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The Other U.S. Border

Where Bush doesn't matter at all, and Iraq is on another planet.

Barbara McLintock 19 Apr 2004TheTyee.ca

Barbara McLintock, a regular contributor to The Tyee, is a freelance writer and consultant based in Victoria and author of Anorexia’s Fallen Angel.

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SIERRA VISTA, Arizona - Many Canadians are inclined of late to look at the U.S. with a slightly smug mixture of pity and contempt. We've long known about the problems of the U.S. health-care system - almost one in six American children without any health-care coverage at all, millions of families just one catastrophic illness away from bankruptcy, HMOs doing their darndest to make it as difficult as possible for even those with health insurance to get the treatment they need. And we've long known about the crushing poverty and violence of their inner cities and the lack of gun-control laws - enough to make any Canadian tourist reluctant to step out on the streets of a U.S. city after dark.

Now as well, they have George W. Bush and Iraq. It's still far from clear that Iraq is going to turn into another Vietnam, either for Bush or for another generation of young Americans who will end up fighting and, in far too many cases, dying there. But the troubles in Iraq are certainly enough to make a high proportion of Canadians glad that the Chretien government declined to participate in the first place.

Judging from recent opinion polls in the U.S., a large number of Americans are beginning to view their country's problems with almost the same jaundiced eye as we Canadians. They're not so sure that the U.S. is such a wonderful country, these days.

But if you want to see a completely different view of the U.S., come down here to Sierra Vista, Arizona. The different view does not come from the Americans who live here. Many of them too are worried about Bush's policies, both domestically and internationally.

An America to die for

The different view comes from the thousands and thousands of people who still see the U.S. as so much better than their home countries that they are willing to risk deportation, arrest, and even death to cross the border and move here.

Sierra Vista is the largest city in Cochise County, Arizona. Cochise County lies in the southeasternmost corner of the state, beginning where the sprawling suburbs of Tucson finish, and ending at a lengthy border with the Mexican state of Sonora. The total population of Cochise County is, according to the 2000 census, just over 117,000 people.

But last year the U.S. Border Patrol, whose job it is to intercept illegal immigrants, caught and detained more than 150,000 "illegal aliens," trying to make their way into the U.S. through that lengthy border. That's right - the number of people caught trying to get into the county in one year exceeded the county's total population. No one wants to even venture a guess as to how many may have made it through the border compared to the number who were caught and turned back.

Cochise County is named after the Apache chief who hid out in its hills for more than a decade in the 1860s and '70s, resisting colonization by white settlers. Geographically, it's an ideal setting for those trying to jump the border into the U.S. Rather than the desert and grasslands often associated with southern Arizona, it is dominated, especially along the Mexican border, by mountains - northern spurs of the Mexican Sierra Madres, the highest peaks reaching more than 9,000 feet. The mountain spurs stretch seamlessly into Sonora, places where there are no roads, no easy checkpoints, not even signs to let anyone know that they've changed countries as they hiked along.

On the refugee trail

It is through those mountain passes that most of the illegal immigrants try to make it into Arizona. Tom Wood, of the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory, regularly leads nature hikes into the Huachuca Mountains, the range most favoured by those attempting to enter the U.S. He says it's become almost a regular event to encounter groups of illegal immigrants along the high mountain trails.

But Wood says that few of them these days are Mexicans from Sonora trying to move to the brighter lights just over the border. "Now, mostly they're organized. Someone has brought them here."

Some have come from other parts of Mexico, but even more from a whole range of Central American countries. They pay a fee to a company that promises to get them into the U.S., apparently not dissimilar to the Chinese "snakeheads" who masterminded the shipment of hundreds of potential Chinese immigrants to Canada in rusty old boats a few summers ago.

Wood says it's obvious from the groups he's seen that the level of service provided varies greatly from group to group. Some seem to be well-equipped with camping gear and even have guides who know their way through the mountain passes. Others appear to have been dumped at a trailhead with little more than the clothes on their backs and been told "Suerte!" (good luck!) and left to find their own way.

Into the military's arms

And quite aside from the dangers of running into the Border Patrol, the trip itself can be hazardous. A few of those attempting the journey die every year. Steep cliffs and canyons can easily claim anyone who falls down them, especially if trying to move under cover of darkness. And the height of the passes means that violent storms in the winter or early spring can easily lead to hypothermia for those not prepared to cope with the elements. We saw sleet and hail at even the 5,000-foot level of the Huachucas in April. In the summer, those who make it out of the mountains can be faced with an equally dangerous trek across the 40-degree heat of the desert.

Not all who try to come across the border use the Huachuca Mountain passes. Some try a different trail, one fraught with even more peril. The largest employer in Cochise County is Fort Huachuca, one of the U.S. Army's premier military bases. The main role of Fort Huachuca is to provide training and research in military intelligence. That alone is enough to make it one of the most security-conscious of installations, and since 9/11, the chances of an unauthorized visitor making it onto the base are just about non-existent. The base (medium-sized by U.S. military standards, giant-sized by Canadian ones) also extends down to the Mexican border. Those desperate for a home in the U.S. are routinely caught by soldiers and trainees on patrol; they're trying to escape not just the tough passes but a network of lights, fences and security cameras.

The U.S. government, be it army or border patrol, does not detain for long most of those who are caught border-hopping. The jails would fill far too quickly. Instead, they usually send them back as fast as possible to the other side of the border. There, the officials readily admit, some will give up, but others will wait a night or two, or a week, before trying it again. Some are caught half a dozen times before they finally disappear from sight. No one is ever sure whether they've finally decided the security is too tight, or whether, this time, finally, they made it through.

The reason that most of them want to get into the U.S. is purely economic. American wages for even the worst-paying jobs seem like a fortune to many of those whose pay previously hasn't amounted to $10 a day. In some Mexican states, the second-largest contributor to the economy is money sent back by family members who have made it to the U.S., legally or illegally.

Health care? What health care?

Those who make it don't care about the lack of health care. They've never been able to afford a doctor anyway. They're used to poverty and violence, and Iraq might as well be on another planet.

All they know is that they made it. They have a job, even if it's one that few second-generation Americans would take because of poor working conditions and low pay. And they're sending money home to their families every month.

And to them, George W. Bush's America doesn't seem like such a bad place at all.

Barbara McLintock is a contributing editor to The Tyee.  [Tyee]

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