3 X 1 For Deportees

México del Norte
Jorge Mújica Murias
mexicodelnorte@yahoo.com.mx

I had the chance last week, as a member of the Advisory Council of the institute of Mexicans Abroad, to visit that strange country between México and México del Norte, also known as “La Línea”, the “border.” It is not wider than some 200 miles, and it is divided by two by an artificial line, a wall and a river.

The border crossing known as Puerta México (México’s Gate) in Tijuana, according to the Commissioner of the National Migration Institute, INAMI, is the exit gate for one out of every three Mexicans deported by the U.S government, some 100 thousand just last year.

They are “welcomed” by the good guys of the Mexican version of La Migra (the bad guys are usually in the southern border and their function is to harass Central American immigrants,) part of a program called “Human Repatriation.” They are given a list of shelters who also provides them with free bedding and meals, they are offered between 50 and one hundred percent of bus or airplane fare to go back to their states of origin, and they are issued a “Deportation Certificate” printed in regular Bond paper that breaks after folding four times to pocket it.

Unfortunately, the “certificate” is useless to board either a plane or passenger bus because it is not a legal “identification”, since it is issued “in good faith”, without real proof of identity and not based on other identification documents, since deportees normally don’t have time to pick up their passport or Matrícula Consular once La Migra arrests them in the U.S.

Obviously, their lack of papers does not allow them to obtain an electoral card, the most useful Mexican ID, because they would have to show not only other ID’s but also proof of residency and so on.


A “Minor” Problem

We had the chance to give a hand to a group of deportees waiting for help under the shadows of the only tree at the gates of the Mexican Migra offices, by giving them a simple piece of information. We never saw a sign offering them that information, and the INAMI commissioner did not tell us when we asked, but a simple line workers told us that the DIF (Comprehensive Family Development office, similar to the U.S.’s DCFS), could provide them with a real ID plus the equivalent of a Social Security card, which would enable them to board planes and passenger buses.

What the Mexican authorities did tell us was that their “minor” problem is the big one, meaning the unaccompanied minors deported by the U.S., over 47 thousand last year. The number started growing after President Bill Clinton started Operation Gatekeeper, breaking the “normal” immigration cycle of millions of people going back and forth each year between México and the United States, thus separating families for many years.

The numbers are bad. Some 65 per cent of these children were caught while traveling to reunite with their parents in the U.S. Among those older than 14 years old, about 55 per cent finished junior high school, and 16 per cent finished baccalaureates. About 85 per cent of them were born in Michoacán, Jalisco, Guerrero and Oaxaca.

According to the information we received in La Puerta México, between direct help (half or full fares, shelter and food) and indirect help (administrative cost including the ink for the almost useless “deportation certificate,) México would need between 180 and 220 dollars per deportee. In round numbers, some 22 million dollars, a budget no agency dealing with them have. They simply can’t help everyone and they can’t pay full fares for everyone.

And then the authorities dropped a bomb on us. The Mexican Migra Commissioner suggested starting a 3x1 program for deportees. The 3X1 are programs where migrants put one dollar, then matched by the federal, State and County governments for productive enterprises in México to create and develop local communities. They want our help with their expenses, at the rate of at least 5 million dollars a year.

But 22 million dollars is what Mexico donated to Jamaica after the earthquake; is what the Mexican government returned to Nextel last year because of “wrongful charges” to operate the cellular phone towers; is what the Mexican police “invested” buying Skystar 300 surveillance equipment from the Aeronautics Defense Systems from Yayeh, Israel and dedicated to the war on drugs.

I think there is money available and we do not need a 3X1 for deportees. What we need is not to help Mexicans when they are deported, but way before they have to leave their communities to emigrate to the United States.