Mexican border city struggles to cope with migrants deported from Arizona

[DanB98TJ]

The Associated Press

NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico ? Mexican authorities said they are ill-equipped to deal with a new U.S. program transferring illegal immigrants detained in Arizona to Texas each day for deportation, as 150 deportees arrived Wednesday at this border town.

U.S. Border Patrol officials have said the ?Lateral Repatriation Project? is designed to reduce immigrant deaths by trimming the number of people re-entering punishing Arizona deserts.

Of the 150 migrants deported Wednesday across the U.S. border here, the city of Nuevo Laredo paid to send about 40 people home to cities throughout Mexico, but balked at the price of attending to a steady stream of transfers from Arizona.

?It?s a very high number of people and we are not prepared to give help to all those Mexicans that are seeking a way home,? said Nuevo Laredo Mayor Jose Manuel Suarez.

The U.S. Border Patrol plan calls for busing or flying each day 300 single adult illegal immigrants caught crossing from Mexico into Arizona to several ports in Texas.

One man deported under the transfer program Wednesday said he was separated from family members.

?I came with my sons and suddenly they put them in a bus and sent me in another one,? said Jose Rodriguez, who at first was unaware he was in Nuevo Laredo and later left for Matamoros to be united with family.

Immigrant rights groups have objected to the transfer program on the grounds that it will prove costly and ineffective, simply delaying migrants and hindering their ability to help their families.

The transfer program, which began Monday, appears to have prompted high-level discussions in the Mexican government.

?At a national level our government is talking to see if the program can be modified because it?s impossible to cope with such a high number of deportations in this area of the border,? said Daniel Hernandez, the Mexican consul in Laredo, Texas.


Well, cry me a ****in' river. We've been paying to deal with their criminals for decades, and they get upset when we ship them back? Too bad.....