Problems Faced by Illegal Immigrants

Illegal immigration has many far-reaching consequences that many are not aware of. The issue of whether or not illegal immigration is good for this country has been debated time and again - good for employers looking for cheap labor, bad for burgeoning and overcrowded schools and health care systems.

But what about the immigrants themselves, and their families? There is both good and bad. For the country of Mexico, the news is mostly good - tourism used to be the largest source of wealth for that nation, but in recent years it has been surpassed by money sent home from immigrants. A large part of these workers' income is not spent in the United States, but in Mexico.

Other than that source of income, the families of illegal immigrants suffer many hardships. A factory worker from Guatemala told me of the many "widow villages", towns in which every man physically capable of traveling had abandoned his home for the United States, leaving only their wives, children, and aged parents. While their families enjoy money and goods sent home for a brief time, often the letters become few and far between as husbands, sons, and brothers adjust to their new lifestyle and begin to spend their paychecks on televisions, cars, and other luxuries. Many even find new wives, and start new families, leaving their old ones to fend for themselves.

The problems for illegal immigrants and their loved ones start before the journey to the US even begins. The average immigrant is a campesino, a poor farmer, who often makes roughly 50 pesos (around five dollars) a day. To pay a coyote, or person who transports illegals, costs between 2,000 and 4,000 pesos. In comparison to their income, this amount is staggering.

Once they have managed to save the money, they must make the journey northward. Here more problems arise - some coyotes merely take their "clients" to a river within Mexico, tell them it's the Rio Grande, and wish them luck. These immigrants are cheated out of their life savings, and have nothing to show for it.

Even if an illegal immigrant finds an "honest" coyote, he still faces grave danger - dozens or even hundreds die each year crossing the border, whether of heat exhaustion, dehydration, starvation, or murder.

The lucky ones who make it across next must find work, and when they do, the job is usually low-paying, with no benefits. They are subject to horrible conditions, and are often injured. In fact, Mexico's health care system has suffered as much as our has, as these men and women return or are deported with back problems, decreased vision, and amputated limbs from dangerous factory conditions. Worse, they are powerless to improve their working conditions, since they cannot report them to the authorities.

Because of all this, it is only the very poor and very desperate who illegally immigrate to the United States. Even a marginally decent paying job in Mexico is better than working in a country where you don't speak the language, work for slave wages, and are always looking over your shoulder. These people are not just looking for a free ride, or to exploit the system, they are trying to survive.