A Friend's Story

Me: "I was just talking to a friend in the street. She says the US is making it harder for illegal immigrants to return to Mexico. She knows someone who was walking towards the Mexico border and was stopped by the US border guards. He was thrown into jail without a phone call and was treated like a dog for ten days. When he finally got home he was so shaken up he could barely talk."

Friend: "When I went to the US I went with my cousin and a few friends. We crossed the Rio Grande and then we walked for three days to get to Austin."

"How did you cross the river?"

"We took a bus up to the border then walked to a place where there was a man with a rowboat. He took us across the river five people at a time and it took about an hour. He had to make three trips."

"Were there paths to walk on?"

"Yes but the police all knew where they were so we couldn't walk on them. We had to walk a different way and keep hidden in the cactuses and bushes."

"Did you sleep in the day or the night?"

"We had to sleep in the day because it was too hot to walk. Also it was easier to hide from the police when we walked at night. There were fewer of them on duty. We had to be careful walking though because there were so many cactuses and their needles would scratch us. I got many scratches."

"Were you wearing a jacket or something?"

"A jacket and gloves."

"Where did you sleep?"

"We would find a place where there were lots of bushes to hide us and sleep there."

"What did you eat?"

"I had a backpack with tortillas and cans of tuna and cans of beans. And water too of course."

"That must have been heavy."

"Very heavy."

"Did you have someone in Austin who met you?"

"Yes there was a man with a van. We all piled into the van but we wouldn't all fit. The van was pulling a little trailer and three people laid down in the trailer. It was a very tight squeeze. He took us to a hotel room and I had a shower and a hamburger. Then I called home and let them know I was okay."

"You were lucky."

"Yes. Sometimes when a driver sees the police he drives too fast and crashes the van and people get killed. Once there was a driver who put ten people in the back of a truck. They were standing back there without seats, like cattle. The doors were so tightly closed that they couldn't breathe. They all died. Also when we were walking through the desert my friend saw a dead man whose eyes had been eaten out by wild animals."

"That wasn't the first time you went into the US."

"No. The first time they saw us walking and put us in a van and took us to the police station. They took our fingerprints then drove us across the border and we caught a bus home."

"What happens now that they have your fingerprints?"

"We can't get visas."

"You need visas to enter the US?"

"Yes. If we try to enter without a visa we get a big fine."

"In Canada if we want to enter the US they usually just ask us where we're going and how long we plan to stay. They're more interested in the stuff we have than in who's in the car."

"It's a lot like that here too. But everyone needs a visa to cross the border. And often the customs officer tells people they can't come in, without even checking anything."

"It's simply random."

"Yes."


NOTE: My friend was a teenager at the time of this story.