Sonia Nazario says youth migration goes on(2)

“About 27% of residents in Los Angeles were born in another country,” Nazario said. “Unfortunately, under the Obama administration, deportations are up, and police in several states are setting vehicles checkpoints, pull them over for alleged vehicle [codes] violations, and hand them over to immigration officials.”

A master’s degree graduate from the University of California at Berkeley in Latin American studies, Nazario said she keeps working in her second book. She revealed that while she reported Enrique’s stories for the Times, she had to get special working permits from the Mexican presidency. These permits saved her from being jailed at least three times.

“Four out of five adults immigrants have left children in Latin America. I began to dig, and found that more and more families are being disintegrated because of migration to the United States, than for any other reason. Despite Homeland Security’s crackdown on immigration, still about 230,000 new immigrants come across the U.S. border every year,” Nazario said.

In addition, Nazario explained that Mexican nationals perceive migration from Central America differently in the state of Veracruz, than in Chiapas, the southernmost region of Mexico, and a traditional hostile territory that borders with Guatemala. In Veracruz, residents who live near the railroads, throw bags of food, bottles and jugs of water, fruits, clothes, tamales, and many other good to migrants desperate to eat anything after several days of being chased by police and bandits. Migrants must have to endure a lush jungle where the train serpentines en route to central Mexico.

One peasant lady, named Maria, who lives close to the railroad tracks, told Nazario that “if I have one tortilla, I give one half away.” Nazario said that after she saw so much pain, suffering, and oppression in Chiapas toward the migrants, she recovered faith in humanity after she met and treated Maria, who lives in a one-room shackle, where she lays three beds.

Nazario said that overall, immigration to the United States benefits society in general, because people like Enrique’s mother do backbreaking jobs, and get paid minimal wages. Nazario said the American people largely benefits from these wave of immigration by purchasing services and goods that are affordable and cost them less. Ultimately, no American citizen would do these hard jobs, Nazario said. Car washing, yard cleaning, food preparation, and house cleaning are some of the jobs thousands of immigrants do for low salaries.

If the U.S. government wants to control the influx of undocumented immigration, Nazario said, financial programs whereby loans to micro business led by women should be encouraged. These women will also hire two or three more employees, and would begin a series of socioeconomic stabilization in these countries, These measures, in turn, would discourage migration to the north.

In addition, Nazario explained, wealth redistribution should also start, because “it’s amazing that, for example in El Salvador, 13 families linked to the political elite control almost all financial and economic activity of the country.”