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Pedro Flores

Professor Batty

English 101

09 May 2018

What Really Happens in the US and Mexican Border

Many people from different parts of the world have the dream of coming to the United

States to have a better life than the one they had in their country. Although people think that

crossing the border of the United States is simple and the once migrating do not face any

challenges. Crossing the border of the United States is one of the most difficult thing to do

because there is a lot of drug trafficking around the border of Mexico and the US and other

things that can put your live in danger. Rodrigo is one of the characters from Still Water Saint

that had the experience of crossing the border at the age of fifteen and he was sexually assaulted,

he was a victim of sex trafficking.

In the noble we see that most of the characters struggled with personal life problems. The

struggles Rodrigo's had were much bigger because he had to leave his hometown Michoacán at

the age of 15 to go to a new environment that he was not use to. Everything got worse because

the person that was going to help Rodrigo cross the border had moved to a different place.

Rodrigo did not knew anyone at Tijuana and he was rubbed and all the money his dad gave him

was gone. He was leaving in the street and had to cover himself with carton boxes; he met a guy

name Felix and he helped Rodrigo by giving him money so he can buy food but he wanted

something back which was sexual contact but Felix felt uncomfortable and told Rodrigo to leave.

Rodrigo got to met with a guy called Chino that took him to a place called Estrellitas that was a

bar for man. The owner of the bar was Ignacio and he sold Rodrigo to Dwight; at first Dwight
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treated Rodrigo really good but ones they got to the USA he was abusing him and it got to the

point the he rape him.

In a daily basis there are women, young people and older man that try to crossed

the border between the US and Mexico. The 80% of women that try to come to the United States

are usually sexually assaulted and if they have the needed to use their body as a payment to other

man they will do it just to reach their goal. In the noble Rodrigo plays an important role about

sexual assault because he was being abused by Dwight and he also had to sexual actions with

Felix in order for him to reach his goal. The author shows this action in the noble when Felix

helps Rodrigo and when Dwight abused Rodrigo, “I’ll give money, Felix said to Rodrigo’’…

“[b]ut you have to give me something back.’’ [h]e graded his hand and placed it between his

legs” (Espinoza 162). “Rodrigo reached out, swating the air with his left hand as Dwight raped

him.’’ (Espinoza 170). The first quote shows how Rodrigo had to do what he was told by Felix

because he did not had money because he was robbed. Felix helped him out but he wanted

something in return witch was sexual action between them two. The second quote shows how

Rodrigo was sexually assaulted by Dwight but there was nothing he could have done because

Dwight was the owner of Rodrigo because he was sold to him by Ignacio and had full control

over him. Another Example that shows Sexual Assault is the article called Women crossing the

U.S. border, the article shows a 14 year old that was rape, the quote sates, “[t]he young girl

seemed pretty scared to get in the vehicle with everyone,” Bidegain said. “One of the members

of the group pulled an agent aside and told him the story about how this girl had been raped by

one of the guys in the group.” This quote shows how anyone has the risk of being sexually

assaulted by anyone mostly if it is a young person and the aggressor knows that that could be an

easy target and the ones that are the most common to happen is to girls and is sad to see kind of
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news. Sadly this kind of things are going to be happening because people and are still going to

keep trying to migrated to a country just for a better future.

Sex trafficking has being a big problem and it is around our neighborhoods in our city’s

and is just in all the countries of the world. Every year there is about 2 million children that are

victims of sex trafficking. In the noble Still Water Saint Rodrigo is a victim of sex trafficking

when he started working for Ignacio. “Go with him,” Ignacio said. “[he will] take you to

Dwight.” ”Rodrigo was told to pack up all his things and leave with this stranger.” This quote

shows how Ricardo was a victim of sex trafficking because he left with Dwight because he

bought him from Ignacio. I am sure that Rodrigo did not know wat he was getting into when he

when with Chino to the Estrellitas bar. Mostly because he was 15 and all he wanted was money

to be able to cross the border. Another Example that shows Sex trafficking is the article called

Anti-Slavery International, the article shows an interview of a victim that expresses the pain she

when through, the interview states “[w]hen I was 15, a woman who initially helped me sent me

to England. On the first day in England, a man came, raped me and beat me – I was terrified. He

forced me to have sex with lots of different men he brought to the house. It was horrible.” This

quote shows how terrible sex trafficking can be to the victims it can change anyone’s life in a

couple of second. It relates to what Rodrigo when through because they both experience the rape

and how they were both physical abused by the person that both them. How can this kind of

people do this for a living knowing that they are destroying kid’s lives and their families by

taking them away from them.

Although many people might think that crossing the border is something simple to do and

the people that are migrating do not face any challenges on their journey. Although I argue that

crossing the border it is one of the most dangerous things to do because people have to jump a 20
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feet wall that can cause physical problems if you are not good at climbing. That’s not all they

have to face, if they walk on the Sonora desert t and they get lost and could end up dehydrated

and could die and if the ones that decided to cross the border by the Rio Grande could end up

dead if they do not know to swim. At the end of the day many immigrants that try to cross the

border could end up death and it does not matter what way they take. One good example that

states the amount of people that have die while they are trying to cross the border is Smithsonian

and it states that “[i]n the past 14 years, more than 6,000 people have died trying to migrate

through the U.S.’s southern border, a new report by the International Organization for Migration

says. Just in the past year, as many as 445 people died trying to pass into the U.S., reports the

Toronto Star; that number comes from the U.S. Border Control and may be a low estimate.” This

quote shows the amount of people that had died by trying to cross the border between the United

States and Mexico. I am sure that there are other dangerous thing that can happened to anyone

when they are trying to cross the border and it is sad because they are probably running away

from gangs or any drug dealing group in their country and some of them end up dying in the

progress of making a better life than the one they had in their country.

People should stop criticizing immigrants because they migrated to different countries,

they migrate to another country because probably in their country they were not able to have a

future and going to a different country gives immigrants a chance to have a bright future. We do

not know what were the struggles they had to face while trying to cross the border and the thing

that experience because they could of being sexually assaulted, or being victims of sex

trafficking and not be able to reach their goal. I do not think is possible for people to stop

migrating to a different country but what we can do is stop thinking that they just come here to

be one more problem to our society. Instead we should think about the struggles and how much
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they could of suffer and giving them credit because not everyone leave everything they had in

their country and start from zero in a country that is different to what they are used to.
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Works Cited

Joffe-Block, Jude. “Women Crossing the U.S. Border Face Sexual Assault with Little
Protection.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service,
31Mar.2014,www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/facing-risk-rape-migrant-women-prepare-birth-
control.

Schultz, Colin. “Nearly 6,000 Migrants Have Died Along the Mexico-U.S. Border Since
2000.”Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Oct. 2014, www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-
news/nearly-6000-migrants-have-died-along-mexico-us-border-2000-180952904/.

“What Is Human Trafficking?” Anti-Slavery International, www.antislavery.org/slavery-

today/human-
trafficking/?gclid=CjwKCAjwlcXXBRBhEiwApfHGTTxayZpPmsGrOFVlqXaw7RwdgzyZ02r
9vU1aZ0s2VzOM0PFwj8ppURoCzWAQAvD_BwE.