City College News

Imagine being 16 and your family's primary provider. On days you can't find work, your family doesn't eat. Survival is literally a matter of life and death. Think of the desperation that could cause.

That's the reality for one young man who decided to immigrate to the United States.

His breaking point was being offered work as a hit man. He tried to do it, but even with a hungry family at home, could not bring himself to commit murder.

Stories of desperation like his are not uncommon among the people who make the treacherous journey from Central America and Mexico to the United States.

MCTC student Irineo Mojica took it upon himself to tell the story of some of the people who take the often deadly route to immigrate to the United States.

As part of his project, Mojica went to Central America to travel along- side some of the immigrants like the aforementioned young man to Northern Border. "I wanted to know about immigration," Mojica explained. "It's more about humanity, they [the immigrants] look for a way to live."

Mojica learned that the trip the immigrants take is not an easy one. They spend at least ten days on foot, relying on the kindness and generosity of churches along the way who build shelters. Sometimes the shelters churches set up have food and water, sometimes they just have water. After ten days of walking, the travelers spend a month riding on top of a commercial train to get to the Northern Border.

Mojica talked about the conditions that he experienced on the train with the immigrants. He said that as the trains go through cities, some individuals throw water to the people on the train. There are others who throw shoes and rocks.

Police officers have been known to beat the immigrants. Gangs prey on them and 10,000 people a year are kidnapped. Men are beaten and killed, women are often raped. Mojica said that of the six people he traveled with, none of them made it to the United States and one died. Those atrocities usually go unreported for fear of deportation on the part of the immigrants.

Mojica asked the immigrants what they wanted and received a variety of responses: "A house." "My own family." "I don't want my mom to work so hard, she's old."

One woman Mojica met was traveling to the United States with her two children. Like most of her fellow travelers, she is what has been come to be known as an "illegal immigrant" or someone traveling without documents. She had been caught and deported three times on her way to the States, yet was still making the journey. For her and the other people on the train, the trip is about survival, about hope.

Mojica said that the immigrants are just trying to survive, and the underlying mantra is "when you have to survive, you'll do anything." He continued to explain that the primary source of the problem is a lack of economic opportunity in the countries the immigrants come from.

The people on the train don't want to leave home to take a dangerous journey to risk being beaten, murdered, exploited, raped or kidnapped. These are all issues that the immigrants can't report for fear of being deported and starting back at the beginning.

The immigrants take the trip be- cause there aren't jobs where they are coming from. The 16-year-old boy previously mentioned left because the only person who would hire him wanted him to be a hit man, and he couldn't bring himself to do it. The best choice for him was to take a chance and leave home.

Part of the source of the problem is a lack of education and economic opportunity. Most of the immigrants can't read or write, which adds to their vulnerability. As far as Mojica can tell, part of the problem is the companies who go into other countries and exploit the people who live there, which comes in many forms - sweat shops, buying land at unfair prices, free trade instead of fair trade. There's been a lot of talk of immigration reform, but Mojica sees that as just being a stop-gap answer, not a long term solution. The long term solution will come by the way of improving lives. Mojica stressed throughout our conversation that the debate isn't about borders and laws, but about opportunity, survival, hope, and ultimately, humanity. It's about people who deserve to have a way to live.

He acknowledges the reasons to want to cut down on immigration, but wants the people who are desperate enough to immigrate to the United States illegally to have a chance to live.

According to Mojica, people should be aware of our role in the situation and make lives better and solve some of the issues with immigration. The core is at awareness. We may not be able to live a life free of products made in sweatshops or massively discounted fruit and coffee, but we can make changes in our every day lives where we can to make a difference. Little things like buying fair trade goods when we can will add up, as would consuming less. Mojica explained that "when a lot of people are conscious, things will change."

He went on to explain that part of the solution lies in sharing our common humanity before saying that "if we could share our humanity, we could talk as human beings. Not as cultures."

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