[LINK] "Nogales, Mexico, the city of the deported"

[rfmcdonald]

Al Jazeera's Margaret Regan reports on how the Mexican city of Nogales, on the border with the United States, has become a centre for deported Mexican migrants.

On a beastly hot June day, Jesús Arturo Madrid Rosas stood near the DeConcini Port of Entry, keeping a close eye on the street that transformed itself from Grand Avenue, Nogales, Arizona, into Avenida Adolfo López Mateos, Nogales, Sonora. The United States and Mexico jostled up against each other at the crowded crossing, and armed guards from the two nations — prowled just steps away from each other. Jesús was on the lookout for deportados. He was an officer for Mexico’s federal Repatriación Humana agency, and it was his job to welcome his deported compatriots back to their native land.

He never knew quite when the exiles would be arriving. They turned up at all times of day and night, whether they were first-time border crossers freshly plucked from the desert or Mexicans who’d lived so long in the United States they could barely remember the land of their birth. On this day, a large group of deportees had arrived by the dawn’s earliest light, and now, at midmorning, he figured the Border Patrol would soon deliver more. But he’d been on the job long enough to know that the agents didn’t always stick to their own rules.

“They’re supposed to send children, women and the sick before 6 p.m.,” he said. “But they arrive at all hours. Maybe five times a month these groups arrive in the middle of the night.”

The wee-hour drop-offs were particularly problematic for the women. Nogales’ red-light district was just a block to the east, and hustlers, pimps, extortionists and drug dealers lurked in the streets. Even by day, the deportees were easily preyed upon.

“There are coyotes,” Jesús said, “those trying to trick them with phone calls. It’s dangerous.” The scammers routinely tried to get the phone numbers of the deportees’ families to extort money out of them. And narcotraficantes were always looking to turn would-be migrants into “mules” who would haul marijuana through Arizona’s treacherous back canyons. The deportees used to be shuffled through the safer Mariposa Port of Entry on the quiet west side of town, but the Americans had been rebuilding it for some years. For now, it was Jesús’ job to spot the newcomers at the chaotic downtown crossing and guide them to safety.