Holiday visit worth the risk for migrants

At home with his family for the first time in two years, Carlos Ramírez beamed as he helped dig a barbecue pit for their traditional Christmas goat.

A few weeks ago, Mr. Ramírez, an illegal migrant worker in the US, returned to this indigenous highland town in the central state of Hidalgo.

Coming home for the holidays is easier for many migrants than in years past, thanks to the Mexican government's efforts to strengthen a 14-year-old federal plan designed to make the journey safer.

But for Ramírez and others who must find a way to sneak back across a border now policed by unmanned drones and an infrared camera-equipped Border Patrol, getting back to the US will be the hard part.

It may soon become even harder if an immigration bill passed last Friday by Congress becomes law. President Vicente Fox has spent the past week attacking the plan, which includes a proposal to build 700 miles of fence along the border. Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez has condemned the bill as "stupid" and "underhanded." Both men vow to unite Latin American neighbors in opposition to the plan.

Still, the willingness of undocumented migrants like Ramírez to attempt an increasingly dangerous crossing illustrates the length to which some Mexicans will go to maintain tightly knit family relationships.

"I spent one Christmas away from my family and that was enough," says Ramírez, who hitched a ride home from Biloxi, Miss., with another migrant. "It's not the same just talking on the phone. I need to be here."

It's easy to spot the moment when migrants start coming home for Christmas. Lines grow at US-Mexican border checkpoints. Mexico's main bus terminals and airports bustle with people hauling suitcases packed with presents and enormous stuffed animals.

Mexico estimates that more than 1 million documented migrants come home for Christmas. Recognizing the heavy holiday traffic, the government touts its "paisano" program, which aims to protect cash and gift-bearing returnees from thieves - and corrupt, bribe-seeking officials. Fox's government has strengthened the program in the past few years by posting independent observers at major crossing points, organizing police escorts for caravans of migrants, and setting up government hotlines to report harassment.

Yet it is unclear how many Mexicans make illegal crossings back to the US or how many migrants are being deterred by the hardened border, says Deborah Meyers, an analyst at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington.

"We can hypothesize that a certain number of people aren't leaving for Christmas because of a tighter border," says Ms. Meyers. "But the border isn't the only issue. It's about what we're doing in the interior of the United States. The fact that they can return with a job already lined up means they'll be willing to risk migrating back and forth."

Ramírez, the undocumented migrant worker, left El Vithe for Biloxi, two years ago. When hurricane Katrina struck, he fled to Atlanta, where two of his brothers live. He then headed back to work on the cleanup. At first, he earned $8 an hour cleaning mold-infested houses. Soon, his hourly wage dropped to $7. Then his boss skipped a payment. Fed up, Ramírez will go to Atlanta after his holiday visit ends. "My brothers say I'll get construction work there within two weeks," he says.

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