Migrants fear changes in Georgia...

Migrants fear changes in Georgia


By Jeremy Schawrtz
The Atlanta Journal Constitution, March 16, 2008

Ejido Modelo Emiliano Zapata, Mexico -- Lanky teenagers hang out at the volleyball courts, laughing and teasing, enjoying what could be their last days here.

Many soon will embark on the long, grueling journey through the desert they hope eventually will end in metro Atlanta with jobs.

But that illegal migration, once as natural as the seasons, has changed lately. A combination of tough Georgia laws, a sharp escalation in deportations and a slew of measures wending their way through the Georgia Legislature has had a profound impact on towns that send their migrants to the Atlanta area.

Jesica Garcia Saenz, the 17-year-old reigning beauty queen of this town of 7,500, said she feels the inevitable pull of that distant city. Her siblings, cousins and uncles already are in Atlanta. But such longing is tinged with foreboding.

'You feel lonely because there's barely any people left here,' she said. 'But then they say that life over there is hard now. They say they don't want to give us jobs, that they want to kick us out.'

A transformation

Just two years ago, residents here say, such dread of life in Atlanta did not exist.

In two pueblos, Ejido Modelo Emiliano Zapata in the central agricultural state of Jalisco and San Marcos on Mexico's sweltering Pacific coast, the reputation of metro Atlanta has undergone a transformation.

For decades, both have been sending the vast majority of their immigrants to Georgia as undocumented workers. Both towns survive largely because of the money sent home by their fathers and brothers working in Atlanta.

Both places are watching with great worry the changes in the state's political climate.

'I don't know what happened, a racist element entered somewhere along the way,' said Antonio Lorenzo Cortes, a 48-year-old San Marcos native who has been migrating illegally to Atlanta on and off since 1988. 'At first, we were welcomed, but now they see us as delinquents.'

Among the proposed measures making the most waves in Mexico is a proposal to allow police to seize cars driven by illegal immigrants who violate traffic laws. That measure, sitting before a Georgia House subcommittee, has scared migrants in Atlanta, causing many to send their vehicles back home to avoid losing them, residents in Mexico say.

And rumors are flying through both towns that the children of undocumented immigrants will not be granted citizenship even if they are born on U.S. soil. A Georgia measure would merely urge the U.S. Congress to pass such a law, since states don't have that authority. But, as in a transnational game of telephone, the original news got twisted as it arrived across the border.

Fear of collapse

In both towns, residents say the amount of money being sent back by their migrants has decreased in recent years, generating fear of economic collapse mirrored in the proliferation of unfinished houses.

And the number of migrants who return to visit has plummeted, residents say, because of increased concern over crossing the border. At the same time, the number of migrants who have returned permanently has gone up because of fear of raids, deportations or disgust with the new laws and policies.

But despite the growing feeling that Georgia has become hostile to immigrants, the tug of Atlanta remains strong in these communities. It is still home to relatives who can receive and orient newer immigrants. And in both towns, despite worries about creeping recession, there is the strong perception that there is work to be had in Atlanta.

In Ejido Modelo, people like Blas Chavarria Avalos, 66, survive on the money sent home by their children. Chavarria has five children in the United States, including one in Atlanta, who he says paid for his open-heart surgery a few years ago.

'There is a lot of worry here because most of us depend on our kids,' he said. 'If they stopped sending money back, it would be a chaos.'

Fears of mass deportations also haunt Ejido Modelo. Locals estimate about 2,500 residents currently are working in metro Atlanta.

'If they kicked all those people out, what would happen to this town?' asked Alicia Buenrostro, a 26-year-old secretary who married an Atlanta migrant in February. 'If they leave Atlanta, they would have to start over from zero. I wonder what the motive for all this is ... It seems just concentrated in Atlanta.'

In San Marcos, residents and former migrants say the rash of tough measures in Georgia isn't slowing the exodus from the town --- population about 45,000 --- but has begun to spark interest in other states. Locals estimate currently several thousand residents of San Marcos are in metro Atlanta.

'The people will keep leaving here, they don't know any other way,' said Carlos Villanueva, the former head of a club of San Marcos migrants in Atlanta.

'But people may be going to other states besides Georgia. Many people still consider Atlanta a developing city, but things are getting bad.'


http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/printedition/2008
/03/16/mexicomigrants03161.html