Risks of Illegal Immigration

Professor Justin Stone

Natalia Morales
University of Texas at El Paso
English 1302

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Introduction
Immigration is a natural need of the human being, since the earlier
ages we know that people have been traveling and moving from place to
place in order to survive, look for food, and a better place with more
stable weather and resources like water. Currently we have a similar
situation where people have to deal with a capitalist environment and
stay in a certain place and produce to the benefit of the minority, which
are the rich and powerful people. The kinds of people that are most
affected and less benefited from this social status are the workers; poor
and middle class. They are obligated to stay in their homeland because
they have no other options. It is when people try to look for other
alternatives, that it seems as if crossing over to a different country is the
only option left if they are to have a significant opportunity for a better
life. Illegal immigration in the US has been an issue for the past 30
years, because of the military force that has been increasing in the
border. Each year that passes it gets harder to cross while not getting
caught and surviving the journey, these individuals want to cross
because they are in constant hopes of benefiting their families with more
money to buy food and clothing. Illegal immigration from Mexico to the
US is an issue that involves several risks that threaten the lives of the
people trying to cross, this problem lead to these five questions:

What is the meaning of being illegal?

What are the main reasons why people cross the border?

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Is being an Immigrant a risk?

What are the risks of illegal immigration from Mexico to the US?
What is the death rate and other risks involved?
All these questions will help the reader to have a better

understanding of the issue and the kind of dangerous journey these

individuals have to deal with.
What is the meaning of being illegal?
The term illegal in the United States is when a foreigner or outsider
has managed to enter the country without the knowledge of the
authorities or the government. These individuals usually do not have the
money or resources to get the documents needed to cross legally;
which are the visa, Mexican or homeland passports. Also those that have
the documents needed, but overstay in the US than the legally time
given are considered illegal as well. These individuals are known as
undocumented, mojados (because they have to cross the river
hence they would get wet) or illegal aliens. Dr. Selfa Chew says that
illegal immigration is a type of criminalization and most of the laws and
regulations that manage to control this issue are not fair to every
individual. Immigration laws discriminates and affects only the people
with less resources and with a lack of money, because people in the
middle class do not have many problems as the lower classes. Dr. Chew
says, illegal immigration is a capitalist concept, it only benefits the rich
to get even more wealthy and the poor more poor, people cross because

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

they need money, they need more to support their families and give
them hope to have a better economy.(Chew, 2015) Dr. Chew is against
the laws and regulations of the US because they are not equal to
everyone, the government is dealing with people, not animals, and they
deserve respect and rights as anyone else in this world. Just because
they cannot afford the paperwork does not mean they do not exist.
What are the main reasons why people cross the border?
There are many people that share the same economic problems
and search desperately for jobs in their native homelands, but they live
in extreme poverty and there are days that they cannot afford food or
basic needs such as clothes, water, or housing. Others might suffer from
family abuse or are even orphaned. But all of these people have the
same dream, hoping to escape austere living and unemployment, so
they can improve their economic lifestyle and provide their families and
themselves a better opportunity for quality of life. In order to achieve
this goal means to complete the dangerous journey of crossing the
Mexico-US border. One of the main reasons for moving to another
country is to search for new opportunities and getting a better job, the
book Immigration: opposing viewpoints states immigrants tend to fill
jobs that Americans cannot or will not fill, mostly at the high and low
ends of the skill spectrum(Williams, 2004) All of this sacrifice is about
getting a higher financial status than what they had previously in their
native homelands. The Washington Times states, Five years ago, 21

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

percent of Mexicans said they would be willing to move permanently to

another country. Now the rate has dropped to 11 percent, the same
percentage of Americans who said they would leave their country behind
forever(Harper, J. 2013). The individuals answered that they would
move to another country without thinking about the risk that involves
crossing the border illegally; there is a high possibility that they end up
in a worst position than the one that they were previously in.
Their situation is so extreme that for them it seems that they do not
have any other option but to move to a foreign country. Lastenia Pineda,
the Consul General of Honduras in Houston said: The terrible hardship
in our countries drive people to search for a better way of life; that is the
American Dream. They have a lot to do [with that dream] because they
are the ones who have become great business leaders. But it is the
hardships in our countries (Ramos, 2005). Every immigrant crosses the
border chasing their dreams, and some of them have become
recognized figures in history like Jose Antonio Vargas from the
Philippines, a recognized journalist from the New York Times, who is still
undocumented.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Figure 1. A map of the

immigrants Route

(Ramos,2005)

Is being an Immigrant a risk?

