Wetbacks not welcome

BY STAN GOTLIEB

He doesn’t speak the language. He doesn’t know the laws. He came in on a tourist visa, which has now expired. His income level is considered too low for him to be granted temporary residence. He lives in a Spartan single room in a family compound. The electricity is so weak that he cannot run both his TV and his coffee maker without blowing a fuse, so he eats cold food, washing his dishes in the bathroom sink.

For the low amount of rent he is paying, he is happy just to have a bathroom, with a shower and a sink. He could probably do better, but this landlord, even though he overcharges, didn’t ask to see his papers, so he isn’t going anywhere just yet.
He lives in fear of being asked for his papers, a situation which would result in deportation. He has consulted with a lawyer specializing in immigration law, who speaks his language, and was told that he would likely be given five days to voluntarily leave the country, if caught. As of this moment, his status has not been criminalized, but that could change at any moment, especially if the country he comes from—the United States of America—passes pending legislation which would criminalize the citizens of Mexico, where he now furtively lives, for similarly being paper-less. He is one of tens of thousands of Mexico’s undocumented Gringos.

To be sure, this analogy, like all analogies, has flaws in it. For example, he got his tourist visa at Mexico City airport when he arrived, whereas his Mexican counterparts have to apply far in advance before leaving their country for the United States, a process that often requires multiple trips to the U.S. Consulate in Mexico City. I know a rug weaver—fourth generation of his family to work the shuttle loom—who owns property, runs a successful tourist store, is married, and has plenty of money in the bank, and spent five months and six trips from Oaxaca before, in desperation, going to the Oaxaca state Development Secretariat to beg their help in order to get a visa to attend two conferences in California for which he had received written invitations. It is difficult to imagine a businessman from Minneapolis having to go through these hoops to travel south.

Most of the undocumented Gringos are otherwise honest citizens, caught in a double bind. They are on pensions or Social Security that provide too little income to live decently in their native land, and have come to Mexico because their dollars go so much further here. They do not work, and they do not engage in criminal activity, although a miniscule minority does. They have not regularized their status because their income level is too low: less than 400 times the daily minimum wage in Mexico City per month, a figure that translates roughly into 1,200 dollars a month.

A great many of the documented Gringos (such as I) do not make anything near that much, but slip by because the immigration office, which examines copies of our three latest bank statements as proof of income, will generally pass us if we show a consistent bank balance of over 1,000 dollars at the end of each month. My friend, however, never had more than a few dollars in the bank at month’s end—as is true of most Gringos who live on Social Security alone.

So, let’s examine the situation more closely. Gringos who do not come to the attention of the Mexican immigration authorities can live here without papers indefinitely. I have never been asked for mine, even on cross-country buses stopped by federal authorities for inspection. Mexicans, on the other hand, have been removed from the same buses for not having their ID. The penalty for violating the immigration laws is voluntary repatriation, usually within five days; there are no criminal charges; there are no fines; one’s name is not entered on a computerized “violator” list that bars later entry.

Compare that to the attitude of our own government, as embodied in the Sensenbrenner bill before Congress today (March 28). Under that law, my friend would go to prison if caught, and then be deported with only the slightest pretext of a hearing. If he were younger, and had children with his foreign-born wife while here, the children would be illegal. If a midwife assisted in the births, she would be a criminal, as would the doctor if there was one in attendance, all the people assisting, as well as all family friends and business associates. Technically, even the clerk that bagged their groceries at the local supermarket could be liable to prosecution. The children born here (now constitutionally protected as citizens by birth) would be booted back across the border. And, to add insult to injury, they could never petition to return, having become convicted felons.

I have to tell you that the Gringo community down here is worried. Enacting all these draconian measures and erecting the barrier wall at the border will, we fear, result in a bureaucratic backlash down here. We have already seen a stiffening of attitudes at the local immigration office. For example, while the law clearly states that visitors from the United States are entitled to 180 days in Mexico, arrivals to Oaxaca’s airport are now being given visas for only 30 days. If you want to stay longer, you are required to present yourself at the local immigration office, where you are given a list of papers needed (including a copy of every page of your passport: the blank ones as well as the stamped). You are required to prove (by bank statement, or showing cash or traveler’s checks) that you have at least $50 for each day you will be here. Then you must go for a taxi ride to a “special” bank in the suburbs to pay your application fee. Even so, they may decide to issue only a 30-day extension, requiring you go through it all again if you want to stay more than another 30 days. My friend the lawyer tells me that no matter what, nobody is getting to stay more than 90 days on a tourist visa—half the time the law allows.

If Mexico decides to adopt laws similar to the Sensenbrenner bill, things may get even tougher. So, aside from it being dehumanizing, insulting, xenophobic and pointless (since Mexicans, driven by economics, will continue to pour in, wall or no wall, law or no law), you should urge your representatives to vote against the bill because it will end up causing trouble and difficulties for you, and your friends. What goes around, comes around…