U.S. Officials Prepared For Post-Holiday Crowds At Border
 Associated Press
| | Statistics appear to show a clear trend of fewer people going back to Mexico for the holiday period. |
Tucson, Ariz. - U.S. immigration officials have made preparations to handle an increase of people that will continue into next week as Mexican immigrants who spent the holidays in their hometowns come back.
In Nogales, the busiest port of entry between Arizona and the Mexican state of Sonora, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials will keep all eight lanes open at the main crossing point downtown with extra personnel on hand to process the travelers, said agency spokesman Brian Levin.
Officials are also prepared to process travelers by keeping lanes open longer at a second border crossing in Nogales.
Some of the thousands of paisanos, or countrymen, who make the trek south each year got a head start back as early as Friday, mostly because they had to work. Mexico's holiday season ends Jan. 6.
Ricardo Chavez, his wife, Maria, and their 11-year-old son, Ryan, were on their way to Las Vegas late last week after more than three weeks in the Mexican state of Jalisco. "It's time to get back to work," said Chavez, a construction worker.
Despite the expected increase in northbound crossings, Mexican immigration figures show that for the third straight year, fewer paisanos - presumably those who live in the United States illegally - are venturing back to Mexico for fear that tightened borders will keep them from re-entering this country.
Rodolfo Aguilar, a spokesman for the Mexican consulate in Nogales, said statistics appear to show a clear trend of fewer people going back to Mexico for the holiday period, which begins there on Dec. 16.
Mexican immigration figures show a decline in late-year southbound crossings through Nogales in 2004-05 as compared with the 2003-04 season, as well as through all but one of the four other ports of entry between the two states, Aguilar said.
The numbers show that 141,412 paisanos entered Mexico through Nogales from Nov. 24, 2003, to Jan. 11, 2004. The number fell to 61,981 from Nov. 18, 2004, to Jan. 9, 2005. |
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News from Around the Americas | January 2006 
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