On May 14 of 2003, the worst immigrant tragedy occurred,
nineteen people died in an attempt to travel illegally to Houston, Texas.
There is an image representing the programmed journey and the place
where the trailer was left alone. Sixteen were Mexican, among them was
a kid of 5 years of age, the other three were from El Salvador, Honduras,
and Dominican Republic. They were asphyxiated in a trailer box, the
conditions that these people were facing were inhuman; the temperature
outside was hitting 91 degrees Fahrenheit, this box was supposed to
have air conditioning, but for some reason the rider of the truck did not
turn it on. There were no air openings, and the trailer box had an
insulator over its walls that kept the temperature warm even at night
time when the temperature usually drops. Those high temperatures
turned the trailer box into a human sauna.
The local authorities suggested that the actual temperature inside
the trailer box actually reached up to 173 Degrees Fahrenheit at its
maximum. By the time that Tyrone, the truck driver, reached Victoria
Texas, there were already nineteen dead people. If for some reason the
driver, Tyrone Williams, had decided not to stop in Victoria, it is very
likely that all the people traveling inside would have perished (Ramos,
2005). Fortunately, the rider took a break and decided to check on the

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

immigrants because if the truck driver decided to travel the whole way
without stops, all the immigrants would had died, the book Dying to
cross states that at the speed Williams was driving, it would have taken
him at least two more hours to reach Houston.(Ramos, 2005). The
trailer driver was driving slower that he should, to avoid any inspection
to his tuck box.
Every one of these victims had a dream. One of the survivors,
Enrique, stated in the book Dying to Cross: I come from a poor family.
There are no good job opportunities for us in Mexicoand here US we
can get work, we can support ourselves and even help our family out a
little (Ramos, 2005). All of the immigrants had a similar dream to
succeed and help their loved ones. This was a terrible accident; there
were a large number of deaths in a single incident. Crossing the border
without legal authorization implies risking their own life and being
exposed to sexual and physical abuse in order to reach their goal to
cross the border and find a better opportunity of life.
What are the risks of illegal immigration from Mexico to the US?
This journey involves several risks like dehydration, hyperthermia
(exposure of excessive temperature), hypothermia, starvation, snake
poisoning, rape, and sexual assault. The people that cross without legal
authorization are best known as undocumented/unauthorized aliens or
illegal immigrants/migrants. Those are risks that every individual that

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

crosses has to deal with, they can be walking in the ruthless desert for
countless days. In any moment they will run out of food, and most
importantly, water. Immigrants have another disadvantage, which is the
extreme temperature change that the desert has. The weather can drop
from 30C to 40C degrees and reach the 5C in the night and during the
day it can increase back to 38C. Those changes are very dramatic, the
human body cannot get used to these type of weather it can lead to
different conditions as it is been mentioned before; hypothermia or
hyperthermia. Other risk that is very concerning is for women and
children that are rape, prostitution, pornography, and person trafficking.
In the book Illegal Immigration and Commercial Sex states that
corruption provides the lubricant which allows criminal organizations to
operate with maximum effectiveness and minimum
interference(William,1999) criminal organizations have paid several
officers and authorized people to be their protectors. It also says that
the exploitation of women and children for pornography has became
much easier and less costly with the capacity to reproduce and
distribute digital images at very low cost(William,1999). This is a
growing industry that has being getting easier to perform. Moreover,
these women are exposed to denigration and perform sexual activity
against their will. Men, women and children are in constant risk, they
feel trapped because they are afraid of the authorities in the US because
it will be more likely that they will be deported to Mexico and all their

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

journey will be a loss of time and energy. Criminals take advantage of

this feeling by kidnapping, selling, and making profit from them. Illegal
migrants are exposed to several risks that would likely take their lives
during the dangerous journey, they accept those risks because of their
extreme economic situation, and they seem to have no other choice
than to face the risks and pray.
What is the death rate and other risks involved?
The increment of the unauthorized immigrant death rate is
attributed to the increment of security in the border, and this effect is
called Magnification effect(Spener,2009). In the book, Migrant Death, it
states Rate of death by Gender from 1999 was 13 female and 18 male
deaths recorded in that year, while in 2003 there were 49 female and 40
Male recorded (Guerette, 2007). In those years the increment in the
death rate was of 36 female and 32 male. Other risk that all the
immigrants have to face is the excessive heat exposure, this condition is
medically known as hyperthermia; As most of border deaths are
attributable to exposure-heat conditions (Guerette, 2007). High
temperatures have a positive correlation with the death rate, while the
temperature is higher the death rate increase with it. Nine out of ten
deaths happen when the maximum temperature exceeds 102 degrees
Fahrenheit. Hyperthermia is linked to another condition that is also a
major reason of immigrant death rate, which is dehydration. Other
inhumane conditions that the immigrants have to suffer are

