished that people would understand they just want to work without living in fear.

Asked if he had a piece of advice for people in his situation, he said one popular Mexican phrase:

“Hecharle ganas,” said Loredo with a solemn look upon his face.

Give it your all.

Read also: Desert Guides at a High Price and Life in Juarez.

About Lucinda Holt

Enterprise Editor - Journalism major and anthropology minor. Graduates in December 2014. Lucinda is a non-traditional student with an associate degree in journalism from Western Texas College in Snyder. She hopes to build a career as a foreign correspondent.