iously horrid conditions.
Struggle to Escape Poverty
Yet despite these obstacles, Central Americans continue to cross the border at ever-increasing rates. Last year Mexico deported 147,000 illegal immigrants, some 20 percent more than in 2002. Most hailed from just three Central American nations: Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.
Mexican immigration officials attribute this increase not to their success in capturing migrants, but to the escalating number of Central Americans willing to risk the journey. Strict visa requirements, including proof of profession, ownership documents, and bank statements showing lofty balances, prevent most Central Americans from entering the United States legally. Desperate economic circumstances, therefore, lead many to pursue the illegal route.
In Guatemala, where 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, and 20 percent are unemployed or underemployed, opportunities for economic improvement are quite limited. In the United States, however, salaries are an average of ten times higher than those in Central American nations, and some researchers estimate that approximately 95 percent of immigrants who manage to enter the U.S. are successful in finding work. According to immigration specialist Meintje Westerbeek, “the U.S. offers a tremendous amount of opportunity compared to other countries where there isn’t the same mobility and opportunity for work and personal success.”
The ability to advance economically allows immigrants in the U.S. to support relatives in their home countries. Remesas familiares, or remittances, are often the families’ only means of survival. Unlike international development aid, which requires lengthy bureaucratic steps to obtain and may be pocketed by corrupt government officials, remittances are a direct source of funds for poor families. In fact, remittances have become one of the most important sources of currency in Central America, and Latin American immigrants are expected to send a record $30 billion this year to their families and friends back home. Westerbeek notes that these funds are “a direct inv! estment into the economies of these countries, and nations such as El Salvador end up with an economy that is heavily dependent on the dollars from Salvadorans living in the U.S.”
Undocumented Immigrants Suffer Exploitation
Although the prospects for financial success in the United States initially seem abundant, many immigrants encounter unanticipated difficulties upon arrival. Lacking official immigration status, undocumented workers have no legal rights and thus no defense against exploitation in the workforce. “They are part of an underground economy that exploits them,” asserts Westerbeek. “They are frequently paid low wages or they are not paid for all or some of the work they perform. They have no rights. They do not exist.” In addition, undocumented immigrants cannot access the safety net of public services enjoyed by legal immigrants and naturalized citizens. They have no right to welfare, healthcare, or insurance to! protect them in case of medical or economic difficulties.
Adriana Hernandez_ whose husband and uncle paid a coyote nearly $4,000 each to travel illegally to the United States_ did not hear news of her loved ones for over a month after they had left their home in Quetzaltanango, Guatemala. She later learned that her husband was in the U.S. for 3 months before he found work. Even now his temporary low-paying jobs do not allow him to send money home to his family. Her uncle, meanwhile, is not able to work at all since cutting his finger in a meat slicing factory, after which his employer fired him immediately without covering related medical expenses. The entire Hernandez family is now in dire economic straights as Adriana’s parents mortgaged their house to send the! ir relatives across the border. “We thought it would be worth it to pay the coyote because we didn’t realize the obstacles they would face,” laments Adriana. “They thought it would be easy there.”
In addition to the economic suffering, Adriana and her child endur