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

hypothermia, drowning, motor vehicle accident, confined space, train

related incident (jumping out of the train), and unknown. When the
death is classified as unknown it is because the majority of the body is
already decomposed to the point that the experts are unable to identify
the reason of the deceased. The frequency of these causes of death that
have been recorded since 1999 to 2003 goes like this: Hyperthermia
617 (35%), Hypothermia 53 (3%), Drowning 369 (21%), Motor Vehicle
Accident 197 (11%), Train Incident 38 (2%), Confined Space 11 (1%),
Other 86 (5%) and Unknown 382 (22%).(Guerette, 2007). These
statistics show the repartition of migrant deaths by their cause.
Immigrants also have to face negligence that some Border Patrol officers
provide to them. Not being a US Citizen does not mean that they do not
deserve a humanistic treatment. Immigrants suffer from psychological
or verbal abuse; such as sexual harassment, sexual assault, threats or
coercion, aggressive interrogation techniques, hitting, kicking,
inappropriate use of firearms, injury during arrest, reckless treatment
during transport, unlawful seizure or destruction of property, and
unlawful cooperation with local law enforcement (Spener, 2009). Often
immigrants have to deal with this treatment because they are not legal
US residents, and they think that they do not deserve respect and good
treatment from the border patrols, and also the officers think they are
superior to the immigrants and thus have the right to mistreat them.

10

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

11

When the illegal immigrants cross successfully they usually search

for jobs at the field; doing the dirty work that no one in the US is
willing to perform. Raul Beltran said, The Americans are nothing without
the Mexican people working on the field; we harvest their food and take
care of the land daily, they depend on us as much as we depend on their
money (Antell, 2005). Illegal immigrants are essential to American
agriculture. The owners of the land often abuse of the immigrants
necessities. They occupationally exploit immigrants by forcing them to
work excessive amounts of hours and paying them a ridiculous amount
of money, make them live in boxes or in the dirt. Finally, they live with
the threat that they will eventually be deported back to their homeland if
they do not perform their work successfully or began to complain. The
owners of the land take advantage of the illegal status of the immigrants
because these workers have no word against the modern slavery that
they are facing.

12

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

Conclusion
Illegal immigrants have to face adverse and dangerous risks in
order to cross the Mexico-US border. As I mentioned earlier, their deaths
range from hypothermia, hyperthermia, to drowning, train related
incidents, to the unknown. They have a non-stop journey, even when
they are already in the other desired side of the border; in the
opportunity land. They are constantly suffering and dealing with
mistreatment and discrimination from US citizens, treating them literally
as part of their property; they have to endure this type of slavery,
threats of being deported back to their origin land, physical and sexual
abuse, and being treated as nonexistent beings of the government. This
is a serious problem because it involves a large number of deceased
people in the past years and it has been increasing as time passes,
attributed to the increased vigilance of the border. Illegal immigrants are
human beings just like all of us, but they suffer from a harsh economic
status, that pushes them to cross the border to find a dream of a better
life.

13

ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION

References
Antell Rachell. (Director/Producer). (2005). Death on a friendly border [Documentary].
Mexico/USA: San Pedro Chayuco, Oaxaca, Tijuana, Texas.
Chew, S. (2015, March 19). Opinion of illegal immigration [Personal interview].
Guerette T Rob, (2007). Migrant Death border safety and Situational crime Prevention on
the U.S..

1st ed. United States of America: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC New York.

Harper, J. (2013, February 26). Hola, America: the unemployment rate in Mexico is 5
percent - Washington Times. Retrieved from
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/watercooler/2013/feb/26/hola-americaunemployment-rate-mexico-5-percent/
Ramos Jorge, (2005). Dying to Cross. 1st ed. New York: HarperCollins Publisher Inc.
Spener David, (2009). Clandestine Crossing migrants and coyotes on the Texas-Mexico
border. 1st ed. New York: Cornell University Press.
Williams, M. (2004). Immigration: Opposing viewpoints. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven
Press.
Williams, P. (1999). Illegal immigration and commercial sex: The new slave trade.
London: Frank Cass.